Department heads enacting gender balance policies: navigating voices of ambiguity and concern

Abstract

Local leaders in academia have been perceived as resisting the role as change agents for gender balance. Employing a concept of voices inspired by Bakhtin, we found that department heads has to negotiate ambiguous and blurred voices from the leadership as well as critical and concerned voices from employees which lead them to thread carefully when enacting gender balance policies. Thus, there is considerable space for leadership to facilitate department heads work with gender balance by allowing them more space for agency and provide support to give them more authority and legitimacy as change agents. This would also help department heads in their attempts of destabilizing a one-dimensional and simplistic view of meritocracy and their enactments of more radical interpretations of gender balance policies.

What do the narratives tell us? Exploring the implementation of the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter

“…Ambiguity refers to a subjective experience of being open to more than one interpretation of an event, often felt as contradictory feelings toward an experience. This theme was dominated by ambiguity throughout, much in the way described by other researchers describing this phenomenon (Lagesen and Suboticki, 2021). When reflecting on the main events illustrative of their involvement in the Athena SWAN Ireland process (preparing for the application submission or preparing for implementing the action plan after receiving the award), participants engaged with this ambiguous theme qualified their statements throughout, with constant use of words such as "but, " "however, " and "yes, but" when describing their experiences.…”

Género y Política en la Universidad Globalizada: Hacia una Reacción Colectiva

“…Como se sabe, las becas por su naturaleza cubren un pequeño número de la matrícula. Y si bien la universidad sigue siendo es una institución dominada por hombres, con distribuciones de tareas cruciales diferenciadas por género y donde las estructuras y las prácticas masculinas son raramente desafiadas (Silander, 2023;Yarrow y Johnston, 2022;Lagesen y Suboticki, 2021;Burkinshaw y White, 2017;Acker, 2006Acker, , 1990Morley, 2005), también es cierto que la universidad se caracteriza por una cultura meritocrática que privilegia la excelencia y la calidad científica (Peterson y Jordansson, 2021;Bok, 2020); en otras palabras, conviven significativas tensiones.…”