Digital Document (pdf, doc, ppt, txt, etc.)

ASSET 2016 included six aspects related to STEMM academics’ working life: perceptions of gender equality; recruitment; job and career; caring responsibilities, leave and career breaks; training and leadership; promotion and development. ASSET 2016 includes a novel discussion of how gender differences in these aspects of working life intersect with other protected characteristics, including ethnicity/race, sexual orientation, disability and age.

The final weighted sample size was 4869 respondents (2495 men, 2374 women) of which 639 identified as black or minority ethnic (BME), 305 self-identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), and
862 reported having disclosed as disabled.  

• Assign mentors or develop mentoring programmes for all staff that can help academics in early career posts to increase their visibility and progress their career development. Ensure all staff have access to such programmes and opportunities to be a mentor or mentee as appropriate.

• Ensure academic contracts can accommodate the flexible working policies that will support staff through changing circumstances
  to deliver personal and institutional academic objectives. These policies could include limitations on working into the evening or on weekends.

• Establish an appropriate balance in the distribution of teaching and administrative duties and set budget (time and money) for training programmes. Female academics in the current sample frequently cited lack of available time and money as a reason for not attending training.

• Promote development of supportive and career progressing networks, and ensure all staff have opportunities to engage with senior departmental staff and important departmental committees, which may in turn enable access informal circles and involvement in the social life of the department.

• Put in place options to help staff return to work after leave for caring responsibilities. Improving the transition back to work from parental leave could help mitigate the negative impact of caring responsibilities on female academics’ career progression revealed in this report. Women’s disproportionate caring responsibilities were a common finding in a number of the gender differences identified in this report. Out of the 11 options meant to help academics return from parental leave, nine were not available to the majority of respondents, regardless of gender, despite some being relatively simple to offer (ie allowing academic staff returning from parental leave to have a lower teaching or administrative load initially, or to begin part-time and work toward being full-time).
• Explore options to offer analogous leave to staff caring for another adult as is offered to staff caring for children. Respondents’ commentary in the current report identified the need for flexibility in working hours and workload options available to parents to be similarly available to carers.
• Acknowledge the need to work long hours and the issues for career progression that arise from this culture, as this was highlighted as a limiting factor by respondents throughout the ASSET 2016 survey. Implement work allocation models championed by Athena SWAN and the Race Equality Charter to manage scheduling of meetings and duties and ensure that this is compatible with external responsibilities.
• Investigate whether the perceived gender imbalance in the allocation of teaching responsibilities uncovered in this report exists in individual institutions and whether allocations are optimal for staff delivery and development overall. This may be an important aspect for departments and institutions to monitor as the teaching excellence framework and increasing student fees are changing the demands and evaluation of teaching.
• Make certain that promotion criteria include a specific focus on the quality of an applicant’s work as well as their performance in other academic areas (eg teaching, pastoral and administrative duties). Additional actions to promote balance in promotion and development include monitoring the association between workload and promotion in departments; providing staff with workshops on the promotion process; and using case studies of individuals who have been successfully promoted while working part-time as potential role models. 
• Evaluate performance in line management and guard against variability in the amount and type of support provided to academic staff by:
  • Ensuring that line management duties are evenly distributed (eg that the head of department is not line managing all of the department’s academic staff).
  • Supporting the development of staff’s line management skills and integrating training on both practical tasks, such as how to conduct appraisals and allocate work, with formal training on inclusive management practices (eg unconscious bias and equality and diversity training designed to increase line managers’ sensitivity towards issues such as those surrounding disability and caring responsibilities). 
  • Motivating line managers to prioritise these duties by increasing the accountability of line managers and adding incentives or rewards for being a good line manager. 

Mediation is identified by Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations as a means for the peaceful settlement of disputes. It is a process whereby a third party assists two or more parties, with their consent, to prevent, manage or resolve a conflict by helping them to develop mutually acceptable agreements. Mediation, which has proven to be an effective instrument in both inter-state and intra-state conflict, is a voluntary endeavour that varies in scope, sometimes tackling a specific issue in order to contain or manage a conflict and sometimes tackling a broad range of issues within a comprehensive peace process. Such processes offer a critical opportunity for states and societies to reshape their political, security and socio-economic landscapes in order to lay the foundation for a sustainable peace.

Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 on Women and Peace and Security, adopted in 2000, was the first resolution to link women to peace and security, acknowledging that armed conflicts impact women and girls differently from men and boys. The 1325 agenda, driven by grassroots organizations and by women living in war and working for peace, recognizes the role and contributions of women in wartime and to peacemaking, as well as their fundamental right to be included in peace processes. The participation of women-led civil society groups and the need to address the different needs of women and men in relief, recovery, and post-conflict efforts were key motivating factors for the advocates behind the resolution.

In the following 15 years, seven further resolutions of the UN Security Council and three resolutions of the General Assembly have called for greater and more effective participation of women in conflict mediation processes; for the inclusion of dedicated gender expertise in all peacemaking efforts; for the specific needs and concerns of women and girls to be addressed; and for the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence. Even so, the participation of women in mediation processes and the gender sensitivity of peace agreements have increased only gradually, demonstrating a need for greater efforts to bridge the gap between aspirational global and regional commitments and the lived experience of women in conflict and peace processes. 

The UN Guidance for Effective Mediation (2012) defines “inclusivity” as the extent and manner in which the views and needs of conflict parties and other stakeholders are represented and integrated into the process and outcome of a mediation effort. Inclusive mediation rests on the assumption that building sustainable peace requires integrating diverse societal perspectives, those of conflicting parties and other stakeholders, into the peace process. Inclusive processes will provide multiple entry points and diverse mechanisms for participation. Broader constituencies increase the potential to identify and address the root causes of conflict and to ensure that the needs of those affected by the conflict are addressed. An inclusive process, however, does not imply that all stakeholders can participate directly in formal negotiations; it will rather facilitate a structured interaction between the conflict parties and other stakeholders to include multiple perspectives in the mediation process.

The call for inclusion in mediation processes is not limited to women, but applies to social, demographic, religious and regional minority identities as well as to youth and to organized civil society and professional organizations. In response to increasing demand for targeted expertise in this area from mediation actors and the international community more broadly, the focus of this UN DPA Guidance on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies, however, is the gender dimension of inclusivity.

With this focus, the Guidance seeks to enhance gender-sensitive mediation capacity at international, regional and national levels and to create more consultative mediation processes through the promotion of both the effective participation of women and gender sensitivity in the design and substance of peace agreements. It gives an overview of the relevant normative frameworks and modalities by which women participate in mediation processes as part of mediation teams, conflict party delegations and civil society organizations (CSOs). It also offers practical strategies and tools for mediators and their teams working to prepare and design gender-sensitive mediation strategies, as well as recommendations on gender-sensitive provisions within peace agreements.

The Guidance aims to be of utility to UN envoys, senior mediators and their teams engaged in or contemplating formal peace processes; UN partners in mediation efforts, including representatives of regional organizations, Member States and civil society organizations; as well as, critically, conflict parties. It recognizes that mediation is a complex endeavour, whose outcomes will be 

determined by many different factors, including the regional and international environment; that not all conflicts are amenable to mediation; and that while mediators may have significant room to make procedural proposals, the scope for substantive recommendations varies and can change over time.iii

Gender, Inclusive Mediation and Sustainable Peace

Gender refers to the social attributes, challenges and opportunities as well as relationships associated with being male and female. These are constructed and learned through socialization; they are context- and time-specific and changeable. Gender affects power relations in society and determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman and a man in a given context. A culturally informed approach is of particular importance when promoting the effective participation of women in a peace process, as gender relations are perceived differently in different cultures.

Women and girls play varied roles during violent conflict. Women may be combatants or provide services to combatants, or they may be peacebuilders working to resolve conflicts in their communities. When men are absent, injured or killed, women take over as breadwinners, decision-makers and often become more active in public life. Women leaders can also be effective peacemakers at the community level. Yet, women and girls tend to be identified first and foremost as victims of violence, as they constitute the majority of the world’s internally displaced and refugees, and are at risk of grave physical harm, including conflict-related sexual violence. A rights- based attention to their needs is of paramount importance, but should not overshadow the active roles women play in conflict situations.

Conflict dynamics tend to change gender relations, both positively and negatively. In wartime, women may acquire different social and political roles, gaining access to opportunity, leadership and decision-making within their communities when men are away, engaged in or escaping from the armed conflict. This can enhance their ability to mobilize constituencies and advocate with combatants for an end to the violence. Recognition also needs to be given to the role and participation of young women. Young women are frequently part of movements demanding change, but tend to be excluded from peace and transition processes, which, if they include women at all, will commonly engage older and better-connected woman leaders. 

