EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

190 Equality Guide
listed: the need to attend all of the ten lunches, the willingness to help the researcher
with the data collection by means of inquiries and interviews, and to give support
whenever necessary for the research. Women interested in participating could also
express their expectations concerning the place, the day and the hour of the meetings.
A list was passed round where the interested persons could fill in their name, discipline
and e-mail address. The information moments were concluded with a question time.
Everyone was asked to indicate on the participants list if they wanted to take part in the
project (see Tool Annex). There was also a possibility to respond afterwards by e-mail.
3.2.2. A selection based on motivation and criteria
The number of people interested exceeded all expectations. At the first information
event, there were 25 people, at the second information event approximately 20 and we
received some e-mail responses as well. This added up to about fifty people. That is
why we asked each of those fifty women to motivate their application (see Tool Annex).
In total, 30 motivations were put in an Excel document. In order to collect as much
expertise and as many experiences as possible, a heterogeneous group was composed.
The following criteria were postulated:
! all faculties had to be present;
! both junior (starting) and senior (with experience) academicians;
! women with and without children;
! knowledge concerning methodology: theoretical or practical;
! knowledge concerning communication: professional communication knowledge,
experience expert;
! science communication: experience, practice, training;
! gender aspects in own research;
! personal experience with gender problems;
! member of governing bodies, work groups, being the only woman at meetings;
! critical view on gender problems, or never experienced any gender problem.
Given the motivations of the people interested and the criteria, 12 participants were
selected eventually. The people who had not been selected, were informed by e-mail.
They were also told that they would receive further information. These were labelled
‘passive participants’.
3.2.3. Blackboard communication
To guarantee an efficient communication process, a blackboard environment was
created (see Tool Annex). This created the possibility to have a discussion forum, an
information platform, documents and interesting links and the production of several
mail groups such as active and passive participants.