International events
4th European Conference on Gender Equity in Higher Education
Oxford, 31 August - 3 September
Colleen Chesterman presented 2 papers at this conference. There were 170 delegates, mainly from Europe - UK, Germany, and Scandinavia predominantly, with few from France, Italy and a scattering from the new European nations in the east. There were also some delegates from US and Canada, and an amazing 15 from Australia (6 ATN WEXDEV members) who gave 9 papers. The conference was organised by a group from Oxford, who aimed specifically to bring academics and practitioners together.
There were stimulating keynote presentations. The first from Dr Virginia Valian, a psychologist who runs a Gender Equity Network from Hunter College, CUNY, asked Why So Slow, and considered psychological research that looked at women's and men's deep-seated tendencies (she described them as schema) that undervalue women's abilities. Professor Teresa Rees, a PVC from Cardiff, then looked at the gendered construction of excellence in science, bringing to us wide-ranging research sponsored by the European Community. Later keynote sessions looked at issues of organisations and culture. Pierre Bismuth, an HR executive from Schlumbergers, an oil exploration company, described his firm's commitment to assisting dual career families, employing women and sponsoring women engineering professors at 30 universities around the world. Professor Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen described how the University of Oslo had earmarked a number of professorships for women, and when this was deemed discriminatory by the European court, developed more extensive organisational responses. Finally Dame Fiona Caldicott, a PVC at Oxford and an eminent medical practitioner, moved elegantly between her own career story and a summary of the conference themes, touching particularly on work-life balance, the importance of changing attitudes, the importance of providing real choices for women, of recognising the phases careers move through, and the support from mentoring and networking that benefit women.
The workshop presentations covered many themes. Women's Career Development ranged widely from outlining barriers such as mobility, emphasised the need for transparency in decisions and open procedures rather than enclosed patronage that favours men, presented questions about the growing use of headhunters and had papers outlining siginifant interventions, many of them providing funds and rewards for reaching targets. Academic Women showcased a number of research projects established by institutions to assist them in improving gender equity; it also showed the great diversity between experiences in various countries, although the lower representation of women at senior levels is common in all, though Australia is doing well. The varying experiences in different systems were also outlined in papers on Student Experience - women are everywhere increasing to over 50% of students, but their post-graduation outcomes are not reflecting their abilities. Institutional Policies presented a number of examples of institutions researching their own practices, and underlined the importance of support from the senior executive. Problems that emerged were that externally funded initiatives did not survive a withdrawal of funding and that many areas still showed passive resistance to tackling equity, with no sanctions available. Across Europe a consideration of national policies showed how progressive initiatives were often undermined by rigid and conservative local management. There was also a track on European Commission-encouraged initiatives in engineering, working on recruitment, encouragement (even in kindergarten) and curriculum.