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- Husu, Liisa, 1953-
(author)
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What does not happen : interrogating a tool for building a gender-sensitive university
- 2020
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In: The Gender-Sensitive University. - London : Routledge. - 9780367431174 - 9781003001348 ; , s. 166-176
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Work towards a more gender-sensitive university frequently focuses on such issues as institutional structures, recruitment and evaluation systems, career paths, curricula, gender balance in decision-making, as well as anti-discrimination policies (Fogelberg et al. 1999). Academic careers continue to be persistently gendered in Europe and beyond, and especially in the professoriate strong male domination prevails. This is so despite a significant increase of women at the starting phase for academic careers, and active gender equality policies adopted in academia in many parts of the world. This chapter suggests that a fruitful approach and tool towards building a more gender-sensitive university could be interrogating and focusing more systematically on what does not happen in academic careers and the academic work environment more generally. Previous research has demonstrated how gender discrimination and sexism have not vanished from academic settings when gender discrimination has been legally sanctioned, but rather how they are taking increasingly subtler and more covert forms. This kind of sexism is constituted not only on what tangibly happens to people (as highlighted by #MeToo), but also on what does not happen to them. What happens can be that actually nothing happens in a certain career phase, or what is supposed to happen does not happen. I call these kind of processes non-events. Non-events include silences, exclusions, ignoring, bypassing, lack of support, lack of validation, invisibility, lack of credit, not being listened to, and not being invited along. Those involved in such non-events may have only liminal consciousness on their existence, or perceive them only in hindsight when looking back at their career. They are challenging to observe and respond to if you are at the receiving end. As single events these kind of non-events may appear insignificant and not worthy of attention, but it is the accumulation of them in the work environment and along the career path that is of interest in terms of gender-sensitive university. Examples of non-events are discussed on the basis of empirical interview and observation data from Nordic universities. Furthermore, how the concept of non-events could be used in gender-sensitive management and career training, research leader training and more generally in awareness-raising activities of universities will be addressed.
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