Project reports

National Framework of the Situation of Women and Men in Science: Analyses and Evaluation How are policies and funding instruments employed to improve gender equality in higher education?

As the basis for the SSA, we looked at the respective national framework women and men and for gender budgeting in science. This included three major aspects which have been analysed in parallel by the Austrian, the German and the Polish team:

• Analysis of the situation of women and men in science
• Description of the national policies and regulations regarding equal opportunities for women and men and instruments for the implementation
• Financing of the university sector
  
  Important topics that the analyses of the national frameworks focused on were the analysis of the career and social situation of women and men in scientific organisations. This includes an analysis of the professional career progress from school leaving qualifications until professorship of women and men, which clearly shows the typical gender pyramid. Further more important features of the income situation for academic women and men are summarised showing that more women than men are employed in lower paid positions, in part-time jobs or in temporary employment. Another part of this chapter shows general features of the social situation of women and men in science. One general feature which we could depict is that less women than men in a higher academic career level have children. A critical consideration of these analyses showed that there is partly an enormous lack of data on this topic.
  
  Another main topic was the legal regulations for equal opportunities for women and men in science with a strong focus on the national laws for universities. This includes regulations on the organisational level as well as the regulations concerning the implementation of gender studies into the scientific activities.
  
  Further more the system of financing of higher education was analysed. A special focus is on how equal opportunity actions or measures are included. Again there are fundamental differences between the three nations but nevertheless general tendencies can be observed in respect to advancing women in science.
  
  Report Germany:
  (with an introduction as to the objectives of the analysis of the national frameworks):
• Analysis of the national framework of the situation of women and men in science in Germany (as PDF, 255 kb)
• Report Austria:
• Analysis of the national framework of the situation of women and men in science in Austria (as PDF, 285 kb)
• Report Poland:
• Analysis of the national framework of the situation of women and men in science in Poland (as PDF, 370 kb)
  
  The evaluation of the frameworks in Austria, Poland and Germany of the status of equal opportunities in science includes an overview over the main findings in the three nations. The main aim is to summarise the results in reference to the question how we can use the results for our further work on instruments for a gender budgeting in scientific organisations.
  
  Evaluation:
• The national frameworks of the situation of women and men in science in Austria, Germany and Poland (as PDF, 210 kb)

The situation of women and men at the University of Augsburg, Gdansk and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

The objective of this workpackage is to show the situation of women and men at the three cooperating universities (Augsburg, Gdansk and Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration). We will first analyse the situation of all women and men at these universities considering all groups of employees (non-scientific as well as scientific staff and students assistants). Further more the situation of the students is presented according to their sex and in respect to their distribution among the different departments. A focus is also on the change in distribution over time and according to their level within the scientific career, clearly showing a leaky pipeline for women the higher the positions get (this phenomenon is also called „gender pyramid“). As far as data was available we also tried to describe the income situation considering criteria like sex and the hierarchic level. Further more an evaluation is made as to the use of the present data available to draw a sex disaggregated picture of the whole situation at each of the three universities. Further more an evaluation was the available data was made as to its sex disaggregating and its use to describe the situation of women and men at each of the three universities.

In the second part of the analysis we explore the situation in each of the three universities in respect to gender equality, orientation towards equal opportunities for women and men and the progress which may have been made in regard to the implementation of strategies for gender equality and/or gender mainstreaming. This chapter clearly shows big differences between the three countries resp. the three universities as the status and climate towards gender equality is very diverse in the three countries. At the University of Augsburg e.g. the process of gender mainstreaming is going on since quite a few years while at the University of Gdansk the discussion of the topic has only just begun.

Another topic of the analysis focuses on the question of the distribution and allocation of budget within the universities. This includes a description of the legal framework along which the universities have to act as well as inner-university guidelines for the allocation of budgets. Further more the important stakeholders (persons and boards) of the budgeting planning process and their power and decision making positions are analysed. This is of course always embedded in the national framework which is obligatory for each university, (this information was researched in the analysis of the national frameworks, Erbe 2006, Klatzer/Mayrhofer/Neumayr 2006, Lapniewska/Tarasiewicz 2006; WP 4).

Additionally the over all budget of the universities and its distribution as to revenues and expenditures is described. As far as data was available we distinguish the monetary amounts according to departments and analysed the mechanisms and guidelines according to which the allocation of budgets takes place. Further more we were partially able to distinguish the resources of the revenues of the budget of the universities (e.g. public money, third party funding or tuition fess).

