Inhalt: Zahlreiche aktuelle Förderprogramme der Wissenschaftslandschaft sind für die Beantragenden mit hohem Ressourcenaufwand bei geringen Erfolgsaussichten verbunden und haben dadurch einen oft überraschend geringen Nutzen für die Wissenschaft als Ganzes. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommen aktive und ehemalige Mitglieder der Jungen Akademie im Rahmen eines Projekts der Arbeitsgruppe Wissenschaftspolitik. Ihre Ergebnisse sind am 31.01.2022 im wissenschaftlichen Journal Nature Human Behaviour erschienen (https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/). Die Autor*innen zeigen in ihrer Publikation, dass viele Förderprogramme aufgrund einer Kombination aus hohem Aufwand und geringer Erfolgsquote oft ähnlich viele Ressourcen der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft in Form von Arbeitsstunden abziehen wie sie durch die Vergabe von Fördergeldern wieder ausschütten. Der Aufwand für detaillierte Anträge und Begutachtungen wird dabei nur sehr eingeschränkt dem Anspruch gerecht, die vorgeschlagenen Forschungsprojekte zuverlässig in eine Rangfolge ihrer Forschungsqualität zu stellen. „Das derzeitige Drittmittelsystem kommt in vielen Fällen einer Lotterie nahe – allerdings einer sehr ineffizienten Lotterie“, so Martin Dresler, Neurowissenschaftler am Radboud University Medical Center und Mitglied der Jungen Akademie. In vielen Ländern werden Forschungsprojekte zunehmend durch einen Wettbewerb von Forschungsanträgen statt über die Grundausstattung der Universitäten finanziert. Die hohen Kosten dieser Form der Mittelvergabe in Form zahlreicher Arbeitsstunden entgehen häufig dem Blick sowohl der Mittelgeber wie der Forschenden. Neben dem Appell an die Forschungsförderer, die eigenen Förderinstrumente hinsichtlich ihrer Effizienz zu überprüfen, schlagen die aktiven und ehemaligen Mitglieder der Jungen Akademie einen transparenten Umgang mit dem durchschnittlichen Aufwand und den Erfolgsaussichten einzelner Förderprogramme vor. Mit dem im Rahmen des Projekts der Jungen Akademie entwickelten Online-Tool http://f.unding.com können potenzielle Antragstellende den Förderbetrag mit dem zu erwartenden Zeitaufwand abgleichen und abwägen, ob eine Antragstellung sinnvoll ist. Möglichkeiten der Optimierung des Drittmittelsystems sehen die Autor*innen außerdem in der Etablierung alternativer Antragsverfahren oder in der grundsätzlichen Verlagerung der Fördergeld-Verteilung weg von aufwändigen Wettbewerben hin zu einer verstärkten Basisfinanzierung der Universitäten.

Schlagwörter:Antragserfolg; application; Drittmittel; ERC; Finanzierung; Forschungsförderung; Wissenschaftssystem

CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaftspolitik

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01286-3

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused the abrupt curtailment of on-campus research activities that amplified impacts experienced by female and racialized faculty. In this mixed-method study, we systematically and strategically unpack the impact of the shift of academic work environments to remote settings on tenured and tenure-track faculty in Canada. Our quantitative analysis demonstrated that female and racialized faculty experienced higher levels of stress, social isolation and lower well-being. Fewer women faculty felt support for health and wellness. Our qualitative data highlighted substantial gender inequities reported by female faculty such as increased caregiving burden that affected their research productivity. The most pronounced impacts were felt among pre-tenured female faculty. The present study urges university administration to take further action to support female and racialized faculty through substantial organizational change and reform. Given the disproportionate toll that female and racialized faculty experienced, we suggest a novel approach that include three dimensions of change: (1) establishing quantitative metrics to assess and evaluate pandemic-induced impact on research productivity, health and well-being, (2) coordinating collaborative responses with faculty unions across the nation to mitigate systemic inequities, and (3) strategically implementing a storytelling approach to amplify the experiences of marginalized populations such as women or racialized faculty and include those experiences as part of recommendations for change.

Schlagwörter:academic work; Befragung; Canada; COVID-19; faculty; Gender; Interview; Kanada; mixed methods; race; Vereinbarkeit Beruf-Familie; wissenschaftliche Arbeit; wissenschaftliche Karriere

CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Hochschulen, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis

Verfügbarkeit:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.12811?af=R

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: In this paper, we theorize the intersectional gendered impacts of COVID-19 on faculty labor, with a particular focus on how institutions of higher education in the United States evaluate faculty labor amidst the COVID-19 transition and beyond. The pandemic has disrupted faculty research, teaching, and service in differential ways, having larger impacts on women faculty, faculty of color, and caregiving faculty in ways that further reflect the intersections of these groups. Universities have had to reconsider how evaluation occurs, given the impact of these disruptions on faculty careers. Through a case study of university pandemic responses in the United States, we summarize key components of how colleges and universities shifted evaluations of faculty labor in response to COVID-19, including suspending teaching evaluations, implementing tenure delays, and allowing for impact statements in faculty reviews. While most institutional responses recenter neoliberal principles of the ideal academic worker that is both gendered and racialized, a few universities have taken more innovative approaches to better attend to equity concerns. We conclude by suggesting a recalibration of the faculty evaluation system – one that maintains systematic faculty reviews and allows for academic freedom, but requires universities to take a more contextualized approach to evaluation in ways that center equity and inclusion for women faculty and faculty of color for the long term.

