¿Nadando contra corriente? Resistencias a la promoción de la conciliación en las universidades españolas

Abstract

La desigualdad entre mujeres y hombres sigue siendo un fenómeno persistente en el mundo académico, a pesar de la adopción de una variedad de medidas sensibles al género. Este artículo contribuye a abrir la caja negra de las instituciones universitarias y construye un marco analítico que ayuda a comprender la falta de efectividad de las políticas que abordan la conciliación de la vida laboral y personal. Basándose en varias líneas de trabajo desarrolladas por la literatura feminista, muestra hasta qué punto las resistencias ejercidas por una variedad de actores juegan un papel significativo en obstaculizar la implementación de estas actuaciones. Además, identifica aquellas normas no escritas que colisionan con las medidas de igualdad y sustentan esta oposición al cambio institucional. El estudio de caso de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela proporciona el material empírico para arrojar luz sobre la centralidad de ambos elementos mediante el uso de una variedad de técnicas cualitativas.

Transforming academic research? Resistances to gender mainstreaming implementation in universities

“…The analysis finds resistance to structural and cultural change initiatives, such as positive actions to ensure gender-balance in leadership and work–life balance initiatives, based on norms of meritocracy and care as women’s individual problem, in line with other studies (e.g. Alonso and Diz, 2022; Hodgins and O’Connor, 2021). Interestingly, targeted actions to promote women’s participation at early or later stages of their research careers, despite not demanding significant institutional change and in line with an integrationist approach, also face explicit resistance from research managers in our cases who view these actions as discriminatory to men.…”

“…Male informal networks and opaque recruitment processes facilitate men’s advancement, while biases blight supposedly objective evaluations of merit (Nielson, 2021; O’Connor and Barnard, 2021). Gender-blind policies and practices also disregard women’s socialization, biology, and the sexual division of labour, contributing to family un-friendly work-arrangements that hinder women’s advancement (Alonso and Diz, 2022). Masculine research orientations are positioned as the gender-neutral standard, disguising biases as to what constitutes ‘excellent’ science (Hodgins and O’Connor, 2021; Van den Brink, 2015).…”

“…What form does resistance take towards different initiatives that aim to achieve distinct gender equality in research objectives? While analyses of resistance towards GE policy implementation in Spanish universities are numerous (Alonso and Diz, 2022; Castaño Collado and Vázquez-Cupeiro, 2023; Lombardo and Bustelo, 2021; Verge et al, 2018), the analysis of resistance towards efforts to mainstream gender into research remains neglected. Furthermore, studies tend to centre on resistance as experienced and told by gender equality actors.…”