The project aims to tackle the main problems and challenges of starting an academic career and its compatibility with family life and obligations of women, academic workers. A set of specific actions focused on the vulnerability of early careers will be addressed, aimed at proposing measures which will contribute to the career development of female researchers within the University of Belgrade.
The project aims on several specific points: 1) identifying barriers women face at the beginning of their academic career both in everyday life and in the professional sphere; 2) examining the needs of women in regard to their careers’ development, with an aim to advocate for the improvement of the higher education system; 3) examining the ways in which academic workers combine their professional life with marital and parental responsibilities. A special focus will be put on differences between men and women in each of the above points.
Key elements of the project are:
– Promoting a gender-positive culture and fighting gender stereotypes in work sphere and family domain;
– Focusing on the early academic careers of women as the key moment of the project, which will enable us to fully understand gender hierarchies, but also how institutions within the University of Belgrade can better support careers of women and thus change the dominant gendered organizational model;
– Data collection in order to map the situation in higher education, as well as to develop recommendations for government bodies. The recommendations will be based on the results of the research and will be developed along with a methodology that will help policymakers in the implementation of the gender equality principles.
The project is supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC, University of Fribourg Switzerland, Performing and Responsive Social Sciences PERFORM, HELVETAS Swiss Cooperation.