Purpose: To estimate the transition rates corresponding to the 2010 and 2012 elections to the Catalan Parliament for the four constituencies in which Catalonia is divided for this purpose. The main features of the results, which are obtained by means of mathematical programming, are commented. Design/methodology/approach: Mathematical programming optimization models are formulated in order to find the transition rates that yield a better adjust between the actual results in 2012 and those computed applying the transition rates to the 2010 results. The transition rate matrices are estimated for each one of the four constituencies, since the set of options is not the same for all them. No other assumptions that those of numerical consistency are adopted. Findings: The transition rate models provide satisfactory goodness of fit. Mathematical programming turns out to be an easy-to-use tool for estimating the transition rates and, at the same time, very flexible, since, if necessary, it allows incorporating the constraints corresponding to additional assumptions. Originality/value: The transition rates from 2010 to 2012 in Catalonia are particularly interesting, since 2012 results implied a significant change in the composition of the Catalan Parliament. To the best of our knowledge, no other scientific journal paper has dealt with this question. Our results are available to the researchers in order to interpret the change and try to foresee future flows of voters. ; Peer Reviewed
Purpose: To estimate the transition rates corresponding to the 2010 and 2012 elections to the Catalan Parliament for the four constituencies in which Catalonia is divided for this purpose. The main features of the results, which are obtained by means of mathematical programming, are commented. Design/methodology/approach: Mathematical programming optimization models are formulated in order to find the transition rates that yield a better adjust between the actual results in 2012 and those computed applying the transition rates to the 2010 results. The transition rate matrices are estimated for each one of the four constituencies, since the set of options is not the same for all them. No other assumptions that those of numerical consistency are adopted. Findings: The transition rate models provide satisfactory goodness of fit. Mathematical programming turns out to be an easy-to-use tool for estimating the transition rates and, at the same time, very flexible, since, if necessary, it allows incorporating the constraints corresponding to additional assumptions. Originality/value: The transition rates from 2010 to 2012 in Catalonia are particularly interesting, since 2012 results implied a significant change in the composition of the Catalan Parliament. To the best of our knowledge, no other scientific journal paper has dealt with this question. Our results are available to the researchers in order to interpret the change and try to foresee future flows of voters. ; Peer Reviewed
The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC-BarcelonaTech (UPC), is currently doing significant steps towards the gender mainstreaming in teaching. Indeed, some years ago some teachers already started individually to introduce gender dimension in their teaching, but it is not until the pilot project named Gender Dimension in Teaching, when a cooperative approach was adopted to reach such mainstreaming in all Bachelor and Master degrees at UPC. Within this project a group of 35 lecturers worked during one semester focusing on the four pillars of teaching (i.e. contents, classroom management, methodology and assessment), which were revised from a gender perspective. Within each pillar, gender issues were identified according to the experienced perception of the project participants. However, uncertainties aroused concerning the reliability of such a perception. Indeed, teachers' perception might be influenced by stereotypes and prejudices that could alter the identification of gender issues. Hence, it became obvious that more reliable data concerning students' perceptions was needed. In order to assess this issue, a survey design, test and improvement process was carried out [1]. The first consensual version of the survey was answered by 548 students, 30% of which are women, from 3 Bachelor and 4 Master STEM degrees. The percentage of women was similar to that of the UPC students' community (27,2% in 2018-2019) but significantly higher than 20,70%, what corresponds to the women's proportion in the 7 studied degrees. This first comparison already makes evident the different degree of awareness related to gender issues, where women capture more biases than men. Indeed, these differences have been found in most of the survey's answers related to the students' observations on attitudes and facts in the frame of UPC degrees. Within the survey, different aspects such as teacher's gendered attitudes, gendered roles in the teamwork and male and female referents are analysed. Surprising results are found, such as the fact that 76% of students have frequently detected one of the following issues: different treatment by the teacher, use of sexist language, use of stereotyped images or a biased assessment. Also, the results regarding referents are interesting, showing a significant gender bias in both the number and type of referents. Indeed, despite the number of male referents is low (54%), the number of female referents is really scarce (24%) and, to our opinion, devoted actions to provide female referents are required. Moreover, women have more referents in the personal circle whereas men have more internationally known and actual referents. All these aspects have been analysed for each of the participant degrees providing valuable information to define degree specific actions to improve gender mainstreaming in teaching. Moreover, the detailed data analysis has allowed to identify the correct wording of the key questions and the type of available answers in order to build a new survey to assess students' perception all along UPC experience. ; This work has been carried out within the framework of the Gender Dimension in Teaching project, at UPC-BarcelonaTech, and GEECCO project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 741128. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official point of view of the UPC-BarcelonaTech nor the European Commission. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (published version)
