Participatory modeling to support gender equality: The importance of including stakeholders
Abstract
Purpose
Interventions to support gender equality in organisations are often unsuccessful. Stakeholders disagree about the causes and problem definition of gender equality or pay lip service to the principle of gender equality, but fail to implement gender equality in practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine participatory modelling as an intervention method to support stakeholders in: reaching a shared problem definition and analysis of gender inequality; and identifying and implementing policies to tackle gender inequality.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply participatory modelling in case studies on impediments to women’s careers in two Dutch universities.
Findings
This study shows that participatory modelling supported stakeholders’ identification of the self-reinforcing feedback processes of masculinity of norms, visibility of women and networking of women and the interrelatedness between these processes. Causal loop diagrams visualise how the feedback processes are interrelated and can stabilise or reinforce themselves. Moreover, they allow for the identification of possible interventions.
Research limitations/implications
Further testing of the causal loop diagrams by quantifying the stocks and the flows would validate the feedback processes and the estimated effects of possible interventions.
Practical implications
The integration of the knowledge of researchers and stakeholders in a causal loop diagram supported learning about the issue of gender inequality, hereby contributing to transformative change on gender equality.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper lies in the application of participatory modelling in interventions to support gender equality.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all participants in the research projects; Lodewijk Schulte, Eelke Blonk, Guido Veldhuis and Etiënne Rouwette for facilitating the Group Model Building sessions and their input for this paper and the research teams, in particular Jaap Paauwe and Claartje Vinkenburg for their contribution in the research process. The authors thank the editor and the reviewers for their valuable feedback. This research was supported by research grants from Tilburg University and Delft University of Technology.
Citation
Bleijenbergh, I. and Van Engen, M. (2015), "Participatory modeling to support gender equality: The importance of including stakeholders", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 422-438. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-06-2013-0045
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited