CGIAR GENDER PROGRAM WORKING PAPER, NO. 4 STRENGTHENING WOMEN THE RECRUITMENT OF AT SCIENTISTS AND PROFESSIONALS THE INTERNAmONAL AGRXCULXUML RESEARCH CENTERS A Guidelines Paper Prepared by Sarah Ladbury CGIAR Secretariat World Bank Washington D.C. October 1993 Working Paper,No. 1 Statusof Internationally-Recruited Women in the InternationalAgricultural Research Centersof the CGIAR; DeborahMerrill-Sandsand Pammi Sachdeva; October 1992. SpouseEmploymentin Organizations Around the World: A Toolkit for Developing Policiesand Practices;Madelyn Blair, December1992. SpouseEmploymentat IRRI: A CaseStudy; DeborahMerrill-Sands; March 1993. Stmngthening the Recruitmentof Women Scientistsand Professionals at the InternationalAgricultural ResearchCenters:A GuidelinesPaper;SarahLadbury; October 1993. RecruitmentResources in Europe:A List of Professional Organizations;Stella Mascarenhas-Keys and SarahLadbury; October 1993. Filipino Women Scientists: A PotentialRecruitmentPool for International Agricultural Research Centers;ISNAR and PCARRD; October 1993. RecruitmentResources in the United States:A List of ProfessionalOrganizations; BonnieFolger McCla.%erty and DeborahMerrill-Sands,January 1994. Inventoryof Gender-Related Research and Training in the International Agricultural Research Centers,1990-1995;I-I&y Sims Feldsteinwith Alison Slack; October 1995. CGIAR Human Resources Survey: 1991, 1994,Key Observations on International S-g with a Focuson Gender;DeborahMerrill-Sands,October 1995. Women in Agriculture in West Asia and North Africa: A Review of the Literature, September 1995 GenderAnalysis in the CGIAR: Achievements, Constraints,and a Frameworkfor Future Action, October1995 GenderStafZngin the CGIAR: Achievements, Constraints,and a Frameworkfor Future Action, October 1995 SexualHarassment in the Workplace: How to Recognize It; How to Deal With It. JoanJoshiand JcdieNachison,October 1996 Maximizing RecruitmentResources: Using the World Wide Web. BonnieFolger McClatYerty,January1997 1997 CGIAR Human Resources Survey: InternationalStafling at the CGIAR Centerswith a Focuson Gender. DeborahMerrill-Sands,October 1997 Role of Boardsin AddressingGenderStaffing Issues. JoanJoshiand Deborah Merrill-Sands,January 1998 Working Paper,No. 2 Working Paper,No. 3 Working Paper,No. 4 Working Paper,No. 5 Working Paper,No. 6 Working Paper,No. 7 Working Paper,No. 8 Working Paper,No. 9 Working Paper,No 10 Working Paper,No 11 Working Paper,No. 12 Working Paper,No 13 Working Paper,No 14 Working Paper,No 15 Working Paper,No 16 CGIAR GENDER PROGRAM WORKING PAPER, NO. 4 STRENGTHENING WOMEN IHE RECRUITMENT OF AT SCIENTISTS AND PROFESSIONALS THE INTERNAmONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTERS A Guidelines Paper Prepared by Sarah Ladbury CGUIR Secretariat World Bank Washington D.C . October 1993 CONTENTS Table of contents Executive summary List of figures, tables and boxes Abbreviations Acknowledgements Foreword PART A. INTRODUCTION 1.0 About this study 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Aims Information sources Organisation of the paper Definition of internationally i . .. ill V vi vii ix recruited staff categories 7 9 9 9 9 13 16 18 18 21 23 24 25 PART B. FINDINGS 2.0 The CGIAR system today: Women where are you? 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 3.0 Introduction Proportion of women IRS Application rates of women IRS Recruitment rates of women IRS Recruitment methods used to attract applicants for the low proportion of women IRS Accounting 3.1 Lack of supply: Do women have the qualifications and experience needed by CGIAR centers? 3.2 Ineffective recruitment: Do CGIAR center advertising and recruitment strategies reach and attract women applicants? 3.3 Limited opportunities for spouse employment: Does this affect the recruitment of women IRS? Lack of desire: Do women find center 3.4 living and working conditions attractive? 3.5 Less access for women to postdoctoral fellowships and training opportunities: Are women represented in the pool of future recruits? i PART C. GUIDELINES I. II. III. lv. v. VI. VII. VIII. lx. PROMOTING CHANGE POLICY ADVERTISING STRATEGIES WRITlNG PO!%-ION ANNOUNCEMENTS SHORTLISTING INTERVIEWS SPOUSE/PARTNER EMPLOYMENT LIVING AND WORKING ARRANGEMENTS THE FUTURE RECRUITMENT POOL: WOMEN IQXDOCTO~L FELLOWS AND TRAINEES 29 31 33 37 43 47 49 52 55 58 60 62 63 63 66 70 LIST OF GUIDELINES References and Further Reading Annexes 1. 2. 3. People met during the consultancy Data from the CGIAR Gender Program recruitment survey, 1993 (tables) Publications used by CGIAR centers to advertise IRS posts ii EXECUTIVESUMMARY Question 1. Are women underrepresented as internationally recruited staff in CGIAR centers? Answer Yes. In 1993 women formed only 13% of all internationally recruited staff and only 20% of new recruits. The number and proportion of women qualifying in relevant disciplines has increased markedly over the past two decades. However, despite their significant efforts, centers are not yet fully exploiting this potential recruitment pool. (SeePart B, Section 2.0) Yes. If the full recruitment pool is not being exploited the best staff are not necessarily being appointed. Both gender and national diversity in the staffing group can contribute significantly to center effetiveness and qyicieny. (SeePart A, Section 1.11 Throughout. But there is considerable variation. The most disappointing finding is the small number of women applying for Associate Scientist posts (only 8% in 1991-92). Attracting mid-career women for Senior Scientist posts is also problematic-women’ s application rate for these posts was only 7%. (SeePart B, Section 2.31 A good chance. Our sample was small but it suggests that women have a higher than average chance of being appointed if they apply. Women formed one fifth of all recruits in 1991 and 1992 but only 8% of all applicants. (SeePart B, Section 2.4) For several reasons. Many do not hear about center vacancies. Others may not be attracted to the way the job and center are described. Limited opportunities for spouse/partner employment deter men from encouraging their female partners applications. Finally, women are underrepresented as postdoctoral fellows and traineesan important route into the CGIAR system for scientific staff. (SeePart B, Section 3.0) Action by the centers. Part C of this paper provides a complete set of guidelines for centers seeking to strengthen their recruitment of professional women by taking action in nine critical areas. See overleaf for some of the main recommendations in each area. 2. Does it matter if women are underrepresented at the international level? 3. Are women under-represented throughout the hierarchy or at senior levels only? 4. If women apply, what chance do they have of being shortlisted and subsequently appointed? 5. So why don’ t women apply? 6. So what is needed to improve centers’abilities to attract and recruit highquality women professionals? ... ill NINE CRITICAL AREAS FOR CENTER ACTION Promoting change Create an atmosphere conducive to change by demonstrating leadership from the top, building commitment amongst senior staff and enlisting the support of existing women staff. Monitor the process of change and communicate success stories as a basis for making further progress. Policy Make a policy commitment to increasing the proportion of women professional staff and spell out practical procedures to make the policy operational. Set targets for application and appointment rates. Launch a committee on gender issues in employment. Advertising strategies Use the broadest possible range of advertising strategies and channels to publicize vacancies. Make the Search Committee accountable for mobilizing applications. Target potential women applicants by, for example, placing advertisements in the publications they read, and by purchasing and screening mailing lists. Make sure you cover universities. Writing position announcements Make the job and the center sound as interesting and challenging as they really are. Emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of the job and its contribution to development. Actively encourage women to apply, giving details about the location and, where relevant, opportunities for spouse employment or job sharing. Shortlisting Include all suitably qualified women on the ‘ long shortlist (challenge the Search Committee if it does not list any women candidates). Find out about interpersonal skills and leadership qualifications, as well as more conventional selection criteria. Do not omit women on the basis of assumptions about their ability or willingness to work in a given location. Interviews Conduct fair, friendly and well-planned interviews, giving consistent coverage of key issues to all candidates. Interviewing panels should reflect the national and gender diversity of existing staff. Decisions should be made on the basis of each candidate’ s ability to do the job and not on the basis of personal attributes, such as gender or family status. Spouse/partner employment Provide clear policies and guidelines which state what the center will and will not do to help spouses/partners find jobs or training. Try to identify sources of funding to support spouse/ partner employment. Living and working arrangements Flexitime, split-location working, job-sharing options, a fair maternity leave policy, and an explicit policy on sexual harrassment are some of the features that will help your center attract women professionals. Rational and explicit prospects for promotion and opportunities for management training are also important. The future recruitment pool Create and implement strategies to increase the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows and trainees. Consult with donors and with national research/training directors on how this will be achieved. iv hSTOFFIGURES, TBLES AND BOXES Figures and tables in Part B (Findings) Table 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Table 6. Table 7. Proportion of women IRS, 1991 and 1993 Average number of applicants for selected advertised posts by center, 1991-92 Average number of applicants for selected advertised posts by post type, 1991-92 Male and female applicants by selected post type, 1991-92 Percentage of women appointed to all IRS posts by center, 1991-92 Percentage of women appointed to selected advertised IRS posts by type of post, 1991-92 Trends in the availability of women professionals Figure 1. Proportion of women applying for selected advertised posts by center, 1991-92 Figure 2. Proportion of men and women applying, shortlisted and appointed to selected advertised posts, 1991-92 Figure 3. Recruitment methods used to publicize vacancies for selected IRS posts, 1991-92 Figure 4. Recruitment methods which most influenced successful applicants’ decisions to apply for selected posts, 1991-92 Figure 5. Percentage of women in selected national institutions compared to their representation as trainees at IRRI Boxes in Part C (Guidelines) Box 1. Box 2. Box 3. Box 4. Box 5. Box 6. Box 7. Box 8. Box 9. Box 10. Box 11. Box 12. Box 13. Example of a policy statement in a Recruitment Procedures document Incorporating a policy statement into a Medium-term plan (IIMI) Incorporating a policy statement into a Medium-term plan (ICIUF) Casting the net widely: IFPRI’ s recruitment strategies Example of a covering letter encouraging the identification of women candidates Example of a position announcement Examples of equal opportunity statements in advertisements and position announcements Flagging the issue of spouse employment in the job advertisement Flagging the possibility of job sharing in the job advertisement Example of how the concept of spouse/partner is defined Example of a policy statement on spouse employment Example of how a center is seeking funding sources to facilitate spouse employment Example of a policy on sexual harassment V ABBREVIATIONS CGIAR IARC IRS Consultative Group on International Agricultural International agricultural research center Internationally recruited staff Research CGIAR-supported CIAT CIFOR CIMMYT CIP IBPGR ICARDA ICIXF ICRISAT IFPRI IITA ILCA ILRAD INIBAP ISNAR WARDA ICLARM centers Centro Intemacional de Agricultura Tropical (Colombia) Center for International Forestry Research (Indonesia) Centro Intemacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trig0 (Mexico) Centro Intemacional de la Papa (Peru) International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (Italy) International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (Syria) International Center for Research in Agroforestry (Kenya) International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (India) International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, USA) International Irrigation Management Institute (Sri Lanka) International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (Nigeria) International Livestock Centre for Africa (Ethiopia) International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (Kenya) International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (France) International Rice Research Institute (Philippines) International Service for National Agricultural Research (Netherlands) West Africa Rice Development Association (C&e d’ Ivoire) International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (Philippines) vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper is the result of discussions with and responses from many people in the CGIAR system. Thanks go to those who replied to the survey questionnaire, administered to all centers in early 1993. Filling in the questionnaire was a time-consuming task and required a good deal of research. My special thanks to the individuals who undertook this work I am also very grateful to all those at IRRI, IIMI and ICRISAT who were interviewed during the consultancy visits to these centers. Their ideas on what could be done provided much of the basis for the guidelines contained in this paper. Initiatives taken by these three centers provide examples of how recruitment procedures can be improved, and I am grateful to the Directors General concerned for their encouragement of innovatory practices, and for being so positive in their approach to the consultancy. Within the CGIAR Secretariat I have benefited greatly from the advice and experience of Deborah Merrill-Sands, consultant to the CGIAR Gender Program. I was most fortunate in being able to work with her at IRRI and in having her support and suggestions throughout the consultancy period. We asked staff at CIMMYT, CIP, ICRAF, IIMI, ILRAD, ISNAR and IRRI to read the first draft of this paper, and I was most grateful for the useful feedback we received from them. Special thanks also to Liz Field and Mike Collinson at the CGIAR Secretariat and to Jodie Natchison at IFPRI for their thoughtful and informed suggestions. Finally I would like to thank my own team: Don Robertson, who collaborated in analyzing the questionnaire and assisted in the layout of the first draft, Stella MascarenhasKeyes, for her research and compilation work, and Simon Chater for editorial assistance. While acknowledging the valuable contributions of all those mentioned above, I remain solely responsible for the views expressed in this paper. This study was sponsored by the CGIAR Gender Program, with IRRI, IIMI and ICRISAT providing co-financing for the center-specific consultancies. The CGIAR Gender Program is funded through special project funds contributed by the Australian Council for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), theUS Agency for International Development (USAID); the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ford Foundation, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada, the Overseas Development Administration (UK) and the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sarah Ladbury 25 September 1993 vii FOREWORD The work of the Gender Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in gender staffing is aimed at supporting the CGIAR-supported international agricultural research centers in their efforts to promote the recruitment, productivity, advancement and retention of women scientists and professionals within their organizations. The program was launched in 1991, with special project funding from seven CGIAR donors, and operates out of the CGIAR Secretariat at the World Bank in Washington D.C. The program is designed to respond to the needs and priorities of the centers and to support them in their efforts to diversify their staff through the integration of more women professionals. Strengthening the recruitment of women scientists and professionals into international positions at the centers is a top priority of the CGIAR Gender Program. Around the world, the pool of women working in fields central to the mandates of the centers has increased dramatically in the past 15 years. Yet the participation of these women in the centers remains quite limited. Strengthening their recruitment was a key recommendation coming out of the diagnosis carried out in 1991 on the status of internationally reauited women at the centers. It was recognized that the centers needed to cast their recruitment nets more widely to effectively exploit the expanding pool of women scientists and professionals. This recommendation was endorsed by the centers’ Directors General who attended two Senior Managers’ Workshops on Gender Issues held in Washington D-C. in 1991 and 1992. They indicated that they wanted the CGIAR Gender Program to give highest priority to providing support and developing recommendations for them on strategies and mechanisms for improving the recruitment of women international staff. This paper is a direct response to that request. It analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the current recruitment practices of the centers and then provides practical guidelines on how centers can strengthen their recruitment of women. The emphasis is on developing mechanisms for mobilizing applications from qualified women candidates and for ensuring unbiased review and selection processes. The paper is not advocating an ‘ affirmative action’ or quota approach. The guidelines build on findings and insights gleaned from consultancies carried out with four centers that have received support from the CGIAR Gender Program in strengthening their recruitment of women: the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Irrigation Management Institute UIMI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). This information is supplemented by data and information collected through a survey on recruitment practices completed by 14 CGIAR centers. The objective of this paper is to provide managers in the centers with a set of practical measures that they can take to strengthen the recruitment of professional women. These ix general guidelines will be supplemented over the course of the CGIAR Gender Program by further consultancies to centers interested in strengthening recruitment, in information on resources and channels for targeting women more effectively in recruitment efforts, and in the documentation of innovative approaches used at the centers and at other organizations. Deborah Merrill-Sands Program Leader, Gender Staffing CGUR Gender Program Mike Collinson ScienceAdvisor CGIAR Secretariat World Bank Washington D.C. X PART A 1 PART A. INTRODUCTION l.0 ABOUTTHISSTUDY 1.1 AIMS The central aim of this guideline paper is to recommend ways in which the international agricultural research centers @ARCS)can strengthen their ability to recruit women scientists and professionals into international staff positions. Centers are concerned to improve their ability to recruit women professionals for two reasons. First, in the interests of eciency. The centers operate in a competitive market for excellent candidates, in which women make up an increasingly large proportion of the total. If center recruitment strategies reach, say, only 25% of potential candidates there is little likelihood that the best possible candidate w-ill be appointed. The second reason is effectiveness.It is generally acknowledged within the CGIAR system that there are benefits in staffing diversity, in terms of both nationality and gender (Berresford, 1991). Because men and women are socialized differently and have different experiences they are likely to bring different skills, ideas and approaches to the work place. Diversity in staffing, which broadens the perspectives, ideas and experiences that are brought to bear on solving problems, is an important mechanism for stimulating innovation and contributing to creativity. In research organizations, innovation and creativity are important criteria for success. 