Prior to an announcement or call, a decision must be reached regarding which field of reserach the appointment relates to or what research is to be supported in the call. This process is influenced by various requirements, interests and stakeholders, by the needs of the department and university, but also by other strategic considerations.

The gender or distribution or distribution of other social categories in the field to which the call or appointment relates influences the probability of an overrepresentation of female, male or applicants representing other social categories.

The qualifications listed may be based on the needs of the department but may also be influenced by other interests, such as a desire to appoint a specific researcher, thus creating a bias in the process.

The call text, qualifications listed or intended field of research may include or exclude prospective candidates. Certain requirements and terminology are traditionally associated with either women or men. These may then unconsciously encourage or dissuade members of one gender from applying.

When making an appointment, where the position is announced and for how long may affect who applies. How an announced is made affects the range of possible candidates; if information is primarily disseminated via a network, it will be come to the attention of a limited circle of possible applicants. The method of announcement may also signal whether an internal applicant is already being considered or whether external applications are welcomed. This may create bias by dissuading qualified candidates from applying under the assumption that someone is already earmarked for the position.

References

Handbook. Gender-sensitive Design of Criteria and Recruitment. Eva Lübke, Manuela Aye, Andrea Wolffram, Georgi Apostolov, Clare O’Hagan, Valentina Chizzola, Gülsün Saglamer, Mine G. Tan, Hülya Çaglayan, (2015). EU: Festa, Female Empowerment in Science and Technology Academia. Tillgänglig på: Appointment and Promotion Processes in Academiahttp://www.festa-europa.eu/public/handbook-gender-sensitive-design-criteria-and-recruitment-appointment-and-promotion-processes (Links to an external site.)

Hundra möjligheter att rekrytera utan att diskriminera. Det här säger forskningen. (2016) Solna: Diskrimineringsombudsmannen. Tillgänglig på:https://www.do.se/globalassets/stodmaterial/stod-hundra-mojligheter-rekrytera-utan-diskriminera2.pdf (Links to an external site.)

JämO. Ta trappan 11 steg till jämställd rekrytering. Stockholm Jämställdhetsombudsmannen.
Tillgänglig på: https://jamstall.nu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Ta-trappan-elva-steg-till-jamstalld-rekrytering.pdf (Links to an external site.)bo

Salminen-Karlsson, Minna & Fägerlind, Gabriella (2012). Lärobok för rekryteringsgrupper på universitet och högskolor. Uppsala: Uppsala universitet. Tillgänglig på: https://www.uhr.se/globalassets/_uhr.se/lika-mojligheter/dj-projektredovisningar-och-rapporter2/dj-larobok-rekryteringsgrupper.pdf