Gender advisors in recruitment boards and commissions – National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (FR)

The global objective of the CNRS`s gender advisor measure is to reduce possible gender bias in recruitment and promotion committees. The idea was to observe gender balance and possible biases in real time, while the committees are in the process of consulting. The measure concerns the recruitment and promotion of CNRS researchers (it will be extended to administrative and technical staff in the future). A specific structure within CNRS, CoNRS (National Committee for Scientific Research), composed of 40 disciplinary committees and four to five interdisciplinary committees, carries out the selection/evaluation. Its members are elected for five years. The idea of the gender advisor measure is to appoint one or two members of each committee to the position of the gender referral person to (1) monitor statistics (among candidates at each level of selection) in real time during the evaluation and share them with the other members and (2) to flag any possibly biased procedures or behaviour taking place during consulting. Training on equality and unconscious bias is carried out for all persons concerned (45-minute video) – the referral people but also all the committee members.