@conference {4100, title = {Learning organisations: A case study of changes in gender equality in decision-making bodies}, booktitle = {14th International Technology, Education and Development Conference}, year = {2020}, month = {2-4 March, 2020}, publisher = {IATED Academy}, organization = {IATED Academy}, address = {Valencia, Spain}, abstract = {

Despite the general legal and social environments in Europe and in Portugal being positive to the institutionalisation of equal opportunities in Higher Education Institutions (HEI), gender inequality seems to persist in stereotyped perceptions embedded within organisational cultures. The European Union (EU) has been developing several programmes to fund the promotion of Gender Equality Plans (GEP) in HEIs in the European context (European Commission, 2016; 2019).
It is encouraging to find that in some specific cases the implementation of these progresses has positive results (ERAC 2018). This is the case of the institution studied here, which committed to equality beyond rhetoric. The paper reports on a case study of best practices in promoting gender equality in decision-making bodies at the middle-management level in the University of Aveiro, in Portugal. Based on an international H2020 funded research project, the University of Aveiro has implemented GEPs resulting in an increase in the number of women in decision-making bodies. This paper seeks to explain the process of cultural change in general as well as in the rector team{\textquoteright}s attitudes, in particular, to promote progress in pursuit of gender equality in decision-making bodies.
When the project started, women constitute only 5\% of members in these middle management bodies (i.e. Deans of both university departments and polytechnic schools). One year after the implementation of the project, this percentage increased to 20\%. The paper details the several steps taken to reach this result. First, the problem was identified based on a quantitative analysis of the gender composition of decision-making bodies at UA; then, the process through which members access these bodies was also analysed. In a second stage of the project, the rector was informed and instigated to be more proactive in increase women representativeness in the following elections. Without changing the regulations, it was possible to develop informal strategies. These related with the identification of women with competencies to perform the job and with personal empowerment for them to propose themselves to the election.
Although progresses have been made, it is important to acknowledge that these initiatives are not enough to promote structural changes and more needs to be done to accelerate the pace of progress as well as to change institutional practices and individual mentalities.

}, keywords = {Decision-making bodies, gender equality, gender-equality plan, Higher Education Institutions, Portugal}, isbn = {978-84-09-17939-8}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2020.1650}, url = {https://library.iated.org/view/CARVALHO2020LEA}, author = {Teresa Carvalho and Carina Jord{\~a}o and Sara Diogo and Z{\'e}lia Breda} } @article {4048, title = {Nomination vs. election: do they influence women{\textquoteright}s access to institutional decision-making bodies?}, journal = {Journal of Management and Governance}, volume = {25}, year = {2020}, month = {31/10/2020}, pages = {879{\textendash}898}, abstract = {

Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs) are excellent case-studies of women representation in academia, considering their significant presence and rapid growth in HEIs. Nevertheless, and despite efforts to minimise gender gaps, women are still underrepresented in top management and leading positions, contributing to increment the phenomenon of vertical segregation. Based on the reality of the Portuguese academia, and focusing on an in-depth case study of a Portuguese university, this paper analyses if and how the way decision-making bodies are constituted, influence the gender balance of their members. Recently, within the New Public Management (NPM) context, HEIs have been subjected to external pressures to create a new organisational environment aiming at substituting the collegial model of governance with a managerial one. In this context, there has been a trend to replace the election by the nomination as the dominant process to occupy decision-making positions. The opening hypothesis of this study is that the way decision-making bodies are constituted, impacts on their gender balance. More specifically, it is argued that the nomination process tends to be more advantageous to women than the election. However, although it is possible to conclude that the gender balance decreases with the increasing importance of the decision-making body, it is not accurate to say that there is a direct relationship between the way actors are chosen to these bodies and their gender balance. In other words, the way actors are chosen can not be seen as the only factor influencing the gender constitution of decision-making bodies. The study provides a relevant contribution to the literature on mechanisms and strategies to improve gender equality in institutional decision-making processes and bodies.

}, keywords = {Decision-making bodies, Election, Gender balance, Governance, Managerialism, New Public Management (NPM), Nomination, universities}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-020-09538-6}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10997-020-09538-6}, author = {Sara Diogo and Teresa Carvalho and Z{\'e}lia Breda} }