EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 3 ! Career management 149
to the reports of the meetings was overruled. In the Netherlands however, a similar research
was done 171 .
In collaboration with the Vice-Chancellor Diversity and the Personnel Director ZAP, it was
agreed to perform a quantitative in-depth analysis of the figures of the promotion within
the ZAP. Research identified two potential reasons why the female ZAP might promote
less in comparison with their male colleagues:
1. Participation in decision-making organs and evaluation commissions: a
count of the number of male and female members in the decision-making organs at
the university teaches us that 78% of the members are male and 22% are female.
Only two out of fourteen evaluation commissions had a female member. It remains a
question and pitfall why evaluation commissions are not composed with more attention
to diversity. It was decided upon, as a monitor, to publish these figures on the
website of the Diversity Policy Office 172 and to yearly update them.
2. Potential candidates versus candidatures:
a. ... to get appointed in the ZAP: the project gave the opportunity to update the figures
in the ‘Vooronderzoek’ (2000) 173 in which not only the male-female proportion
of the candidates for promotion, but also the potential candidates were analysed
(ie. the number of candidates that, based on a certain statute, could apply for
an appointment as an Assistant Professor). The results showed that proportionally
women and men have the same chance of getting appointed, but there are less
female candidates that actually apply compared to the number that could have
applied. This could mean that fewer women within the university are encouraged
to apply for an appointment compared to men.
b. ... to get promoted within the ZAP: similarly, the candidates for promotion within
the ZAP were compared to the candidates actually applying for it. Unexpected
results were found: it seemed there were less potential than actual male candidates,
which was impossible as only members of the ZAP within the university
could apply for promotion. The answer was to be found in the procedure: although
one can only apply when three years tenure in a grade, some (male) ZAP
apply every year to make their candidature already noticeable to the commission.
Although those candidatures were inadmissible, the applications could not be filtered
out of our data. Because this puts a bias on the figures, no further analyses
on these data were made.
3.3. Proofing and evaluation
“The process of gender mainstreaming is not based on empirical data alone. Measurement
is very useful to indicate the existence of inequalities between the sexes, such as
171 van den Brink, M. & Brouns, M. (2004), op. cit.
172 http://www.kuleuven.be/diversiteit/rddb_decentraal.htm.
173 K.U.Leuven, Centrum voor Gelijke Kansenbeleid (2000), op. cit.