Project parameters

Although we initially set out the project parameters, we promptly found that we had to keep revisiting and revising them as our understanding of the complexity of the subject grew exponentially through the conversations we had with contributors and through our own personal and professional reflections. For example, we were swiftly disabused of our original decision to exclude all non-academic aspects of university life after conversations with students and Edinburgh University Students’ Association staff. We therefore include gendered aspects of sport and exercise, social and club life that students raised, but not life in residences, which they did not.

We have kept to our original aim that content should be contributed by University of Edinburgh students, members of staff groups and academic staff. Keeping the material within one university creates a coherence that, paradoxically, enables the learning to be more widely applied; to university communities worldwide, and beyond academia.

The project is about culture change in academic institutions, as observed within this particular one, but the situated examples and stories, almost without exception, are relevant in other institutions; Edinburgh-specific content and context is added where appropriate.

Why a recipe book?

In BITE: Recipes for Remarkable Research (2014), the first book in this series, we were faced with the challenge of approaching and making sense of a complex research landscape, and making it accessible to a diverse audience.

We found this experience repeated in the writing workshops we ran at the start of the EqualBITE project – the power of the metaphor was such that people immediately grasped it. Participants, given a simple template, were able to capture their initial thoughts quickly, making changes to the structure as required by their own particular story. And as the project developed it became once again clear that the recipe is a powerful tool for thinking. Recipes are fun to do – something that for busy and overworked people is a great motivator, and for the editors so much easier to invite than a full paper. And we have enjoyed the wonderful paradox of using a recipe – such a symbol of domesticity – to help improve the position of women in the professional world.

Our contributors

There are seventy-one recipes, papers, and editorial articles, and eighteen student photographs and drawings, from sixty-seven authors and contributors (of whom five wish to remain anonymous). Of the named sixty-two contributors, there are forty-six women and sixteen men; thirty-eight are University staff, twenty-two are students, and two are from outside the University.

Our aim, from the start of this project, has been to gather material in a diagonal slice across the institution – from students and academic and professional staff at all levels and across the three Colleges.

We reached staff (and many fewer students than we would have liked) through a series of workshops, which spread awareness of the EqualBITE project, generating our first tranche of recipes, and creating a base and a website from which to move forward. Active support from the Steering Committee and especially from the Institute for Academic Development facilitated senior leaders’ conversations (see Leadership perspectives on gender equality) and ensured engagement at a senior level from both academic and professional services viewpoints. We used our internal and external networks to broaden our reach, and to invite papers from specialists.

We found engaging with the student population more difficult. Fewer than ten students in all attended the workshops; a postcard campaign across the campuses raised awareness, but while it invited contributions there were no returns. An online survey, sent to the entire student body by the students association, received only four responses. In talking to Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) staff, and to student groups, we realised there were two main barriers: a mistrust of ‘the University’ and its hierarchy, and the language we had used. Students did not connect with ‘gender equality’ and only when we met with student groups (a Gender Studies class, Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) Illustration students, EUSA) and invited them to talk about things in their everyday experience, did they connect the phrase ‘gender equality’ with issues of everyday sexism.

Many of the students we spoke to seemed initially unaware of the issues with which women staff struggled. We did, however, find that female students working in bars and clubs were very aware of sexism and sexist comments and pressures: maybe gender inequalities are more apparent when one enters the world of work.

The two main student contribution sets came from EUSA’s Unapologetically Me exhibition of photographs and accompanying text, and from drawings made by third-year ECA students in response to a workshop discussion (see Perspectives from students).

…the University of Edinburgh is a place where we can have conversations about challenging topics. In some cases, students (within the Students’ Association) start the conversations which will disrupt and challenge tradition, and the University will engage in the debate, adding academic depth and long experience to passionate personal convictions…

Our final challenge was to engage men in the project. Around a quarter of the authors are male, most of them members of our internal networks. Only one male students turned up at an initial workshop, subsequently contributing a recipe and a short article; and one of the drawings was contributed by a male ECA student. As the project progressed, we started to invite colleagues with specific expertise to contribute, which in some cases introduced additional men to the project.

Most of the recipes and articles are illustrated. The illustrator’s intention was to develop a visual language for the book by creating a compelling illustration for each recipe; we have found that they add another layer of meaning, revealing aspects of the content that had not been obvious at first.

