Exploring the paper ‘Slaying the Seven-Headed Dragon: The Quest for Gender Change in Academia‘ – Brink, M.C.L. van den; Benschop, Y.W.M., 2012
Blog one of five, in a series by Dr Chrissi McCarthy.
Welcome to the second instalment of our research-to-social cycle blogs, where we examine a research paper that has had a big impact on our thinking and explore it through a day-to-day lens.
The week ahead
This month, for R2SC 2 we will be examining a paper that significantly influenced my thinking, helping me to understand why some equality approaches failed, even in a fairly well-perceived working environment. It informed the basis of the FIE (Fairness, Inclusion, Equity) model we use in all our practice.
I would encourage you to read it, cite it and share it. Then tell us what you thought. Did we miss a key point? Let us know, discussion is how we all learn more.
The paper: Slaying the Seven-Headed Dragon: The Quest for Gender Change in Academia
Year: 2012
Brink, M.C.L. van den; Benschop, Y.W.M.
Ever paused to ask why so many equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives stall or even backfire? Even in fairly perceived environments? What if the very actions meant to solve a problem are masking its actual cause? Or making the situation worse? This month’s Research-to-Social Cycle outlines what Brink and Benschop found.
Blog 1: Introducing R2SC 2
Blog 2: Why copy and paste EDI fails in academia (and what to do instead)
Blog 3: Smoke and mirrors – how a wrong approach can conceal the problem
Blog 4: When Equality practices make it worse, and how not to
Blog 5: Round up. To close the research-to-social cycle, our resident EDI outsider Natalie will review the blogs and offer her takeaways on what the research, and what we at COBE recommend to put the research into action in your workplace
What are the Research-to-Social Cycles?
Not everyone has the time or luxury to get up close with academic research in EDI, and even if they do, they might not have stumbled upon these particular papers.
So we want to bring you closer to the research we have found important by introducing you to a new research paper each month, on the third Monday of the month, with five blogs across that week.
We will discuss the research, its real-world impact, and what you can do to implement its findings. Perhaps importantly, these blogs will be written by humans rather than generative AI, so we can really understand the human element of the research and why it matters to us. (Note: I will never not be using Grammarly).
The idea behind the Research-to-Social Cycle blog series is to help bridge the research-practice gap in EDI. Currently, valuable research insights are being missed, which hinders our ability to improve our practice and our environments.
We want to help bridge that gap.
We hope you enjoy the series. Please let us know if we have successfully brought you closer to EDI research, so you can implement what is helpful in your practice.
Here is our schedule for 2025:
RSC1 Jun – Blogs start here
RSC2 Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
