DE&I INITIATIVES
According to The World’s Women report, there is no country anywhere on the planet, nor any sphere of life, where women are treated as well as men. Unfortunately, higher education institutions, including business schools, are no exception. Esade’s Anna Ginès i Fabrellas reports on a new project designed to help women deal with the discrimination they face when trying to climb the career ladder gap
gender pay gap in academia, practically half of all research teams are male and there is a slight discrepancy in access to funding in favour of men. The Equal4Europe project, therefore, has worked on addressing this phenomenon in arts, humanities, medicine, social sciences, business and law research institutions throughout Europe by adopting gender equality standards specially designed for the academic context. The Equal4Europe consortium consists of six partner universities with a focus on social sciences and business disciplines: these are Esade Barcelona, the European School of Management and Technology Berlin, Iedc-Bled School of Management Slovenia, Insead Paris, Rotterdam School of Management in The Netherlands and Comenius University in Bratislava, plus an accreditation organisation (EFMD) and one independent monitoring organisation, Nehem. The body has obtained funding from the European Commission, which promotes research and innovation in gender equality through the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes. The six research institutions participating in the project have adopted tailored gender equality plans, following a complete and holistic diagnosis of the situation relating to gender equality at their own institutions. These plans include specific measures designed to remove barriers to recruitment, retention and the career progression
T he ‘leaky pipeline’ phenomenon that affects the academic career of women is undeniable. Although females represent approximately half of PhD holders, their presence decreases as you go up the academic ladder. According to She Figures , part of the Publications Office of the EU, women only represent around 30 per cent of researchers and 20 per cent of full professorships; in addition, just 20 per cent of research organisation leaders are women. Although widely acknowledged in STEM disciplines, this lack of female representation is also present in the disciplines of arts, humanities, medicine, social sciences, business and law, even though the presence of women has traditionally been high – and indeed higher than men in certain instances – for some time now. Moreover, there are other worrying indicators: there is a persistent
Ambition | MARCH/APRIL 2024 | 37
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