Making Young Researchers' Voices Heard to Prevent Gender Based Violance in Higher Education

Women and especially women in precarious working conditions are at greater risk of experiencing sexual harassment and gender-based violence during their research career. Moreover, compounding factors, such as mobility, precarious contracts, unequal relationships of power, increase the probability of sexual violence and harrasment and make PhD candidates and postdocs high-risk categories. LGBTI people can also experience harassment and discrimination in higher education. On 8 March 2022, the European Commission adopted a new EU-wide proposal for a directive to combat violence against women and domestic violence. “Combating them is part of the European Commission's action to protect the core EU values and to ensure that the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights is upheld”. If the text recognizes that the Member States have to take into account national specificities and needs, they have to implement its rules. The directive does not target higher education. But preventive work to eradicate gender-based violence is observed on the ground, led by feminist researchers, administrative staff, unions and student associations that implement measures. Through this conference we will share and examine those measures in order to bring about best practices to tackle gender-based violence, especially at an early career stage. An important part of sexual violence policies consider preventive actions that aim at raising-awareness on the legal framework surrounding sexual violence but also at challenging gender stereotypes and “rape culture” in academia (Buchwald et al. 1993). The aim of the conference is to contribute to changing institutional culture in order to establish universities as safe places.