1.2 INFORMATION SOURCES This paper, including the guidelines contained in Part C, was developed using four main information sources: 0 Three center-specific consultancies. The consultant spent two weeks each at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). In the course of these visits a total of 81 staff members were interviewed; their names are given in Annex 1. At each center interviews were held with heads of search committees, middle- and senior-level managers, recent recruits and women internationally recruited staff (IRS) based at headquarters. Interview files were also consulted, to look at the way posts were being advertised, how selection criteria were drawn up, what sort of questions were asked in interviews, how assessments were made and how preferred candidates were decided upon. The recruitment of postdoctoral fellows and 3 trainees was also considered, since these groups form a potential pool of future recruits for CGIAR centers. Workshops were held at two of the centers (IRRI and IIMI) to present initial findings and recommend and target feedback. Useful points from the feedback sessions are incorporated into this report. Information from a fourth consultancy, carried out by D. Merrill-Sands at the International Food Policy Research Institute (EPRI), has also been incorporated. The results of a survey on recruitment practices. Completed questionnaires were received from 14 of the 17 CGIAR-supported IARCs to whom the survey was administered’ . This survey was a follow-up to an earlier survey conducted in 1991, the results of which are reported in Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva (1992). Existing CGIAR and other publications on women and recruitment. These yielded additional background information for the study. The consultant’ s previous experiences. These provided a basis for comparison, and were especially useful in identifying strategies which have proved successful elsewhere. As part of this study the task of collecting the names of professional associations which could be used to publicize center vacancies was also initiated. So far, lists of relevant professional associations have been compiled for Europe and the United States. They will be published separately as CGIAR Gender Program working papers. 1.3 ORGANIZATIONOFTHEPAPER This paper is divided into three parts. The aims and background to the study have already been outlined in this section, which constitutes Part A. Part B summarizes findings from the center-specific consultancies and the survey. Possible reasons for the relatively low proportion of women in IRS positions are discussed and areas for action by CGIAR centers are identified. Part C suggests ways in which the centers could increase their chances of attracting and retaining professional women-both scientists and those in management and program support positions. The guidelines it provides are supplemented by examples of initiatives which are either already in operation or are currently under discussion by one or more centers. There were 17 CGIAR centers at the time of the recruitment survey. The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) joined the system after the survey period. The three centers not replying to the questionnaire were the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), which sent a letter giving details of two appointments, the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) and the International Network for the Improvement of Plantain and Banana (INIBAl?), from which no information was received. Recruitment trends at these centers are therefore not included in the figures presented in this report or its annexes. These centers each have none or only one woman IRS. Consequently their absence from the analysis is not a major distortion. 4 1.4 DEFINITIONOFINTERNATIONALLYRECRUITEDSTAFF CATEGORIES Throughout this report and its annexes the following designations of post types are used: Research: Post-doctoral fellow: recent Ph.D., short-term fixed appointment Associate scientist: Ph.D. with 3-7 years post-Ph.D. experience Senior/principal scientist: Ph.D. with more than 7 years post-Ph.D. experience. Program support: Training, publications, information, library, computer services, public relations and other functions. Management: All directors, division heads and program leaders Very few posts indeed were classified as ‘ administrative’ by centers answering the ._ survey questionnaire. In our analyses we therefore included the one or two administrative posts in the category of program support. 5 PART B FINDINGS 7 PART B. FINDINGS 2.0 THE CGIAR SYSTEM TODAY: WOMEN, ARE YOU? 2.1 INTRODUCTION This section presents an overview of recent application and recruitment trends at CGIAR centers and looks at the different recruitment methods used. Application and recruitment rates are analyzed and compared in order to assessthe success of current recruitment strategies in attracting and recruiting women professionals. The information used consists mainly of quantitative data collected through the recruitment survey. These data are compared with those of the earlier survey, presented by Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva (1992). Information collected during the three center visits is also used. It is important to note that, in the recruitment survey conducted for this study, centers were asked to state the total number of men and women they had recruited in 1991 and 1992 but to give detailed recruitment information for a minimum of six posts (more only if possible). This was to reduce the burden of work on centers. The result is that the majority of figures and tables contained in this report relate to these selected posts only and not to all posts recruited in 1991 and 1992. The exception is Table 5, which relates to all posts. This distinction is made clear in the figure/table headings, which refer to ‘ selected posts’ or ‘ all posts’ respectively. WHERE 2.2 PROPORTION OF WOMEN IRS In the 1993 survey centers were asked whether the proportion of women they employed in IRS posts had changed since the 1991 study. Only three centers reported a change; in two the proportion had increased (ICRISAT and the Centro Intemacional de Agricultura Tropical, CIAT), in one it had decreased (IFPRI). Assuming that the proportion of women IRS has remained constant in the other centers, the percentage of women currently employed as IRS in the CGLAR centers is now as shown in Table 1 (overleaf). It is likely that the proportion of women employed in the CGIAR system in 1993 has risen slightly from the 1991 average of 12% to approximately 13%. 2.3 APPLICATION RATES OF WOMEN IRS Centers were asked to give details of their application, shortlisting and appointment rates for recently advertised posts. As noted above, this information was requested for at 9 Table 1. Proportion of women IRS, 1991 and 1993 1991 1993 CEM@S IFPRI IIMI IITA ILCA ILRAD INIBAP IRRI ISNAR WARDA 1991 13% 10% 14% 3% 19% 10% 11% 12% 4% I ~1993 8% 10% 14% 3% 19% Not available 11% 12% Not available Center CIAT CIMMYT CIP IBPGR ICARDA ICLARM ICR4F ICRISAT 11% 15% 10% 10% 15% 15% 28% 28% 15% 15% Not available Not available 16% 16% 6% 8% least six posts per center. Details were given for a total of 134 posts, most of which (86%) were filled through open advertising. The remainder were filled through internal transfers or direct appointments and were not advertised. In this section the overall picture with regard to application rates is presented before going on to look at male-female differences. There was a marked difference between centers in the average number of applicants for advertised posts. Table 2 shows an average of 88 applicants per post for IIMI, compared to an average of 10 and 12 applicants per post for the Centro Intemacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CILMMYT) and the Centro Intemacional de la Papa (CIP) respectively. Table 2. Center CIAT CIMMYT CIP IBPGR ICARDA ICRAF ICRISAT Average number of applicants for selected advertised posts by center, 1991-92 Average No. of applicants 27 10 12 67 35 64 45 Center IFmI IIMI IITA ILCA ILRAD IRRI ISNAR Average No. of applicants 39 88 29 70 47 50 39 Reference: Annex 2, Table 3 This difference can be partly explained by the types of post included by centers in their sample. In general, application rates for program support and non-scientific management posts (e.g. Directors of Finance) were much higher than for scientific posts, so 10 centers which included a higher proportion of program support posts in their sample had higher average application rates. It cannot be assumed that the higher the average application rate the better the quality of applicants (or the greater the proportion of women who apply), but centers with an average of, say, only 20 applicants per post need to ask whether they are recruiting efficiently. Are they really tapping the potential which exists world-wide? Or could they do better? Table 3 shows that management and program support posts have the highest average number of applicants although, as noted above, the high average for management posts is partly explained by the high application rate for non-scientific as opposed to scientific posts. The low application rates for associate scientist posts and postdoctoral fellows are worrying. An average of only 15 and 10 applicants respectively may indicate a general lack of effort by centers in getting the word out about posts. Table 3. Average number of applicants for selected advertised posts by post type, 1991-92 Average Post type Management Senior scientist Associate scientist Program support Postdoctoral fellows Other’ No. of applications 58 38 15 51 10 20 Note: ’ Visiting scientists,research associates etc. Reference: Annex 2, Table 2. Turning now to the differences in application rates between men and women: men accounted for 92% and women for 8% of applicants to the posts selected by centers for the survey (Table 4, ovmleafl. As might be expected, application rates differed considerably by post typeThe most unexpected finding is that associate scientist posts attracted only 8% women applicants, even though these positions draw on younger scientists with 3-5 years postPh.D. experience. Data collected by Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva (1992) show that the proportion of women scientists now qualifying in the sciences is as high as 40% in some disciplines and in some countries. There appears to be a considerable discrepancy between the potential supply and women’ s actual application rates for associate scientist posts. The same argument holds for program support posts. At 16%, the application rate for. women is even lower than the proportion of women who currently hold these posts, 11 Table 4. Men and women applicants by selected post type, 1991-91 Applicants Women 133 103 15 108 29 40 428 Post type Management Senior scientists Associate scientists Programsupport Postdoctoral fellows Othd Total MeII 2257 1401 180 560 134 180 4712 5% women 6 7 8 16 18 18 8 Note: 1 Visiting scientists, research associates etc. Reference: Annex 2, Table 2. which stands at 24% (Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva, 1992). It might be argued that today’ s program support posts tend to be at a more senior level than those recruited for in the past and that they therefore attract fewer women applicants. However, the proportion of high-quality women working in such areas as training, information (documentation and publishing) and computer services has also increased over time, making this lack of supply’ argument unconvincing. The low proportion of women applying for management posts (6%) is less surprising given the relative dearth of qualified women in the agricultural sciences 15 years ago and the need for previous management experience for most management posts. But it is disappointing that the category of post which attracts most applicants overall attracts the lowest proportion of women applicants. A lack of supply may not be the only explanation It may well be that the ‘ old boy’ network for mobilizing candidates continues to work most effectively at this level, particularly within the scientific community. The proportion of women applying for senior scientist posts (7%) is disappointing, even given that these posts require a minimum of between 5 and 10 years experience. Supply trends indicate that a good proportion of women were qualifying in the social and biological sciences 10 or 12 years ago. Women constituted 27% of Ph.D.‘ s in the social sciences, 31% of Ph.D./s in the biological sciences and 14% in the agricultural sciences between 1980 and 1984 in the USA (Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva, 1992). In the Philippines over the same period women earned over 40% of the Ph.D./s in agriculture and related disciplines and over 50% of the Ph.D.‘ s in so&-economics at the University of Los BaCos, the leading agricultural university in the country. This disparity between supply and demand is explored in greater detail in Section 3.1. Application rates for women also differed by center, with more than half the centers surveyed having fewer than 10% women applicants and uve~u third having 5% or fewer women applicants (Figure 1). Although we should not read too much into comparisons 12 Figure 1. Proportion of women applying for selected advertised posts by center, 1991-92 % applying 20 17% 15 10 5 0 CIAT CIMMM CIP IBPGR ICARDA lCRAF ICRISAT IFPRI IlMl IITA ILCA ILRAD IRRI ISNAR Reference: Annex 2, Table 3. because the number of posts is relatively small, the fact that women are only 5% of applicants at some centers indicates the need for a serious review of advertising strategies. 2.4 RECRUITMENT RATES OF WOMEN IRS A comparison of application, shortlisting and appointment rates shows a steady increase in the proportion of women represented at each stage of the recruitment process. At the centers visited this was explained in terms of the quality of women’ s applications; a relatively high proportion of men tend to apply for jobs without having the basic qualifications required for the post. Women are more likely to apply only if properly qualified; they are therefore more likely to be shortlisted and, subsequently, appointed*. 1 ThehigherproportionofwomenshortIistedmayalsore~ecttheeffortsofsomecenterstoincreasethenumbers of women on their staff. Also, due to the non-random nature of the sample, centers may have inadvertently introduced a bias by selecting posts where women were better represented at later stages of the recruitment process. 13 The different ‘ progress’ of men and women through the recruitment process is demonstrated in Figure 2. The figure shows that as long as women apply they have a higher than average chance of being appointed. If this relationship is maintained, increasing applications from women can be expected to lead to a higher proportion of women IRS over time. It therefore makes sense for the centers to focus on ways of mobilizing applications from women. Figure 2. Proportion of men and women applying, shortlisted and appointed to selected advertised posts, 1991-92 % Men Women Applicants Shortlisted Appointed When all posts recruited by the centers in 1991 and 1992 are taken into account (i.e. not just the selected posts centers included in their sample for the survey>, we find that women accounted for 20% of recruits to ES posts (Table 5 upposi&e). As the table shows, the proportion of women appointed to IRS posts by center varied between 0% and 40%, with an average of 19%. However, it would be unwise to assume too much from these figures given the small numbers involved. Over half the centers had eight or fewer appointments, so even one female appointment significantly affected percentages. CIMMYT’ s 40% recruitment rate is impressive, especially during a period of overall contraction in staff, but it includes four postdoctoral posts appointed by outside recruiters, i.e. donorsAppointment rates, like application rates, also varied significantly by post type (Table 6 opposite).In general, women’ s appointment rates exceeded their application rates. In some cases the difference was quite large. For example, women were appointed to a much larger proportion (31%) of associate scientist posts than have been expected from their application rate (8%). 