• Report Germany (with a short introduction):
  Analysis of the situation of women and men at the University of Augsburg (as PDF, 350 kb)
• Report Austria:
  Analysis of the situation of women and men at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration(as PDF, 350 kb)
• Report Poland:
  Analysis of the situation of women and men at the University of Gdansk (as PDF, 450 kb)
  
  With the evaluation of the actual situation and the analysis of the budgeting process at the three universities University of Gdansk in Poland (UG), the University of Augsburg in Germany and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Austria (WU) we compared the situations of women and men in scientific organisations in a tri-national framework and took a closer look at the interdependencies of equal opportunities and budgeting. 

• Evaluation:
  The situation of women and men at the University of Gdansk, Augsburg and Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and the budgeting process at the three universities (as PDF, 240 kb)

The budgeting process at the University of Augsburg, Gdansk and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

As gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting are, among others, strategies for the development of organisations, it was an essential part of the project to observe the budgeting process within scientific organisations with the example of three universities in Austria, Germany and Poland.

With the help of the process analysis we wanted to find out if and which gender-specific or gender-typical collective attitudes and behaviour patterns exist among the stakeholders for budgeting and for equal opportunities. We also wanted to find out if there are basic mindsets towards gender equality and gender budgeting as an instrument to achieve equal opportunities for women and men. This might be seen in an adequate representation of women and men on all levels and in all boards up to a certain extent, however, it should be taken into consideration that an adequate representation of women and men alone does not automatically mean that gender equality is supported.

Furthermore, we wanted to find out how the budgeting process is made in respect to criteria such as democratic structures or transparency concerning decision making and power relations. It seems to be also important if and how the idea of work-life-balance is included in budgeting considerations, that is: are there possibilities to combine private life, children and work and how are they accounted for in budgeting planning?

This was our approach during the observation of the complex and subtle development processes on the micro-level (individual attitudes and motivations) and on the meso-level, the organisational set up and culture, which can show starting points for process indicators to promote a gender responsive budgeting.

The budgetary process is obviously strongly influenced by the scientific hierarchies, cultural aspects and the legal framework while equal opportunity measures do not have any sustainable impact on the budgeting process up to now. Nevertheless, interdependencies between budgeting and equal opportunities at the university exist. On one level there is the budgeting process itself with a formal and an informal course and which is influenced by official and informal stakeholders within the budgeting process and by agents for equal opportunities. This formal process is shown as well as an evaluation of the formal process in comparison to informal power relationships and the decision making structures within the budgeting process at the three universities.

Apart from the budgeting process itself we will look at the process of negotiating equal opportunity measures and its influences on budgeting. The process of negotiating future equal opportunity measures is at a critical point now because the new university laws require many changes within the universities. This special situation may allow supporters for equal opportunities to formulate new or additional objectives in order to improve the situation of women in science and to change the organisational culture in the scientific organisations towards gender mainstreaming.

• Report Germany (with an introduction as to the objectives of the analysis of the budgeting process):
  Analysis of the Budgeting process at the University of Augsburg (as PDF, 250 kb)
• Report Austria:
  Analysis of the Budgeting process at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration = the report can not be published due to the confidentiality of some data and statements of interview partners (done by Monika Mayrhofer)
• Report Poland:
  Analysis of the Budgeting process at the University of Gdansk = the report can not be published due to the confidentiality of some data and statements of interview partners (done by Maciej Debski)

With the evaluation of the actual situation and the analysis of the budgeting process at the three universities University of Gdansk in Poland (UG), the University of Augsburg in Germany and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Austria (WU) we compared the situations of women and men in scientific organisations in a tri-national framework and took a closer look at the interdependencies of equal opportunities and budgeting. 

• Evaluation:
  The situation of women and men at the University of Gdansk, Augsburg and Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and the budgeting process at the three universities (as PDF, 240 kb)https://frauenakademie.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/de_budgeting-process-2.pdf

Our SSA „Gender budgeting as an instrument for managing scientific organisations to promote equal opportunities for women and men“ aims at the development instruments and measures as well as indicators for the implementation of Gender Budgeting as an important part of budget planning in science – with the example of universities.

This report is a cooperative work of the team members from all three cooperating countries. After the introduction, we start in chapter 2 with a theoretical discussion of some major factors influencing the actual development at and within universities. These are the global competition and the economisation of science, the corresponding effects on the institutional set-up and New Public Management instruments at universities. We will look at the organisational culture(s) at universities and give an overview over the state of discussion on the difficult question on excellence in science. Each of the topics will be presented with a simultaneous consideration of the consequences for equal opportunities in science and esp. at universities, its chances and risks.

