ICGR Mini Tracks

The Mini Tracks for ICGR

• • • Female Gender Equality and Sustainability in Higher Education 
    • Gender Challenges in AI and XR: Stereotypes, Harassment & Ambiguity
    • Gender-Related Organizational Issues
    • Investigating the causes of Gender Pay gaps and Routes to Tackle this: A Comparative Perspective
    • Gender in Research Performing Organisations

Female Gender Equality and Sustainability in Higher Education 

Mini Track Chair: Dr Serene Dalati, Arab International University, Syria

The new reality of management emphasizes a shift from stability to change, from competition to collaboration, from uniformity to diversity and from conventional and bureaucratic management to contemporary and team-based management. Higher education institutions are no exception to this approach, and they need strong leadership in an academic environment that can transcend time, place, geography, race, and above all gender. The imperative to empower female academics, is accelerating, and as international global businesses rely more and more on the significant roles played by female academics and researchers. 

The aim of this mini track is to examine qualitative and quantitative approaches to research work related to female academics’ empowerment, equality and sustainability. Case studies on female role models in Academia, is valued and would bring relevant significance to the academic debate of this mini track.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Factors affecting Female Academic Researchers in higher Education 
• Empowering Female students in Business, Science and Technology 
• Gender policies and practices at Higher Education sector 
• Measuring Gender Gap in Academia  
• Female Digital Transformation 

Gender Challenges in AI and XR: Stereotypes, Harassment & Ambiguity

Mini Track Chair: Prof. Dr. Claudia Hess & Prof. Dr. Sibylle Kunz, IU International University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) have become increasingly integrated into our lives in recent years and are reshaping the way we interact with the world. AI-based solutions provide us with personalized interactions, help streamline tasks, and even make critical decisions about ourselves. XR offers immersive experiences that transform how we learn, communicate, and engage with our environment, blurring the lines between the virtual and physical worlds. Despite their promise, these technologies risk perpetuating and amplifying gender stereotypes and bias by relying, for example, on biased data sets, reflecting unconscious design choices, and often being developed by homogeneous teams. For example, AI-based recruiting algorithms have been found to downgrade female candidates' resumes and facial recognition technologies have higher error rates for women of color. In many VR experiences, avatars are stereotyped white males, but others enable users to change and experiment with virtual gender attributes, leading to more freedom and individuality in virtual identities.

On the other hand, female avatars in unregulated social VR environments also often suffer from sexual harassment, even up to virtual rape. Virtual embodiment emotions can thus become disturbing, repulsing or traumatic. Addressing gender issues in AI and XR solutions is critical, because these technologies shape societal norms, influence decision-making processes, and have far-reaching implications for equality and fairness. This mini track aims to understand the underlying causes and manifestations of gender-related challenges in AI and XR technologies and to create solutions by developing technological innovations, legal/regulatory/ethical frameworks and organizational practices.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Societal implications of gender-biased AI or XR solutions
• Detection and measurement of gender bias in AI or XR
• Sexual misconduct and harassment in Social VR environments
• Gender ambiguity in VR avatars
• Success stories and lessons learned from de-biasing initiatives
• Impact of existing and proposed regulations on gender bias

Gender-Related Organizational Issues

Mini Track Chair: Prof. R. Arzu Kalemci, Cankaya University, Türkiye

Workforce diversification across the world is becoming increasingly essential for organizations to be effective and efficient. There is still a significant lack of gender equality in relation to career advancement and leadership across the board in many sectors. In roles within senior mangament, women continue to be under represented  with there being large disparites in career development between genders. According to the UN Women Report (2022), if the glass ceiling is not broken, equality between men and women in management positions may not be achieved for another 140 years. This mini-track invites participants to understand and explain gender equality and its impacts on organizations.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Women and career barriers
• Women and leadership
• Corporate governance and gender equality
• Organizational culture and gender equality
• Gender equality in academia

Investigating the causes of Gender Pay gaps and Routes to Tackle this: A Comparative Perspective

Mini Track Chair: Dr Frances Hamilton, Associate Professor, University of Reading, UK

Many countries worldwide continue to experience significant gender pay gaps. Median gender pay gaps in 2021 for example were 18.5% in the US, 16% in the UK and 11.7% in Australia (OECD). Tackling the gender pay gap has been highlighted as an important issue by the United Nations. Sustainable Development Goal 5 sets out the target of ‘achieving gender equality’ and gender equality is also protected by international human rights bodies such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 7) and the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 14). Legislative approaches worldwide to tackling this issue include gender pay gap equal pay legislation, non-discrimination provisions, maternity leave, shared parental leave, gender pay gap reporting regulations, pay equity claims, pay auditing, gender pay gap reporting regulations, health and safety provisions and shared parental leave.

Yet gender pay gaps continue to exist due to a multitude of complex and varying reasons including the unequal division between men and women of caring responsibilities in the family, occupational segregation and discriminatory attitudes of employers. Gender pay gaps also vary with age, and in 2020 the Fawcett Society recorded women over 50 as having the largest gender pay gap. Certain professions also continue to have larger gender pay gaps, such as in Science Technology Engineering and Maths (‘STEM’) professions and in skilled trades. Through discussion on this track we hope to advance the debate and consider appropriate actions.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Gender pay gaps internationally.
• What can international bodies such as the UN do to tackle gender pay gaps?
• Causes of the gender pay gap.
• Solutions to the gender pay gaps.
• Gender pay gaps in particular professions.
• Historical causes of gender pay gaps.

Gender in Research Performing Organisations

Mini Track Chair: Dr. Sílvia Donoso López, Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona, Spain

In the European Research Area (ERA), there are objectives to increase women’s representation and retentions at all career levels and to promote the integration of a gender dimension in research and innovation. This should lead research organisations and higher education institutions to implement institutional change in human resources management, funding, decision making and also in research programmes. Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) provide a framework to undertake this institutional change and are assuming an increasing importance since they are required as an eligibility criterion for Research
Performing Organisations (RPOs) to get access to Horizon Europe funding. Despite the number of RPOs adopting gender equality policies at different levels increasing in recent years, still few women reach top positions in academia and research organizations with various issues stalling their career progression. In addition to this, the gender gap is still high among the enrolled students in several academic disciplines. Thus, there is a need for more research to examine these topics from a gender perspective and the purpose of this mini track is to explore this scope. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Gender Equality Plans in Research Performing Organizations
• Gender Budgeting: tools and applications
• Gender equality in recruitment, careers and retention
• Policies for work-life balance
• Gender equality monitoring: measures and indicators
• Tackling the gender gap within the student population
• Integration of a gender dimension in research content