How to evaluate gender structural change at universities? Learnings from a collaborative and feminist practice

Abstract

In recent years, universities have carried out various initiatives to promote gender equality. However, as with gender policies in general, these are controversial and often face diverse types of difficulties in their implementation that slow down the achievement of their goals. Evaluation, in this context, becomes a fundamental process for learning and improvement in this regard. This article presents the evaluative experience of the European action-research project «Transforming organisational culture for gender equality in research and innovation» (GENOVATE), based on the combination of collaborative and feminist approaches. Specifically, based on the evaluation model developed in the project, it explores how to evaluate structural gender
change in universities and what potential this combination of approaches brings in comparison to the classic approaches in evaluation.