Professionalising Gender Equality. Gender Controlling Between Resistance and Transformative Potential

Elisabeth Wiesnet
Hochschule München

Abstract

Gender controlling refers to the systematic integration of gender-related objectives, indicators and monitoring systems into planning, steering and evaluation processes in order to make organisational inequalities visible and to support transformational processes in a targeted way. In higher education institutions, gender equality has long been treated as a marginal field of action. With the introduction of gender controlling, it is increasingly repositioned as a strategic governance task and as a professional field of organisational responsibility. Within the framework of the German Professorinnenprogramm 2030 (PP2030), Munich University of Applied Sciences is currently developing a centralised gender controlling system. Based on the PDCA model (Plan–Do–Check–Act), a closed, structured and transparent control loop is being established to support the continuous development of gender equality goals and to contribute to a more gender-equitable academic culture. However, the implementation process should not be understood as a purely technical exercise. Rather, it constitutes an organisational negotiation process in which questions of responsibility, legitimacy and belonging are renegotiated. This process is accompanied by a range of challenges, including the establishment of sustainable communication and networking structures, questions of how to measure gender equality goals, and organisational resistance to governance-based equality instruments. At the same time, existing experiences indicate that gender controlling can sharpen responsibilities, open up new spaces for reflection, and more firmly integrate gender equality work into central organisational decision-making processes. he paper discusses both the challenges and the transformative potential of gender controlling. It situates gender controlling within the tension between organisational steering, professionalisation and gender equality policy, and analyses its significance for organisational transformation processes in higher education institutions. Drawing on a qualitative organisational case analysis of the implementation process at a German university of applied sciences, the paper aims to critically explore and productively further develop the potential of professionalisation through controlling in the field of gender and diversity.

Presentation