Promoting gender equality and structural change in academia through gender equality plans: Harmonising EU and national initiatives

Gender equality has been actively promoted in EU academic institutions by the European Commission’s Science with and for Society (SwafS) programme through the implementation of gender equality plans (GEP). GEP formulation and implementation was strongly influenced by involvement in EU projects in Irish as well as Italian higher education institutions. The paper draws upon experience of the EU project SAGE (H2020), in which Irish and Italian universities actively cooperated, the Athena SWAN Charter in Ireland, Positive Action Plans (PAP) in Italy, and semi structured interviews with gender experts in Irish and Italian higher education institutions to explore the degree to which participation in EU and national initiatives can promote similar outcomes by the adoption of positive actions. The paper concludes that a harmonised strategy, focusing on common priorities and respecting cultural, political and social diversity, could promote the internationalization of the higher education sector and accelerate the process towards gender equality in academia.