Under-Participation of Women in Science-Related Endeavours: Sources and Instruments for Improvement (WIN)
Partners:
- PERIPHERIE - Institute for Practical Gender Research (Austria)
- Centre for Advancement of Women, Univ. of Vienna (Austria)
- Law University of Lithuania (Lithuania)
- Gallup Romania (Romania)
- Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration - Institute for Management and Business Education, Gender and Diversity in Organisations (Austria)
- Alert Communications Ltd. (Malta)
The Project:
The project aimed at the construction of a pro-active mechanism for the increase of women participation in science-related endeavours. It has developed a dynamic methodology for monitoring gender awareness and women participation in such activities and map actual distribution of roles in both academic and industrial organisations. It has identified, analysed and assessed sources of - and practical impediments to - under-participation of women in related areas.
The methodology and mechanism – indeed, a tool – devised proved helpful in increasing gender awareness and improving current level of women participation in scientific endeavours.
The project maintained that uneven participation is all-social issue, not just gender-specific. Furthermore, under-participation of women in science-related social activity creates actual loss to science, as contribution of some half the population is lacking. It also affects consumer markets. And, of course there is the basic premise of participatory democracy that requires as complete and even participation in social processes by ALL members of society.
Hitherto, attempts to achieve even gender participation emphasised education or corrective measures like Affirmative Action. These proved ineffective, insufficient, or unsatisfactory. Major and radical changes in the social order seem hard to achieve, if not impossible. Certainly when considered as threatening long standing cultural arrangements and habitual patterns.
To achieve this, we have concentrated on attainable and practical changes, based on thorough understanding of impediments and their sources. This project has done exactly this. Previous attempts focused on structural, historical and cultural sources of the current situation. Here we focused on identifying practical impediments to enable creating the planned innovative methodology that identifies impediments at the level of actual processes and constructing practical tools to remove impediments, allowing even gender participation in scientific activities.