SPRU collaborative workshop influences GenderInSITE policy strategy
Insights from a collaborative workshop between SPRU and GenderInSITE - an international campaign to promote the role of women in science, innovation, technology and engineering (SITE) - have contributed to the latter's policy strategy for 2015-16.
The workshop was held on the Sussex campus in March 2015, in two parts.
The aim of the first part - a full-day workshop on 23 March titled 'Exploring the Knowledge and Innovation Policy Interface and its Gender' - was for participants to learn from insights and experiences of the knowledge/policy-making interface in SITE, with the intention of exploring how these relate to gender-equitable sustainable development.
This was followed by a half-day on the afternoon of 24 March, 'International Approaches to Support Gender Equality in Research Careers', which provided an opportunity for broader engagement with Sussex researchers and the University's Athena SWAN Committee.
SPRU academics including Dr Ralitsa Hiteva, Dr Adrian Ely, Professor Gordon MacKerron and director Professor Johan Schot worked with contributors from GenderInSITE and colleagues from across the University, as well as external experts and policy makers, to exchange experiences, concerns and ideas relating to issues of gender equality in career progression.
A GenderInSITE article published on 17 June reports that the strategy impacted by the workshop "will provide a framework for GenderInSITE’s approach to making SITE and SITE-for-development policymakers aware of the gender dimensions of these issues".
The blog also comments that the workshop itself "was felt by both GenderInSITE and SPRU participants to be extremely effective in illuminating the intersections between science policy and gender" and that those involved "expressed a strong commitment to continuing to work together to mainstream gender in SITE".