go diverse 2017-19
Review of project phase I
During its first funding phase (2017-2019) the project go diverse focused on drawing attention to unconscious discrimination processes in academic employee selection. The team organised lectures, consultations, workshops and developed the “A-Z for a good choice”, to inform decision makers about unconscious and cognitive biases.
advisory board
Also the first funding phase of go diverse was supported by an advisory board. The board members were:
- Prof Dr Michael Schulz (MARUM)
- Prof Dr Yasemin Karakaşoğlu (Faculty 12)
- Prof Dr Jutta Günther (Vice President Research)
- Ralf Streibl (staff council)
- Head of Academic Affairs (Department 1)
- Sylvia Hils (central women’s representative)
Lecture on unequal treatment in selection procedures
On 21 February 2019 Marieke van den Brink, Professor of Gender and Diversity at Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands), was a guest at the University of Bremen with the lecture “Practices of inequality in recruitment and selection in academia”. Rector Bernd Scholz-Reiter had invited the professor as part of the “go d!verse – gender and diversity in personnel selection in the academic sector” project. University professors*, Academic Senate (AS) members, spokespersons* on academic issues and managers followed her insights and enjoyed a lively discussion afterwards.
Based on an evaluation of approximately 1,000 appointment reports, Prof.in van den Brink made it clear: the understanding of quality and excellence as the basis of academic performance evaluation is subject to a gender bias and contributes significantly to creating inequality. Selection committees research promising candidates* in their trusted networks. These are similar to them and are most likely to be male and white. Leadership competence is also generally attributed more to men, without any specific criteria being applied.
Prof.in Marieke van den Brink…
Trainings diversity competence
Trainings on “professional gender and diversity conscious employee selection for academia” were already carried out in the first funding phase in cooperation with:
- Research centre MARUM
- High profile area MAPEX
- Faculty of geo science (FB 5)
- Faculty of social science (FB 8)
- Transregio 136 process signatures