Step 4: How do we measure results?

4.1 Assumptions about effects

There are no requirements for authorities and universities to prove the actual effects of the gender equality work. However, you need to make and report well-founded assumptions about effects. Making connections between your achievements and intended effects is important, because gender mainstreaming should contribute to a gender equal operation for your target groups and contribute to an equal society. Taking imagined effects as a starting point helps you focus on the right things, in the sense of things that really make a difference to the target group, instead of things that can easily be measured. As support in your work, you can use the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority's model for organisational logic as a starting point. The organisational logic can be used both in planning and monitoring your work.

4.2 The Swedish Agency for Public Management's chain of result

You can also use the The Swedish Agency for Public Management's chain of result in the follow-up of the work with gender mainstreaming. Through the results chain, you can evaluate how far-reaching results your work has led to.

Definition of the five steps in the results chain

1. An activity is a one-off effort that the authority carries out for a limited time, for example a one-off training on gender equality or a review of the authority's governing documents.
2. A new or changed product could be, for example, that the authority supplements its regular introductory training with a section on gender equality, or that the authority produces a new guidance document. This result is more persistent as an activity.
3. A new or changed way of working can apply, for example, to methods or organisational forms. An example is that the authority applies a new governing document, which gives rise to changed working methods.
4. A new or changed outcome occurs when the authority's new way of working increases gender equality for their target groups. For example, a new governing document may contain new criteria for how the staff should assess research applications, which in turn leads to the authority granting a higher proportion of applications from women than before.
5. A social effect occurs when the above changes within the authority to contribute to the fulfilment of the gender equality policy goals to a greater extent.

The activities on the left are necessary to lay the foundation and create conditions for the work, but do not in themselves lead to effects for the target group. For this, measures of the kind that lead to results further to the right in the chain are needed. Read more in the Swedish Agency for Public Management's evaluation of the JiM program.

4.3 Indicators

An indicator is a measure that should represent what is to be followed up and is used to be able to report or assess goal fullfilment. Your performance indicators need to be broken down by gender so that you can see any differences between women and men. Differences need to be analysed and explained.

Indicators measure the outcomes of your business and not effects. In order to be able to say something about effects, what you measure through indicators needs to be analysed. Indicators can be both quantitative and qualitative. A qualitative indicator can, for example, be a description of a current situation, which can be used to make comparisons.

You may also need to produce indicators to follow the development of the work itself with gender mainstreaming. The indicators are developed to follow the direction of your work and your goal achievement. To develop an indicator, it is an advantage if there is a clear goal and a well-thought-out effect chain that describes assumptions about how performance should lead to expected effects.

Developing indicators is a process and it is not always that an organisation develops the right indicators from the start. Here it can be an advantage to look at what other businesses have done and if there are existing studies linked to the area. Read more about indicators on the ESV forum.

Examples of quantitative indicators 

• The outcome of resource distribution based on gender
• Proportion of professors employed at a university who are women and men respectively

Examples of qualitative indicators

• How women and men experience service and treatment in a business
• Changes in attitudes, behaviours linked to gender equality

Examples of indicators for higher education institutions

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) provides examples of quantitative and qualitative indicators. Read more in EIGE's tool Gender Equality in Academia and Research.

Examples of quantitative indicators:

• Proportion of women and men in different employment categories
• How many years it takes for women and men to make a career (in different positions) on average
• Proportion of women and men in decision-making positions within academia (for example in boards, committees and assessment groups)
• Proportion of women and men who have left the university in the last five years
• The proportion of women and men who are employed as researchers
• What proportion of internal and external research funds are allocated to men and women respectively

Examples of qualitative indicators

• How and in which ways the equality perspective is conveyed in the university's programmes and educations
• How women, men and other groups who study or work experience the work environment and working conditions and whether there are differences and similarities based on gender and other power systems
• How women, men and other groups who study or work experience the possibility of combining work and parenthood, and whether there are differences and similarities based on gender and other power systems

The government's main indicators for gender equality policy

The government has drawn up the main indicators for the gender equality policy which are reported in the budget bill. These are on an overall level but can give you some guidance when you design more business-related indicators.

4.4 Reflection questions – Measuring results

• How can we use the organisational logic and the result chain in our follow-up?
• In what ways can we make assumptions about effects when we follow up our gender equality work?
• Are our performance indicators gendered, where relevant?
• Do we perform gender equality analyses linked to the indicators?
• Are there indicators developed as a basis for analysing results for the gender equality work itself?
• If indicators have not been developed, can we develop indicators to follow our work?