European Commission

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Campaign on empowering women as public intellectuals and experts in media

Submitted by: Natalija Mažeikienė, Vytautas Magnus University

- ongoing

Campaign on empowering women as public intellectuals and experts in media

A campaign as a set of measures at VMU to promote women’s participation in public communication and empower them to become more visible as public intellectuals and academics presenting their research and achievements. Gender imbalance is observed, and female experts could take a more active role in publicizing their research for broader audiences These measures include adding more women to existing institutional databases (lists) of VMU experts who are recommended to journalists, news and media portals to provide public commentaries in media. Regular training is proposed to employees on how to write public commentaries and communicate their research results in the media. By providing financial incentives, VMU encourages researchers to publish popular science articles. The main target group of the training is female researchers (with a specific focus on STEM). Guidelines of gender-balanced organization of events are being designed and will be approved at VMU. Training on gender-sensitive communication is planned.  Monitoring of publications and women’s activities are carried out regularly.

COMPASS PERSPECTIVE – in what way(s) was the measure C O M P A S S?

C - for looking for creative ways and formats to involve women researchers and academic leaders in public communication of the research achievements, to initiate changes promoting new role models of women researchers to increase women’s visibility, challenge traditional gender stereotypes, change institutional and national communication culture involving more women. 

O - for promoting more open, diverse, participatory and engaging forms of communication by empowering women to participate in presenting their academic and scientific expertise.

 M - for mitigating traditional gender stereotypes on researchers and public intellectuals and empowering women to promote new role models. 

A - for providing women researchers, academics and managers systematic institutional support (training,  consultations, editing support).

S - for SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused and Time-bound). The measure covers activities and initiatives which are achievable and measurable (number of women involved in public communication, number of trainings and participants, publications in institutional communication channels (website, social media, events), national news and media portals.

ACTORS AND STAKEHOLDERS

This measure is supervised by the vice-rector for Communication and coordinated by the Communication Unit which is part of VMU Department of Marketing and Communication. The staff of this Unit plays the role of gatekeepers between news and media portals, news agencies, journalists and university staff as well as the whole university community (including researchers and academics). The university community (teachers, researchers, students, management) participates in internal and external communication, which addresses target groups and audiences – community members, the broader public, schools, pupils, teachers, parents, politicians, other institutions, etc.  The measure is focused on empowering women as a group that could be more involved in communication on their research achievements and demonstration of their academic and scientific expertise.

AUTHOR’S REFLECTIONS

What would you do the same/differently another time?
What have you learnt? Do you see relevance for this in other contexts?

The VMU team working on this measure is aware of the necessity of institutional support for women by providing consultations and training on text writing, oral presentation, public speech and provision of expert commentary. By motivating and encouraging women psychologically and by providing financial incentives, such training can become a beneficial instrument to reduce gender inequality in public communication and improve female experts’ self-confidence. This measure can be transferred to other contexts and target groups, where there is a gender imbalance in public communication.