EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 4 ! Scientific communication 197
petencies in an organization and the manner to exploit the female potential. Women
are good at teamwork and organization, have better communication skills, strive more
for win-win situations, etc. And those female skills can help an organization. The question
then is why organizations not easily commit to using that knowledge.
In the second part of this meeting, the most important communication topics of the first
day were selected. This worked in the same way as for the gender topic (see Appendix
4.2). The following topics were brought to the attention in the brainstorming session
during the first meeting:
1. Category: importance of communication for the career
The participants were aware of the importance of good communication skills.
Women who have made it are often very communicative and the participants wondered
if there is a link. The more communicative participants believed that this had
helped them in their way to the top. Communication is an instrument for personal
PR and visibility. Someone also believed that “after having published 15 or 20
texts, it is no longer important to raise that figure. What is important however, is
good communication at all levels”. To get to the top, it is also crucial to be able to
communicate diplomatically. Finally, a lecturer mentioned that the advantages of
having good communication skills already manifested themselves during the study:
“You tend to give higher scores to someone who talks smoothly”.
For the participants, the importance of communication for a career was however
not gender-related. “Communication skills are important for everyone in a career,
both for men and women.” The participants found it important however to pay
attention to the communication topic “to make women stronger, rather than having
them adapt to male standards to make promotion”.
2. Category: the term communication
The participants defined ‘communication’ as all types of external and internal communication
with others to raise their visibility. The participants also mentioned it
would be useful to increase resistance and to tackle specifical, personal tips.
3. Category: how to communicate?
The question ‘how best to stress the distinctive features of women?’ was taken into
account. Different opinions and ideas came up. Firstly, it is important to communicate
with heart and soul in order to enthuse the public. Non-verbal behaviour is of
course crucial at this point. Secondly, one needs to adapt to the target audience
and act from a contextual or relational point of view. Thirdly, pay attention to the
way you bring the message: be enthusiastic, use a little humour if you can, but
make sure it does not look faked!
The elements discussed above apply to men and women who want to increase their
visibility. For women in particular, the participants said “communicating about feelings
is taboo for men and women, but certainly for men”.