14 Table 5. Percentage of women appointed to to all IRS posts by center, 1991-92 Appointed Women 14 12 6 5 22 21 17 10 11 30 18 6 29 9 210 Annex 2, Table 1. CCM?I CIAT CIh4MYT CIP % women 26 40 33 17 21 22 15 17 8 21 10 33 9 0 19 IBPGR ICARDA ICRAF ICREAT IFPRI IIMI IITA ILCA ILRAD ISNAR 5 8 3 1 6 6 3 2 1 8 2 3 3 0 51 Totals Reference: Table 6. Percentage of women appointed to selected advertised IRS posts by type of post, 1991-92 Men 36 31 9 8 8 8 100 I * Post type Management Senior scientists Associate scientists Program support Postdoctoral fellows Othld Total Note: Women 5 9 4 5 8 3 34 % women 12 23 31 38 50 27 252 Reference: Visiting scientists, research associates etc. The 25% total appointment rate for women in this table is 5% higher than the appointment rate for all posts recruited in 1991-92, shown in Table 5. This indicates that there was a slight bias in the sample of selected posts chosen by centers for the survey. Annex 2, Table 2. At first glance women’ s appointment rate as postdoctoral fellows (50%) is also more encouraging than their application rate (18%). However, the postdoctoral posts included in the sample may not be representative of all postdoctoral appointments in 1991 and 15 1992 because some centers did not include postdoctoral fellowships when answering the survey questionnaire. IRRI, for example, appointed only 9% women postdoctoral fellows for 1991 and 1992 (3 out of 34) and ICRISAT only 15% (3 out of 20 between 1991 and 1993). This is a very different picture to that gleaned from the survey, where the number of women postdoctoral fellows appeared equal to the number of men. Based on evidence from IRRI and ICRISAT, and taking into account the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows in the CGIAR system overall (18% in 1991), it is probable that women continued to represent a minority of postdoctoral appointments in 1991-92. 2.5 RECRUITMENTMETHODSUSEDTOMTRACTAPPLICANTS Centers were asked to specify the recruitment methods they used. All centers relied on a range of strategies, the most common being open advertisement and the use of center contacts. Center contacts were activated in two different ways. All centers sent position announcements to a list of individuals and institutions requesting help in identifying suitable candidates. This list included past and present Board members, members of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the CGIAR, donors, heads of national research institutes and other professionals with close links with the center. In addition, some centers-and some Search Committees-made specific efforts to disseminate the position announcement to professional colleagues and to tap their personal networks. Other recruitment methods used by centers included encouraging applications from within the center, encouraging applications from other centers, and inviting specific individuals to apply. Figure 3 shows the main recruitment methods used for the 1991-92 posts about which centers gave details. Figure 3. Recruitment methods used to publicize vacancies for selected IRS posts, 1991-92 No. 80 60 I . Note: Reference: In center n=134. Other center Open advertisement Center contacts Invite Annex 2, Table 4. 16 Which of these methods is most effective in encouraging women professionals to appIy? Recent recruits filling these posts were asked this question and their responses are given in Figure 4. Open advertisements and center contacts are clearly considered the most important methods. Survey respondents did not distinguish between direct center contacts and indirect contacts which came via a professional colleague. However, this distinction was made by women in a separate study undertaken by Merrill-Sands in 1993, and the results are informative: whereas 31% of women (total respondents = 74) said they had heard of the vacancy through direct contacts wth staff at the center, another 19% said they had heard about the vacancy indirectly, through their network of professional colleagues. The importance of this informal networking in getting the word out about vacancies needs to be appreciated by centers and exploited to the full. The impression gained during the visits to the centers was that, although some Search Commitiees instruct their members to mobilize their individual contacts, others rely solely on the position announcement and on open advertising, doing little personal networking. Figure 4. Recruitment methods which most influenced successful applicants’ decisions to apply for selected posts, 1991-92 % 30 - 20 - Men Women 10 - O-) Invited to apply Internal promotion/ transfer CGIAR center Open contacts advertisement only Center contacts and open advertisement Other Note: Reference: 1 ’ The category center contacts and open advertisements reflects responses that stated that both these channels were influential in encouraging them to apply for posts. Individuals shortlisted for another post, recruited by donors or by national institutions, etc. Annex 2, Table 5. 17 Professional societies were little mentioned as advertising sources in this study. III Merrill-Sands’ study only 5% of women said they had learned of position announcements through professional society meetings or contacts. The recruitment strategies currently used by different centers and their apparent success in attracting good female (and male) candidates are discussed in more detail in Section 3.2. 3.0 ACCOUNTING WOMEN IRS FOR THE LOW PROPORTION OF Several reasons for women’ s low level of participation in the CGIAR system were suggested by those interviewed at the centers visited, and by center respondents to the auestionnaire. The most frequently mentioned reasons were: Lack of supply: it was argued by some IRS that only a small number of women have the qualifications and experience CGIAR centers need Ineffective recruitment: it was felt that fewer women than men are reached by current advertising strategies and that CGIAR center jobs are not presented in a way that attracts women professionals Limited opportunities for spouse/partner employment: this was seen to deter male and female applicants from applying for center posts, but to have a particularly adverse effect on women Lack of desire: some people said women prefer to work in developed countries and do not find the location of CGIAR centers or the working conditions attractive Less access for women to postdoctoral fellowships and training opportunities: it was felt that little effort is made to attract women as postdoctoral fellows or trainees and this limits their chances for future employment in the CGIAR system. Each of these arguments is considered below. 3.1 LACKOFSUPPLY: Do WOMENHAVETHEQUALIFKATIONSAND EXF'ERIENCENEEDEDBY CGIAR _ SUMMARY POINT Supply data indicate that there are still fewer women than men in the recruitment pool for CGIAR IRS. However, the number and proportion of highly qualified women has increased markedly in the past 15 years. The argument that more women cannot be recruited because they are not sufficiently qualified is difficult to substantiate. CENTERS? 4 18 One indicator of the proportion of women in the potential recruitment pool is the number of women qualified at Ph.D. level in the disciplines from which CGLAR centers recruit. Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva (1992) present comprehensive data on the proportion of women qualified in various scientific disciplines over the past two decades. Table 7 summarizes some of these data; however, reference to the full report is essential to appreciate the wider picture. Table 7. Trends in the availability of women professionals’ Percentage women recipients of graduate degrees in agricultural sciences in selected developed countries (1987-89) Canada W. Europe* E. Europe* New Zealand USA Note: Source: 36 29 30 28 27 * W. Europe data available for 11 countries only, E. Europe data available for 5 countries only. UNESCO Statistical Yearbooks. Percentage women recipients of graduate degrees in agricultural sciences in selected developing countries (various years+) Brazil QYPt Indonesia Korea Note: Source: l 29 23 32 II Year of data: Brazil 1992, Egypt 1987, Indonesia 1984, Korea 1989. UNESCO Statistical Yearbooks. Percentage women foreign graduates studying in the USA (199OF Agriculture Physical/ life sciences Social sciences Note: Source: 25 31 41 * About 8590% of foreign students come from developing countries. Institute of International Education, Profiles, 1991. Note: * Only disciplines relevant to center mandates were induded when calculating percentages. Continued 13~erle.af 19 Table 7. (cont.) Percentage of PhD.‘ s awarded to women by broad category, USA (1990-91) Forestry Agriculture Social sciences Biological sciences Source: 18 20 33 38 National Science Foundation, Survey of -orates. Percentage of PkD.‘ s awarded to women in selected disciplines, USA (19~91) Agronomy Agricultural economics Entomology Plant breeding Plant pathology Cell biology Foundation. Source: National Science Overall source: Compiled by MeniIl-Sands and Sachdeva (1992). 12 20 21 26 28 45 This table, and the much more comprehensive data presented by Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva, show that there has been a marked increase in the proportion of women qualified in science over the past two decades. Although data are not available for ail countries (they are particularly scanty for Africa and Latin America), and although the level of increase varies both by discipline and by country, the number and proportion of women in the pool of potential recruits is undoubtedly far higher than it was 10, or even 5, years ago. This increase ought to be reflected in CGIAR center application and recruitment rates. CGIAR recruitment rates for women are beginning to reflect supply: 20% of new appointees were women in 1991 and 1992. However, this rate will have to rise significantly if it is to have a noticeable effect on the proportion of women currently employed in the CGIAR system (13%). A simple example makes this clear. Assuming 1991 ES levels (1061 men and 145 women), an overall attrition rate of 16% per annum for men and women2, and a recruitment rate of 16% per annum with women accounting for 20% of those recruited, it would take 17 years for women to comprise just 20% of the CGIAR system workforce. Centers will therefore have to recruit a higher proportion of * The average attrition rate in 1990, according to Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva (1992). 20 women than at present if they are to significantly change their employment profile by the year 2000. In response to the increasingly competitive market for excellent candidates, the centers should diversify their recruitment strategies in order to capitalize on new and expanding sources of supply. Given the available data on supply trends, it seems likely that a good proportion of the as yet untapped pool of potential recruits will be women. Knowing this should help the centers direct their advertising efforts. 3.2 INEFFECTIVE RECRUITMENT: Do CGIAR CENTER ADVERTISING AND RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES REACH AND ATTRACT WOMEN APPLICANTS? SUMMARY POINT ThedataindicatethatCGIARcenteradvertisingstrategiesarereachingamuchhigherproportion of men than women. In addition, advertisements are placed in publications whose distribution is skewed towards developed rather than developing countries and towards male rather than female readers. Centers need to better target women and developing country professionals to ensure gender and national diversity amongst their IR!3. . Given the average application rate of 8% from women, we can conclude that centers’ recruitment strategies are not effectively reaching women. Centers currently use a combination of three broad recruitment strategies: open advertising, a formal letter to center contacts (e.g. board and TAC members, research institutes and universities) requesting assistance in identifying suitable candidates, and dissemination by Search Committee members and other staff of the position announcement to their professional colleagues. Several important points emerged from the examination of each of these strategies at the centers visited. To take advertising first. Each center spent a significant amount-up to US$9000 for some vacancies-on advertising in publications (details are given in Annex 2, Table 6). Despite this expenditure, at the time of the visit none of the centers monitored their applications in response to advertisements (IFPRI, IIMI and IRRI do so now, however). They therefore had no idea which publications yielded the greatest number of suitably qualified applicants or the greatest number of women applicants. Nor did they know the readership distribution of the publications used to advertise posts, in terms of either region or gender. This made it difficult to decide what additional efforts were needed to get vacancy information out to more women or to countries not well covered through open advertising- an important consideration given center commitments to national as well as gender diversity. An analysis by IFPRI of a recent recruitment process, for example, showed that only about 15% of the applicants had responded to advertisements placed in four major magazines/journals. 21 Annex 2, Table 7 reproduces the information on readership distribution acquired during the course of this consultancy. It covers three of the four publications most commonly used by the centers. It is clear from the table that the readership distribution of these three publications is heavily skewed towards certain regions, primarily the USA and Europe. These publications cannot therefore be relied upon to reach many potential applicants in developing countries. In addition, the readership of at least two of the publications is heavily skewed towards men. This indicates the importance of centers using a broad range of advertising strategies in order to recruit effectively. The second strategy used by most centers is to send out position announcements to individuals and institutions on their list of center contacts. These people are asked to act as ‘ resource persons’ , informing potential applicants of the vacancy. A breakdown of this list for the three centers visited revealed that the normal profile of an individual on the center contacts list was that of a male (93% were men, n = 992) director or manager of an institution who is not university based (fewer than 10% of the individuals on the lists had a university contact address). This profile was felt by women IRS to have several negative implications for the recruitment of women professionals. It was felt, for example, that: l If the position announcement is sent mainly to men the likelihood is that it will be distributed mainly to men. This is because men are less likely than women to have women in their professional networks. Networks are built up through a combination of shared professional interests and social interaction, and social interaction in all countries is more likely to take place between individuals of the same sex. Managers are not necessarily in a position to seek out professional women colleagues and to encourage them to apply for CGIAR center posts. They may not know the capabilities of younger women who are distant from them in the institutional hierarchy. In addition, many research organizations, like the CGIAR centers themselves, are keen to increase their own proportion of women professionals, not to facilitate their transfer to another institution. The small number of university contacts on the center lists is a serious constraint to women being informed of center vacancies. A good proportion of professional mid-career women are attached to universities, and much more effort needs to be put into mobilizing applications from them. l l A final point concerns the way posts are described in position announcements. How should advertisements be worded so that they attract women professionals? A recent CGIAR Gender Program survey of women IRS asked them what had induced them to apply for their job in the center. Eighty percent of the 74 respondents said they were attracted to work in the CGIAR system because research and its results would be practically applied in a development context. Another reason, given by the IRS interviewed during this consultancy, was the interdisciplinary nature of much CGIAR system research. Clearly, post descriptions should stress these attributes. 22 3.3 LIMITED OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPOUSE/PARTNER EMPLOYMENT: DOES THIS AFFECT THE RECRUITMENT OF WOMEN IRS? suMMARYPoINT Limited spouse/partner employment opportunities in the country of posting was one of the main reasons given in both the interviews and the questionnaire on ‘ why women don’ t apply for CGIAR posts’ . This problem was also seen to affect male recruitment. To strengthen recruitment, centers could better inform potential candidates of the possibilities for spouse/partner employment and could help spouses/partners find work or training in the country of posting. l Spouse employment has been the subject of two recent working papers in the Gender Program series (Blair, 1992; Merrill-Sands, 1993a). These papers discuss in detail the issues involved; only their most pertinent findings are therefore presented here. As a factor, limited spouse/partner employment opportunities was seen to affect women more than men. It was felt that men would discourage their spouses/partners from applying for CGIAR posts if their own work options were limited or non-existent in the country of posting. Women, on the other hand, were more likely to follow their husbands and to put their own career on hold, at least for a time. Limited spouse employment opportunities was also thought to affect position acceptance and retention rates. lLR4D and CIMMYT both cited examples of jobs being turned down due to lack of employment opportunities for spouses. It is worth considering the experience of different centers with regard to spouse/partner employment: Only one center, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), is actually prevented from employing spouses. IBPGR is bound by the rules of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which prohibit spouse employment ICRISAT was the only center at the time of the consultancy to have offered two full-time IRS posts to an incoming couple in order to ensure the primary candidate was able to say ‘ yes’ to the offer of appointment Of the 14 centers responding to the survey, 8 had a total of 22 couples employed in IRS posts. Available evidence suggests most were recruited separately to IRS posts or met and were married after they were appointed Consultancy opportunities for spouses/partners exist at several centers, but these tend to be informal, are generally unpublicized and depend on the spouse/partner taking the initiative once in-country Information about opportunities for spouse/partner employment, either outside or inside the center, is rarely communicated in writing to applicants for posts, shortlisted candidates, or the spouses/partners of existing IRS. 23 The lack of information about spouse/partner employment opportunities means that applicants and their spouses/partners rarely get a clear picture of this as a basis for making a decision on whether or not to accept a post. This is particularly serious for short-listed candidates. Information is needed not only about the possibilities for spouse/partner employment at the center or in the local area, but also about the tax and visa implications and, in general terms, about where spouses/partners might go for advice and help on employment issues. Measures that the centers could take to fill this ‘ information gap’ are given in the Guidelines (section VII>, together with examples of policies and practices adopted by those centers which have already taken initiatives on this issue. 