Gender Equality Plan: Creating a Gender Friendly College

Main idea

Creating a gender friendly college by organizing concrete initiatives and taking steps towards these five main goals: (1) stop discrimination, (2) create a safe haven, (3) respect everyone’s gender identity and gender expression, (4) make adjustments to AUAS to better fit the needs of its students and staff, and (5) guarantee the privacy of AUAS’ students and staff.

Outline

The Gender Equality Plan was created due to issues brought up by students and staff members. Some of the main questions or concerns were:

• Can I change my first name when I transition?
• The absence of gender-neutral sanitary facilities.
• Can I register my pronouns to avoid getting misgendered?

Three staff members at the Office of Career and Study Guidance decided to get together to advocate for these issues and to make a change. They studied the literature, sent out a questionnaire and organized a focus group to uncover the specific needs and struggles of gender diverse students and their allies at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS).

Main purpose

The purpose of the Gender Equality Plan is to achieve 5 main objectives:

• Stop discrimination
• Create a safe haven
• Respect everyone’s gender identity and gender expression
• Make adjustments to AUAS to better fit the needs of its students and staff
• Guarantee the privacy of AUAS’ students and staff

Detailed description

The staff members at the Office of Career and Study Guidance organize many different initiatives and promote change in a lot of ways:

• They organize lectures and spread information to create awareness about gender diversity and sexual orientation.
• They take steps to combat discrimination related to gender (e.g., mention it in policy texts, help students find a well-prepared counsellor in case discrimination occurs).
• They promote the use of gender inclusive language and encourage others to check whether asking for sex in a survey or on a form is necessary.
• They’ve advocated for infrastructure that meets the needs of gender diverse students (gender-neutral sanitary facilities).
• They’ve brought about adjustments in the registration platform to facilitate changing names and genders.
• They help students find their way to the right support initiatives/guidance when it comes to issues regarding gender.

Goals

• Create awareness about gender diversity and sexual orientation
• Take steps to combat discrimination related to gender
• Use gender inclusive language and always check whether asking for the participants’ sex in a survey or on a form is necessary.
• Change the infrastructure to meet the needs of gender diverse students (gender neutral sanitary facilities)
• Adjust the registration platform to facilitate changing names and genders
• Help students find their way to the right support initiatives/guidance when it comes to issues regarding gender

Students involvement

• The organizers of this initiative put together a focus group of students to gather input on how AUAS can become more gender friendly. While some of these students have graduated, they keep in touch to provide insight, feedback and tips.
• There was a lot of resistance on the topic of registering a name change if the students hadn’t legally changed their name (yet). A student was asked to take part in meetings about this topic. They explained why some transgender and gender diverse people might want to be called by their new name while hesitating when it comes to a legal name change (e.g., not being out to parents, but wanting to transition socially outside of their home). Hearing the student’s story motivated staff members to make the necessary adjustments.
• Students can be involved in the training days (e.g., giving testimonials).

Inspiration and evidence

• The Impact of Gender Stereotypes on Identity Development in Young People by De Groof et al. (2015)
• Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies DiGeSt Vol.1 No. 1(2014)
• Charter Gender in Academia by VLIR-JA (2019)
• Report Screening Teaching Materials published by çavaria
• Equality Guide published by VLIR Working Group on Equal Opportunities (2005)
• Gender Mainstreaming: Critical Analysis of Gender Mainstreaming as a Theoretical Concept and as a Policy Instrument by Bloeme Van Roemburg, Sonja Spee and Steunpunt Gelijkekansenbeleid en Consortium Universiteit Antwerpen en Limburgs Universitair Centrum (2004)
• Segregation (M/F) in Flemish Higher Education: Underestimated or Overrated? published by Nico Steegmans and Steunpunt Gelijkekansenbeleid en Consortium Universiteit Antwerpen en Limburgs Universitair Centrum (2003)

Success criteria

There have been impactful changes (e.g., gender neutral sanitary facilities and the chosen name registration).

Points of attention

• Trans and gender diverse students are not a homogenous group with a clear set of needs. This is important to keep in mind when organizing initiatives and developing a Gender Equality Plan.
• It would be beneficial to evaluate this initiative.
• It can be difficult to motivate management to work towards gender inclusivity and to free up time for staff members to spend on this topic.
• Currently, this initiative is run by three staff members on a voluntary basis. There’s the risk that progress stops when these staff members leave AUAS/decide to quit working on this initiative.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

We somewhat agree.

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

The Gender Equality Plan and its initiatives are not formally evaluated with students or staff members. It would be interesting to evaluate whether there has been an impact on lecturers (e.g., Do they use the knowledge they gained during training? Do they use less gendered stereotypes in their coursebooks?) When it comes to informal feedback, the organizers sometimes receive negative feedback through mail, but they also come across positive tweets about some of the different initiatives.

The organizers evaluate to what extend they have taken steps towards reaching reached the main goals. They have come a long way, but there’s still much work to be done.

Communication

• The five goals were mentioned in meetings with different departments and managers, in newsletters, and on an online page for staff members at AUAS
• There’s a poster to let students know that all are welcome at AUAS.
• There’s also a poster in toilet stalls with the message ‘Do you feel stuck? The Office of Student Support is there for you.’ With different pictures to appeal to different groups that might experience difficulties.
• During PAARS, staff and students are encouraged to wear purple to create awareness about gender diversity and sexual orientation.
• There’s information on gender inclusive language on AUAS’ website.

Timing

The Gender Equality Plan is a long-term commitment. It takes multiple years to work towards its goals.

Resources

• At least three motivated staff members
• Starting up, you need to free up a significant amount of time to create and look for training programmes, to listen to students, etc. Once you’ve done research and developed the materials, it takes less time. Currently, this initiative takes up one day a month per person, so three days per month.
• You need communication material (e.g., posters, online pages, social media posts).
• You can achieve a lot on a small budget (approximately €1000).

Extra information

• Publication by De Groof et al. (2015)
• DiGeSt Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014)
• Gendercharter by VLIR-JA (pdf)
• Equality Guide by VLIR (pdf)
• Segregatie (M/V) in het Vlaamse hoger onderwijs: onderschat of overroepen? – Nico Steegmans - Steunpunt Gelijkekansenbeleid en Consortium Universiteit Antwerpen en Limburgs Universitair Centrum (2003) (pdf)

Transferability

We think it is somewhat transferable to other contexts or groups.

This initiative would be somewhat transferable to other groups. For example, while the Gender Equality Plan was developed with a specific target group in mind, some of the changes that were made benefit other groups of students as well (e.g., Chinese students can register another name than their legal Chinese name). Another example is how registering pronouns can help staff members correctly refer to students with unisex or foreign names.

It might be more difficult for another context due to the different political climates when it comes to gender diversity and sexual minorities.

Universal Design

This initiative was not designed based on the principles of universal design, but by focussing on gender inclusivity in a broad sense instead of on trans or gender diverse people, it’s more inclusive for all (see examples mentioned above).

Context

In Belgium, the rights of LGBT+ people are protected by law. This isn’t the case in many other countries (take a look at the Rainbow Ranking for more information).