The need to incorporate the gender dimension in higher education is a central element of gender equality policies within the European Union (EU). When most institutions of higher education have already strengthened and consolidated their curricula, the next challenge is to include and ensure that all people have the same opportunities to progress in education. This study intends to incorporate the gender dimension in teaching through a guide providing recommendations for the introduction of changes that will allow its effective incorporation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas. It will take into account the administration in charge of formulating policies in the field of education, the students, and, mainly, the teaching staff. Its objective is to cover aspects related to the principles of equal opportunities and gender equality in STEM higher education disciplines. For this purpose, 41 volunteer teachers from 8 degrees and master's degrees from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Spain participated. To achieve the results of this study, aspects related to social and gender relevance of the subjects, inclusive methodology, classroom management and assessment were considered. As a preliminary step to the development of the guide of recommendations, a teacher's self-assessment tool and a questionnaire for students to analyze the perception of the gender dimension were developed. ; Peer Reviewed ; Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat ; Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::5 - Igualtat de Gènere ; Postprint (published version)
Gender equality is now a matter that concerns all European countries. Despite the great effort made by governments and the progress of laws, gender discrimination still exists in family, social, cultural, political and economic spheres. Even today, it is rare to find women at the top level in companies. The path to equal opportunities is long and the only way to improve the situation is by means of appropriate equal opportunities plans. An essential part of the process of designing and implementing such action plans involves diagnosing the situation in a company. In this paper, an innovative indicator model is proposed. A review of numerous international private and public equal opportunities plans led to the design of a model to carry out a diagnose to identify all areas that could be corrected or improved by implementing specific measures, leading the company to deliver real equal opportunities policies. The indicator model is designed for the present historical context, though it is flexible enough to be adapted to each age and situation. The indicator model, which is original, will help companies carrying out one of the most important and essential parts of the process of designing and implementing and equal opportunities plan. Moreover, taking the indicator model companies ensure that all the relevant features are covered ; Peer Reviewed
Gender equality is now a matter that concerns all European countries. Despite the great effort made by governments and the progress of laws, gender discrimination still exists in family, social, cultural, political and economic spheres. Even today, it is rare to find women at the top level in companies. The path to equal opportunities is long and the only way to improve the situation is by means of appropriate equal opportunities plans. An essential part of the process of designing and implementing such action plans involves diagnosing the situation in a company. In this paper, an innovative indicator model is proposed. A review of numerous international private and public equal opportunities plans led to the design of a model to carry out a diagnose to identify all areas that could be corrected or improved by implementing specific measures, leading the company to deliver real equal opportunities policies. The indicator model is designed for the present historical context, though it is flexible enough to be adapted to each age and situation. The indicator model, which is original, will help companies carrying out one of the most important and essential parts of the process of designing and implementing and equal opportunities plan. Moreover, taking the indicator model companies ensure that all the relevant features are covered ; Peer Reviewed
Gender equality is now a matter that concerns all European countries. Despite the great effort made by governments and the progress of laws, gender discrimination still exists in family, social, cultural, political and economic spheres. Even today, it is rare to find women at the top level in companies. The path to equal opportunities is long and the only way to improve the situation is by means of appropriate equal opportunities plans. An essential part of the process of designing and implementing such action plans involves diagnosing the situation in a company. In this paper, an innovative indicator model is proposed. A review of numerous international private and public equal opportunities plans led to the design of a model to carry out a diagnose to identify all areas that could be corrected or improved by implementing specific measures, leading the company to deliver real equal opportunities policies. The indicator model is designed for the present historical context, though it is flexible enough to be adapted to each age and situation. The indicator model, which is original, will help companies carrying out one of the most important and essential parts of the process of designing and implementing and equal opportunities plan. Moreover, taking the indicator model companies ensure that all the relevant features are covered. ; Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::5 - Igualtat de Gènere ; Postprint (published version)
