Increasing visibility of gender research through organising D&I lunches for researchers

RSM

Management

In the spring of 2022, the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations organised, together with the Equal4Europe research team, the first Gender D&I lunch at Rotterdam School of Management.

The lunches are held once every quarter at a location on campus, and lunch is provided for all participants. Participants are invited to present their gender research, add items to the agenda and forward this initiative to other researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam to widen the scope of this gathering.

The first lunch took place in May 2022, and 15 faculty members and PhD students joined this gathering. The group consists of assistant and associate professors, full professors, and the Dean of Executive Education at RSM. During the first lunch, one assistant professor presented her work on gender and inequality in multinational enterprises and their value chains.

Invitations for the second lunch have also been extended to D&I project managers and HR managers within RSM. Additionally, we have reached out to researchers from two other faculties within Erasmus University, namely the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. Other faculty involved may still join in at a later stage.

This initiative is meant to initiate a community of Gender and D&I researchers within our faculty and beyond. The aim is to get to know each other and learn from the work that has been done, bridge gaps, showcase work within our faculty, and explore opportunities for collaboration.

The concept of the lunch gathering is simple and low-key to foster participation and involvement. At each lunch, the executive director of Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations and the project coordinator from the E4E team will briefly update on ongoing work within the E4E project and other relevant work on gender equality at RSM. After the first agenda item, the floor is open to one of the researchers to present their (current) work on gender in 15 minutes, and a discussion and feedback follow. Next, there is an open dialogue on a range of topics relating to gender research. For example, networking at RSM & EUR, showcasing D&I work at RSM & EUR and learning from each other working on research grants in this field.

Reach out to gender researchers in other faculties in a better way.

Many academics are already engaged in gender, diversity and inclusion research at RSM. However, there is no sense of community or network, which we are trying to create through the lunches. This will open opportunities for better collaboration on future gender, diversity and inclusion research. We also aim to include more academics from other disciplines, allowing for interdisciplinary exchange and gender research.