In the following we focus on the development of gender sensitive objectives based on general considerations and will follow up on the question of gender equality objectives at universities. In addition, we will give some short examples how equal opportunity aspects can be integrated in agreements on objectives.

In chapter 4 we develop indicators for objectives for gender equality on different levels. This includes process indicators as well as social environment indicators and target achievement indicators. These are based on our own findings and on results from experiences made in the development of gender indicators. At this point we are also taking into account the international experiences and already available considerations by the EU-Commission on implementing Gender Mainstreaming into policies.

In chapter 5 we will assess strategies, instruments and measures which can be used to achieve an increase of gender equality at universities. These cover measures for sensitisation, awareness rising and the attainment of gender competence, classical equal opportunity instruments, the gender impact assessment (GIA) and its adaptation for budgeting in science, special gender equality instruments in the field of budgeting and last but not least instruments and measures for monitoring and gender controlling.

In chapter 6 we will illustrate our findings with the presentation of best practice examples as to Gender Mainstreaming at universities.

In chapter 7 we will outline possible starting points for support actions at each of the three universities. The question will be how a single university can handle or change the situation. This will at the same time be the starting point for trans-national learning and the transfer of experiences and know-how of the project members to their universities. The actual support of the universities with specific and adjusted activities will be outlined in the workpackage to follow.

• Report
  Development of Instruments for Gender Budgeting at Universities (as PDF, 570 kb)

The last part of the project (Knowledge transfer to universities in order to support Gender Budgeting as an instrument for the promotion of Equal Opportunities for women and men – WP 13) is the core of our project as here we intend to transfer our scientific findings on budgets at universities into specific support actions for the universities to advance the implementation of Gender Budgeting. This Work Package shows clearly the state of awareness of the particular universities and their willingness to allow external experts to support them in the often very delicate matters of budgeting. This can be seen as an indicator for the transparency of the budgeting process within each of these organisations, and a transparent budgeting process is a precondition for a successful Gender Budgeting.

And indeed this turned out to be the crucial point. The more open and transparent the distribution of money is, the more democratic seems to be the whole structure of the university management. We were able to demonstrate that the willingness, even just to discuss a Gender Budgeting issues, depends widely on the organisational culture of informational transparency. Accordingly the three national research teams had had different levels of access to data and information during the research process and had varying success to introduce Gender Budgeting proposals to the universities.

The fact that changes in structural budgeting matters are processes that take more time than the schedule of the project allowed, turned out to be a fundamental point. Another important result was that none of the research teams was allowed to participate in any crucial activities or negotiations concerning changing modes of budgeting or financing matters to the extent we would have thought reasonable and necessary. The German team came very close and the stakeholders for equality and budgeting showed quite a high interest in getting advice on how to improve the incentive system or how to implement gender-fair performance criteria into the cost-performance-equation. They were willing to let the project team participate in the negotiations but then again there was not enough time to accompany the processes to a successful end.

• Report Germany (with an introduction for all reports on the knowledge transfer):
  Specific Support Actions: Knowledge Transfer to the University of Augsburg to Support Gender Budgeting as an Instrument to Promote Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (WP 13) (as PDF, 230 kb)
• Report Austria:
  Specific Support Actions: Knowledge Transfer to the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration to Support Gender Budgeting as an Instrument to Promote Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (WP 13) (as PDF, 190 kb)
• Report Poland:
  Specific Support Actions: Knowledge Transfer to the University of Gdansk to Support Gender Budgeting as an Instrument to Promote Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (WP 13) (as PDF, 230 kb)

A main focus of the SSA was on the „Development of Instruments“ for the implementation of Gender Budgeting. In the evaluation these are described in a condensed form. The SSA was especially interesting because all three nations had very different starting positions for the subsequent Support Actions and Knowledge Transfer to the universities in order to support the advancement of gender equality in science with the help of Gender Budgeting. Accordingly the possibilities for and the assessment to the support actions were very different. Nevertheless it can be stated that all three nations had similar experiences. One fundamental one was that there still is a striking lack of gender competence in the management of the universities. And it can be assumed that this is true not only for the three universities cooperating within this project.

• Further information can be found in the:
  Evaluation of the Development of Instruments and the subsequent Specific Support Actions in Austria, Poland and Germany (as PDF, 109 kb)