Gender+ equality�by Anne Van Loon, Julia Blasch, Marlies Barendrecht, Nadia Bloemendaal, Ana Cassanti, Nynke Schulp, Johanna Koehler, Marta Talevi, Fujin Zhou

based on a presentation given at VU Amsterdam on 2 May 2022

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GENDER AT …

Add here: organisation-specific information: numbers & stories

© Women @ IVM-VU group

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SUMMARISE COMMONALITIES

• From specific, individual stories to the larger picture
• Link to scientific literature

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In our case:

• culture (lack of feeling of belonging, lack of role models)
• high workload at work
• high workload at home
• uncertainties about contract & career

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THREE COMMON MISSTEPS (RYAN 2022, NATURE)

• Overemphasis on quantity: “Are women getting the same quality promotions as men?”
• Emphasizing individual training: “Our research demonstrates that women’s confidence and ambition are not inherently lower than men’s, but are eroded by experiences in unequal workplace cultures — not having role models, and being treated differently from male counterparts. Similarly, women are not inherently risk-averse; they operate within systems that reward men for risk-taking, but punish women for the same behaviour.”
• Overoptimism: “those who thought bias was not happening in their field were the key drivers of it” (Begeny et al. 2020. Science Advances)

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WHY ARE WOMEN UNDERREPRESENTED?

• Women are not less qualified (e.g. Nederlands Jeugdinstituut 2020, OCW 2020)
• Women are not performing less well than men (e.g. Huang et al. 2020 PNAS, van Arensbergen et al. 2012 Scientometrics)
• The performance of women is less favourably evaluated than the performance of men (e.g. Moss-Racusin et al. 2012 PNAS, Fan et al. 2019 PLoS ONE, Herrenan 2021 Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Mengel et al. 2018  Journal of the European Economic Association, Begeny et al 2020 Science Advances)
• Women get more rejections and are less favourably evaluated in the papers and grants review process (e.g. van der Lee & Ellemers 2015 PNAS, Witteman et al. 2019 The Lancet)

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WHY ARE WOMEN UNDERREPRESENTED?

• Women are less likely to be invited as keynote speakers (e.g. Fort et al. 2018 Nature, Kalejta and Palmenberg 2015 Journal of Virology, Nittrouer et al. 2018 PNAS)
• Women do shy away from competition more than men (e.g. Niederle & Vesterlund 2007 Quarterly Journal of Economics, Müller & Schwieren 2012 Journal of Economic Psychology)
• Women do have less confidence in their own abilities and suffer from impostor syndrome more often (e.g. Niederle & Vesterlund 2007 Quarterly Journal of Economics, Bravata et al. 2020, Gen Intern Med)
• Female leaders’ behaviour is perceived less favourable compared to the same behaviour in men (e.g. Abel 2019 IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Amanathulla & Morris 2010 Journal of Personality & Social Psychology)

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WHY ARE WOMEN UNDERREPRESENTED?

• Women are more likely to be interrupted when speaking (e.g. Brescoll 2012 Admin. Science Quarterly)
• Women are discriminated in hiring and promotion processes (e.g. Gonzalez et al. 2019 European Sociological Review, Lucas et al. 2021 Nature Human Behaviour)
• Male leaders are more likely to hire and/or promote men and female leaders are more likely to hire and/or promote women (e.g. Kunze and Miller 2017 The Review of Economics and Statistics)
• Women do get lower pay than equally qualified men (e.g. Derks et al. 2017 VU-internal report, Moss-Racusin et al. 2012 PNAS)
• Women are affected more by the pandemic (e.g. Davis et al., 2022; Vincent-Lamarre et al., 2020)

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WHY ARE WOMEN UNDERREPRESENTED?

• Women are less likely to be promoted than men (e.g. Derks et al. 2017 VU-Internal report)
• Women do take different roles than men in the workplace (that are valued less when applying for a job/promotion) (e.g. Angervall & Beach 2018 Higher Education Policy, Crabtree and Shil 2019 SAGE open, Kandiko Howson & Coate 2018 Higher Education Research and Development, Brommesson et al. 2021 Journal of Academic Ethics)
• Women are featured in fewer advertisements in Science (8%) and Nature (18%) than men (Grogan, 2018)
• Men are 15% more likely to share data when the request comes from another man (Grogan, 2018)
• Women & other under-represented minority groups are being asked to do more non-promotable tasks and service work than white men (Grogan, 2018)

Grogan (2018) How the entire scientific community can confront gender bias in the workplace. Nature Ecology & Evolution

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WHY ARE WOMEN UNDERREPRESENTED?

“Research identifies institutional and field-related research cultures that favour the advancement of men. Some of the issues stopping women’s advancement to top decision-making roles include women’s lower success rates in securing prestigious grants and the preponderance of part-time and short-term contract research positions among women’s careers (Milojevic, 2018). In addition, implicit gender bias in performance assessment, gender stereotypes, gendered perceptions of leadership and leadership styles, the ‘glass ceiling’, and the ‘gender pay gap’ are among the factors that can influence the recruitment and promotion of women to grade A positions, evaluation committees and university oversight bodies and scientific committees responsible for research funding.”

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EU – SHE figures report: https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/gender-balance-research-improving-pace-too-slow-eu-she-figures-2019-mar-08_en

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Leaky pipeline

• “Causes can’t be isolated. For example, women not choosing a specific discipline, or “choosing family over career,” cannot be separated from hostile environments or other factors. Encouragement and opportunities are important determinants for everyone”
• “Advantages and disadvantages accumulate over time.”
• “Having resources positions you to get more resources. Funding is a cause, not an effect, of ‘excellence’.”

https://twitter.com/MHendr1cks/status/1057454347037089792

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© Women @ IVM-VU group

SUMMARISE

• Make link back from scientific literature to organisation

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In our case:

• organisational policies
• research evaluation report

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ARE YOUR FEMALE APS EXPOSED TO THE SAME WORKLOAD AS YOUR MALE STAFF MEMBERS?

Issues with workload at the office

• As mentioned before, research shows that female employees are more likely to be asked to take over support/service/ coordination/admin tasks, that need to be done but are not valuable for a promotion
• Female employees are often also more likely to accept those tasks and to offer help when needed (female socialization), while male employees often choose tasks more strategically
• Upcoming book by female US professors from Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh University addresses the issue: “The No Club” →
• Are you aware of the issue and are you distributing support/coordination/admin tasks evenly? Are you valuing the time of your female staff members the same as the time of your male staff members?

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ARE YOUR FEMALE STAFF MEMBERS EXPOSED TO

THE SAME WORKLOAD AS YOUR MALE STAFF MEMBERS?

Issues with workload at home

• The pandemic has revealed that even modern couples still stick to traditional roles when it comes to home and care tasks (also those without children, but even more so those with children); female APs, in tendency, may spend more hours on home and care tasks after they return from the office than their male counterparts
• There is also research showing that women often carry higher mental loads than men, i.e. doctor’s appointments and daily schedules of the entire family, organizing shopping (“being in the lead at home”)
• Do your male staff members find it easier than your female staff members to combine an intense work life with a fulfilling personal life? How many of your male senior scientific staff have children vs. how many of your female senior scientific staff?

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DO YOUR MALE AND FEMALE STAFF MEMBERS HAVE

THE SAME RETURN ON THEIR INVESTMENT?

• Succeeding in an academic environment (esp. beyond Assistant Professor level) requires a lot of time and effort
• One is willing to invest time and effort if there is an adequate return on the investment (Gewin, 2022, Nature - “Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia”)
• As shown on previous slides, there are many small reasons that can accumulate to lower the return on investment for female staff members (lower chances of being published, receiving grant money, lower pay, lower probability of being promoted, etc.)
• Two important factors that can be influenced by the organization directly:
• Salaries
• Chances of being promoted (and confidence in being promoted)

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DO YOU PAY YOUR MALE AND FEMALE STAFF

MEMBERS THE SAME?

• Gender pay gap is a fact (in general) and has also been found at in our organisation
• Research shows that having a family leads to a salary bonus for men but not for women - Why? Men with family are considered as “taking responsibility” and “having to provide for the family”, while women with family are considered as “frequently absent due to sickness of their children” or “cannot fully concentrate on their work”
• Research also shows that women are less likely to negotiate for a higher salary and if they do so it is perceived differently for women than for men (“impressive how he speaks up for himself” vs. “who does she believe she is asking for more money?”)
• Do you pay your male and female staff members the same? Are there clear criteria for determining salaries? Are the criteria adhered to in practice? Are women being dismissed when asking for higher salaries?

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DO YOU PROMOTE YOUR MALE AND FEMALE STAFF MEMBERS THE SAME?

• Gender pay gap research at the organization showed that women are more likely to be in the lower of function profiles
• Research shows that women are often evaluated less favorably than men for the same performance; even if those differences in evaluation may be small, they accumulate over time and lead to lower or slower promotions for women
• Research also shows that men are more likely to be promoted by men (“buddy factor”)
• Are you giving your male and female staff members the same outlook on and confidence in being promoted? e.g. through feedback in formal promotion assessments but also in informal talks
• Do you let your male and female staff members enter equally quickly into your “inner circles” where informal information is shared?

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From background & questions to answers & ways forward

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A MORE EQUAL & INCLUSIVE FUTURE?

• Recognise the need for a diverse work-team & impact of female staff leaving
• Onboarding: good welcome info and buddy
• Not overloading new (female) staff with teaching
• Actively involve female staff in PhDs (co-supervision) and proposals
• Make sure female staff don’t need to pick up extra mentoring / caring tasks
• Have more & better admin support
• Give female staff perspective of tenure & promotion (max 3 years?)
• Make the tenure criteria more inclusive, less quantitative (Erkennen & waarderen)
• Make work-life balance a regular topic to discuss, set a good example, and support people to make strategic choices (and say no)
• Cite female colleagues, nominate them for awards, amplify their voices, don’t do manels
• Role models: appoint female professors and guest professors
• Peer-support: appoint mentor for all staff (not line manager)
• Improve parental leave policies & childcare support

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SUGGESTIONS FOR MANAGEMENT

• Collect data on gender bias, think about your own gender bias
• Make diversity & inclusion regular topic in management meetings
• Increase diversity of management
• Increase role models
• Support female staff for tenure & promotion, embrace national policies
• Improve parental leave cover & childcare support
• Unconscious bias training (compulsory for selection committees)

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