Schlagwörter:academic career; COVID-19; faculty; Gender; Hochschule; intersectionality; Intersektionalität; Lehrevaluation; neoliberal university; neoliberale Hochschule; people of color; race; tenure; USA; wissenschaftliche Karriere

CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis

Verfügbarkeit:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.12817?af=R

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: Unequal distribution of child rearing and domestic responsibilities between parents contributes to gender inequity, a wicked problem in Australia. Inequitable parental leave policies at Australian public Universities place the burden of care squarely on the mother, diminishing or absenting the father. We examine how the gendered nature of the existing policies are constructed in ways that create inequities and discourage their uptake. A post-structural feminist lens provides us with a theoretical vantage point from which this wicked problem can be problematized. We present three recommendations for enabling more equitable outcomes for parents. The first is to eradicate the punitive approach and support flexibility; second, the policies must be parental leave in name, provision and practice; and finally we recommend a minimum parental leave standard for Australian universities nationally. These findings have policy-level significance for redressing parental leave inequity within the Australian university context. The paper concludes with theoretical contributions, practical implications, and suggestions for future research.

Schlagwörter:Australia; Australien; Elternschaft; gender inequality; Geschlechterungleichheit; higher education; Mutter; parental leave; Universität; university; Vater

CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Hochschulen

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12880

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: In this paper, we challenge the meanings of work that marginalize academic activities associated with care and contribute to inequitable gender divisions of academic labor. We argue that the pandemic crisis and the revision of the meaning of “essential work” that accompanied it has served as a catalyst for such concerns to get a hearing. But while there has been significant attention paid to domestic care demands and their impact on academic labor, there is less focus on the caretaking work we do in the university even though the gender unequal distribution of teaching, mentoring and service work has also intensified in the pandemic. We argue that this is in part due to the institutional discourses and practices that continue to devalue many components of everyday academic labor. In order to challenge these limits, we extend ideas from Feminist political economy (FPE) to university settings in order to reframe academic labor and revalue care as an essential part of it. We offer two suggestions, connected to FPE methodologies, for gathering and reconceptualizing data on academic work to push the project forward. We conclude with the argument that this project of revaluing caring labor is essential for achieving goals of equity, faculty well-being, and the sustainability of universities.

Schlagwörter:academic housework; Administration; Arbeit; Care; COVID-19; emotional labor; Forschung; geschlechtsspezifische Arbeitsteilung; Hochschule; Lehre; research; service; teaching; wissenschaftliche Arbeit

CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12871

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: This exploratory study seeks to establish an understanding of relationships between Black and white femme faculty (BFF and WFF, respectively) in academic work units, as reifications of anti-Blackness in the academy. The study corpus, or body of work that was analyzed, consists of stories from BFF about interactions and experiences with WFF that have been published in anthologies about womxn in higher education; Black Critical Race Theory and the “mammy” trope supported analysis as the conceptual frameworks. Findings indicate that WFF rejected BFF as professional equals who are deserving of full access to and participation in academia. They also suggested that WFF undermined BFF through white-only alliances, and sometimes appealed to white masculine superiors to sabotage BFF colleagues in support of their own success. The study has implications for expanding scholarly discourses about workplace interactions and harassment, exercises of power, and professional relationships in the academy.

Schlagwörter:Arbeitsbeziehung; black woman; critical whiteness; Interaktion; Intersektionalität; people of color; whiteness; wissenschaftliches Personal; Woman Faculty

CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Geschlechterverhältnis

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12798

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: For the past three decades, discussions centred on gender equity have become buzzwords in academic institutions in Nigeria, which has led to an increasing effort to establish gender centres and adopt equity policies. Despite the awareness and presence of gender centres in Nigerian universities, institutionalising gender equity has been challenging. There is a struggle to explain how policy absence and gender centre mergers may constrain positive institutional gender change. This article explores why academic institutions have established gender centres but have not created gender policies. Taking into account the gender stakeholder’s perspectives in two purposively selected universities in Nigeria, this study utilises an integrated feminist approach to investigate why university gender centres are unable to advance gender equity within the institutions. Concepts like institutional resistance and layering offered tools that helped capture the dynamics of institutional change and stasis in the case studies. Findings showed that the existence of gender centres without formalised policies is a window-dressing approach that limits the potential for gender equity within the universities. It also revealed how the redirection of gender centres through mergers with other centres is ‘gendered’. Evidence showed that the prospect for institutional gender change is often tempered by merging incompatible and non-complementary centres. This study, thus, adds to the scholarly literature on institutional resistance, providing valuable insights into the subtle manifestations of resistance towards gender equity institutionalisation in academia.

