Back to search

BALANSE-Kjønnsbalanse i toppstillinger og forskningsledelse

Gender, citizenship and academic power (GAP)

Alternative title: Kjønn, statsborgerskap og akademisk makt

Awarded: NOK 5.7 mill.

The project Gender, Citizenship and Academic Power (GAP) explores the significance of globalization and internationalization for the gender balance in research. Does international recruitment contribute to maintaining or changing the gender composition between disciplines and academic positions? And what does international recruitment of women researchers mean for their position in research, power and opportunity to influence research agendas and knowledge development? Researchers from OsloMet, Nordic Institute for Studies of Research, Education and Innovation (NIFU), Leiden University and Aarhus University have collaborated to analyze a wide range of data sources and have used various methods to shed light on changes in the gender balance in Norwegian research. This includes statistics and analyzes of register data/the researcher staff register and questionnaire surveys, funding and project data, bibliometric analyses, in-depth interviews, collection and analyzes of public documents. Norway has particularly been characterized by extensive international recruitment of researchers and doctoral students. This development has contributed to the increase in the proportion of women among research recruits and in permanent scientific positions, including at professorial level. Recruitment of more foreign researchers in general and women in particular is visible in all disciplines, but the strongest growth is to be found in the mathematical and natural sciences disciplines, technology and engineering, as well as clinical medicine, followed by the humanities, social sciences and health subjects (Pietilä et al. 2021, Vabø 2020). The project has particularly studied gender balance and recruitment patterns in climate research, as a research field of great national and international importance. Climate research has seen a marked increase in female researchers over the past twenty years, of which foreign men and women account for a significant proportion. Our surveys show that the foreign female researchers are given leading roles as professors, of research projects and research groups, and contribute to developing and renewing the research field. The development in Norwegian climate research, the multidisciplinarity and research organization that characterizes the field today, would not have been possible without extensive international recruitment, although good financial framework conditions have also been decisive. Rather than understanding gender balance as a political discussion about representation and equality, the climate scientists we interviewed emphasize how gender is important for developing good collaborative practices in interdisciplinary groups where complementary expertise is needed to develop new knowledge, such as models for simulating climate change. Here, a number of gender stereotyped notions such as that field work away from the family is only reserved for male climate scientists or that foreign men work more and better than their female colleagues are challenges. At the same time, cooperation patterns attributed to women and a gender-balanced cooperation environment, such as generosity, willingness to cooperate and modesty, are emphasized, rather than competition as the dominant way of being (Egeland and Vabø 2022). The leading climate scientists we have studied can be counted among a highly selected elite. They help shape the understanding of the ideal researcher in their field. When they emphasize collaboration and diversity in research practice, as a success criterion for making the research group work well, this will in the long run affect how research is thought about as practice, culture and career opportunity, for both women and men. On the basis of such findings, we argue that measures to improve the gender balance should take into account how internationalization interacts with forms of work in various research fields where gender equality policy tends to mean more than individual career paths. In the qualitative interviews with well-established and recognized international climate researchers and in a survey carried out among PhD fellows in climate research, we find that researchers today emphasize a sustainable work-home balance without this being in conflict with research ambitions and scientific commitment. On the contrary, our findings indicate that both today's and not least tomorrow's researchers - both women and men - see themselves both as scientists driven by curiosity and social responsibility and as citizens with economic and social needs.

Det er behov for en kunnskapsbasert politikk som tar i betraktning betydningen av globalisering og internasjonalt samarbeid for kjønnslikestilling i forskning. I løpet av prosjektperioden har vi arbeidet og publisert med henblikk på å bistå med adekvat kunnskap for videre politikkutforming. I 2023 vil vi forsøke å bidra sterkere til dette med omfattende populærvitenskapelig formidling. Samtidig skal vi fortsette internasjonal publisering i kjente tidsskrift og bokserier, noe som også vil bidra til å bevisstgjøre forskere og politikkutviklere om viktigheten av samspillet mellom kjønn, globalisering og strategier for internasjonalisering i både utforming av forskningspolitikk, politikk for kjønnslikestilling- og mangfold i forskning. I Norsk sammenheng er denne forskningsbaserte kunnskapen fra prosjektet særlig nyttig for Kunnskapsdepartementet, Forskningsrådet og komiteen for kjønnsbalanse og inkludering i forskning (KIF), men den formidles også til forskere og representanter for ledelsen ved norske universitet. Institusjoner i høyere utdanning og forskning trenger å styrke sin kompetanse hva gjelder effekter av globalisering og strategisk planleging av internasjonal rekruttering i et kjønnsperspektiv, i alt fra utvikling av forskningsprosjekt til HR/ personalledelse. Forskningen vår er ikke minst bevisstgjørende for hvilke innsatser som bør prioriteres for å skape velfungerende forskningsmiljø (for begge) kjønn og motivasjon blant unge talentfulle forskere, til å fortsette denne karrierebanen. Vi når også ut til et bredere internasjonalt publikum gjennom konferansedeltakelse, publisering i europeiske og amerikanske tidsskrift og bøker, samt populærvitenskapelig publisering. Forskningsprosjektet har bidratt til å utvikle og styrke samarbeid mellom forskere i Norden og Europa forøvrig. Prosjektet har vært utpreget tverrfaglig, med forskere som har bakgrunn fra statsvitenskap, sosiologi, filosofi. psykologi og statistikk. Prosjektet kjennetegnes ved en del nybrottsarbeid i anvendelsen av teoretiske perspektiv, data og metode for analyse av kjønn i forskning, som å kombinere registerdata med bibliometriske data og kvalitative intervju, eller i kombinasjonen av klassiske vitenskapssosiologiske perspektiver med kjønnsperspektiver på maktforhold i organisasjoner. Det teoretiske og metodologiske utviklingsarbeidet formidles i publikasjonene og vil forhåpentligvis bidra til god kvalitet i studier av kjønn og mangfold i forskning.

Gender, citizenship and academic power (GAP) is a research project that will contribute with new knowledge about the impact of globalization and internationalization policies for gender equality through empirical studies of foreign-born women and men in senior positions in the Norwegian research and higher education sector. GAP will investigate how globalization and internationalization influence the gender balance in research and higher education, and how changes in academic demography (in terms of gender and international recruitment) influence local research agendas and organizations, practices and power structures with climate researchers at four different research and higher education institutions in Norway as a case. GAP is designed in three work packages (WPs) combining qualitative and quantitative methods and analyses that will a) explore and analyze gender imbalance in Norwegian Research and higher education in the light of the complex intersections between global and national structural developments, and b) the impact of internationalization on institutional and disciplinary dynamics, work conditions and organizational, cultural and epistemic practices. A WP aiming at policy relevant capacity building on gender equality in a context of internationalization, will be developed, based on the knowledge produced in the two other WPs and through learning platforms and focus group meetings engaging stakeholders in the sector in discussions about the findings in GAP.

Funding scheme:

BALANSE-Kjønnsbalanse i toppstillinger og forskningsledelse

Funding Sources