Dealing with Resistances along the Development of a Brand-New Gender Equality Plan: The Case of the University of Cagliari

Barbara Barbieri

;Ester Cois

;Silvia De Simone

2021-01-01

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Abstract

The essay aims to describe and discuss the process that led the University of Cagliari, thanks to its participation in the European project Horizon 2020 “SUPERA (Supporting the Promotion of Gender Equality in Research and Academia)”, to invest increasingly in gender inclusiveness, defining one of the first national Gender Equality Plans. This process has been also a great occasion for collecting main types of resistance with respect to the issue of improving gender equality within the organization, focusing on some specific key-contents: gender biases in recruitment, retention, career progression; leadership and decision making, accountability, transparency, inclusiveness; gender dimension in research and knowledge transfer, in content and curricula; gender biases and stereotypes, sexism and sexual harassment. On the other hand, it would be “suspicious” that a structural change of this magnitude did not generate any friction, while being able to count on the institutional support assured by the University’s governing bodies, starting from the endorsement expressed by both the former and the current Rector. Moreover, this has not been a top-down, but rather a participative process. Since the very first design phase, up to the official approval of the GEP in June 2020, all the stakeholders at the various levels of the organization have been involved: from the top positions of the administrative structure, up to the teaching and research bodies, technical staff, and the wide audience of students attending the various faculties and degree courses. By this way, UniCa wants to act as a strategic actor for promoting the European founding principle of inclusivity, in its dual role: as an educational environment where to be socialized to fight inequalities and to apply the principles of an equal citizenship; as a workplace where diversity can result into risk of inequalities in the distribution of positions and in the career progression.