Schlagwörter:academia; case study; feminist approach; gender change; gender equality policy; Gender Studies; higher education; Hochschule; institutional change; Nigeria; resistance

CEWS Kategorie:Hochschulen, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Gleichstellungspolitik

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.32996/jgcs.2022.2.2.2

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: As the COVID‐19 pandemic unfolds, a growing body of international literature is analysing the effects of the pandemic on academic labour and, specifically, on gender inequalities in academia. In that literature, much attention has been devoted to comparing the unequal impacts of COVID‐19 on the research activities of women and men, with studies demonstrating that women's research productivity has been disproportionately disrupted, in ways that are likely to have detrimental effects in the short‐ and long‐term. In this paper, I discuss that emerging literature on gender inequalities in pandemic academic productivity. I reflect on the questions asked, the issues centred and the assumptions made within this literature, devoting particular attention to how authors conceptualise academic labour and productivity, on the one hand, and gender, on the other. I show that this literature makes major contributions to exposing old and new gender inequalities in academia, but argue that it also risks reproducing some problematic assumptions about gender and about academic work. Discussing those assumptions and their effects, I identify some important questions for us to consider as we expand this literature and deepen our understanding of the complex gendered effects of COVID‐19 on academic labour.

Schlagwörter:academia; COVID-19; gender inequality; Geschlechterungleichheit; Hochschule; productivity; Produktivität; publication; Publikation; wissenschaftliche Arbeit

CEWS Kategorie:Geschlechterverhältnis

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12618

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: #MeToo has inspired the voices of millions of people (mostly women) to speak up about sexual harassment at work. The high-profile cases that reignited this movement have revealed that sexual harassment is and has been shrouded in silence, sometimes for decades. In the face of sexual harassment, managers, witnesses and targets often remain silent, wittingly or unwittingly protecting perpetrators and allowing harassment to persist. In this integrated conceptual review, we introduce the concept of network silence around sexual harassment, and theorize that social network compositions and belief systems can promote network silence. Specifically, network composition (harasser and male centrality) and belief systems (harassment myths and valorizing masculinity) combine to instill network silence around sexual harassment. Moreover, such belief systems elevate harassers and men to central positions within networks, who in turn may promote problematic belief systems, creating a mutually reinforcing dynamic. We theorize that network silence contributes to the persistence of sexual harassment due to the lack of consequences for perpetrators and support for victims, which further reinforces silence. Collectively, this process generates a culture of sexual harassment. We identify ways that organizations can employ an understanding of social networks to intervene in the social forces that give rise to silence surrounding sexual harassment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Schlagwörter:Belästigung; harassment; informal support; Intervention; interventions; network; Netzwerk; Prävention; prevention; sexuelle Belästigung; Unterstützung

CEWS Kategorie:Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000861

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: Gendergerechtigkeit wird in Hochschulen in der EU im Rahmen des Programms Science with and for Society (SwafS) der Europäischen Kommission durch die Umsetzung von Gleichstellungsplänen aktiv gefördert. Die Erarbeitung und Umsetzung von Gleichstellungsplänen wurde durch die Beteiligung an EU-Projekten in irischen sowie italienischen Hochschuleinrichtungen stark beeinflusst. Dieser Beitrag bezieht sich auf Erfahrungen des EU-Projekts SAGE (H2020), bei dem irische und italienische Universitäten kooperieren, die Athena SWAN Charta in Irland, den Aktionsplan Piano di Azioni Positive (PAP) in Italien und Interviews mit Gender- Expert*innen irischer und italienischer Hochschuleinrichtungen. Es wird untersucht, inwieweit die Teilnahme an EU- und nationalen Initiativen ähnliche Ergebnisse erzielen kann. Der Beitrag kommt zu dem Schluss, dass eine abgestimmte Strategie, die sich auf gemeinsame Prioritäten konzentriert und kulturelle, politische und soziale Vielfalt berücksichtigt, die Internationalisierung des Hochschulsektors fördern und den Prozess zur Herstellung von Gendergerechtigkeit in der Wissenschaft beschleunigen könnte.

Schlagwörter:Athena SWAN; EU; Europa; Geschlechtergerechtigkeit; Gleichstellungsplan; Irland; Italien; structural change; structural change project; Strukturwandel

CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Gleichstellungspolitik

Verfügbarkeit:https://dx.doi.org/10.3224/gender.v13i1.03

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz