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On 18 May 2021, the University Senate of our project partner University of Rijeka (UNIRI) in Croatia adopted its Gender Equality Plan (GEP) for the period 2021-2025.

The UNIRI GEP adheres to key national, institutional as well as European and global strategies, tracking policies and criteria regarding gender equality, including the prevention of sexual harrasment and any form of  gender based violence.

The Gender Equality Plan is a set of actions, which can have different degrees of complexity, meant to articulate a strategic view aimed at achieving gender equality. The European Commission’s strategy on gender equality in research and innovation policy aims at fostering equality in scientific careers, ensuring gender balance in decision-making processes and bodies and integrating the gender dimension in research and innovation content. In the context of research organizations and higher education institutions, the European Commission considers a Gender Equality Plan as a set of actions aiming at:

• Conducting impact assessment / audits of procedures and practices to identify gender bias
• Identifying and implementing innovative strategies to correct any bias
• Setting targets and monitoring progress via indicators.

By monitoring 20 different goals and indicators, UNIRI GEP will tackle four strategic areas to identify and implement policies and actions to correct gender biases and promote gender equality within its own institution. Each strategic area addressed by the GEP identifies specific goals and steps to achieve the expected results, while also recognizing the actors and bodies responsible for their implementation.

I. Institutional culture of gender equality: the University Gender Equality Committee that is in the process of being established and the Laboratory for Gender Equality, along with other supporting structures at the UNIRI, will be responsible for the implementation of the GEP, with the overall objective of enhansing gender equality in decision-making processes.

II. Gender equality in scientific and artistic research: UNIRI will introduce various measures in order to empower gender equality in career development and promote gender balance in all research areas, such as ensuring adequate support to female scientists who are parents and caretakers, promoting successful career paths, ensuring well-balanced gender representation in STEM and social sciences and humanities, etc.

III. Gender equality in teaching and training: UNIRI will produce guidelines and offer workshops on how to integrate gender perspective into early childhood education, university study programs and teaching methods, as well as educational awareness-raising programs for the academic community and broad public as well.

IV. Harmony of personal life and professional obligations: the University establishes itself as a safe space against all kinds of sexual harassment and discrimination, while new focus will be also given to the improvement of the quality of life and work.

To further strengthen UNIRI efforts to achieve gender equality within its own institution, the UNIRI Rector, Snježana Prijić-Samaržija, introduced an accompanying Action Plan for the year 2021 during the June session of the University Senate.

The University of Rijeka has developed its GEP within the framework of the SPEAR project, and with the support of its Community of Learning (CoL) and Community of Practice (CoP) which enabled UNIRI to participate in joint discussions, debates and other forms of learning activities with their SPEAR partners and gave them an opportunity for peer reflection, all of which contributed to a sucessfull journey towards the final version of UNIRI GEP.

„No other university in Croatia has addressed gender equality issue in such a detail and the University of Rijeka is the first university in Croatia to adopt a plan of this type. In this sense UNIRI is an example of good practice and can be a model for other universities.”

(Croatian Ombudsperson Višnja Ljubičić on the occasion of UNIRI GEP adoption in June 2021)

More information on the UNIRI Gender Equality Plan can be found here in Croatian and English 

For further information you can contact:

Name: Name Daria Glavan Šćulac

Our partner project, the Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv (PU) in Bulgaria, adopted its Plan for Equality between Women and Men for the period 2021-2024 with a decision from its Academic Council on June 7, 2021, then signed by the University Rector, Professor Rumen Mladenov, on July 1.

The PU Gender Equality Plan (GEP) aims to establish a framework for promoting gender equality in education, research, employment, and social relations among the university community. This Plan aligns with the University's integral institutional policy and commitment to provide equal learning opportunities and job conditions and avoid discrimination within the institution. It also addresses Goal 5, "Achieve gender equality and empower all woman and girls" of the 17^th UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the priorities set out by the European Commission in its Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 and the new European Research Area (ERA), which aims to strengthen the focus on the participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and foster entrepreneurship.

University of Plovdiv’s GEP focuses on three key ERA’s objectives: a) removing barriers for women’s career progression; b) addressing gender imbalance in decision-making processes; and c) strengthening the gender dimension in research. Within this frame of reference, the Plan’s primary goal is to set the basis for promoting, boosting, providing, ensuring, and preserving equal access for university students and employees to all activities and opportunities related to education and research regardless of their gender.

More specifically, the three main objectives of the PU GEP are:

1. Integrating gender equality considerations into official university policies and practices that reflect the needs and interests of both men and women while also providing an effective mechanism for monitoring and reporting specific mainstreaming outcomes.

To achieve this goal, PU reaffirms its commitment to designing and implementing institutional changes and sustainable support towards gender equality.

2. Raising awareness on gender equality issues and promoting the appropriate capacity and collective culture with zero tolerance to gender-based harassment and violence.

To this end, the University will strengthen its gender capacity and encourage a more gender-sensitive culture among its students and faculty members.

3. Introducing gender dimension in university educational or research activities and in management of work-life balance and of supportive work or study environment.

Academic staff and students often do not take advantage of the privileges and rights provided by PU to reconcile work/study and private life. The University will therefore develop new strategies to popularize these measures, promote further flexibility in managing time and work-life balance and increase academics and students satisfaction.

The University of Plovdiv has developed its GEP within the framework of the SPEAR project, and with the support of its Community of Learning (CoL) and Community of Practice (CoP) which enabled PU to participate in joint discussions, debates and other forms of learning activities with their SPEAR partners and gave them an opportunity for peer reflection, all of which contributed to a sucessfull journey towards the final version of PU GEP.

