24 Feb Gender in academia and family life
The project aims to tackle the main problems and challenges of starting an academic and scientific career and their compatibility with family life and obligations of women. A set of specific actions focused on the vulnerability of the early careers will be addressed, aimed at proposing measures which will contribute to the increase of the participation and career advancement of female researchers. It will also be examined how family life combines and coordinates with their professional work and how different types of partnerships affect the difficulties in daily life and lead to different dysfunctional family practices.
The project aims on several specific points:
- determining barriers and difficulties women face in this area;
- examining the women’s needs and career paths in order to advocate for the improvement of system of higher education in Serbia;
- examining the ways in which our respondents combine their professional lives with their marital and parental responsibilities in families, with special focus on differences between men and women in the examined topic area.
Project is concerned with:
- Increasing gender equality in Belgrade University by focusing on the early stages of women’s scientific careers;
- Promoting a gender-positive culture and fighting gender stereotypes in work sphere and family domain;
- Highlighting the role of gender dimension in influencing excellence in research and teaching;
- Focusing on the beginning of women’s scientific careers as the key moment of the project, which will enable us to fully understand gender hierarchies, but also how these institutions can better support careers of women and thus change the dominant gendered organizational model;
Data collection for the creation of strategic and planning documents, as well as local action plans, which are essential components of gender mainstreaming. Recommendations for successful application will be developed along with a methodology that will assist policymakers as a guideline when implement gender equality principles.
The project will produce comprehensive publication with research results, including policy brief with recommendations – developing a set of guidelines to be used by academia and legislative bodies that relate to combating discrimination against women in academia and in wider society. Papers will be distributed across ministries and made available on the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit’s and the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality’s websites, which would make it easily accessible to the target groups. Also, advocacy meetings with the Deans of faculties are envisaged. We will single out two faculties which will serve as practical examples for the implementation of recommendations formulated on the basis of the research results. Initial meetings with the Deans will be held prior to the implementation of the second phase of the project – a quantitative online research. The main goal of these initial meetings will be to ensure a support for the implementation of the recommendations that will be formulated after the research. We will agree on further steps of cooperation at these meetings, and their implementation will be ensured within the project Horizon 2020 TARGET, which we will implement in cooperation with the University of Belgrade.
Cooperation with the University of Belgrade on the implementation of Horizon 2020 project “TARGET” will enable sustainability of this project even upon its completion. On this occasion, we will be involved in the implementation of the following activities:
- realization of trainings on gender equality with students and employees at the University;
- activities on preparing manuals for employees in order to help them apply the principles of gender equality in scientific work and;
- assisting in drafting the Code which will be binding for the faculties at the University in order to prevent gender-based violence.
The project is implemented by Center for Ethics, Law and Applied Philosophy (CELAP) in partnership with Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of Belgrade, from May to December 2017. The project is supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC, University of Fribourg Switzerland, Performing and Responsive Social Sciences PERFORM, HELVETAS Swiss Cooperation.