Participatory modeling to support gender equality. The importance of including stakeholders

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-06-2013-0045
• Pages: 422-438
• Date: 15 June 2015
• Published date: 15 June 2015
• Author: Inge Bleijenbergh,Marloes Van Engen

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Participatory modeling to

support gender equality

The importance of including stakeholders

Inge Bleijenbergh

Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and

Marloes Van Engen

Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

Abstract

Purpose –Interventions to support gender equality in organisations are often unsuccessful.

Stakeholders disagree about the causes and problem definition of gender equality or pay lip service to

the principle of gender equality, but fail to implement gender equality in practice. The purpose of this

paper is to examine participatory modelling as an intervention method to support stakeholders in:

reaching a shared problem definition and analysis of gender inequality; and identifying and

implementing policies to tackle gender inequality.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors apply participatory modelling in case studies on

impediments to women’s careers in two Dutch universities.

Findings –This study shows that participatory modelling supported stakeholders’identification of

the self-reinforcing feedback processes of masculinity of norms, visibility of women and networking

of women and the interrelatedness between these processes. Causal loop diagrams visualise how the

feedback processes are interrelated and can stabilise or reinforce themselves. Moreover, they allow for

the identification of possible interventions.

Research limitations/implications –Further testing of the causal loop diagrams by quantifying

the stocks and the flows would validate the feedback processes and the estimated effects of possible

interventions.

Practical implications –The integration of the knowledge of researchers and stakeholders in

a causal loop diagram supported learning about the issue of gender inequality, hereby contributing to

transformative change on gender equality.

Originality/value –The originality of the paper lies in the application of participatory modelling in

interventions to support gender equality.

Keywords Academic staff, Careers, Organizational change, Gender equality, Part icipatory modelling,

Causal loop diagrams

Paper type Research paper

Scholars increasingly investigate interv entions to support gender equality in

organisations, yet thus far a recipe for ultimate success has not been found. The debate

on interventions focuses both on the theoretical foundations of interventions (Ely and

Meyerson, 2000; Meyerson and Kolb, 2000) as well as the empirical support for success of

the interventions in reaching gender equality (Kalev et al., 2006). The theoretical debate

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 34 No. 5, 2015

pp. 422-438

©Emerald Group Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-06-2013-0045

Received 12 June 2013

Revised 12 December 2013

15 December 2014

23 April 2015

Accepted 24 April 2015

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

The authors thank all participants in the research projects; Lodewijk Schulte, Eelke Blonk, Guido

Veldhuis and Etiënne Rouwette for facilitating the Group Model Building sessions and their input for

this paper and the research teams, in particular Jaap Paauwe and Claartje Vinkenburg for their

contribution in the research process. The authors thank the editor and the reviewers for their

valuable feedback. This research was supported by research grants from Tilburg University and

Delft University of Technology.

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EDI

34,5

focuses on whether gender equality interventions should be directed at changing

organisational structures or at supporting the agency of individuals in organisations.

A strong argument for interventions aimed at changing structures is made by Meyersen

and Kolb (2000), who maintain that only interventions directed at transforming

organisational processes (“Revising organisational discourses”) are able to achieve gender

equality. They contrast this approach to interventions aimed at changing individuals

(e.g. “Equipping the women”and “Creating equal opportunities”), which keep socially

constructed gender differences in place. In contrast, de Vries (2012) argues that

interventions aimed at individual agency may transform organisations as a side effect.

Mentoring programmes, for example, aimed at “equipping the women”, may change

mentors’understanding on how gender is socially constructed and so support changes in

organisational processes.

Empirical research comparing success of diversity interventions shows that

interventions directed at increasing organisational responsibility for gender and race

equality are more successful than interventions aimed at training managers and reducing

social isolation of disadvantaged groups (e.g. by mentoring or networking programmes)

(Kalev et al., 2006). Moreover, this large scale, longitudinal study of diversity interventions

shows that organisational responsibility also boosts the effectiveness of interventions

aimed at women’s agency and training managers. It is thus highly likely that

the commitment of stakeholders (e.g. managers) is key to the success of gender inequality

interventions. Analyses of gender equality interventions reveals that commitment

of stakeholders is often lacking (Benschop and Verloo, 2006; Connel, 2006).

Managers’lack of commitment can appear in different phases of interventions,

i.e. during problem definition, problem analysis, design of the intervention,

implementation of the intervention and evaluation (Verschuren and Doorewaard,

2010). First of all, research shows that stakeholders often do not see gender inequality

as a problem in their organisations (Ely and Meyerson, 2000). Second, stakeholders

may not agree on the causes of gender inequality or show resistance when discussing

these issues (Benschop and Verloo, 2006). Third, gender equality interventions may fail

in the design and implementation phase. Stakeholders often pay lip service to the

principle of gender equality, but fail to implement gender equality in practice

(Benschop and Verloo, 2006). We aim to better understand how interventions can be

more effective in reaching gender equality in organisations by examining a method

that supports the involvement of stakeholders in reaching a shared problem definition,

supports their understanding of the causal mechanisms underlying gendered processes

and supports stakeholders in identifying possible interventions. In this paper,

we examine the results of a particular intervention method, participatory modelling,

on tackling gender equality. In the following we discuss the intervention method of

participatory modelling and subsequently apply the method of participatory modelling

in two case studies on impediments to women’s careers in Dutch academia.

Participatory modelling to support gender equality

Participatory modelling is an intervention method, which refers to “sitting with a group

of problem owners and building and playing with a system dynamics model to help

them tackle an organizational issue”(Lane, 2010, p. 461). The modelling part of this

definition refers to the researchers’practice of translating messy problems in causal

loop diagrams that reveal the dynamic structure underlying the issue. The causal loop

diagrams show the feedback processes at work and support the simulation of the

effect of changes in the system over time (Forrester, 1987). Participative (qualitative)

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