3.4 LACK OF DESIRE: Do WOMEN FIND CENTER LIVING AND WORKING CONDITIONS ATTRACTIVE? SLTMMARY POINT Most women IRS did find CGIAR center living and working conditions attractive. However, they had some suggestionsas to how specific aspects of center life could be improved for women. This broad question was asked of all women IRS interviewed and was also covered in the survey questionnaire. For most women the answer was ‘ yes’ , they did find center living and working conditions attractive. However, they raised the following issues as matters of concern: l Center location. Most women IRS interviewed were positive about the location of their center and the country in which it was situated. Security was a consideration for single women, but they were quick to point out that this would be a concern wherever they were living. The main suggestion made was that centers should do more to dispel negative myths- where these e.xisted and were unfounded-about country locations. In particular, a more positive description of center locations could be given in position announcements. To take an example: ICRISAT advertisements note that Hyderabad ‘ . _.has good access by air to several international airports.. .‘ . This seems to imply, ‘ the best thing to do once you’ re in Hyderabad is to think about getting out of it again.. .I, whereas in fact Hyderabad has many positive features which could have been mentioned instead. This issue is addressed in the Guidelines (Section IV). The ‘ invisibility’ of women. Many women IRS interviewed commented on the invisibility of women in the CGIAR system. They thought this could be one reason for the low number of applications from women. Women are invisible in two ways. First, there is a real shortage of women in high-profile positions, particularly as board members and as managers, including division heads and program l 24 leaders. Indeed, women IRS commented that in many centers it would be possible for candidates to visit for an interview and never meet a senior woman scientist or manager. Women IRS interviewed by Merrill-Sands at IlTA (April 1993, personal communication) felt strongly that one of the reasons why IITA has a relatively high proportion of women is because women applying are positively impressed by the number of women they meet when they come for interview. They spread the word to others and this reinforces the impression that IITA welcomes women professionals. Centers need to pay attention to the image conveyed to interviewees and to ensure that, at the very least, women are represented in selection panels and take their turn as heads of Search Committees. The second way in which women are relatively invisible is in center publications. Although there is now an effort to portray women farmers in center literature and videos, there is rarely any mention- and very few photographs of or interviews with-women scientists and other professional women staff. The use of the term ‘ he’ in some center publications to describe farmers, extension agents and scientists is another way in which women can be made invisible. Several IRS commented on the need for centers to use gender-neutral language in both internal and external documents. High-quality women applicants, who are likely to have several employment options, will tend to shy away from organizations that appear overtly male-dominated and insensitive to gender issues, even if this appearance belies the reality. l Professional titles. In some centers male staff seemed unaware of the importance of the language used to describe women colleagues. For example, there was a tendency to call all women with doctoral degrees ‘ Miss’ or ‘ Mrs’ to distinguish them from their male colleagues, who were called ‘ Dr’ . Professional respect is partly conferred through the use of titles, and women felt this issue was not being given the attention it deserved in some centers. Other issues mentioned by women IRS included promotion prospects, maternity leave and the opportunity to take management courses. Recommendations on these and other issues are given in the Guidelines (Section VIII). 3.5 LESS ACCESS FOR WOMEN TO POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES: ARE WOMEN REPRESENTED IN THE POOL OF FUTURE RECRUITS? SUMMARY POINT Women do not appear to have equal accessto postdoctoral fellowships or training opportunities at present. Centers need to pay much more attention to how they might attract more women postdoctoral feIIows and trainees, especially those from developing countries. . 25 0 Posfdoctoralfellows. The proportion of women postdoctoral fellows is important because a postdoctoral fellowship has been a key route into the CGIAR system for women. Of the women working at the centers between 1988 and 1991,39% had entered the center as postdoctoral fellows (Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva, 1992). As noted in Section 2.4, the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows in the CGIAR system as a whole was 18% in 1991-19 women and 88 men (Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva, 1992). Whether this represents an increase over previous years is difficult to say because gender-disaggregated data for all CGIAR posts were not available before the Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva study. However, if IRRI and ICRISAT figures are indicative of trends in other centers, it may be that the proportion of women recruited to postdoctoral fellowships has actually fallen over the past two decades, and that a smaller proportion of the potential pool of qualified women is now being recruited to postdoctoral positions than 20 or 30 years ago. The overall proportion of women in these positions over time has been only 11% for IRRI (45 out of 418 since 1964) and only 15% for ICRISAT (14 out of 96 since 1974 >. This is a very disappointing result, given the marked increase in the proportion of women qualifying in agricultural and related sciences over this period. Two reasons were given by staff at the centers for the relatively low proportion of women postdoctoral fellows: l There are still relatively few women with Ph.D.‘ s in relevant agricultural disciplines in the developing countries with which centers collaborate Postdoctoral positions are not widely advertised and a good proportion of them are filled through the personal contacts of existing IRS staff. l The first argument does not hold for all developing countries: in the Philippines and Thailand, for example, women constitute a substantial proportion of PhD’ s in the agricultural sciences (in the Philippines, over 40% in 1980-84).In other countries, the situation is likely to change over time. Until it does so, however, the centers can do little about such supply constraints (except ensure that women have an equal chance to attend center training courses, see below). In contrast, the lack of comprehensive advertising strategies for postdoctoral positions is something for which the centers alone are responsible, and which they can rectify. 0 Trainees(short course, MSc. and Ph.D. students). In 1990 women constituted 22% of Ph.D. trainees and 26% of M .Sc. degree trainees across all centers (Merrill-Sands and Sachdeva, 1992). However, their distribution appeared very uneven between centers. For example, of the total number of trainees attending ICIUSAT courses between 1974 and 1992, only 14% were women (327 out of 2276). Data from IRRI compare figures from the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) on the proportion of women in selected national agricultural research systems with the proportion of IRRI women trainees attending IRRI short courses. These data are presented in Figure 5. 26 Figure 5. Percentage of women in selected national institutions representation as trainees at IRRI % women in NARS I as IRRI trainees 50 - compared to their 40 - 30 - 20 - 10’ 0Vietnam Myanmar Thailand Indonesia Cambodia Laos 7 Malaysia Bangladesh Egypt In all countries the participation of women on IRRI courses is less than their representation in the national system. In Thailand this difference is only slight, but in most other countries, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, it is marked. This indicates that one of the reasons for the low proportion of women trainees may be a bias in the way trainees are selected for training courses by national systems. Certainly, there is no indication of a conscious effort to select women for training courses on the basis of their representation in the national system. Contact with CGIAR centers through a postdoctoral fellowship or training program is a vital first step for both developed and developing country women in agricultural science. Several reasons for their low participation in both types of program have been cited here. One thing is clear: at IRRI and ICRISAT there was no strategy to posifively encouragewomen to apply for postdoctoral fellowships or to encourage IRS to identify women for postdoctoral positions. These centers, and others with a similarly low representation of women postdoctoral fellows and trainees, need to take action immediately if they are to increase the pool of women professionals available in the future. Recommended strategies for increasing the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows and trainees are given in the Guidelines (Section IX). 27 PART C GUIDELINES PROMOTINGCHANGE POLICY ADVERTISINGSTRATEGIES WRITINGPOSITIONANNOUNCEMENTS SHORTLISTING INTERVIEWS SPOUSEEMPLOMMENT LIVING ANDWORKINGARRANGEMENTS THE FUTURERECRUITMENTPOOL LISTOFGUIDELINES 31 33 37 43 47 49 52 55 58 60 29 A NOTE ON USING THESE GUIDELINES These guidelines provide practical suggestions to CGIAR centers wishing to improve their ability to attract and retain women internationally recruited staff (IRS). Although the specific focus is on women IRS, many of the guidelines also apply to men. Some guidelines are specific to international appointments, but others could also be applied, if centers so wished, to the process used to recruit national staff. The guidelines cover nine themes. boxes provide examples of individual action’ . guidelines ‘ in Not every guideline will be appropriate for every center. Centers are encouraged to use the guidelines to identify priority areas for action and to adapt them to their own needs and circumstances. 30 PART I. PROMOTING CHANGE C. GUIDELINES This section deals with some of the conditions to be met if the changes proposed in these guidelines are to be implemented successfully. Change is not just a mechanical process; it implies new attitudes and behaviour. * DO demonstrate leadership from the top Directors General and their deputies are key to the change process. If centers are to make good use of these guidelines, their leaders must demonstrate support both for the principle of increasing the proportion of women IRS and for the action needed to achieve this aim. * DO build commitment amongst senior managers and involve them in the process of planning change Senior managers also need to be committed to increasing the proportion of women IRS and to be able to explain the thinking behind new policies or procedures (e.g. they need to be aware of the efficiency and effectiveness arguments cited in Part A). If misunderstandings occur and there are complaints from staff about ‘ reverse discrimination’ or a bias towards ‘ affirmative action’ , senior managers need to be able to refute such claims. They need to be able to explain that center policy is not to select on the basis of gender, nationality or any other personal attribute but to increase the proportion of women applicants so that this reflects their numbers in the pool of potential recruits, and then to select the best person on the basis of relevant and consistently applied recruitment criteria. * DO get women IRS on board as allies in defining and implementing the changes you propose Women Board members and women IRS are a valuable resource because they themselves have been through the recruitment process. Women IRS interviewed for this study had a wealth of ideas on how to better inform and publicize center vacancies among women professionals in their country of origin and the sorts of questions they did and did not want to be asked in 31 interviews. Centers are therefore encouraged to use women Board members and IR!Swho are interested in the recruitment issue as a ‘ think tank’ for proposed changes, and to get them on board early in the planning process. * DO project a positive attitude to gender-in-employment issues and communicate your successes in increasing the proportion of women IRS Centers should be explicit about their commitment to attracting more women professionals. This commitment can be effectively communicated in a Medium-term Plan (see Guideline II and Boxes I,2 and 3) or the center’ s newsletter. IIn addition, there are many professional associations and networks which send a regular journal or newsletter to their members. Articles or letters on, for example, the ways in which the number of women applicants were increased for a particular job would be of interest and value to other centers. They would also be good public relations, and might encourage more women professionals to apply for IRS posts. * DO monitor the process of change, especially the implementation of those guidelines chosen by the center for priority action Agreeing that action is necessary and/or that these guidelines provide a model which could be adapted for center needs is one thing; actually implementing the proposed changes is another. It is strongly recommended that each center identify a monitoring body or set up a review process which will enable progress to be measured over time. A review body could comprise the staff member responsible for recruitment, an existing working group or committee which would agree to take on the monitoring process as an additional task, or a new working group set up to help adapt these guidelines and then monitor the implementation of agreed changes. Such groups have proved effective in other organizations that have made a commitment to recruit more women. 32 POLICY * DO develop a policy statement signalling your center’ s commitment to increasing the proportion of women IRS. A policy statement is a clear indication that a center is committed to recruiting and retaining more women professionals. It also provides a yardstick against which progress can be assessed in review processes. (See Boxes I,2 and 3 for examples of policy statements which have been incorporated into a recruitment document and two Medium-term Plans respectively.) 5 DO explain why this policy has been adopted, i.e. why it is important to hire more women The efficiency and effectiveness arguments for hiring more women need to be spelt out in policy statements (see Section 1.1 and the example in Box 1). A note on the proportion of women IRS currently employed by the center and the proportion of women in the potential recruitment pool (as evidenced by supply data) will help to convince readers. * DO ensure all policy goals are backed up by written operating procedures Policy statements on the need to attract and retain women IRS should be backed up by procedural guidelines on how this will be done. The Recruitment Policy and Procedures document needs to specify the methods to be used to ensure the vacancy is given the widest possible coverage and reaches potential women applicants. The same is true for center Terms and Conditions of Service and for policies addressing the issue of spouse employment. Policy statements alone are insufficient. * DO define targets to be achieved within a given time period Many organizations committed to recruiting more women professionals have used targets to help them maintain both their focus on the issue and their momentum in implementing change. Setting targets has proved to be an 33 effective tool for spreading responsibility and accountability among managers and staff and communicating the priority the organization attaches to diversifying its staff group. Note that targets are not the same as quotas. Targets are something to be aimed at. If, despite best efforts, they prove unrealistic, they can be reviewed and changed. Targets should not be pursued by cutting comers- lowering the standard of staff recruited or appointing someone on the basis of their gender or nationality. They are simply a management tool which encourages an organization to monitor its progress and to keep its priorities in view. It is therefore recommended that centers adopt targets to help them monitor their progress in attracting and recruiting more women IRS. Targets could be adopted for application rates (e.g. ‘ Our target is to have a minimum of 30% of applications from women for all posts advertised this year’ ), or they could relate to the proportion of women IRS employed by the center by a given date (see Box 2, paragraph 1.2). In either case targets should be based on what centers think is feasible, taking into account available supply data and any practical constraints they know to exist. For example, if it is known that the proportion of women qualifying in a given subject area in 1989-90 was 35%, then it would be logical to set 35% as a target application rate from women for an associate scientist post. * DO institute a committee with responsibility for diversity or gender-inemployment issues In the interests of ensuring proper center discussion about diversity issues generally and gender-in-employment issues specifically, and to ensure that new recruitment initiatives do not fall solely on one person (e.g. the Personnel Officer or deputy Director General for Administration), centers are strongly urged to set up a committee or working group devoted to these issues. Committees should comprise male and female IRS and may include spouses/ partners. It is recommended that the terms of reference for such committees include: (i) advising the Director General/Management Group on all diversity/gender-in-employment issues; (ii) drafting policies and procedures which relate to diversity/gender-in-employment (i.e. adapting these guidelines for center use); and (iii) publicizing the effectiveness of any new procedures introduced to increase the proportion of women IRS and developing country nationals. It DO NOT confuse gender staffing with gender analysis Gender staffing policies need to be clearly distinguished from policies relating to gender analysis in research. Increasing the proportion of women 34 professionals in the IRS group is primarily a staffing issue and should be dealt with in the context of recruitment policies and procedures. Gender analysis is a research tool and should be dealt with in the context of research methodology and priorities. Nor is there necessarily a causal relationship between the two: recruiting more women scientists does not guarantee greater attention to gender analysis. As Posts (1991) points out, effective gender analysis is best achieved through training both men and women to apply gender analysis techniques. EXAMPLESOFPOLICYSTATEMIENTS Box1. Example of a policy statement in a Recruitment Procedures document International Staff General Guidelines and Operating Procedures for Recruiting 1.0 1.1 General Principles Center X strives to be an equal opportunity employer. This means we wiII try to ensure that women and men in all countries will have the opportunity to: l Apply for center positions.We will endeavour to operate an efficient system for distributing advertisements and position announcements to women and men worldwide l Be appointed on fhe basis of stated selection criteria. In selecting staff we will not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion or marital status. 