Gender-balanced teams (as our team at WNRI shows) are mandated in Research Council and EU Directives on gender equality in research and innovation. Picture credit: Anna Maria Urbaniak-Brekke
Today, I lead a seminar on: ‘Gendering Research: Teams, Processes, Perspectives and Impact’, for researchers at the beautiful campus of Høgskulen på Vestlandet, Norway. We explored what it means to undertake gender-sensitive research. The back-drop is that the concept: ‘Gendering research’ has become vital in our universe of cut-throat competition for limited finances and doing research that is impactful. In almost all Calls for proposals, ‘Gender’ is not only a prerequisite but it also is ‘cross-cutting issue’.
The presentation/seminar aimed at unraveling the WHAT, WHY and more importantly HOW gender can be integrated within research proposal writing, conducting research and in outcomes, in a way that gives it authenticity, efficacy and relevance to garner funding but also in solving today’s societal challenges. We were joined by Dr. Gilda Seddighi from the University of Bergen whose contributions surrounding the history of gender mainstreaming policy in Research and gender as an analytical tool were invaluable.
The seminar explored historical, conceptual/philosophical and methodological approaches to fostering gender in Research. This is in harmony With international, regional, national and program legislation, including: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (nr. 5 on gender equality), the CEDAW, Norwegian Labour laws (Arbeidsmiljoloven § 13-1), Norwegian Research Council and H2020 which specify gender equality principles as fundamental components of Human rights and Social Justice.
The seminar focused on long, medium and short term requirements and addressed vertical and horizontal structural and systematic approaches to bridging gender gaps in research and society. We explored the Regulatory mandates that inform this framework as well as Institutional/structural requirements necessary to nurture and anchor inclusive research work and careers. What to look out for when building gender sensitive research teams; research processes; perspectives, outcomes, analysis, reporting as well as gender budgeting. A checklist for important indicators is wise to have, so we wraped up with that :-).
The aim of the workshop was to contribute to raising awareness and skilling researchers in harnessing diversity, representation, inclusiveness and ultimately improving the scientific quality and impact of research across disciplines!
Workshop funded by Western Norway Research Institute in synergy with the NORDWIT’s Nordic Center of Excellence Project.
Carol Azungi Dralega 