A model for building a Gender Equality Index for Academic Institutions

The book addresses the problem of measuring gender equality in Academia with the aim to define an index of gender equality (UNIPD-GEI) in Academic Institutions. The research has been developed in the framework of the FP7 EU GenderTime Project (2013-2016) of which the University of Padua is one of the partners (www.gendertime.org). The objectice of the project is to monitor the under-representation of women in scientific research and to improve their working conditions and career opportunities. Information on many different aspects of permanent and temporary teaching staff has been collected, such as on the quality of their work, on their access to funds for research, scientific issues and patents, on their space for research, on their involvement in decision-making, on their quality of work-life balance and on several other issues that can be sensitive from a gender point of view in academia. The methodological approach and the statistical model at the basis of the Gender Equality Index developed at UNIPD are described.