Harnessing the collective wisdom of diverse stakeholders towards identifying obstacles that R&I organizations face in their effort to develop and implement Gender Equality Plans
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Abstract
This paper presents the results of a Structured Democratic Dialogue designed to identify the barriers or obstacles that research and innovation organizations might face in their efforts to design and implement Gender Equality Plans. The dialogue was conducted in the context of a Horizon 2020 project on gender equality. The process used supports stakeholders harnessing their collective wisdom. The stakeholders identified more than 50 barriers, which they clarified, clustered and subsequently structured using interpretive structural modelling. The structural model has been used as a root cause identification tool to highlight those obstacles that should be addressed with priority by decision- or policymakers. They concluded that root obstacles include the difficulty in assessing the interconnection of gender issues with other issues and the fact that the necessary policies and regulations are still missing. The paper concludes with recommendations.