The CNR gender budgeting: critical analysis and possible uses

Over the past decades, the European Commission has urged to overcome gender differences in research and innovation to stop the leaking pipeline and break the glass ceiling and glass door. While Gender Budgeting practice is now fairly widespread, Gender Equality Plans are becoming consolidated as an eligibility criterion for HorizonEurope calls for proposals and the several European projects supporting their definition and implementation. Among them, the H2020 MINDtheGEPs project supports GEPs in seven implementing partners through a data-driven approach to tailoring measures to the needs of each organisation. Therefore, a large amount of information was collected for the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), both quantitative and qualitative, regarding personnel and policies and following up on the work done with the first Gender Budgeting in 2021. This work highlights the CNR’s path towards greater gender equality by analysing, from a mainstreaming perspective, the level of decision-making, recruitment (e.g., fellowships) and career progression of staff, work-life balance and research work according to the MINDtheGEPs project framework. The study is an opportunity to assess the administrative data, highlighting its current and especially its future potential, pointing out that although many improvements have been made, data collection and organisation limitations do not allow addressing gender differences in the less prominent aspects of workers in a public research organisation. Indeed, it is precisely in the internal processes and organisational culture that the strongest resistances and hindrances to gender equality reside. It is increasingly urgent to tackle the issue by studying and investigating the disparities between the nuances of the organisation.