The editorial team

Creating this book by drawing together so many contributions required a fairly large editorial team. There are five of us. We have backgrounds in science, humanities, arts and social science. We work in academic departments, professional services and one of us is (in theory) retired. We span three decades in age. Some of us are on flexible contracts and work odd hours (some of us just work odd hours anyway). We frequently disagree about whether phrases like “ecosophical gestalt analysis” belong in a recipe (obviously not). Some of us are parents, one of us is a man, and we have varying views on Wonder Woman. Most of all: we are a team. There is no way that a single editor could have brought this book together. It has emerged from our lengthy discussions, disagreements, difficult decisions, dogged persistence and occasional flashes of collective brilliance. Judy, Lara and Daphne are employed directly by the University of Edinburgh, Alison is an academic consultant, and Derek is our much needed critical friend from the Open University. Our Steering Committee consists of Jane Norman, Jon Turner, Simon Clark and Caroline Wallace who have all been thoroughly supportive throughout. Indeed, this project happened because of Jon Turner’s openness to new ideas and thrived because of his unwaveringly positive attitude.

The University of Edinburgh has stood up to the scrutiny of this book unflinchingly; it has willingly invested in collecting a set of experiences which were always intended to capture the gap between aspiration and reality. The University even set aside the corporate brand for the integrity of design of the volume. Of course, a university is not a single entity. It is a loose coalition of thousands of individuals with differing perspectives and experiences. All the individuals who volunteered to contribute or who we approached to fact check or give alternative perspectives have been creative and generous in sharing their expertise and have been open to criticism. The University of Edinburgh is a place where we can have conversations about challenging topics. In some cases, students (within the Students’ Association) start the conversations which will disrupt and challenge tradition, and the University will engage in the debate, adding academic depth and long experience to passionate personal convictions.

The structure of the book

The opening section positions the book within contexts of academia in the UK and in the University of Edinburgh. We present a model for change, derived from the project and the literature, that suggests how individuals and leaders can address gender bias as a remediable habit. The recipes and articles that follow focus on gendered aspects of academia, including curriculum, journals and seminars, the gendered aspects of the REF (Research Excellence Framework), and the need to be sceptical when researchers claim sex differences. A cluster of recipes tackles career issues, including women and competition, and the challenges of balancing work and family responsibilities.

A further cluster of recipes and articles portray the student perspective, dealing with difficult topics including the complex question of harassment, from differing and complementary points of view, and through different media. We hear from students, academic and professional staff, and EUSA, in photographs, a paper and response, and student drawings. The next sections focus, first, on the power of language to maintain or change bias, and the responsibility we have as individuals and as colleagues and mentors to use words mindfully and constructively, and then, on the key intersection of gender and leadership. Multiple readings of reality are shared in the section on the University of Edinburgh’s Sport & Exercise facilities, and in an examination of how the physical environment can support equitable thoughts and behaviours. Finally, we listen in to a conversation with senior University leaders, and finish by reviewing the themes and putting forward recommendations that have emerged over the two years of the project.

There are recipes and articles that describe processes for real personal change – for example, Catalyst where a student reflects on how involvement in EqualBITE has changed his personal and professional perspective. There are recipes for initiating and sustaining change within teams and groups – for example, very practical steps towards running and contributing to meetings in which every voice is heard and valued, and bias – implicit or explicit – is called out (How to run more equal meetings and Becoming visible in meetings). And there are papers that explore real change at an institutional level – for example, A model for change and Asking for equitable buildings.

Other recipes and images share the author’s or maker’s sense of what it is like to be them; for example, to be a young woman researcher caught by an early period in a campus without sanitary provision (Rose surprise), or a student who has to decide each morning whether they look too masculine to go safely into a women-only toilet (Perspectives from students),

or a male post-graduate speaking out when he hears sexist language (Allies in the classroom). Recipes share pivotal moments, they provide illuminating facts, the articles explore topics in depth, introduce new topics, explain why an issue exists in the first place, and shine theory onto the everyday. Recipes are grounded in the authors’ experience, referenced in the literature and linked, separately and where appropriate, to the University of Edinburgh’s processes and procedures.

The glossary of terms will help the reader, as compiling it has helped us, to navigate the sometimes opaque waters of gender equality terminology.

We invite you to read this book in whatever way makes sense to you. You might want to skip through the recipes, gathering insights and taking comfort and inspiration. You might be in a position of influence and looking for research evidence to support your case for change, or you might be mulling over a particular quandary and needing a sense of no longer being alone.

Whatever approaches you take, we invite you to bear in mind the uniqueness of each author’s voice, and your own situation, seen through the lens of the EqualBITE values, and take what is pertinent and useful.

The book is intended to be practical and inspirational. Our hope is that you can take the learning, adapt it, and apply it in your own situation, ‘in the small places, close to home’.