1.2 We are committed to increasing the proportion of applications from women professionals for two reasons. Firstly, in the interests of efficiency.We want to tap the full range of expertise available but we believe our advertisements currently reach only a small proportion of eligible women professionals. Secondly, in the interests of 4fectiveness. We believe that the gender and national diversity of our staff group contributes to our intellectual strength and makes us a more effective research organization. We are keen to further diversify our staff group in terms of both gender and nationality. We will make special efforts to make sure women are informed about position vacancies and are encouraged to apply. In addition, we will strive to offer a living and working of environment at headquarters and country-based posts which is sensitive to the needs both male and female professionals, whether married or single. 1.3 Source: Adaptation of consultant’ s recommendation to ICRISAT. 35 Box 2. Incorporating a policy statement into a Medium-term Plan (IIMI) 1.0 1.7 Diversity Center X is committed to increasing the diversity of its staff group in terms of both gender and nationality. We believe that gender and national diversity within the staff group contributes to the intellectual strength of our center and its problem-solving capabilities. We will intensify our efforts to recruit qualified women scientists and administrators through a carefully targeted advertising strategy aimed at women professionals. We will also increase the proportion of women in graduate and postdoctoral fellow programs by allocating fellowships funded by the center to men and women on a 50/50 basis. Finally, we will discuss the center’ s staffing objectives with our national colleagues and agree a strategy to increase the representation of women on the center’ s short courses. By the year 1998we anticipate that the center will have increased the proportion of women IRS from its current level of y% to z%, We also anticipate that the ratio of women Board members will have increased from x women Board members out of xxx to xx women Board members out of xxx. We will achieve both these targets while maintaining and, ideally, increasing the quality of our staff group and Board membership. We will also intensify our efforts to recruit more staff from our major partner countries. We will do this by.. . 1.2 1.3 Source: Consultant’ s recommendation to IIMI. Box 3. Incorporating a policy statement into a Medium-term Plan (ICRAF) ICRAFis sensitive to the level and type of participation by women in research and dissemination activities as well as in management and information. Even though the scientific disciplines required by ICRAF have traditionally come from areaswhere the pool of potential recruits is not very large, ICR4F’ s female staffing level compares favorably with other CGIARcentres. A study conducted by the CGIAR showed that, in 1991, ICRAF was one of the three centers with the highest percentage of female internationally recruited staff. Furthermore, ICRAF has female representation in senior and middle-level management in resesearch and dissemination programs as well as administration. I Source: ICRAF Medium-term plan, 1994-98. 36 III. * ADVERTISING STIUTEGIES DO use diverse mechanisms to advertise each post Evidence from both the survey questionnaire and the centers visited suggests that the most effective advertising strategy is to use as many diverse channels as possible for getting the word out about vacancies. This is the major lesson learnt from a recent recruitment exercise at IFPRI (Box 4). It is therefore recommended that centers use ALL the advertising channels described below, if time and resources permit: l Open advertising in journals, newspapers, etc Sending the advertisement to all other IARCs Mobilizing a wide range of resource people by sending out position announcements Sending advertisements directly to appropriately center’ s database of potential applicants qualified women on the l l l l Advertising in the newsletters of professional associations and networks Using purchased mailing lists and doing direct mailings Informal networking with professional colleagues and acquaintances to identify potential applicants. l l * DO hold the Search Committee responsible for mobilizing applications Search Committees should be held responsible for deciding on an advertising strategy and for mobilizing applications. It is strongly recommended that Search Committees adopt targets for the number or proportion of applications they expect to mobilize from women. They should base these targets on supply trends, keeping in mind past application rates from women for similar posts. If these targets are not met, Search Committees should be asked to explain why, and what action they recommend for the future. If, on the other hand, there is a marked increase in the number of applications from women, the advertising strategies used by the Search Committee should be publicized within the center for the benefit of future recruitment exercises. 37 * DO make special efforts to place advertisements in journals and newspapers that are targeted at women or that have large numbers of women subscribers. Make use of professional association newsletters. Advertising vacancies in association newsletters is cheap and an excellent way of reaching practising professionals. Centers are particularly encouraged to advertise in newsletters which target women professionals, for example, those of the Association for Women in Development, USA, and the Association of Women in Science (see Annex 3). Many professional societies would also be prepared to run articles on the CGIAR if supplied with appropriate text. To raise the awareness of women professionals who are not currently familiar with the centers and their work it is recommended that the CGIAR Gender Program play a leading role in placing articles on the CGIAR system and its work in women’ s professional magazines, with the express aim of stimulating readers to apply for vacancies at the centers. * DO increase the number of women who are regularly sent position announcements (i.e. women on center mailing lists) Centers need to enlist the help of all staff and managers in building up the number of women on center mailing lists. As already argued in Section 3.2, if women comprise only 7% of the individuals on such lists (the average figure for IRRI, IIMI and ICRISAT), then it is hardly surprising that the vast majority of position announcements are currently distributed by men to men. cc DO send a covering letter with position announcements urging the receiver to publicize the post to women as well as men Position announcements tend to reach a larger proportion of qualified men than qualified women (see Section 3.2). One solution is to urge resource people in a covering letter to make a special effort to inform suitably qualified women about the post. The trouble with covering letters is that people stop reading them if they say the same thing each time. Letters need to be adapted as circumstances change. A good example of an initial covering letter is given in Box 5. When the same individuals are informed of subsequent vacancies they will be sent version two (this thanks the individual concerned for recommending women candidates/Board members) or version three (this reminds them that the center is still concerned to attract women candidates and asks them please to continue giving this issue their attention). Zn other words, if covering letters are to be sent out for one vacancy, subsequent letters for other vacancies need to acknowledge individual responses in an appropriate way. 38 * DO make use of purchased mailing lists to inform specific target groups of vacancies Many good, potential candidates are nof looking for jobs. They have a position with which they are more or less satisfied. They will not scan the jobs pages of newspapers for advertisements, but if information about an interesting vacancy lands in front of them they may consider a change. This is why professional networks are an important recruitment channel and why direct mail makes sense. An additional benefit of direct mail is that it helps mobilize applications from developing countries by reducing the time it takes for an announcement to reach potential candidates. Many professional associations are prepared to sell mailing lists of their members at very reasonable rates. Often organizations can search their membership or mailing list on the basis of criteria supplied by the client, i.e. they will select for discipline, country of origin, level of qualification, male/ female, etc. In this way relevant individuals can be identified and targeted, saving time and money by not mailing everyone on the list. A recent experiment by IFPRI with purchased mailing lists indicated that the highest response rates to various advertising mechanisms for a Director-level position came from direct mailings to individuals selected from the mailing lists of professional societies (see Box 4). * DO target university departments When a vacancy is first announced, all Search Committee members and all members of the division or program concerned should be asked to name university departments which might furnish applicants. Position announcements should then be sent to all these departments. The majority of scientists interviewed in the centers visited thought universities were the most likely place to find potential women applicants. Yet IRRI, IIMI and ICRISAT each sent fewer than 10% of their position announcements to people based at universities. Centers should systematically extend their university contacts to include countries and universities outside their current networks. u DO maintain a database of potential women applicants and mail them directly with news of relevant jobs The CVs of women applicants who are not appointed but could be considered suitable for other posts should be kept on file. These individuals can then be sent notifications of center vacancies as they arise. This ‘ Potential Applicants’ database can be built up in several ways. For example, center staff should be 39 encouraged to identify suitable women applicants while at conferences and other professional fora and to pass on their names and addresses to the person responsible for maintaining the database. * DO monitor advertising strategies and regularly revise them in the light of results Monitoring is essential if centers are to identify the channels which most encourage women to apply. By using a different code for each advertising source it is possible to compare over time (i) the number of applicants responding to each advertising source, (ii) the proportion of women responding to each source and, where relevant, (iii) the nationality of candidates responding to each source. A recent IRRI position announcement for an Agricultural Engineer requests applicants to ‘ refer to Code IR-AE-01’ in their application letter (see Box 5). This code informs the center that the applicant has replied to a position announcement sent to an individual on IRRI’ s ‘ Friends List’ , i.e. the mailing list of center contacts. Different code numbers (02,03,04, etc) were given to advertisements placed in the Economisf, in Agrunmy Nezus,in professional newsletters and so on. Given the high advertising costs incurred by some centers (see Section 3.2) and the low proportion of women applicants, this is an excellent way for a center to identify which advertising sources work best for different types of post-and which don’ t. All centers that do not currently monitor the effect of their advertising are strongly advised to do so, and to adopt a method similar to that described above. * DO NOT advertise posts which will, in the end, be filled through a direct appointment by the Director General There are at least four methods of recruiting staff to CGIAR centers: direct appointment by the Director General, internal transfer (this may or may not mean the post is advertised), appointment by a donor, and open advertising. Although open advertising is by far the most common method used by the centers today, 14% of the appointments detailed in the recruitment survey questionnaire involved posts which had not been openly advertised. The important point is not to combine open advertising and a direct appointment. If a direct appointment is to be made by the Director General (a continuing practice in a few centers), then it should be made. If the post has been openly advertised, then full interviewing procedures should be followed. The 40 worst of both worlds occurs if a direct appointment is made, or a candidate is earmarked for appointment, after the advertising process has begun. This serves the interests of no-one. It is unnecessarily costly and wasteful of staff time and it is particularly unfair to candidates who apply in good faith and who do not have, in reality, any chance of being selected. EXAMPLES OF ADVERTISING Box 4. STRATEGIES Casting the net widely: IFPRI’ s recruitment strategies In 1993IFIXI undertook recruitment for a Division Director position. believing that diversity of staff contributes to excellence, IFPRI made a strong commitment to try to increase applications from women and developing country professionalsThe final selection of a candidate has yet to be made. As always, the seiection will be based on identifying the person most suitableand best qualified for the position. The results of this exercise demonstrate that systematicefforts to reach female professionals do indeed result in higher rates of applications from women. IFPRI’ s strategy was to use diverse mechanisms to disseminate the announcement as widely as possible and to take special measures to target women and developing county professionals. The institute used six key advertising mechanisms: l l l l l l Direct mail to 500 people on IFPRI’ s mailing list Direct mail to about 30 women identified by the CGIAR Gender Program Direct mail to people included on the division’ s mailing list for publications Direct mail to 3600 people on mailing lists rented from five professional societies. To reduce costs, the mailing lists were filtered to include only women, and men living in developing countries Advertisements placed in six professional newsletters, including two targeted specifically at women Advertisements placed in four magazines and journals. The process was monitored and a databaseof applicants established so that IF’ PRI could evaluate the outcome. The recruitment effort resulted in significantly higher numbers of applicants and a higher proportion of women applicants. A total of 223 applications were received, a number markedly higher than the average of 45 received for two Division Director positions recruited in 1991-92. Women applicants, numbering 56, comprised 25% of the pool. In contrast, only five women had applied for the two previous positions, representing 6% of all applicants. The quality of the women applicants was high. Women accounted for50% of theapplicantsincluded in the first and second screening, as well as of the short-listed candidates invited for interviews. The highest percentage of women responded to direct mailings of the position announcement. These included direct mailings to center and CGIAR Gender Program contacts, to people on mailing lists from professional societies, and to individuals included on the division’ s own mailing list. Source: Merrill-Sands (personal communication). 41 Box 5. Example of a covering letter encouraging the identification candidates of women INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH INSTlTUTE 26thFebruary1993 Dear Colleague: Subject: Recommendation of candidates for Agricultural Engineer, Cambodia Enclosed is an announcement for the position of Agricultural Engineer, to be stationed in Cambodia within a bilateral project specially financed by the Government of Australia. We would appreciate your bringing this to the attention of suitable candidates. IRRI has had very few women applicants for various openings-approximately 5% of the total number these past few years. In view of our commitment to ensure that women professionals are informed about IRRI positions, we seek your help in actively bringing this announcement to the attention of women professionals in your institution, preferably those in related disciplines. We wouId also appreciate receiving from you a list of names from universities or organizations where there may be a potential pool of women candidates, and the names of any senior women to whom we may send the position announcements directly. Thank you. Source: Adapted from a letter sent by IRIU, February 1993. 