The Transformative Potential of Gender Equality Plans to Expand Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies in Higher Education: Grounds for Vigilant Optimism
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Gender Equality Plans as a Strategy for Strengthening WGFS in Higher Education
2.2. The State of the Art of Integrating WGFS into HE Curricula in Portugal
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Documentary Analysis: Gender Equality Plans
3.2. Semi-Structured Individual Interviews
3.3. Questionnaire Survey
3.4. Mixed-Methods Sequential Explanatory Design: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Building Profiles of Representations about GEPs
4.1.1. Cautious Optimistic Perspective
We know that a plan doesn’t solve everything. (...) it’s not the plan that’s going to change everything, but the plan is an instrument for change and it’s important that it exists. It makes these issues visible in a way, puts them on the agenda, which is an important thing, and then this change has to be achieved with everyone.(WGFS Program lecturer, 12)
The plan is very recent, it was approved just this month, so we still don’t know how... But we do know that.... I’m aware that it was drawn up precisely because of this external constraint (...) Let’s see its effects. We know that in terms of equality, progress is made a lot due to external constraints, legislation, policies, guidelines, and Portugal is a very good student, it’s a country that, in fact, follows many guidelines and has very strong policies in terms of legislation. We have great legislation, but then, as everyone knows, the real problem is implementing it, putting it into practice.(WGFS Program lecturer, 13)
But it’s always a problem with plans whether it’s just a narrative or whether it’s consequent. (...) (...)I hope it’s not just rhetoric. There’s debate, there’s a network set up...(Founder/coordinator of WGFS program, 1)
I understand the discussion, but the discussion is a bit like regulating quotas. It’s exactly the same thing. Is it cosmetic or is it profound? Do we want it to be cosmetic or deep? And from a certain point of view, in the abstract, I could even say “oh, the quotas”. (...) The fact that the plan exists inevitably brings about change (...) People must at least look like they care about these issues. If they start off looking like it, then they’ll convert or if they never convert, but as well as looking like it, they have to show some practical work.(WGFS Program lecturer, 9)
But there is an evolution, very slow, but there is some. And I have some hope, because we always operate in this coercive isomorphism, that this obligation to have equality plans, for funding, will change, that it will introduce some more transformative force from the point of view of the institutions. (...) I always like to have some optimism about the processes underway, but I also know that when there is no coercion, when there is no imposition, things are often diluted. That’s why I was talking earlier about a directive or a superior guideline on accreditation. I think that if it doesn’t happen that way, it really will take a long time to happen.(founder/coordinator of WGFS Program, 1)
We have the national plans themselves, which I think are very interesting public tools. And I think the question of the equality plans that the institutions themselves must have, the question of A3ES, now, of evaluation.... What would be important for me would be for the very funding that exists in Portugal for research to valorize this issue of Gender Studies.(WGFS Program lecturer, 13)
And the institutions answer to whom? So, who do they answer to when they plan? They don’t have to report on its implementation. But even so, I mean, at least we could see a network that brings together people from the various organizational units. The pressure should also be applied within each institution.(founder/coordinator of WGFS Program, 1)
The equality plan is being made by people who have the right positions, feminists, etc. (...) Ours is being made by people from X [University] who have always worked on gender, either in psychology or sociology, ... (...) We’re a group of people who have always been linked to gender, so we don’t just fall over ourselves, do we? This plan for equality is being made with the people who work on gender at the university.(founder/coordinator of WGFS Program, 5)
4.1.2. Skeptical Perspective
Institutions use gender equality mainly to appear democratic and modern, but they’re not at all. It’s only equality on paper.(Assistant Professor, public university education, 56 years old)
We’ll definitely have an equality plan. It’s fool proof because without it you won’t be able to get funding. It will probably produce some results too. I don’t doubt that, but until I see it, I have some doubts about the degree of integration and effectiveness that this plan will have. Because we need something more in-depth here, not just one-off measures, and I don’t see that happening. But I hope I’m wrong and, in a year or two, I’ll be giving good news. (...) As a friend of mine says, “systems inertia is very powerful”. (...) There are other things that always seem to be more pressing, and so that is always secondary.(founder/coordinator of WGFS Program, 4)
The problem, as with everything, is this: we’re good at making laws and plans. (...) When we look at a plan like this, the first thing that comes to mind is: the additional work, the additional burden that this is going to bring to our agendas. (...) In terms of defining the objective, the concern, recognizing the problem and the need for action, everything is fine. The problem is allocating resources to it.(WGFS Program lecturer, 8)
Universities must have an equality plan. Yeah, well, so do local councils and we know how it works, don’t we? Because I can have a plan for equality and that doesn’t mean that it will then materialize in concrete actions, in a change in people’s ways of thinking and acting and in concrete policies that allow for gender equality. And I don’t see that happening. (...) I may be wrong, and something very well-structured and very integrated may be being prepared, but there is still too much of this idea that this is a job that must be done.(WGFS Program lecturer, 15)
I know because I’ve witnessed and been able to observe teams—I’m not talking about the university, but maybe the university too, I’m not saying it’s not—but teams at the local authority level with projects approved to implement plans, where the people in charge of it don’t even know their names. The likelihood of these equality plans being the biggest crock of shit on the face of the earth and just money thrown away is high. I think that, at the moment, if in a way it was important in political terms—now there is no money for anything if there are no gender equality concerns—that on the one hand is good, but if people think that this can be done without any kind of regulation, they must be dreaming.(founder/coordinator of WGFS Program, 5)
There has been growing funding linked to equality plans and equality areas. Particularly in municipalities, in other contexts. And many people weren’t sensitized to equality issues and didn’t want to work on equality issues. But money was coming in. So, as European money was coming in, people started working.(WGFS Program lecturer, 10)
Why are universities making plans for equality now? Because of the European requirement, otherwise, they won’t get funding. (...) (...) Nobody knows anything, but everyone has something to say.(interview with founder/coordinator of WGFS Program, 6)
4.1.3. Simplistic/Passive/Resistant Perspective
4.2. Limited Strategies and Lines of Action for Integrating the Gender Perspective into Curricula and Teaching Practices
I think the disadvantage of separate, independent WGFS programs is that it conveys the idea that this is an area that isn’t transversal and is part of the specific interests of a ‘minority’.(WGFS program founder/coordinator, 2).