As we celebrate this important milestone for the SPEAR Project, we also note that this Gender Equality Plan is the first attempt at explicit institutionalization of gender equality not only for the University of Plovdiv itself but for all scientific and academic institutions in Bulgaria.

You can read the Gender Equality Plan here (under the Gender Equality Plans tab).

For further information about the GEP, you can contact:

Professor Rositsa Doneva

rosi@uni-plovdiv.bg

Despite being a much-talked topic over the years (mainly since the second half of the 20th century), Gender Equality (GE) and Equal Rights have gained even more visibility in the last 5 years.

The social movements that gained momentum over the last few years highlighted some gender issues perpetuated for decades in our societies. That often calls into question some basic rights regarding equal treatment between women and men. In any case, when the opportunity presents itself, women assert themselves and stand out in multiple areas. Nevertheless, in order for them to be not the exception – but the rule, it is necessary to create the necessary conditions to evolve, develop prevention mechanisms and involve the community in a combined action.

The complexity of gender issues is so broad that tackling one challenge at a time makes it an almost herculean task. The microenvironment of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is very peculiar, as it requires a targeted approach towards academic and research issues, without missing the administrative issues and students. The message must be comprehensive enough to ensure that it reaches all members of the community and that it covers most of the challenges posed by them, without losing the capacity to give a tailored response.

New opportunities are in our sight with the new Horizon Europe (HEU) framework launched in early 2021. As far as GE is concerned, the last framework – Horizon 2020 – brought the gender topic to the Research & Innovation limelight, while the new framework brings stability and the possibility of funding, networking and research opportunities in the area of Gender Studies. Furthermore, the new HEU framework has established new eligibility criteria to access European funds and that aim to address the gender issues in HEIs and Research Performing Organisations (RPOs).

The European Union (EU), committed to promoting GE in Academia and Research and for all Member-States has a strategy to develop more comprehensive policies. Furthermore, the EU has a well-established gender framework aiming to address challenges resulting from the pay gap and all the structural barriers that still persist in Academia and Research. In addition, the creation of the European Research Area (ERA) has allowed the European Commission (EC) to address the gender topic from a collaborative perspective between Member-States, HEI and RI.

As the Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth – Mariya Gabriel, stated, it is imperative to “step up our efforts on gender equality and support more talented women in research and innovation”. Moreover, as the EC has set policies that ensure the full integration of the gender dimension into research and innovation and that these are going to be supported by the HEU framework, it is also of utmost importance to enhance the societal relevance of research and innovation. This more inclusive, collaborative and multi-dimensional society will overcome multiple challenges by integrating the gender dimension in research. This adds value in terms of excellence, creativity and business opportunities, and gives an in-depth understanding of people’s needs, behaviours and attitudes. Furthermore, this new perspective on the gender topic aims to potentiate the development and implementation of Gender Equality Plans (GEP) in HEI and RPO. Hence, the gender topic will no longer be neglected with regard to the regulation of evaluation criteria for career progression and talent retention as a result of specific funding and development of new, more inclusive policies in the ERA.

The new HEU framework reaffirms GE as a priority, and considers it a building block in the construction of a robust ERA and EC. Intersecting with all socioeconomic sectors, and through research and innovation, the HEU framework sets GE as a fundamental principle that has persisted through unconscious bias and structural barriers. HEU framework also aims to empower women through multiple measures and initiatives, including entrepreneurship-driven activities and innovation prizes. Particular attention should be given to the gender balance among researchers involved in evaluation panels and advisory boards and research projects.

It is clear that the new gender equality strategy  2020-2025 defined by the EC actually represents a huge opportunity, not only for the HEIs and RPOs that have already started to develop a path towards more equal and inclusive entities, but also opens doors for the ones that only now will start their first steps. It is also well-known that the development and implementation of an institutional GEP will be imperative in 2022 for RPOs and public bodies to have access to European funding. Since we are still in a very early stage of this strategy, the following questions arise at this point: is the commitment towards GE by HEIs and RPOs based on the opportunity to make the change for a more balanced atmosphere, or is it just to meet the eligibility criteria imposed by the HEU framework?

The growth, and popularity, of the Internet is unprecedented. Internet World Stats (2020) reports that more than 59 percent of the world's population has access to the World Wide Web, and the Real Time Statistics Project (2020) live Internet statistics shows there are now nearly 1.8 billion websites worldwide. According to the Internet safety website, Enough is Enough (2019), around 30 percent of Internet content is pornography, and around 88 percent of that contains violence against women. Whilst such numbers might be contestable, there is no doubt that online pornography has mushroomed and online violence against women is endemic (Kyriak et al. 2018, Mihajlov and Vejmelka 2017).

Online sexual abuse and violation concern matters of sexuality and violence, through the medium of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). In this chapter, we approach this nexus through attending to the phenomenon of what has come to be called ‘revenge pornography’, which, as we shall shortly discuss, is better conceptualised in rather different terms. Indeed, one of the more recent consequences of the relationship between pornography and the development of Internet and mobile technologies has been the borderless spread of various forms of online harassment, humiliation, abuse and violation, along with invasion of privacy and loss of reputation.

In this chapter we examine online sexual abuse and violation, and specifically so-called ‘revenge porn’, in relation to its transnational production, consumption, interventions to counter it, and its very existence as a new online-offline configuration. We consider the transnational dispersions of sexualities, sexual abuse and sexual violations, and how global and transnational approaches can inform analysis, theorizing, and politics related to these phenomena. In turn, critical attention to ‘revenge porn’ as a theoretical and political problematic can assist rethinking transnational processes more broadly.