In the previous blogpost, Gabrielle Griffin wrote about gender equality policies that function as “non-performative performatives” (Ahmed, 2012). Such policies not only fail to bring about institutional change but are also taken to be the action itself. It has been argued that gender budgeting is one solution to this problem in the implementation of gender equality plans. This is also one of the ten topics we, Nordwit-Pillar 1, focus on in our action to increase women’s participation in technology related innovation.
The CoP GenBUDGET of the ACTonGender project recently organized a webinar on the same topic, gender budgeting in higher education and research institutions. In it, two of the webinar’s presenters, Tiandara Addabbo and Jennifer Dahmen-Adkins, asserted that gender budgeting can be seen as a lever of structural change in research institutions. They argued that following research institutions’ money can reveal and help act against gender biases in the allocation of funds and resources. Thus, as the budget reflects an institution’s real policy commitments, an analysis of budgeting can also increase the sustainability of gender equality plans.
Another presentation, however, pointed to a challenge in implementing gender equality through gender budgeting; namely, the lack of transparency in budgets. Carmichael, Steinþórsdóttir and Taylor’s research on gendered workloads in research institutions showed that detecting gender biases in budgeting might be more difficult than assumed. Despite of the extensive use of management tools in workload allocation processes, transparency of process and equity of outcome are not ensured (ibid, 2020).
As we enter 2021, many research and higher education institutions might be readying to institute gender equality plans due to the new GEP requirement for eligibility in Horizon Europe. As the GEP requirements in research is in a new phase, it is critical to put the difficulties related to the implementation of gender equality policies on the agenda.
Gilda Seddighi
References
Carmichael,F., Steinþórsdóttir, F. S. and Taylor, S. (December 11th, 2020). “Gendered workload in universities as a feminist issue: A case study of a UK Business School.” Webinar on Gender Budgeting in research organizations. ActonGender
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