The Evaluation of Structural Gender Change in European Higher Education

Abstract

The way scientific knowledge is produced and transferred to society is not free from the global structural system that (re)produces social inequalities. A pertinent case in point is gender inequalities, which are based on hierarchically different socially assigned roles. Since 2012, the European research area (ERA) framework has promoted the mainstreaming of gender equality actions into institutional and organizational assessments of research-performing (RPO) and research-funding organizations (RFO) with the aim of correcting social inequalities in higher education and research and thereby producing better quality research and practice. For overcoming persisting inequalities in research content, research decision-making, and academic careers, “gender structural change projects” have been promoted throughout the European research framework programmes FP7, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. These projects foster the implementation of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) in universities, research organizations, and funding organizations, as the main tool for a structural understanding of gender inequalities as well as assessing the effectiveness of countermeasures. Key objectives and actions for organizations seeking Horizon Europe funding focus on promoting a better gender balance in research teams, work-life balance, leadership, recruitment, career progression, integration of gender in research, and combating gender-based violence. However, the evaluation of gender structural change has rarely been the subject of academic reflection and theorisation as most publications have not gone beyond mentioning the importance of GEP monitoring and evaluation. The panel aims at contributing to recent debates on the functioning of project-related evaluation theories, methodologies and practices in internationalised academic contexts. Moreover, it aims at exploring what it is evaluated, that is, which evaluation criteria, evaluation questions and indicators are identified and used to assess gender structural change, including evolving Theories of Change (ToC) in specific cultural and geographic context of RPOs. The Panel also responds to methodological debates of uses for harvesting empirical evidence for evaluative assessment, ex-ante and ex-post. Finally, the organisational stance of the structural change evaluation is also of interest of this panel: how is the evaluation function and commissioning processes organized within the project consortia and in the organisations? How are evaluation feedback and results communicated and used by other partners and other external stakeholders? How do evaluators facilitate the use of evaluation findings by the project funders, the Consortia and partners institutions? How are evaluations responding to the necessary involvement of research communities’ stakeholders? How can methodologies and evaluation strategies align to practical collaborative, co-creative project spaces, and be aligned to feminist theories behind the European gender structural change philosophy? Which are useful, credible, and ethical? Which evaluation purposes -improvement, accountability and/or enlightenment- are better fulfilled by these evaluations? How do these evaluations integrate an intersectional, gender+ perspective? Our intention is to open a dialogue on the existing formative and summative evaluation models and how they struggle to become useful, through collaboration, for the complex endeavour of structurally transforming HE institutions, including research organisations, towards a more inclusive academia.

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