The University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski” is among the first Bulgarian universities which take the initiative to adopt Gender Equality Plans in order to promote institutional changes in this direction.
The initiative is within SPEAR project (“Supporting and Implementing Plans for Gender Equality in Academia and Research”, https://gender-spear.eu/) funded by Horizon 2020 program.
The main goal of the PU SPEAR Team is to set a basis of promoting, strengthening, providing, ensuring and preserving equal access for university students and employees to all activities and opportunities, related to education and research.
The SPEAR-related activities at PU aims to:
- follow European and national policies to ensure gender equality for students, faculty and administrative staff;
- change the attitudes of PU community about gender-based traditions and stereotypes in society;
- find, to communicate and to raise awareness of the existing gender inequalities (even hidden) at the university;
- promote and disseminate culture of equality within and outside PU (through international, national and university activities, initiatives and networks);
- introduce gender dimensions in university organizational, educational and research activities in the interests of both students (incl. future students)and staff;
- increase women's participation in education and research in computer science and technology;
- raise awareness for gender equality opportunities at the university in order help improve PU image and make it a preferred university for future students, faculty and administrative staff.
As a result of the project, Gender Equality Plan will be created and adopted, and the University of Plovdiv will be among the first two universities in the country with Gender Equality Plans.
Until July 2020, the project team has done a detailed analysis of the gender-related state-of-play in PU based on a review of national and university policies on gender equality, collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data on gender equality issues, formal and informal discussions, talks and interviews with members of the academic community. To achieve the project goal, PU SPEAR Team systematically organizes initiatives (currently over 60) to raise the culture in the field of gender equality as well as to train and integrate various aspects of this topic in the activities and the structure of the university.
More information about the initiative can be found at https://gender-spear.eu/