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Nor do women in Arab countries represent a critical mass in decision-making bodies. “For change to occur, there would have to be a critical mass of 33% women in decision-making positions.”, says CAWTAR's Executive Director. The conclusion is that a paradigm shift is needed, at different scales, for women to have more power in the economic, social, cultural, associative and academic spheres.

Mrs Soukaina Bouraoui is also vice-president of RESUFF, Réseau Francophone des Femmes Responsables dans l'Enseignement Supérieur et la Recherche, initiated by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). In this capacity, Ms Bouraoui contributes to initiatives and networks promoting gender equality in higher education, one of the essential steps towards a fully inclusive society.

In this capacity, she is also involved in the WE4LEAD project (Women's Empowerment for Leadership and Equity in Higher Education) which proposes innovative solutions at university level to overcome gender stereotypes in recruitment, promotion or mobility of women in decision-making positions in universities.

Solutions

According to Madame Bouraoui, “The problem is stereotypes, social norms”, which prevent women from becoming agents of change and deprive society of a huge number of opportunities borne by women. And it is on this axis, among others, that the WE4LEAD project acts, proposing several steps to build collectively, on the 2 shores of the Mediterranean, convincing solutions.

The project, with 9 partner universities in Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Lebanon and Tunisia, and 1 associate partner, RESUFF, aims to: i) collecting gendered data in the university environment in order to assess and monitor changes in practices; ii) raising awareness and informing university decision-making bodies of the challenges and benefits of an inclusive university; iii) supporting partner universities in the creation of an institutional framework in favor of gender equality; iv) train university staff, juries and HR personnel in gender-stereotype-free recruitment techniques; v) support university partners in the creation of parity units; and vi) disseminate WE4LEAD's methodology and convincing results to inspire other higher education establishments and all players in society wishing to establish a culture of gender equality.

At the halfway point of this 36-month project, the results in favor of gender equality at the 9 partner universities are as follows:

• Training in the “index calculation system” now makes it possible to collect gender-disaggregated data for 6 countries.
• 9 presidents of Mediterranean universities publicly commit to promoting gender equality in their institutions.
• 2 guides have been drawn up to help universities draw up a gender equality plan and set up gender equality units.
• 2 training courses have been set up by 2 partner universities on the subjects of “gender and leadership” and “recruitment and promotion without gender stereotypes”.
• 36 university staff involved in WE4LEAD have been trained
• 34 trainers have been trained in these two subjects at the 9 universities, and are available to deliver the training on a long-term basis beyond the project's duration.
• 5,010 people were either trained or made aware of the issue in 6 Mediterranean countries.
• An awareness-raising campaign and training for staff on the subject of sexual harassment are currently being rolled out in the 9 partner universities.
• The results of the project are being disseminated at conferences, training courses and by the consortium partners.

Ms. Soukeina Bouraoui never hesitates to make her knowledge and experience available to the WE4LEAD network to ensure that the project achieves its objectives, as was the case at the last coordination meeting in Sousse (Tunisia) in November 2024, where Ms. Soukeina Bouraoui spoke on the following topics: i) the importance of raising awareness of this issue at university level; ii) the exchange of best practices between countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region; iii) the vital role of institutional commitment for the success of the project.

For further information, please visit the project website : http://we4lead.ul.edu.lb/

On Thursday February 29, 2024 at the French Institute in Sousse, Professor Randi DEGUILHEM and I presented Cormed 2 and the We4LEAD project.

The ambition of the WE4LEAD project is to increase women's access to the highest decision-making positions through a number of complementary actions designed to bring about a real change in mentality and culture at higher education establishments: drawing up and/or improving gender equality plans, training juries in gender-stereotype-free recruitment and promotion, training gender equality units and staff in Gender & Leadership, setting up units to prevent and combat harassment, a communication and awareness-raising strategy to overcome resistance, and evaluation of the effectiveness of these actions within each of the partner universities, in order to make the necessary adjustments and consolidate and perpetuate the actions.

The Seminar for Gender Equality Representatives is organized annually by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces' High Official for Equal Rights. The aim of the seminar is to provide additional training for "gender equality" referents, as well as an update on the latest developments in their field of action.

Isabelle Régner reminds us that among the levers for success in raising awareness among juries, support from university governance is essential, but insufficient. It needs to be backed up by support from the supervisory ministry. The European and international "Horizon Europe" framework provides real impetus by making research funding in France, Europe and elsewhere conditional on the mandatory implementation of a gender equality plan, with very specific actions to be implemented, such as raising awareness of implicit gender bias. This fundamental support enables us to move towards international collaborations, of which the WE4LEAD project is a unique example. WE4LEAD is an institutional project aimed at transforming governance in order to increase the number of women in decision-making positions in higher education establishments. One of its ambitions is precisely to raise awareness of implicit gender stereotypes among all competitive examination panels at partner universities, to set up services to collect and process reports (discrimination, sexual harassment), and to collect, analyze and calculate gender data and indices efficiently and correctly. The culture of thinking needs to be transformed so that implicit gender stereotypes are reflexively thwarted.

The round table was held at the Université Nice Côte d'Azur as part of the 8th national day of equality missions in higher education and research. Every year since 2014, these days have brought together those responsible for equality and diversity missions at universities, grandes écoles, engineering schools and research organizations in France. Mainstreaming gender equality in science and the role of higher education and research was this year's theme.

Isabelle Régner's intervention is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dsAIW5u4mc (from the 45th to the 54th minute of the recording)
Video link