42 WRITING POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS Position announcements and job advertisements have two functions: they attract potential applicants and they project an image of the organization. Although the focus of the guidelines below is on making advertisements more attractive to women applicants, most of the points apply also to men. Ic DO make the center sound lively and the sort of place where YOU would want to go and work Many current center advertisements are dull. A few simple changes would make them far more appealing. Centers should try using active words in the mission statement and when describing the position. Expressions such as ‘ challenge’ , ‘ innovative’ , ’ stimulating’ , ‘ dynamic’ , ‘ contribution’ and ‘ commitment’ will help convey a sense of excitement and service. Using the active voice and addressing the reader directly can make the advertisement sound more user friendly--Your qualifications will include . . . you will be.. .‘ , etc. Centers are strongly encouraged to try out some new phrases and make their jobs sound as interesting and challenging as they really are. Box 6 provides an example of a position announcement. * DO NOT overstate the number of years experience needed for the post The MINIMUM number of years experience considered necessary to do the job should be stated on advertisements. As one center staff member remarked: ‘ Someone with 10 years experience is not necessarily twice as competent as the person with 5: some people just repeat the same year 10 times’ . Advertisements which state the need for 10 years experience when 5 will do automatically disqualify a proportion of potential applicants. Because women as a group are more recent entrants to center professions, they are likely to be particularly disadvantaged by this practice. * DO emphasize the applied nature of the post (where this is relevant), its contribution to development and its interdisciplinary nature. Evidence from the survey suggests that the development orientation and interdisciplinary nature of CGIAR system work are particularly attractive features for women applicants (see Section 3.2). Centers should therefore consider using words such as ‘ development’ , ‘ applied’ and ‘ interdisciplinary’ 43 in advertisements for posts where these words accurately describe the nature of the work and/or center philosophy and practice. Where there is space to elaborate on what these terms mean in the context of the post, all the better. cc DO actively encourage women to apply in a thoughtfully worded statement Because most organizations say they are “equal opportunity’ employers the phrase has ceased to mean much. However, if the ‘ equal opportunity’ statement is thoughtfully worded it can still effectively signal a center’ s intention to operate a fair and open recruitment process. It is best to avoid using the term ‘ affirmative action employer as this may not accurately reflect center policies and in any case the meaning of this phrase is not clear outside the USA. Two suggested ‘ equal opportunity’ statements are given in in Box 7. * DO mention facilities and services in the local area For both married and unmarried people, the environment outside work can be just as important a reason to apply for a post as the job itself. Centers are strongly encouraged to include a brief, positive description of the location and to mention key factors in the local environment, e.g. childcare facilities and schools for children, a safe environment (an important consideration for single women>, sports facilities, and so on. * DO signal opportunities for spouse employment (where these exist) in the country of posting and encourage candidates to fax for more information One of the most important factors discouraging applications from individuals with professional partners is the presumed lack of opportunities for spouse employment. IF there are opportunities for spouse employment in the country of posting, either within the center or outside it, then centers need to make this clear on the advertisement. Ideally, centers should have a ‘ Facts Sheet’on spouse employment prospects to send out to interested applicants. This would include legal, tax and visa provisions for partners who want to work. Details about what the center is (and is not) prepared to do to facilitate partner employment inside or outside the institute would also be given. This issue is discussed in section VII of these guidelines. Examples of how the issue could be flagged in the advertisement are given in Box 8. * If job sharing or joint appointments are a possibility, DO make this clear in the advertisement If job sharing or a joint appointment is considered feasible, this should be stated as a possible option in the advertisement. Box 9 illustrates possible 44 wording on job sharing. IITA now has a jobsharing couple, and CP has recently made a joint appointment. The issue of job sharing is dealt with in more detail in Section VI of these guidelines. EXAMPLES OF ADVERTISEMENTS AND Box 6. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS Example of a position announcement INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE Position Announcement for Agricultural Engineer For Assignment in Cambodia The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is seeking a highly motivated, dynamic and creative agricultural engineer to join its research team on a five-year project in Cambodia. IRRI is known worldwide as a center of research excellence dedicated to generating and disseminating rice-related knowledge and technologies that are environmentally, socially, and economically sound and that benefit present and future generations of rice producers and consumers, especially those with low incomes. The institute is an autonomous, non-profit organization, one of 18 international centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The research center and administrative headquarters are at Los Baiios, Philippines, with scientists posted in 12 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The institute seeksto recruit outstanding staff with the ability to work in multi-cultural and interdisciplinary environments and with a strong desire to collaborate with colleagues in national agricultural research systems. Responsibilities: Based at the institute’ s office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, you will be part of an interdisciplinary team working on the adaptation of agricultural equipment to enhance labor productivity and the sustainability of rice-based agriculture. Among your major tasks will be to assist Ministry of Agriculture personnel in encouraging the manufacture and distribution of small-scale farm equipment. You will have expertise in small farm equipment utilization and production, and in engineering issues relating to tillage, cropestabiishment and protection, and weed control. Qualifications: Y ou should have relevant engineering qualifications, preferably a higher degree, and engineering experience pertinent to rice production. Experience in SE Asia or developing countries is highly desirable. Fluency in English is essential. IRRIprovidesagender-sensitive workenvironmentandparticularlywelcomeswomenapplicants. Salary and perquisites for this project position are internationally competitive. Application: Applications with.. .(Please refer to Code IR-AE-01 in your application letter) Source: Adapted from an advertisement placed by IRRI, February 1993. Note: Ideally, this advertisement would also include details about the local environment and a contact number for information on spouse employment. 45 Box 7. Examples of equal opportunity announcements statements in advertisements and position ISNAR is committed to attracting more professional women. In the caseof two equally qualified candidates, preference will be given to the female candidate. source: Adapted from an ISNAR position announcement. is an international and equal opportunity organization and believes that diversity of its staff contributes to excellence. IFPRI therefore encourages applications from female and developing country professionals. IFI% Source: IFPRI. Box 8. J!lagging the issue of spouse employment in the job advertisement We are responsive to the needs of dual-career couples. Candidates with partners keen to find work in the country of posting should fax immediately for details. Fax.. . !SOUrCe: Consultant’ s recommendation. Box 9. Flagging the possibility of job sharing in the job advertisement Candidates wishing to job-share are invited to apply. Please send both CVs and a supporting statement indicating how you envisage the work being divided. OR: This position is suitable for job-sharing. Source: Consultant’ s recommendation. 46 V. SHORTLISTING It is easy to miss potentially good women candidates when shortlisting. Compared to their male colleagues, professional women are less likely to be plugged into the CGIAR network and to be known personally to Search Committee members. Women candidates may also have had less opportunity to attend conferences (especially if this meant travelling abroad) and, due to a lack of time or contacts, may have their names on fewer international publications. This does not mean that they are less suitable or able than their male counterparts for a particular post. Women’ s potential strengths may be overlooked if their suitability is not carefully investigated. * DO ensure that all suitably qualified women candidates are put on the long shortlist (e.g. lo-30 candidates), even if they do not fully meet all the ‘ first sift’ shortlisting criteria Centers tend to shortlist in two or more ‘ sifts’ . The aim of the ‘ first sift’ is to reduce the number of CVs to a size which can be conveniently discussed by the Search Committee. First-sift shortlisting criteria tend to be those which can be quickly applied, for example, a minimum number of years experience since obtaining a Ph.D. Jincluding management experience where management is an aspect of the job), a given number of publications in international journals, and employment in institutions of high repute. For the reasons described above good women will, on the whole, have less chance than good men of getting through the first sift. The fact that they might be better qualified in other aspects of the job (e.g. in terms of interpersonal skills, team management, interdisciplinary work) may go unnoticed because these things are not normally explored at the first sift stage. There are two solutions. Ether Search Committees should ensure they use the full range of post-specific selection criteria for the first sift (this will be time consuming), or they include women on the first shortlist even if they do not fully meet the ‘ first sift’ criteria, on the basis that they may have compensatory strengths in other areas. This latter course of action is more practical and means that all women candidates will have the chance of being discussed by the Search Committee (the first sift is usually done by just one individual). This is the course of action already practised by r-l&II. 47 * DO find out as much information about candidates as possible; DO NOT forget to find out about interpersonal skills and leadership capabilities Some individuals have many years management experience but are not good managers; others have scores of publications yet have made little contribution to science. Women candidates may appear a risk simply because they have fewer years experience or fewer publications than their male counterparts. Search Committees should do all they can to get beyond the numbers and acquire a full picture of each candidate’ s abilities, including their interpersonal skills. For candidates whom no-one knows this will require asking for detailed references and using personal networks to obtain additional information. m- DO NOT omit women from the shortlist on the basis of assumptions about their ability to work in a particular country or location About half the male staff interviewed during the center visits could think of at least one country to which they would hesitate to send a woman. The question Would anyone hesitate to shortlist a woman for this post simply because she is a woman?’ needs to be asked by the Search Committee Chair at the beginning of a shortlisting session. It is quite unacceptable to rule out all women applicants on the basis of stereotypic assumptions. What one individual regards as a ‘ difficult’ country for women is often regarded in quite a different light by women themselves who have lived and worked there. * If, despite following the guidelines above, the Search Committee manages to shortlist only men, DO ask it to explain why Requiring Search Committees to specify why they were unable to shortlist any women candidates is a useful way of double checking on the appropriateness of the selection criteria used. For example, if the most frequently stated reason for not shortlisting women is lack of sufficient experience’ then the committee should be asked to consider whether the amount of experience it requires is really essential for the post. Putting the onus on Search Committees in this way can also help identify constraints to women’ s recruitment elsewhere in the system. For example, the fact that women are not shortlisted because of their ‘ lack of experience’ may indicate the need for more careful targeting of position announcements to senior women through professional associations and universities. A different advertising strategy would then need to be adopted for the next post advertised at this level. 48 VI. INTERVIEWS Interviews were not discussed in the findings section (Part 8) of this report, so a few introductory observations are in order. The main function of interviews is to test for characteristics which cannot be gleaned from a CV. They can also be used to confirm or negate points made in a personal reference (references cannot always be taken at face value). They are particularly good for indicating personal qualities, and provide interviewers with a chance to assess non-quantifiable aspects of an individual’ s experience: their ability to get on with others, to manage effectively, to take difficult decisions, to work in an interdisciplinary context, to motivate others, and so on. Decisions taken on the basis of interviews are subjective. There is nothing wrong with this-indeed, it cannot be avoided-but it must be recognized. If interviews are well planned the panel are more likely to make a considered judgement after hearing all the evidence. However, this does not rule out the possibility of panel members taking ‘ for’ or ‘ against’ a particular candidate because of personal attributes which have little to do with their ability to do the job. Good planning can reduce personal biases, but it will rarely eliminate them. Interviews are one of the channels through which institutional culture is discussed, negotiated and, sometimes, changed. Every time an appointment is made the organization is saying, in so many words: ‘ this is who we are; this is the direction we want to go in’ . The problem with periods of economic cutbacks and funding uncertainty is that interview panels tend to become risk-averse and to go ‘ for the devil they know. This can have a negative impact on individuals who represent minority populations in the CGIAR system. Women are one such minority and may be seen as a greater risk than male candidatesHaving made these preliminary remarks, the following guidelines are recommended: * DO make sure interviewing panels reflect the diversity of existing staff, in terms of both gender and nationality Interviewing panels tend to feel most comfortable with people like themselves. The more similar the members of the panel the less tolerant they tend to be of ideas and experiences which they do not share. If panel members themselves represent a range of views and experience, there is a better chance that all candidates will get a fair hearing. Seek the same diversity in selection panels as in the staff of the institute as a whole. 49 * DO cover the same set of issues with each candidate (these should be based on the key selection criteria) The same general set of issues should be covered with all candidates, although the way in which each issue is treated needs to vary. The aim is to enable panel members to evaluate candidates against the same set of criteria while affording individual candidates opportunities to talk about their own experience and skills. * DO plan interviews properly. The interview panel should meet for a planning session before the first interview Interview panels will be effective if they have decided on the question areas to be covered with each candidate, the panel member who will cover each area, the method they will use to evaluate candidates, and the weighting they will give to each criterion- Sufficient time should be set aside for a planning meeting which covers these issues, ensuring that each panel member understands the approach to be used and his or her role in the interview. * DO give candidates every opportunity to perform well in the interview Even if not selected, candidates should at least leave the center feeling that the interview process was fair and friendly. Interviewees who have positive memories of an interview can be relied upon to promote the center’ s image and reputation; those who did not enjoy the experience are unlikely to be good ambassadors. The following is a selection of points made by candidates interviewed recently by the centers visited. They should be incorporated into each center’ s recruitment procedures document. l Give sufficient rest time before the interview. The effects of jet-lag can severely affect performance If candidates are expected to give a seminar, send them guidelines to ensure they prepare relevant topics Explain the nature of the interviewing process and, in particular, the role of non-panel members in decision making Arrange for candidates to meet relevant people outside the interview panel, but not a cast of thousands. Being interviewed by a large number of staff, each for a short period, does not necessarily increase the amount the candidate is able to communicate about herself or learn about the center Allow time for discussing non-work issues: schools, accommodation options, possibilities for partner employment, etc. Some candidates leave the center without having had time to investigate these issues. l l l l * DO ask specific, problem-solving type questions Vague questions allow those with good interview skills but little knowledge to excel; specific, problem-solving type questions tend to reveal a candidate’ s ability to think and act rather than just talk. * DO delegate just ONE person to talk to each candidate about his or her home and family situation Some women complained that they had been asked about their partner and/ or children by mery interviewer (alternatively, that they had been asked how they would manage being single). This had made them feel that they were being judged on the basis of their marital and family status rather than on the basis of their professional competence and suitability for the post. It is better to give one person the responsibility for covering issues relating to all aspects of living at the center, including facilities, services, and constraints encountered by partners and family members. Ic DO NOT use marital or family status as a selection criterion Candidates should be selected on the basis of their ability to do the job. Candidates themselves should make the decision about whether their personal and family circumstances make the job a suitable one for them and their partners/families. The center’ s task is to make sure that the candidates have enough information to make this decision. * DO encourage the spouses/partners of short-listed candidates to come to the interview It is strongly recommended that centers invite spouses/partners to accompany short-listed candidates when they come for interview. There are several advantages to this: a couple can take an informed, joint decision to come if offered the post; the spouse/partner can spend time finding out about relevant facilities and services (schools, accommodation, work opportunities, social life, etc); and, most important, it signals to spouses/partners that the center considers them an essential member of the community. For spouse/partner visits to work, two things must happen. Firstly, suitable travel arrangements must be made. Centers which give business class tickets to shortlisted candidates might reasonably ask them to exchange these for two economy tickets. Centers which do not give business class tickets should be prepared to pay for an additional economy ticket; spouses/partners are unlikely to come otherwise. Secondly, proper arrangements need to be made to enable the spouse/partner to make the most of their stay. This requires organization by center staff and, ideally, assistance from existing spouses/ partners, who are the best qualified to talk about local living conditions. 