Theme: Since 2012, our team has been involved in a teaching and learning research project focusing on issues of gender and inclusion within higher education. This work has been undertaken in an Australian city university in disciplines which are considered relatively gender-balanced - Business, and Arts and Social Sciences. While there is no apparent difference in academic performance between males and females in these disciplines, Australian research shows that the gender pay gap begins at the point of graduate employment – on average women are paid less - and there is an excruciatingly slow move towards gender equality in management (WGEA 2013). In the 2012 Australian Census of Women in Leadership (2012), only 12 of the top 500 publicly listed companies reported having female CEOs. There is also evidence that women tend to reach certain management positions within organisations – but these positions tend to offer no pathway to the most senior levels of management. These positions have been collectively termed ‘the marzipan layer’ (The Economist, 2011). Our concern is that while there is a developing consensus that there are structural issues which affect women in the Australian workplace, these should not exist within the equity conscious environment of the university. Yet we were aware of a number of instances of subtle discriminatory practices, practices which, while not overtly discriminatory, resulted in discriminatory outcomes. As previous work had suggested that these behaviours were occurring outside of conscious recognition of staff and students, and were in fact what is generally considered normal practice, an ethnographic research approach was used. Our research included ethnographic observation of classroom activities, social mapping of mixed gender student groups in public learning spaces, and fabulations and focus groups with student participants. This approach aligns with gender equity research which was undertaken around the same time at Harvard Business School (Kantor, 2013). As a result of this work we have developed a number of principles of curriculum and pedagogical design, some of which are intended for implementation by the teacher, while others, including the principle of transparency, are introduced to enable students to develop a mindfulness towards the discriminatory and sometimes self-sabotaging behaviours they may engage in through their groupwork, and in their independent work outside the classroom. References Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) (2012) Australian Census of Women in Leadership. www.eowa.gov.au. Kantor, J. (2013) Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender-equity.html The Economist (2011). Special Report on Women and Work: Closing the Gap. http://www.economist.com/node/21539928

1. From anecdotal to
research evidence
!
As the first step in a challenging change project, we
undertook systematic research to demonstrate what
gender discrimination looked like in our institutional
context:
★ Research in gender-balanced disciplines – Business,
Arts and Social Sciences
★ No gender difference in academic performance but
gender pay gap of 17% on graduation (WGEA 2013)
★ Only 12 Female CEOS in top 500 Australian public
companies
★ Women reach management positions which offer no
pathway to senior management – ‘The marzipan
layer’ (The Economist 2011)
Replication of business
practice in the academy?
★ Structural barriers in business, but these should not
exist within the equity conscious university
★ Anecdotal and other evidence suggested that
discriminatory behaviour occurs outside of conscious
recognition of staff and students
★ Subtle practices, while not overtly discriminatory result
in discriminatory outcomes
★ Harvard Business School Gender Equity Case Study
showed similar evidence of unconscious gendered
behaviour (Kantor 2013)
References
Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) (2012) Australian Census of
Women in Leadership. www.eowa.gov.au.
Kantor, J. (2013) Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity.http://
www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender- equity.html
The Economist (2011). Special Report on Women and Work: Closing the Gap. http://
www.economist.com/node/21539928
Contact: katrina.Waite@uts.edu.au
University of Technology Sydney Australia.
Follow us on Twitter @CreateNDiverse
Observations
Illumination
Through exploration
Social Mapping
Fabulation
(D.I.Y Groupwork)
Presentation
Exposing unconscious behaviours
!
Using our Values Centred Ethnographic Design we:
★ Witnessed the behaviours of business students in their classroom setting
★ Undertook further illumination of our observations through focus groups
★ Witnessed students working in groups in public learning spaces
★ Ran a structured fabulation process with senior students to determine what they
considered an ideal type of assessment to develop their capabilities beyond engagement
with content
★ Presented findings back to participating students in a way which was related to the
theoretical content of a course topic - feminist economics
★ Developed and tested alternative approaches with academics
!
What did we witness?
★ Reluctance of men and women to approach each other and work together
★ Men assuming dominant roles in groups and directing women to scribe, “do the
powerpoint”
★ Gendered curriculum - content of more interest to men than women - automotive parts
in accounting
★ Non-inclusive group behaviour - a dominant, usually male, leader assuming authority
with the first utterance
★ Lack of engagement of majority of students in class discussion
★ Evidence produced from the project - photos, audio files, transcripts, and our analysis
was critical in opening dialogue for change with academics - and students
★ Strong embrace of our principles by academics and students when shown the
evidence of their unconscious gendered behaviour
Moving forward -
6 Principles for
!
Change...
These principles are the starting point for
conversations with academics in a continuing
process of change:
1. Transparency - fostering gender-mindedness
amongst academic staff, and if they forget, fostering
mindedness amongst the students as they have
most to gain through “minded reminding”
2. Curriculum - Questioning gendered content,
topics, cases - Who are protagonists?
3. Classroom management for inclusion -
disrupting common exclusionary classroom
practices
4. Groupwork - inclusive processes to gain
advantage from diversity and to develop more
creative solutions
5. Assessment - Adding a personal dimension
aimed at developing weaknesses rather than
repeatedly practising strengths
6. The embodied learner - As all learning is
embodied, reflecting on the personal and individual
as a learner / case analyser / and their alternative
perspectives
!
…And 2 Heuristics
1. Disrupting BIG, loud and first - the naturalised
practices of higher education
2. Pause to think, link and tinker - building in time
to allow for thoughtful rather than first contributions,
and allowing everyone the opportunity to
contribute.
The
Mindful
graduate
*
*
**
**
Our Mission
We aim to inspire a
conversation that
places gender visibly
on the higher
education agenda, in
all disciplines.
Ideation and visual explainer by Andrew Francois – Twitter @DocSketchy