Organizational Development by Fostering Young Academic Talents With Gender Mainstreaming in Germany

• In Event: Women Leading Education Across the Continents: Overcoming the Barriers

Abstract

Purpose
Women in leadership positions in Europe’s universities are still a rarity, although they already comprise the majority of students and graduates. For more than a decade gender mainstreaming has been a main issue of policy on the level of the European Union and on the national level in Germany. The key to success in a large bureaucracy such as a university is an effective implementation strategy with measures that foster a successful sustainable organizational change.

Perspective
The study uses three theories regarding the evolution of gender mainstreaming and its relationship to organizational development: the attitudes of women and men with respect to power success and income toward occupying leading positions in science; the construction of gender in organizations and the link between career and gender-specific occupation and gender-constructed job sharing; and modification of organizational development focuses that are gender-sensitive (Macha & Handschuh-Heis, 2007).

Methods
This quantitative investigation and cooperative project used a survey to examine measurements and strategies of gender mainstreaming used in eight German universities from different federal states. The survey looked at political practice to establish measures for equity of women and men; development of high potential by fostering young academic talents by means of gender mainstreaming; and organizational change by means of gender mainstreaming.

Findings
Successful measures, projects, instruments, and strategies that participants identified in the field of Gender Mainstreaming will be presented as well as conditions that favor the implementation.

Results
The results suggest how the fostering of young academic talents could be continually improved over time and how the development of high potential could be generated by means of gender mainstreaming at the university level.

Significance
Implementation of gender mainstreaming creates opportunities and resources at the university level and the development of high potential by fostering young academic talents. It provides guidance for leaders in universities to optimize strategies to achieve gender equality in leadership positions.

Authors

• Quirin Bauer, University of Augsburg

• Esther Sui-Chu Ho, The Chinese University of Hong Kong