How to improve the research cultural environment
Approach and Methods
This literature review has been based on a wide-scoping of various secondary sources of academic research, as well as key findings of recent projects found in international reports, advisory briefs and similar material.
The selection of literature relied on both the commentary on broad structural dimension, and the more pragmatic approach or unveiling specific examples of good practices, solutions, and their assessment obtained through scholarly research. A good practice is here understood as “any experience or initiative with techniques, methods or approaches that produce effects and results coherent with the definition of gender mainstreaming. They are considered to be effective in delivering gender mainstreaming as a transformative strategy, and therefore deserving to be disseminated and proposed to other organizational contexts” (EIGE Concepts and Definitions).
The GENERA Fields of Action have guided the literature review and are mirrored across the sections of this document. As certain themes, however, collided on a search and results levels, they have been combined for the purpose of this Report. As such, thematic and categorical analyses permeated investigations in the five broad subsections.
Depending on the relevance, breadth and dearth of research in each given subtheme (“Field of Action”), the literature searches generally reflected a five-level procedure, moving in from the broad bird's-eye view of a theme, to zooming in on the specificity of physics or emergent physics' subfield. In a middle-step, studies pertinent to all gender in STEM and academia was used. From the broad collection and selection of sources, best practices for promoting gender equality in physics were inferred.
