International Women’s Day 2022: Removing biases and stereotypes

Prof. Eleni Apospori, Project Coordinator

The International Women’s Day honours women who have fought and are fighting for Gender Equality. It is a reminder that achieving Gender Equality is a constant, intensive and coordinated effort for the development and implementation of policies reinforcing the equitable treatment of women and men, the substantive empowerment of women and the removal of gender biases and stereotypes.

The progress in reducing inequalities between women and men is slow and the road to achieving full Gender Equality is long. According to the 2021 Gender Equality Index of the European Institute for Gender Equality [1], between 2010 and 2021 the Gender Equality index for Europe increased only by 4.9/100 points (from 63.1/100 in 2010 to 68.0/100 in 2021). With this pace, full Gender Equality will take more than 6 decades to achieve. The domains in which inequality is more prevalent are power, especially economic power (e.g. share of women who are members of management boards), knowledge, especially in relation to gender segregation in the fields of study in tertiary education (more female tertiary students in education, health and welfare, humanities and arts as opposed to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields) and time, especially in terms of time devoted to caring for children, the elderly and/or the disabled.

Inequality in these domains is closely related to conscious and unconscious gender biases and gender stereotypes regarding the roles and capabilities of women. Whereas conscious gender bias is expressly voiced and constitutes a conscious opinion of the person expressing it, unconscious gender bias is expressed through decisions or judgments that are based on previous experience, deeply embedded ways of thinking and non-visible, implicit assumptions and interpretations regarding the roles, capabilities, behaviour and personality traits of men and women. In the latter case, a person makes decisions and expresses judgments without being aware of the effect of these factors on its decisions and/or judgments [2].

Both conscious and unconscious gender bias have substantial impact on the segregation of roles between men and women and the creation of stereotypes. The dominant stereotype sees women as caregivers and men as wage-earners and protectors of the family. Gender biases and stereotypes limit the development of women’s capabilities, their educational and professional potential, and their overall growth.

The International Women’s Day reminds us that in order to accelerate the achievement of Gender Equality it is imperative to remove gender biases and stereotypes that obstruct women from developing their capabilities and realising their full potential. All of us, women and men, can contribute to forming societies that accept diversity, inclusivity and equality. TARGETED-MPI aims to remove gender biases and stereotypes in the academic sector through the development and implementation of Gender Equality Plans in five universities in Europe and Middle East and North Africa.

[1] EIGE, 2022. Gender Equality Index 2021. Available online at: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index.

[2] EIGE, 2022. Gender Equality in Academia and Research. Available online at: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/why-change-must-be-structural.