Where I think these themes can have a more transformative impact is in disciplinary programs not specific to WGFS. (...) I think it’s in these disciplinary courses that the transformative potential is greatest because there a question is introduced that has never been asked before.(WGFS program lecturer, 12).
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A. Opinions on the GEPs and the Institutional Initiative to Strengthen the WGFS—Statistical Summary
Statements | Mean | SD | Median | Mode |
1. It’s something that HEIs create, but it’s not part of their operational priorities | 5.1 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
2. It is an important mechanism for integrating gender content into curricula | 5.1 | 1.1 | 5 | 6 |
3. It is easily implemented | 4.8 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
4. It’s irrelevant to raising teachers’ awareness of gender inequalities | 4.8 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
5. It is a tool for assessing inequalities in terms of gender, sexual orientation, racial/ethnic origin, and religion | 4.6 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
6. It creates a more favorable internal environment for the development of WGFS in teaching and research | 4.2 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
7. When evaluating educational institutions, the Higher Education Accreditation and Evaluation Agency (A3ES) should include gender equality in the criteria | 3.2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
8. It is an important mechanism for reviewing and transforming institutional procedures and practices that reproduce inequalities in higher education careers | 3.1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
9. The institution where I teach has been silent on initiatives to integrate GD into teaching | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
10. My institution has been silent on initiatives to support the integration of GD into research projects | 2.4 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
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No. HEIs | No. HEIs with GEP | % HEIs with GEP | |
---|---|---|---|
Private | 63 | 10 | 15.9 |
Public | 34 | 28 | 82.4 |
Polytechnic | 62 | 19 | 30.6 |
University | 35 | 19 | 54.3 |
TOTAL | 97 | 38 | 39.2 |
No. | % | |
---|---|---|
2020 | 1 | 2.2 |
2021 | 11 | 24.4 |
2022 | 27 | 60.0 |
2023 | 6 | 13.3 |
Total | 45 | 100.0 |
Statements about Institutional Initiative/GEP | Factor | ||
---|---|---|---|
A—Optimistic | B—Skeptical | C—Simplistic | |
1. It’s something that HEIs create, but it’s not part of their operational priorities | −0.002 | 0.661 | −0.116 |
2. It is an important mechanism for integrating gender content into curricula | 0.629 | 0.218 | 0.222 |
3. It is easily implemented | 0.035 | −0.073 | 0.893 |
4. It’s irrelevant to raising teachers’ awareness of gender inequalities | −0.680 | 0.176 | 0.403 |
5. It is a tool for assessing inequalities in terms of gender, sexual orientation, racial/ethnic origin, and religion | 0.763 | 0.082 | −0.179 |
6. It creates a more favorable internal environment for the development of WGFS in teaching and research | 0.857 | −0.145 | 0.137 |
7. When evaluating educational institutions, the Higher Education Accreditation and Evaluation Agency (A3ES) should include gender equality in the criteria | 0.541 | 0.265 | −0.381 |
8. It is an important mechanism for reviewing and transforming institutional procedures and practices that reproduce inequalities in higher education careers | 0.860 | 0.111 | 0.037 |
9. The institution where I teach has been silent on initiatives to integrate gender dimension into teaching | 0.156 | 0.774 | 0.111 |
10. My institution has been silent on initiatives to support the integration of gender dimension into research projects | −0.007 | 0.825 | −0.076 |
Eigenvalue | 3.233 | 1.911 | 1.238 |
Variance explained | 32.3% | 19.1% | 12.4% |
Types of Measures | No. Measures |
---|---|
Gender in teaching content | |
Integrating the gender dimension into degree programs/courses | 18 |
Development of gender-specific modules/courses | 15 |
Training and capacity building | |
Training for teachers/course coordinators | 9 |
Guides/guidelines for gender mainstreaming | 3 |
Communication and awareness raising | |
Raising awareness/dissemination among students/academic community | 6 |
Teacher awareness and dissemination efforts | 5 |
Gender in teaching methods | |
Incorporation of inclusive language | 1 |
Introduction of new pedagogical methodologies/models | 1 |
Change in gender-relevant provisions and procedures | |
Implementation of gender criteria for teaching awards | 1 |
Integrating gender dimension into student satisfaction surveys | 1 |
Structures for integrating gender dimension into teaching (e.g., working groups, committees) | 1 |
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Lopes, M.; Santos, C.; Ferreira, V.; Monteiro, R.; Vieira, C.C. The Transformative Potential of Gender Equality Plans to Expand Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies in Higher Education: Grounds for Vigilant Optimism. Educ. Sci. 2024, 14, 889. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080889
Lopes M, Santos C, Ferreira V, Monteiro R, Vieira CC. The Transformative Potential of Gender Equality Plans to Expand Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies in Higher Education: Grounds for Vigilant Optimism. Education Sciences. 2024; 14(8):889. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080889
Chicago/Turabian StyleLopes, Mónica, Caynnã Santos, Virgínia Ferreira, Rosa Monteiro, and Cristina C. Vieira. 2024. "The Transformative Potential of Gender Equality Plans to Expand Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies in Higher Education: Grounds for Vigilant Optimism" Education Sciences 14, no. 8: 889. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080889