6.2 Toolkit: Gender sensitive PhD supervision

A toolkit to enhance gender sensitive PhD supervision for supervisors has been develop by the FESTA team.

The objective of this Toolkit is to create awareness of the way gender affects supervisory relationships and to minimize the negative effect of gendered interactional patterns. There is a growing body of international evidence which demonstrates that women within STEM have more negative experiences of PhD education and consequently are more likely to leave academia. This loss of talent represents a cost in terms of lost research and innovation and maintains the male dominated culture in STEM. This Toolkit aims to enhance high quality in supervision by offering approaches and tools which will create gender awareness, enhance learning and support students to navigate the PhD journey in a supportive environment. There are many aspects and stages in the PhD supervision process: the research task; enculturation to academia; development of critical thinking; independence and the Supervisor/student relationship. We address several of the aspects which arise during the PhD programme and we offer recommendations for good practice. Gender issues can arise at any or all of the stages of a PhD. Addressing any one kind of bias contributes to a culture which challenges all kinds of bias and creates an inclusive learning culture. Many of the recommendations in the toolkit will benefit both women and men because they describe effective and high quality supervision practices.

Learn more here: http://www.festatool.eu/

Complete_Toolkit.pdf