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Many European organisations have committed to and formally adopted gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting strategies; however, their implementation has not been as effective as anticipated. The Department of Gender Studies at the University of Iceland has been collaborating with public sector organisations in Iceland, a City and a University, to advance implementation of these strategies. The collaboration entails post-graduate students analysing the problem representation and gendering of public activities and providing policy actors with research-informed advice on how to integrate a gender perspective in their management procedures and processes. Drawing on interview data with the policy actors involved in the collaboration projects, we found organisational noncommitment to gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting, lack of knowledge about these issues and a superficial approach to implementing the strategies. Based on the findings, we explored the potential explanations and the hindrances related to using collaboration projects to jumpstart structural transformative gender+ equality work. Muchas organizaciones europeas se han comprometido y adoptado formalmente la transversalidad de género y los presupuestos con enfoque de género; sin embargo, la implementación de las estrategias no ha sido tan efectiva como se había anticipado. El Departamento de Estudios de Género de la Universidad de Islandia ha estado colaborando con organizaciones del sector público, una ciudad y una universidad, para avanzar en la implementación de estas estrategias. La colaboración implica que el alumnado de postgrado realiza análisis de actividades públicas desde la perspectiva de género e identifica oportunidades para integrar la perspectiva y reformar los procedimientos y procesos para avanzar en la construcción de la igualdad. A partir de datos de entrevistas con actores políticos involucrados en los proyectos de colaboración, hemos encontrado ausencia de compromiso organizativo con la transversalidad de género y los presupuestos con enfoque de género, falta de sensibilidad de relaciones de género y enfoque superficial en la implementación de las estrategias. Los resultados del estudio nos han dado la oportunidad de explorar las posibilidades y los obstáculos en el uso de proyectos de colaboración para estimular el trabajo de transformación estructural en igualdad de género.

In the era of global competition, academic institutions are increasingly being managed as efficient organizations where early career academics are the most vulnerable group in the academic hierarchy. We use gender budgeting to deconstruct the financial and managerial processes and procedures in a selected academic institution in Iceland. Drawing on multiple data collection methods, we argue that new managerialism enhances the precarious position of early career academics, especially women and those in the more feminized fields. Furthermore, we show that the system's bias in favour of so‐called hard science generates gendered consequences for early career academics. We demonstrate this structural gender bias in each of the first three stages of an academic career: PhD, postdoc and other temporary positions, and assistant professorship. By highlighting the gendered consequences of new managerialism, we want to direct attention to the need to include a gender perspective in the budgeting and all the decision‐making processes in academic institutions.

The article addresses the financial framework, decision-making and budgeting processes of the University of Iceland from a gender perspective. The newly appointed rector of the University of Iceland (elected 2015) together with the university council is currently revising the UI system of the distribution formula of budget allocation. This provides an opportunity to examine the system which is inspired by New Public Management, with emphasis on global competition and performance based indicators. The aim of the article is to scrutinize the current system of budget allocation and distribution and its significance when it comes to gender. We ask how the, allegedly gender neutral, system plays out for different schools and disciplines and for academics in different ranks, when the gender dimension is taken into account. We draw on empirical data collected as part of the GARCIA research project, Gendering the Academy and Research combating Career Instability and Asymmetries, which is supported by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union. To shed a light on the process we focus on the male-dominated School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (SENS) and the more feminised School of Social Sciences (SSS). The exploration shows that the financial framework, decision-making and budgeting processes at the University of Iceland are rather non-transparent, and biased in favour of the natural sciences. This applies to funding from the state; third party funding; the allocation of funding in the teaching part of the budgeting, as well as the research part. From the article it can be concluded that the current system contains an internal, though unintended, gender bias that needs to be corrected.