Dr. Anke Lipinsky and Claudia Schredl (Central Equal Opportunities Officer at the University of Cologne) show in "Numbers or Norms: What Predicts Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education?" that institutional norms and the representation of women in university management influence the perception and disclosure of gender-based violence. The analysis is based on data from the Europe-wide UniSAFE study, which surveyed over 42,000 respondents from 43 universities in 15 countries.
The results the research show that around 70% of employees at European universities report psychological violence, and around a third report sexual harassment. The institutional environment in which these experiences were made and perceived is also crucial. At academic institutions where gender essentialist attitudes are widely accepted, psychological violence is perceived and identified as such significantly less often. This suggests that such attitudes contribute to the normalization and invisibility of violence.
At the same time, with regard to gender representation in leadership positions, the analysis reveals that organizations with a representation of women of 40% or more in management, tend to show more disclosure of sexual harassment. The authors interpret this tendency as indication of an organizational culture in which sexual harassment is de-tabooed and can be named. They conclude that the perception and disclosure of these forms of gender-based violence are associated with organizational norms and the composition of organizational leadership.
Read here: “Numers or Norms: What Predicts Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education?”
Citation: Lipinsky, A. & Schredl, C. (2025). Numbers or Norms: What Predicts Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education?. In: Barnard, S., Wroblewski, A. (eds) Gender and Higher Education Management in Times of Crisis. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98941-4_10