... or how to fit the elephant into the giraffe's house

A giraffe and an elephant liked each other and wanted to work together. But when the giraffe invited the elephant to his home, problems started. The house was designed for the giraffe, with tall ceilings and narrow doorways. When the elephant tried to get into the house he got stuck in the door. When he moved around in the house, the stairs cracked and the walls started to crumble.

In BACCHUS, we are actively working on building a house convenient and fitting for both the giraffe and the elephant!

Gender monitoring in BACCHUS

The gender situation within the BACCHUS consortium has been evaluated on an annual basis and the overview over the entire project is presented here. In the figure the number of personnel is shown as a total headcount and accounts for all persons active in the project at any time during the project (column ALL). This includes personnel not obtaining their salaries from the project as well as all PI's, head of groups and professors. From a total of 192 persons participating in the project, a fraction of 32% was female showing a gender imbalance.
For the evaluation of the development of active personnel in the respective project years between 2013 and 2018, all participants obtaining their salaries from BACCHUS were considered, but only unpaid activities of PI's, head of groups and professors for the purpose of gaining a comparable number of active personnel throughout the project as shown in in columns 2013 to 2018. The total number of personnel has increased from a minimum of 67 at the beginning of the project in December 2013 to a maximum of 131 participants in 2015 and shows hiring in the first two years of the project. This period coincides with the most active phases of the project with the field campaigns. This required additional hiring of personnel (e.g. student assistants and technicians during campaigns) for the activities in all work packages. The female fraction increased from 28% in 2013 to a maximum of 32% towards the project end and with a total number of active personnel of 69 persons in 2018. The increase in the female fraction shows that although only to a small extent the gender actions were successful.

EU FP7 seeks to promote gender equality by:

Actively promoting the role of women in science - target of 40% women's participation at all levels has been set

Equally addressing women's and men's realities as an integral part of the research to ensure the highes level of scientifc quality: "Wherever human beings are involved in the research (as consumers, users, and patient) gender will be an issue and should be considered and addressed."

How we, in BACCHUS, tried to reduce the gender gap:
1. Avoiding gender bias in job descriptions
Are all of the "required criteria listed necessary for doing this job well? Do any of the criteria reflect unnecessary assumptions or biases about the "kind of person" who usually does this job? Could additional criteria be included that would open up possibilities for a wider range of excellent candidates? Download the whole pdf on Avoiding Gender Bias in Recruitment/Selection Processes	Do the criteria allow candidates to demonstrate important life experiences that may not show up on traditional resumes? Do you include criteria such as "ability to work on diverse teams or with a diverse range of people"? Does any of the language in the description describe people rather than behaviours or subtly reflect stereotypes (e.g., "results-driven", "action-oriented","people-person")?
2. Avoiding gender bias in letters of recommendation
Focus on comparing the applicant with the requirements of the job. When describing stereotypically female traits, ask yourself if these characteristics are relevant to the job and if you are missing other strengths. Avoid overuse of gendered or gridstone adjectives. Download the whole pdf on Avoiding Unintended Gender Bias in Letters of Recommendation	Avoid unnecessarily invoking a stereotype ("she is not emotional..."). Use title and surnames for both men and women instead of first names, unless using first name is standard in your field. While it is usually important to talk about the personality and interpersonal skills of the applicant, avoid overly focusing on them.

Further practical measures in BACCHUS towards reducing the gender gap:

Monitor and document gender progress at all organisational levels of the project on an annual basis,

Follow the EC checklist of the FP7 gender toolkit

One day workshop for workpackage leaders on gender equality and implicit gender biases at the Annual Meeting 2015, see also Events

Promotion of excellent female postdocs to repsonsible tasks

Avoid gender imbalance for presentations at Annual Meetings

Reconcile work and private life by organizing events and meetings to allow travelling on weekdays only and providing video/teleconference options for regular meetings

Mentoring program for women scientists in early career stages was implemented

Collaboration with equal opportunity offices at the universities of the consortium members

Links

You are interested in a mentoring scheme but don't know where to find an adequate programe? Find a list of mentoring schemes offered at BACCHUS partner institutions here.

Check your implicit gender attitudes and do the Implicit Association Test (IAT) developed by a research collaboration between the University of Washington, Harvard University, and University of Virginia

Learn about small disparities between men and women that accumulate due to gender schemas, which we all share and which result in our overrating of men and underrating of women in professional settings. Virginia Valian's Tutorials for Change

Video: Check your unconscious bias and learn why it matters for women and tech:

References

Talent at stake. Changing the culture of research - gender-sensitive leadership, Committee for Gender Balance in Research, editors: Lina M. Rustad and Annes Winsnes Rodland, Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, 2010. Available here

First FP7 Monitoring Report,European Commission,2009. Available here

Gender equality