The gender gap from a range of international perspectives

The focus of this residency is the result of a previous Faber residency program in October 2018. The theme of this initial residency was broadly related to feminism and brought together 12 women from across the world (Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Catalonia, Columbia, Finland, Iran, Mexico, Spain, and the United States) recognized as academics and/or activists in their respective fields/areas. Through sharing our research projects and interests, a common theme started to emerge – gender inequity and how the gender gap plays out in various ways in different context and areas of study. In capitalizing on this unique connection and seeing an opportunity to explore the gender gap from a range of perspectives, key questions underpinning the development of an edited collection formed: What does our diverse work tell us about gender inequity globally? And what hope does the work of academics and activists bring to finding (creative) solutions to bridging this gap?

A book, to be published with Springer in mid-2020, will explore the notion of the gender gap from a number of angles using evidence-based insights and rich narrative traditions to capture and share the interventions that are happening in this space globally. Six of the original group members are involved in the project. This collection – Storying interventions against the Gender Gap from a Global perspective: (Still) minding the gap – is a unique offering in the wider fields of feminism, women’s studies and gender studies as it is truly interdisciplinary and multi-faceted. This approach has been enabled by uniting the chapter contributions through a theme rather than a topic, which means that a broader brush approach to exploring the key issues and experiences of the gender gap, in this case, is possible. An interdisciplinary exploration is important and valuable because it means that a more holistic understanding of the lived experiences of gender inequity will be documented and shared. This will result in a more realistic determination of the key issues and concerns from the perspective of key stakeholders, which will ultimately inform and insightful discussions about the implications – locally and globally – of these varied research projects.

The benefit of considering the gender gap and gender inequity through the range of conceptual and theoretical perspectives shared in this collection is two-fold.

1. Gaining new understandings about what the gender gap means and looks like in these times.
2. Greater awareness of the context-specific experiences, successes and personal challenges faced locally and globally will provide research-based evidence with which to consider possibilities for change.

A special feature of this residency is the focus on workshopping the chapters collaboratively as a way to improve the individual and collective quality of the collection. Another unique component of this proposed collection is the inclusion of ‘critical friends’ to provide further insights and critique of each chapter as well as better position the work within the wider (relevant) communities and bodies of knowledge. This approach has been included to widen the perspectives shared as the gender gap is explored and to invite rigorous discussion about what the possibilities and challenges inherent in the proposed solutions as well as offer new ones.