EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

158 Equality Guide
is necessary that gender mainstreaming is taken on board as an administrative and management
responsibility in its own right.” 186
Building awareness and ownership thus entails that a certain level of understanding and
expertise on the subject of gender is provided and a certain level of responsibility is taken
to change existing gender relations.
As described above, the K.U.Leuven already has an elaborate structure for generating
and executing an equal opportunities and diversity policy. The Mainstreaming Promoters
play a very important role in that structure, driving the integration of diversity in the organizational
structure and decision-making processes. The Mainstreaming Promoters are no
specialists in Gender Mainstreaming but male and female academics and administrators
at different stages of their careers. The dean or head is asked to voluntarily appoint a
male and female member of personnel as Mainstreaming Promoter (see 4.4. Toolkit:
Mainstreaming Promoters). In other words, the Mainstreaming Promoters are brought
together from all grades and statutes, though the Faculty of Law and the HR-department
stressed their commitment by appointing the dean of the faculty himself and the Personnel
Director of ZAP as Mainstreaming Promoters.
As many new Mainstreaming Promoters were welcomed during the project, a training
course on equal opportunities and diversity (see 4.4. Toolkit: Mainstreaming Promoters)
was organized instead of a network meeting. The more experienced Mainstreaming Promoters
were invited to the training to exchange know-how.
Good Practice Mainstreaming Promoters: creating a support basis
As a starting point the Mainstreaming Promoters of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering followed
the example of the Mainstreaming Promoters of the Faculties of Theology, Engineering and
Social Sciences and made an appeal within the faculty to create a working group for equal opportunities
and diversity which they gave an attractive name.
Some working groups are put together with attention for representation (members from all statutes
within the faculty), some working groups meet monthly and are open to anyone who is interested.
All working groups can be found on the faculty websites.
Good Practice Mainstreaming Promoters: mapping situation
One of the ways to build awareness within the organization is to collect and disseminate figures
about the faculty or office. The Mainstreaming Promoters of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation
Sciences for instance monitor the representation of female academics in the faculty’s
decision-making organs. In general they want to tackle the loss of talent by the under-representation
of women in the academic career and the administrative policy.
186 Stevens, I. & Van Lamoen, I. (2001), op. cit.