Gender-competent people - What is the potential for KIT?
We are convinced that gender-competent leaders and employees make a decisive contribution to the success of KIT. Fair personnel selection, good, respectful interaction with one another, representation and participation lead to different perspectives and innovative results and solutions.
Fairer personnel selection: Promoting gender competence, especially among executives, enables fairer personnel selection. By avoiding gender-specific stereotypes and prejudices, we ensure that all candidates have equal opportunities to demonstrate their skills and potential. This gives us employees with diverse backgrounds and different perspectives in research, teaching, administration and technology. This promotes creativity and innovation, as we benefit from a wide range of experiences and perspectives. Innovative solutions and results arise from the exchange and synergy of the diverse ideas of our employees. Fair personnel selection procedures characterized by gender competence are thus an essential part of KIT's efforts to recruit applicants in a gender-equitable manner.
Good interaction with one another: Gender-competent employees promote respectful interaction with one another. By being aware of stereotypical gender roles and avoiding gender-specific attributions, we create a positive and inclusive working atmosphere in which everyone feels equally respected and valued. This promotes job satisfaction and increases employee motivation.
Representation and participation: It is important to KIT that all employees feel represented and have the opportunity to participate regardless of gender. Gender-competent employees are sensitized and can better contribute to ensuring that all genders are appropriately represented and included in decision-making processes. The diversity of perspectives makes it possible to look at challenges from different angles and make the best possible decisions.
We are firmly convinced that gender-competent employees make KIT an even better place for research, teaching, learning and cooperation.
The gender competence online module is aimed at anyone interested in the topic. It is mandatory for all heads and executives and should also be completed by internal appointment committee members.
It provides information on the equal opportunities situation at KIT, the concepts of gender and gender competence, unconscious biases and the gender-equitable design of communication situations, personnel selection procedures as well as teaching, research and innovation. In addition, users are given an insight into findings from gender research and references to helpful documents from KIT and other institutions. By specifying your area of responsibility at KIT, you can tailor the learning module to the content that is most relevant to you personally.
Contact person
Dr. Roxane Soergel
(0721) 608-45795
roxane.soergel∂kit.edu
What is an unconscious bias?
A "bias" is a cognitive distortion of perception or an error in thinking that can occur consciously or unconsciously in various everyday and professional situations. All people have biases and they are fundamentally necessary in order to reduce the complexity of our environment. We use mental shortcuts, so to speak, with which we automatically fill in missing information about others. As a result, we automatically like people who are similar to us, for example, while we tend to be suspicious of the strange and unfamiliar. At the same time, biases can lead to us not always making the best possible decisions.
Unconscious bias in the university context
Biases also occur at universities. Our decisions are often influenced by factors that we ourselves are not aware of and may be caused by unconscious bias. Such decisions can occur in the following divisions, for example:
- Appointment process
- Personnel development
- Allocation of tasks
- Performance evaluation
- Evaluation of competencies
Two studies show typical examples of unconscious bias in the university and work context:
- The study by MacNell et al. (2014) showed that students tend to evaluate teaching staff depending on their gender, as a result of which male lecturers were systematically rated better than female lecturers.
- The study by Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) shows that identical CVs were rated better or worse according to the names used (different nationalities).
Sources:
Bertrand, M. & Mullainathan, S. (2004): Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market. The American Economic Review. 94 (4), 991-1031.
MacNell, L., Driscoll, A. & Hunt, A. N. (2014). What's in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching. Innovative Higher Education. 40(4), 291-303.
Contact person
Ines Köhler
(0721) 608-45117
ines.koehler ∂does-not-exist.kit edu
From the foreword to the guidelines linked here "Gender Equitable and Inclusive: Language and Visual Language of Diversity at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology" (April 2022):
Language is dynamic and subject to constant change. On the one hand, it picks up on changes in society and reflects them; on the other hand, perceptions and realities are shaped by the use of language itself. We at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) take this development into account. With these guidelines, KIT - The Research University in the Helmholtz Association) is creating both an orientation aid and a binding document on how we at KIT want to speak with and about each other.
Guidelines for gender-equitable language (PDF)
