What do the narratives tell us? Exploring the implementation of the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter

dc.contributor.authorO'Mullane, Monica
dc.contributor.funderHorizon 2020en
dc.date.accessioned2023-02-24T15:38:11Z
dc.date.available2023-02-24T15:38:11Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.date.updated2023-02-24T15:22:10Z
dc.description.abstractDue to the systemic inequalities enduring in career progression pathways in the Irish higher education sector, the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter (ASIC), a gender equality accreditation program, is being implemented. Using a theoretical approach, blending insights from feminist institutionalism with literature on the role of narratives in policy implementation, this article reveals the complex nature of subjective engagement with policy implementation processes. This article discusses an empirical study of Athena SWAN Ireland Charter implementation across three purposively chosen Irish universities, interviewing 26 key institutional actors tasked with implementing the ASIC locally. Narrative themes emerging as dominant from the data include a lack of operational knowledge, desire for a nationally contextualized program, ambiguity, championing, "happy talk," and identifying points of resistance. Literature on the role of narrative accounts highlighting a diversity of perceptions in policy and program implementation is strengthened by this study's findings. A feminist institutionalist lens highlight the gendered nature of the operationalization of the Charter work and the vague and detached "happy talk" engaged predominantly by senior men leaders. Findings from this empirical study highlight the importance of exploring the narrative accounts of key actors in order to gain a holistic understanding of the nuanced implementation process, beyond the normative assumptions inherent in the Charter implementation.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationO'Mullane, Monica; (2022) 'What do the narratives tell us? Exploring the implementation of the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter', Frontiers In Sociology, 7 (14pp). doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2022.1058397en
dc.identifier.doi10.3389/fsoc.2022.1058397en
dc.identifier.endpage14en
dc.identifier.issn2297-7775
dc.identifier.journaltitleFrontiers In Sociologyen
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/14245
dc.identifier.volume7en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFrontiers Mediaen
dc.relation.projectinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020::MSCA-IF-EF-CAR/750408/EU/Exploring gender equality in Irish higher education: Qualitative case-study research into the response to, and process of Athena SWAN/GendeResearchIrelanden
dc.rights© 2023 O’Mullane. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectGender equalityen
dc.subjectHigher educationen
dc.subjectPolicy implementationen
dc.subjectIrelanden
dc.subjectAthena SWANen
dc.titleWhat do the narratives tell us? Exploring the implementation of the Athena SWAN Ireland Charteren
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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