Implementation of Institutional Responses to Gender-based Violence in European Universities and Research Organisations: A Multi-level Analysis of 16 Case Studies

This paper presents results of a multi-level analysis of 16 case studies on the implementation of institutional measures and responses to gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, in research performing organisations (RPOs) in 15 European countries. This qualitative research was part of the H2020 research project UniSAFE Gender-based violence and institutional response: Building a knowledge base and operational tools to make universities and research organisations safe and was developed from March to September 2022. The theoretical grounds are underpinned by the 7Ps theoretical model (prevalence, prevention, protection, prosecution, provision of services, partnerships and policies), based on Mergaert et al. (2016) and further developed by UniSAFE (Strid et al., 2021), along with the Feminist Policy Studies that recognise the importance of paying attention to the post-adoption phases of policy, hence focusing our analysis on the implementation of the institutional responses. We also build on the concept of “gendered organisations'' from Feminist Institutionalism, which allows us to connect implementation processes with formal and informal rules, as well as to formal and informal interactions within the institutions. Moreover, we pay attention to the ways in which framing, as well as resistances and counter-resistances, hinder but also create opportunities for implementation, which have been of growing interest within implementation studies. A two-step methodology -realisation of 16 individual Case Studies and a cross and multi-level analysis- was applied and included several qualitative methods: 100 interviews and 25 focus groups were conducted with 176 participants, and 194 documents were analysed. The analytical framework for the individual case studies and the following multi-level analysis were developed and applied to the following major dimensions: institutions, actors, ideas, facilitating and hindering factors for design and implementation, intersectionality, 7Ps framework, and effects and consequences of putting in place the institutional responses for the institutions and their contexts. Findings of our analysis demonstrate that sexual harassment is a pervasive problem still inconsistently tackled in european Higher Education Institutions. They also show how -through all the different approaches, contexts, failures and successes, small wins and nuances that are reported-, there is no linear movement towards progress against gender-based violence including sexual harassment.