This Guidance builds on the premise that mediation strategies that systematically include women, and civil society more broadly, are more likely to generate broad national ownership and support for a negotiated settlement and to lead to a more sustainable peace. Drawing on the body of research and practice developed in the framework of SCR 1325, it holds that:

• Women’s participation can expand the range of domestic constituencies engaged in a peace process, strengthening its legitimacy and credibility.

• Women’s perspectives bring a different understanding of the causes and consequences of conflict, generating more comprehensive and potentially targeted proposals for its resolution.

• Peace agreements that are responsive to the specific needs of women and girls, men and boys, contribute to sustainable peace. 

Gender mainstreaming has become the dominant development discourse for achieving gender equity in developing regions. It is the most recent in a series of strategies that have had varying success in delivering the feminist goals of women’s emancipation and gender equity in developing regions such as Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Gender mainstreaming is arguably a depoliticised and toned-down version of its predecessors, which attempts to avoid direct feminist confrontations while ultimately aiming not to exclude or threaten stakeholders in the development process. Experience indicates that as a result, gender mainstreaming is in danger of becoming yet another ineffective tool to promote gender equity. 

Our research indicates that the status of women can only be advanced through gender mainstreaming strategies that are adapted to each specific culture and place, addressing the concerns and aspirations of locally active agents of change. This will entail a shift from currently dominant institutional strategies (which target inputs, structural change 

and policy implementation) to be balanced with complementary operational strategies (which consist of output-orientated guidelines, training, research and projects). As Bronwen Douglas has argued in relation to Melanesia, we need to appeal to the local level, because the gap between state and civil society is growing and local communities away from state centres are less engaged in state affairs. The solution she offers is to invite international experts to listen to what local people are saying and respond to their needs, rather than to preach ‘developed discourse’.

In order to effectively mainstream gender in a local context, a two-pronged approach is necessary, implementing operational strategies while applying institutional strategies to reflect and support practical change. Thus, as concerned global feminists, we need to rethink our approach and work with new, locally coined terminology. We need to be able to repackage gender so that it can be utilised more effectively. We need more local- context specific strategic terms, which necessitate the elimination of universal terms that privilege the voices and power of Western consultants.

In practical terms, this means that women and men at the forefront of mainstreaming gender (focal points, consultants, experts, trainers) would be required to:

• spend time in location listening to the people who are the focus and key stakeholders of the mainstreaming activity; and

• work with local communities to adapt training materials, strategies, policies, etc to that particular context before they are presented, implemented and/or ratified.

  Initial groundwork on gender relations could work to adapt and customise generalised information and training tools on gender mainstreaming, which are freely available through development agencies and the web. In this way, gender mainstreaming can then occur effectively, at a pace and in a way that is locally appropriate, rather then just being another workshop, training exercise or policy formulation meeting that forms part of an international obligation.

  We are advocating a new approach that first acknowledges and maps changes and challenges in relation to women and gender issues in the local context. Taking this as a point of departure, generic training materials can be adapted and examples from other contexts can be used to stimulate discussion and a future agenda. 

Social attributes such as gender, wealth, age, ethnicity, migration status and religion can confer systematic disadvantages by making it difficult for some groups and individuals to access public and private mechanisms of resource allocation or decision making. In this strategy, we set out possibilities for strengthening how we address gender concerns in the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (CRP6). The strategy focuses on the management support processes and structures needed to improve the quality and volume of gender-responsive research in the CRP6, and is closely aligned with the CGIAR Consortium’s gender strategy. It synthesises gender-relevant research questions, outcomes and associated impact pathways that have been identified across CRP6’s five research components. It recognises, however, that gender-based disadvantages may not always be the most urgent in all settings and that substantial differentiation can exist among men and women and not only between them. Thus, while this strategy is clearly marked out as a gender strategy, our agenda is broader. We envision that a careful use of participatory methodologies, including in problem framing, provides good scope for locating the most salient features of disadvantage in each research setting and for ensuring their inclusion in the research and action process. Overall, this strategy views gender integration in research as a fundamental part of doing good science and approaches gender integration as a cross-cutting theme, which integrates gender analysis and research into each of the five components/research programmes of the CRP6.