51 VII. t SPOUSE/PARTNER EMPLOYMENT employment DO develop a policy on spouse/partner Despite widespread interest in and concern over the issue of spouse/partner employment, few centers have a written policy statement or document outlining what they are prepared to do to facilitate this. It is therefore strongly recommended that centers develop such a statement. It should cover: . A definition of the concept of spouse/partner l (see IIMI’ s definition, Box 10) A policy statement detailing the center’ s approach to the spouse/partner employment issue (see ICRISAT’ s policy statement, Box 11) Details of what the center is willing to do to help spouses/partners find employment A brief description of any host country laws that will affect working spouses/partners Whether job-sharing between spouses/partners is encouraged and under what circumstances . l l l b DO write operational guidelines for each aspect of the spouse/partner employment policy Policy statements on spouse/partner employment need to be accompanied by operational guidelines, so that the procedures to be followed are clear. For example, if a center is keen to encourage spouses/partners to take up consultancy positions within the center, then the way in which spouses/ partners are to be informed about consultancy opportunities and decisions and the basis on which they will be selected and paid need to be spelled out. Similarly, if centers are prepared to employ spouses/partners in full-time positions which will not be openly advertised, the steps to be followed by management in making such appointments need to be described in detail. * DO encourage spouses/partners to participate in discussions about spouse employment issues The involvement of spouses /partners in discussions about spouse employment issues is important for two reasons: firstly, because spouses/ 52 partners are well placed to know about spouse/partner employment needs and the ways in which centers might respond to these; secondly, because spouses/partners are an intrinsic part of the CGIAR center community and it is therefore appropriate to involve them in discussions on practical and policy issues which will affect them directly. d DO set up, as an initial step, an information system to help spouses/partners find work or training opportunities in the local area. Include information regarding the tax and visa options for working spouses/partners It is very important that both incoming and existing spouses/partners are informed of work or training opportunities in the local area. Ideally, this information should be kept in the center and disseminated to incoming IRS and their spouses/partners by a designated member of staff (e.g. a member of Personnel), who would also be responsible for ensuring that the information is kept up-to-date. t DO earmark resources to support spouse/partner employment, or at the very least, identify sources of possible funding Centers are likely to need funding to make their spouse/partner employment policy operational- ICRISAT has signalled its commitment to identifying sources of funding for this purpose in its Medium-term Plan (see Box 12). It is strongly recommended that centers identify potential funding sources and that they do this prior to the time.when expenditure is required. EXAMPLES OF SPOUSE/PARTNER EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES BoxlO. Example of how the concept of spouse/partner is defined Declared Companions The board specified the conditions for recognizing a declared companion and authorized the Director General to treat such companions as spousesunder IIMI’ s International Staff Terms and Conditions of Employment. Conditions for recognizing a declared companion are as follows: l that the companion needs to be declared at the time the staff member joins IIMI that the declaration should attest the relationship between the staff member and the companion has been going on for at least 1 year prior to the staff member’ s joining IIMI that a staff member is only entitled to declare one companion during the staff member’ s career with IIMI. l l confinued ovehaf 53 Box 10. (cont.) TheBoard madeitcIear that theinstitute would notacceptanyresponsibility for thedependants of declared companions since, according to Policy 2.5, only natural or legal children offhe staff monber may be considered authorized dependants. It should be noted that the institute’ s group life, health and accident insurance coverage could be applicable to declared companions only if (per insurance company rules) the relationship is stated in a notarized contract. s decision to treat declared companions as Source: Adapted from IIMI memo detailing the Board’ spouses, 6th May 1992. Box 11. Example of a policy statement on spouse employment ICRISAT is aware of the employment needs of dual-career families. In recognition of the fact that the trend towards dual careers will continue and strengthen, the institute will assist in identifying employment opportunities for spouses both at ICRISAT and within the local community, subject to host government policies. Opportunities depend on a spouse’ s background, experience and interests. Source: Adapted from ICRISAT’ S Summary Policy Statement on Spouse Employment, 1993. Box 12. Example of how a center is seeking funding sources to facilitate spouse employment Complementary projects . ..In the event that core funding is inadequate. . . we may be obliged to seek complementary funding to enable us to address the lower ranked, but nevertheless important, themes of our proposed portfolio. . . .We would expect part of our complementary funding to be utilized to provide the equivalent principal staff to be used in support of a pro-active gender staffing program The of three center has experienced considerable difficulty in recruiting principal staff in recent years due to the increasing employment expectations of spouses in dual-career families. This trend is expected to strengthen in the coming years. Unless ICRISAT is provided with additional resources explicitly earmarked to facilitate the negotiation of contracts for dual-career families..., we face the real prospect of being unable to attract the preferred candidates for future vacancies. Source: Adapted from ICRISAT’ S Medium-term Plan. 199498. 54 VIII. LIVING AND WORKING ARRANGEMENTS The guidelines in this section aim to help the centers provide an attractive working environment for women IRS. Many of them are relevant to men as well as women1 . * DO consider introducing the option to work flexitime Flexitime working can be particularly advantageous to those with children and/or spouses/partners in full-time work. All centers are encouraged to introduce flexitime working as an option. Of course, at times when the staff member’ s work would be adversely affected by such an arrangement it would be necessary and appropriate for her to agree to work standard hours. DO consider split-location working and job-sharing for individuals professional spouse/partner with a It Job-sharing is likely to be particularly attractive to dual-career partners who are both keen to keep up their professional skills and would not apply for posts in a location where this was not possible. From an organizational point of view job-sharing can be advantageous insofar as the skills of two individuals can be utilized rather than just one. At IITA one couple job-share a plant pathology position; CIl? has recently made a joint appointment. Although it is not envisaged that job-sharing will be a practical option for many couples, the possibility, where it exists, should be flagged in advertisements and position announcements. SpIit-IocatioPz working is an arrangement in which the individual IRS member works part of the time at the center and part of the time at an institution in their partner’ s country of employment. This is an arrangement which currently works well at IRF3, enabling an international scientist and her spouse to maintain full-time jobs in different countries. Note: 1 Living and working arrangements at CGIAR centers is a potentially vast area for discussion. Only the main points raised by women IRS are included here. 55 Whilst there may be very few couples for whom split-location working would be the best option, centers should be prepared to negotiate such an arrangement on an individual level. * DO ensure that rational, fair and explicit promotion opportunities exist for all categories of internationally recruited staff Associate scientists in some centers have very little chance of promotion to more senior grades due to the structure of the grading system. Because women scientists tend to be concentrated in the junior grades this affects a disproportionately high number of women IRS. It is important to take gender into account in regrading or restructuring exercises. * DO ensure that the center’ s maternity leave policy is explicit and fair, and meets the needs of staff at both headquarters and outreach stations DO provide women IRS with opportunities for management training Some centers have begun to evaluate women IRS for their potential as future managers and have enrolled them in management training courses. This is a positive development which, if pursued further, should help bring more women into center management positions. It should also send a favourable message to ambitious prospective women applicants. d * DO develop a policy statement on sexual harassment Like many of the issues dealt with in this section of the guidelines, a policy statement on sexual harassment is an indication that a center is serious in its commitment to employing and retaining ‘ women staff. A sexual harassment policy statement should be seen as part of a package of measures which, taken together, signal a commitment to providing women and men with a positive working environment in which they are valued as responsible professionals and do not have to fear for theilr personal integrity or safety. A policy on sexual harassment needs to contain three things: @ A definition of what sexual harassment is l A statement that sexual harassment will not be tolerated A brief description of how a complaint about sexual harassment will be dealt with. A person who feels they have been sexually harassed must know what practical steps he or she should take and what the center will do when incidents are reported. l 56 Centers are encouraged to develop a policy statement on sexual harassment !X$CIT~ rather than after it becomes an issue. A sample statement is given in Box 13. Box 13. Example of a policy on sexual harassment It is the policy of . . . that all staff should be able to enjoy a work environment free from all forms of harassment, whether on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender or any other form of personal identity. Accordingly, this institute prohibits any action or conduct by any staff member that reasonably could be viewed as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is defined as unreciprocated and unwelcome comments or physical contact that are found personally offensive and that might create an intimidating working environment. Sexual harassment is a form of misconduct that undermines the integrity of the employment relationship. It is against the policies of this institute for any staff member, male or female, to sexually harass another staff member. Institute policy also prohibits the posting or displaying of sexually offensive materials. Any member of staff who feels he or she has been sexually harassed is encouraged to report this immediately to his or her line manager. The only exception to this rule is if the line manager is the individual about whom the staff member wants to complain; in this case the issue shouldbe brought to the attention of the next most superior officer. It will be the immediate responsibility of that individual to clarify the circumstances with the complainant and, if appropriate, to interview the staff member about whom the complaint has been made. If the issue cannot be resolved at this level then.. . Note: Source: This policy statement should be completedon the basisof centerconventionsfor dealing with other forms of staff misconduct. First two paragraphs based on IFPRI’ s statement. 57 IX. * THE FUTURE RECRUITMENT POOL: WOMEN POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS AND TRAINEES DO develop a strategy for increasing the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows Today’ s postdoctoral fellows form a potential pool for recruitment to associate and senior-level positions in the years to come. Although the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows appears to be on the increase (see Section 2.2) this appears to be the result of greater donor efforts to recruit and fund them rather than greater center efforts. It is strongly recommended that centers increase their ability to attract women postdoctoral fellows. The following measures will go some way towards meeting this aim Openly advertise all postdoctoral positions in international publications (e.g. the Economist) AND professional association newsletters. Advertisements for all postdoctoral positions can be placed just once or twice a year, thereby saving on cost Encourage women to apply on all advertisements Use university contacts to help identify suitable women candidates Make special efforts, and ask staff members in the division or program, to identify women for postdoctoral (and visiting scientist) positions Leave enough time for people to respond. This is particularly important for those responding to open advertisements and those from developing countries Set targets for the number of women postdoctoral fellows to be reached within a given time period. This will ensure the number is kept under constant review and successful ways of increasing their participation are institutionalized Notify donors who select and sponsor postdoctoral fellows concerning center intentions to increase the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows. * DO seek to increase the proportion of women trainees on center courses (including. Ph.D., Tvl.Sc.and short courses> The results of the ‘ affirmative action’ policy adopted by the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) for women attending its . 58 renowned international training course, Agroforestry Research for Development, are instructive here. In 1989 ICIUF implemented a policy which specified that ’. . .each country (should) nominate two qualified candidates... one of them to be a woman’ . Before 1989 the average rate of women’ s participation on this course was 10%. After the policy women’ s participation jumped immediately to 30% and then in 1992 to 47%. The Director of Information and Training noted that the women participants were very strong (personal communication to Merrill-Sands, 1992). IITA has implemented a similar policy to mobilize more women participants in its training courses. To encourage national research systems to put forward a greater proportion of women for training, centers should: l State that it is their policy to increase the participation of women on training courses Specify the mechanism through which this will be achieved (e.g. through a policy similar to ICRAF’ s; through setting targets for the proportion of women the center will recruit each year, etc) Agree with individual national Training Directors mechanisms by which the national system will increase the number of women trainees it puts forward for training. l l * DO ensure that living and working arrangements for trainees have no adverse implications for women Where trainees live in single-sex dormitories, is there sufficient space to increase the proportion of women? If trainees live in towns, is transportation to the center reliable and safe? Centers should take action to mitigate any practical constraints for women. 59 LIST OF GUIDELINES PROMOTING c c c c c CHANGE Demonstrate leadership from the top Build commitment amongst senior managers Get women IRS on board as allies Communicate your successesin recruiting more women Monitor the process of change POLKY r r * t t cc Develop a policy statement Explain why it is important to hire more women Develop detailed operating procedures Define targets for application and/or recruitment rates Establish a committee on gender-in-employment issues Distinguish between gender staffing and gender analysis STRATEGIES ADVERTISING Use the broadest possible range of mechanisms to advertise posts Hold the Search Committee responsible for mobilizing applications Place advertisements in publications with a high female readership Increase the number of women sent position announcements Send an explanatory covering letter with position announcements Purchase mailing lists to inform specific target groups of vacancies Target university departments Maintain a database of potential women applicants and mail them directly Monitor advertising strategies and revise them in the light of results Don’ t advertise posts which will be filled through a direct appointment by the Director General WRITING POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS t t 0 t t t 1 Make the center sound an attractive place to work Don’ t overstate the number of years experience needed for the post Emphasize the development orientation and interdisciplinary nature of the post Actively encourugewomen to apply Mention facilities and services in the local area Mention opportunities for spouse employment Mention possibilities for job sharing or joint appointments 60 SHORTLISTING c c c r Ensure that all suitably qualified women candidates are put on the long shortlist Find out as much information about candidates as possible, especially their interpersonal skills and leadership capabilities Don’ t omit women from the shortlist on the basis of assumptions about their ability to work in a particular country or location If the Search Committee shortlists only men, ask it to explain why INTERVIEWS cc cc t ct t d 0 d Make sure interviewing panels reflect the diversity of existing staff, in terms of both gender and nationality Cover the same set of issues with each candidate Plan interviews properly Give candidates every opportunity to perform well in the interview Ask specific, problem-solving questions Delegate one person only to talk to each candidate about her home and family situation Don’ t use marital or family status as a selection criterion Encourage the spouses/partners of short-listed candidates to come to the interview SPOUSE/PARTNER EMPLOYMENT * cc cc cc c Develop a policy on partner/spouse employment Write operational guidelines for each aspect of the policy Encourage spouses/partners to participate in the formulation of the policy and procedures Set up an information system to help spouses/partners find work or training opportunities Earmark.resources to support spouse/partner employment ARRANGEMENTS LIVING AND WORKING c t c c It 0 Consider introducing flexi time Consider split-location working and job-sharing for couples Ensure that rational, fair and explicit promotion opportunities exist Ensure an explicit and fair maternity leave policy Provide women IRS with opportunities for management training Develop a policy statement on sexual harassment POOL THE FUTURE RECRUITMENT c * cc c Develop a strategy for increasing the proportion of women postdoctoral fellows Openly advertise all postdoctoral positions in international publications and professional association newsletters Increase the proportion of women trainees on center courses Ensure that living and working arrangements for trainees have no adverse implications for women. 61 REFERENCESANDFUKIHERREADING Asian Development Bank. 1992. Women professionals: The way forward. Interdepartmental Advisory Committee on Women Professionals, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines. Berresford, S. 1991. Keynote address delivered at the First Senior Managers’Workshop on Gender Issues within the CGIAR System, 1 November 1991. CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington, D.C. Blair, M. 1992. Spouse employment in organizations around the world: A toolkit for developing policies and practices’ . CGIAR Gender Program, Working Paper No. 2. CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington DC. Jiggins, J. 1986. Gender-related impacts and the work of the international agricultural research centers. CGIAR Study Paper Number 17, CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington DC. Ladbury, S. 1990. Constraints to the recruitment of women to overseas posts by the ODA. Overseas Development Administration, London U.K. Ladbury, S. 1993. Recruiting women professionals into internationally recruited positions at IRRI. CGIAR Gender Program, CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington DC. Merrill-Sands, D. 1993a.Spouse employment at IRRI. CGIAR Gender Program, Working Paper No. 3. CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington D.C. Merrill-Sands, D. 1993b. Issues affecting internationally recruited women at IRRI: A diagnostic report. CGIAR Gender Program, CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington D.C. Merrill-Sands, D. and Sachdeva, P. 1992.Status of internationally recruited women in the international agricultural research centers of the CGIAR. CGIAR Gender Program, Working Paper No. 1. CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington D.C. Pelerei Inc. 1992.Report on the attitudinal study for the Asian IDevelopment Bank. Pelerei Inc./Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines. Posts S. 1991. The role of gender in agricultural development. CGIAR Issues in Agriculture Series, No. 3. 1990. CGIAR Secretariat, World Bank, Washington D.C. Ravnborg, H. M. 1992. The CGIAR in transition: Imphcations for the poor, sustainability and the national research systems. Agricultural Administration Network Paper 31, Overseas Development Institute, London U.K. Ross, G. 1992. Equality: Not a women’ s issue: A management issue. Bank’ s World ll(11). Wiig, M. 1993.Women in the World Bank: One year after the report ‘ Excellence through Equality. World Bank, Washington DC. World Bank. 1992. Excellence through equality: An increased role for women in the World Bank. Report of the Advisory Group on Higher-level Women’ s Issues. Washington D.C. 62 ANNEX IRRI 1. PEOPLE MET DURING THE CONSU-LiTANCY Dr. KIaus Lampe Mr. Michael Goon Dr. Kenneth Fischer Dr. F. A Bernard0 Dr. Benito Vergara Ms. Eyette Pasamba Dr. D. Senadhira Dr. Kenneth Cassman Dr. K. L. Heong Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Robert Raab Susan McCouch Virgilio Carangal Keith Moody Prabhu Pingali Dr. Gurdev Khush Dr. S.I. Bhuiyan Dr. Sarah Tisch Dr. Dale Bottrell Dr. RebeccaNelson Ms. Carolyn Dedolph Ms. Leslie Rose Dr. Mike T. Jackson Dr. R S. Zeigler Dr. Mahabub Hossain Dr. Ning Huang Dr. Timothy Setter Dr. Martin Kropff Dr. Susan Almy Director General Deputy Director General, Finance and Administration Deputy Director General, Research Deputy Director General, International Programs Director for Administration Office of the Director for Administration Plant Breeder (Search Committee Chairman: INGER, Global Coordinator) Head, Agronomy, Physiology and Agroecology. (SearchCommittee Chairman: Entomologist and Head, Entomology) Entomologist (Search Committee Chairman: Agronomist and Program Leader, Upland Rice) Training and Courseware Specialist Plant Breeder, IRRI-Comell Biotechnology Program Agronomist and Coordinator, Asian Rice Farming Systems Network Agronomist (Search Committee Chairman: Agronomist/Lao-PDR) Program Leader and Agricultural Economist (Search Committee Chairman: Soil Microbiologist) Head, Plant Breeding Genetics and Biochemistry (Search Committee Chairman: Madagascar Scientists) Agricultural Engineer (Search Committee Chairman: Agronomist, Rainfed Lowland) Visiting Scientist, Social Services Division Head, Entomology (SearchCommittee Chairman: Head, Information Center) Associate Plant Pathologist (telephone discussion) Science Writer and Editor, Communications and Publications Services Associate Video Producer, Communications and Publications Services Head, Genetic Resources Center Program Leader, Rainfed Lowland Rice Ecosystems Economist, Head, Social Science Division Plant Molecular Geneticist Plant Physiologist Agronomist/Crop Modeler Agroeconomist, Madagascar Peopleihrviaued outside IRRl Mr. Charles Coe Ms. Remedios Ricken Dr. Cristina David Dr. Miling Bernard0 Ms. Victoria Loanzon Atty. Victor P. Lazatin Ms. Virginia Mabesa Manager, Human Resources, Asian Development Bank Executive Director, Philippines National Commission on Women Agricultural Economist. Former Acting Head, Social ScienceDivision, IRRI Agricultural Scientist, Professor of Entomology, UT’ LB Attorney Counsel, Angara Abel10 Conception Regala and Cruz Office of the DG, PCARRD 63 IIMI Dr. Roberto Lenton Mr. Khalid MohtadulIah Ms. Nancy Andrews Mr. Nanda Abeywickrema Dr. Jacob Kijne Dr. Jim Lenahan Mr. Charles Abemethy Ms. Wendy Daudrumez Dr. Zenete Franca Dr. Marian Fuchs Carsh Dr. Douglas Merrey Dr. Hammond Murray-Rust Dr. Douglas Vermillion Dr. Paul Gosselink Mr. David Van Eyck Mr. Fred Abeysekera Director General Deputy Director General Director, Finance and Administration Director, International Cooperation Director, Research Head of Information Senior Technical Adviser Special Assistant to the DG and International Recruitment Consultant Training Specialist Project Development Officer Acting Head, Performance Programme Senior Irrigation SpeciaIist Institutional Specialist Associate Expert (Netherlands) Information Office (Distribution) Head, Personnel (Nationally recruited staff) Meetings attended at 1IM.l Search Group shortlisting, seminar presentation by candidate,. final selection interview planning meeting, panel interview. Discussions were held with two candidates after their final interview. ICRISAT Dr. James Ryan Dr. Y.L. Nene Mr. S.P. Ambrose Dr. P.V. Shenoi Mr. Gordon McGanigle Dr. Bharati Pate1 Mr. Steve D. Goode Mr. V. Balasubramanian Mrs. Joyce Gay Dr. B. Diwakar Dr. Don E. Byth Dr. John Stenhouse Dr. Eva Weltzien Rattunde Dr. Fred Weltzien Rattunde Dr. F.R. Bidinger Dr. Duncan McDonald Dr. J. I’ . Moss Dr. John Wightrnan Dr. RA. Naidu Dr. Kiran Sharma Dr. Thomas Shanower Ms. Hanneke Buiel Dr. J.A. Whightman Dr. Karl Harmsen Director General Deputy Director General Assistant Director General (Administration) Assistant Director General (Liaison) Director, Finance Special Assistant to the DG for Planning Manager, Internal Audit Senior Executive Officer Senior Administrative Officer Head, Human Resources Development Programme Program Director, Cereals Principal Scientist, Breeding Scientist, Breeding Scientist, Breeding Principal Scientist, Physiology Program Director, Legumes Programme Principal Scientist, Cell Biology, and Chair of the Committee to look into Recruitment Practices Principal Scientist, Entomology Scientist, Virology Scientist, Cell Biology Scientist, Entomology Research Scholar, Virology Principal Scientist, Entomology Program Director, Resource Management Program 64 Dr. Merle Anders Dr. A.L. Cogle Dr. Cynthia Bantilan Dr. F.T. Bantilan Dr. Timothy Kelley Dr. Rama Devi Dr. Meri Whitaker Dr. Kimberly Chung Mr. R-P. Eaglesfield Mrs. Susan Hall Mr. Eric McGaw Mr. Peter Reavey Ms. Cathy Anders Mrs. Hanne Grisko-Kelley Dr. Pat Bidinger Principal Scientist, Agronomy Principal Scientist, Soil Science Principal Scientist, Economics Senior Scientist, Environmental Physics Principal Scientist, Economics Scientist, Economics Scientist, Economics Scientist, Economics Leader, Information Management and Exchange Program Manager, Editorial Unit Research Editor Special Assistant to the DG for Educational Affairs Teacher, ICRISAT International School, Gender in Employment Committee member and spouse Former Gender in Employment Committee member and spouse Self-employed spouse Attending the spouse employmentpolicy meetingat ICRISAT Mrs. ‘ 3. Shenoi Mrs. P. Ambrose Mrs. L. Johnsen Mrs. Virmani Mrs. Hanne Grisko-Kelley Mrs. Vicky Armes Mrs. Jacky McGarrigle Mrs. C. Flower Mrs. S. Moss Mrs. Dian Hash Mrs. E. Estes Mrs. Susan Hall Dr. Waltraud Wightman Dr. H.F.W. Rattunde Dr. Eva Weltzien Rattunde Mr. P.M. Menon Dr. James Ryan Mrs. Wendy Ryan Mr. Steve Goode Dr. Meri Whitaker Dr. D. Russell Mrs. Cathy Anders Dr. Kimberly Chung Mrs. Reddy Mrs. M. Van Rheanen Mr. Eric Mcgaw Mrs. Pat Bidinger 6.5 ANNEx.2. CGLAR GENDER RECRUITMENT SURVEY, 1993 DATA FROM THE PROGRAM Table 1. Men and women appointed to all IRS posfs, 1991 Women 0 5 2 0 2 1 1 1 by center, 1991-1992 1991-92 % women 26 40 33 17 21 22 15 17 8 21 10 33 9 0 20 Center CIAT (Colombia) CIMMYT (Mexico) CIP (Peru) IBPGR (Italy) ICARDA (Syria) ICRAF (Kenya) ICRISAT (India) IFPRI (USA) I&f-I (Sri Lanka) IITA (Nigeria) ILCA (Ethiopia) ILRAD (Kenya) IRRI (Philippines) ISNAR (Netherlands) Total , MeIl 4 7 5 1 11 10 9 3 8 13 13 4 22 5 115 Men 10 5 1 4 11 1992 Women 5 3 1 1 4 5 2 1 1 2 1 1991-92 Men Women 14 12 6 5 22 21 17 10 11 30 18 6 29 9 210 5 8 3 1 6 6 3 2 1 8 2 3 3 0 51 11 8 0 6 1 2 3 0 24 7 3 17 5 2 7 4 95 1 0 0 217 Table 2. Applicants 1991-92 and appointees to selected advertised IRS posts by post type, Post type Postdoctoral fellow Associate scientist Senior scientist Others’ Managemen? Program support3 TotaI Note: * z 3 No. of posts 16 13 40 11 41 13 134 Applicants -No. men No. women % women 134 180 Appointed No. men No. women % women 8 9 31 8 36 8 100 8 4 9 3 5 5 34 50 31 23 27 12 38 25 1401 180 2257 560 4712 29 15 103 40 133 108 428 18 8 ‘ 7 18 S 1s 8 Others includes visiting scientists and associate experts. Management includes all Directors, Division Heads and Program Leaders. Professional Support includes communication, information and training posts. Note: Table 1 is based on figures given by centers for all posts recruited in 1991 and 1992 Question 1 of the questionnaire). Tables 2 to 5 are based on detailed information provided for selected posts (questions4 and 5 of the questionnaire). 66 Table 3. Men and women applying and appointed to selected advertised IRS posts by center, 1991-92 No. of posts AppIicank No. men No. women % women No.men 414 186 40 372 508 572 261 216 670 221 383 237 379 270 4729 38 22 9 28 23 67 7 20 35 38 37 47 20 43 434 8 11 18 7 4 10 3 8 5 15 9 17 5 14 8 11 12 2 5 11 6 5 5 7 6 5 4 8 8 95 Appointed No. women % women 6 8 2 1 4 4 1 1 1 3 1 2 0 0 34 35 40 50 17 27 40 17 17 13 33 17 33 0 0 26 Center CIAT (Colombia) 17 CIMMYT (Mexico) 20 CIP (Peru> 4 IBPGR (Italy) 6 ICARDA (Syria) 15 ICRAF (Kenya) 10 ICRISAT (India) 6 IFPRI (USA)’ 6 IIMI (Sri Lanka) 8 IITA (Nigeria) 9 ILCA (Ethiopia) 6 ILRAD (Kenya) 6 8 IRRI (Philippines) ISNAR (Netherlands) 8 Total Note: 120 1 IFFW’ s post of Director General is not included in this table (recruitment was undertaken by an outside Search Committee, so application data were not avaliable). Table 4. Recruitment methods used to publicize IRS vacancies, No. of Publicized Open fn center At other centers advertisement 6 1 1991-92 CG contack 13 12 I Center CIAT (Colombia) CIMMYT (Mexico) CIP (Peru) IBPGR (Italy) ICARDA (Syria) ICRAF (Kenya) ICRISAT (India) IFPRI (USA) IIMI (Sri Lanka) IITA (Nigeria) ILCA (Ethiopia) ILIUD (Kenya)’ IRRI (Philippines) ISNAR (Netherlands) Total Note: posts Invited to apply 3 5 3 5 3 10 17 20 4 6 15 10 6 7 8 9 6 6 8 8 1302 2 0 2 0 1 2 3 4 2 3 8 1 7 8 2 1 0 1 6 37 5 8 2 2 0 2 0 42 11 9 4 6 10 9 6 7 8 9 6 6 8 7 106 4 6 7 10 3 5 8 7 6 4 8 7 100 3 5 8 1 0 0 1 5 52 * ILRAD has since notified us that all its posts are publicized within the center. 2 The total number of posts recruited was 130, but the total number of appointees was 13%.This is due to more than one post being filled as a result of one recruitment drive. 67 Table 5. Recruitment methods which most influenced successful applicants’ decisions to apply Men-No. % 18 9 29 10 28 5 No. 4 3 6 6 9 6* Women % 11 9 18 18 26 18 Invited to reply Internal promotion/transfer CG center contacts Open advertisement only Center contacts and open advertisement Ott-d Total Note: 1 2 18 9 29 10 28 5 For example, shortlisted for another post, recruited by donor or national institution. Four of these posts were recruited by donors. Table 6. Advertising costs for IRS posts: selected publications cost’ Publication Journals, magazines etc Economist (half page) New Scientist Nature (l/3 page) Science Far Eastern Economic Review Asiaweek Le Monde (once) Employment Digest Ass5ciation newsletters American Society of Agronomy American Agricultural Economists’ Association Agronomy News (insertions) Note: l Depends on size. $4500 f 1552 $1506 $2410 f2304 $2670 f6000 $1344 $60 $225 $30 68 Table 7. Readership distribution center vacancies of main publications used to advertise CGIAR Publication The Economist Circulation 502 662 Geographical Distribution No. 220659 208213 51203 9 937 7 878 4772 22009 8 435 20571 5006 1985 983 675 299 245 136391 2867 8 514 4063 888 698 356 169 44 % 44 41 10 2 2 1 42 40 10 10 2 1 0.5 05 88 2 5 3 1 05 0.25 0.1 0.03 80% men 20% women Subscribers 89% men 11% women N. America Europe Asia/Pacific Africa Central/S. America Middle East Europe of which UK USA Nature 51773 Data not available Japan Canada Australia Other Asia Latin America Africa Science 154 050 USA Canada Europe Asia Pacific Central/S. America Middle East Africa West Indies Source: Personal communications, March 1993 69 ANNEX 3. PUBLICATIONSUSEDBY ADVERTISE IRS POSTS CGIARCENTERS TO Most frequently used publications The Economist Nature New Scientist Science Publications used toadvertise Research posfs Agroforestry Today Agronomy Journal American Agricultural Economics Association American Association for the Advancement of Science American Journal of Alternative Agriculture American Plant Pathology Congress American Potato Journal American Society of Agronomy American Society of Horticultural Sciences ASA Agronomy News ASHS Newsletter ATSAF Australian Institute of Agricultural Science Biotechnology Biotechnology Monitor Bristish Society for Immunology Cropping Systems Agronomy Current Science Die Zeit Entomological Society of Science Environmental and Resource Economics Euphytica European Association of Potato Research Farm Forestry News Genome Horticultural Science Immunology Today Institut Pasteur International Herald Tribune Journal of Environmental Education M.E. Agribusiness OR/MD Today Phytopathology News Plant Cells Plant Pathology Newsletter Plant Physiology PUDOC Rice Biotechnology Quarterly TAG The Guardian The Times (UK) The Veterinary Record Tropical Agricultural Association US Veterinary Medical Assocation Publications used to advertise Information, Communicafion and Finance posts Asiaweek CBE News Chronicle of Higher Education Computer World Monitor Communicators in Education Council of Biological Editors Dee Professional Far East Economic Review 1nfORl-i International Institute of Scholarly Publishers Journal of Information Sciences Overseas Employment Newsletter Society for Technical Communication 70 Professional organiuzfions targeting women American Association of University Women, USA Association for Women in Development, USA Association for Women in Science, USA National Network of Minority Women in Science, USA Third World Academy of Sciences,Italy For posts in Africa Africa International Jeune Afrique La Ftecherche L.eMonde West Africa SOUrCe: CGIAR recruitment survey, March 1993. 71