Encouragement to top level managers and key actors to attend gender equality seminars and training

The main objective of this action is to increase the gender equality awareness of the members of academic management at OzU. It aims to further introduce OzU’s Gender Equality Plan and Gender Equality Unit within the wider context of the benefits of gender mainstreaming in higher education institutions, and to reinforce the involvement of academic key actors in the implementation of the GEP.

The expected impact of this action is to ensure that more emphasis is put in administrative practices and policies on gender equality and inclusion, and that these subjects are secured a place in official documents and decisions.

This action is a component of an integrated effort together with the action “Promotion of initiatives to favour a widespread gender competence at all levels of the organization with provision of training to staff, teachers and researchers” as both attempt to generate a proactive stance among all OzU staff members to ensure the sustainability of “gender equality” as an institutional policy.

On March 6, 2019, ÖzU PLOTINA Team organized a gender equality seminar for the Deans, School Directors and Vice Rectors of Özyeğin University. This three-hour-long seminar was developed and given by Prof. Yıldız Ecevit who is one of the founding members of KA.DER (Association to Support Women Candidates in Elections) and KEİG (Women’s Labor and Employment Initiative). Between 1996 and 2017, Prof. Ecevit acted as director of the MA Program in Gender and Women Studies at Middle East Technical University in Ankara and she is currently a member of the National Higher Education Council’s Unit of Women’s Studies in Academia.

Before the seminar, the PLOTINA Team made a brief presentation about the gender audit process at ÖzU and the Gender Equality Plan created as a result of the audit. Prof. Ecevit’s seminar was composed of four parts: 1) International Efforts to Achieve Gender Equality; 2) Relevant Concepts and Approaches; 3) Gender (In)Equality in Turkey; 4) Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in Academia.

Hosted by Rector Prof. Esra Gençtürk, the gender equality and mainstreaming seminar was attended by 6 Faculty Deans, 2 School Directors and 3 Vice Rectors of OzU.  In the last part of the seminar, OzU’s Academic Managers had a fruitful discussion with Prof. Ecevit about the institutionalization of gender equality in universities, in which part it became even clearer that academic decision-makers were fully committed to implementing OzU’s GEP.

The biggest challenge was to design a content that both appealed to high academic administration and addressed the most important aspects of gender equality at higher education institutions. Another hardship was finding the most suitable date for all the academic managers to schedule this seminar, and this process lasted quite longer than expected.

The profiles of the participants, whose came from diverse disciplines and might have had different expectations, were closely studied by the trainer and the PLOTINA team. PLOTINA Team was also heavily engaged in the conception and execution stages of the seminar both in determining the content and the schedule.

The governance bodies, key actors and decision-makers

Training/awareness-raising

Özyeğin Üniversitesi (OZU)
Higher education institution

Key actors, decision-makers