Department launches dilemma game to fight issues with gender discrimination

How would you react if you saw a female colleague being treated differently from her male counterpart? Would you speak up if you overheard a manager commenting on his or her employee’s appearance or sexuality? Or would you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear?

Employees will have to deal with this kind of scenario when the Department of Clinical Medicine launches a new “dilemma game” with a focus on the issues of discrimination on the basis of gender and unwanted sexual attention.

The game is one of the follow-up initiatives after the Knowledge Centre KVINFO published a major report on the working environment at the Department last year, with a special focus on gender equality and offensive behaviour.

Almost one in four female respondents replied that she had experienced discrimination, while almost one in five replied that she had experienced unwanted sexual attention.

“We are now taking an important step in the efforts to create a space where employees at all levels can share their experiences and perspectives and reflect on what is the right thing to do in a given situation. We hope that this will lead to a positive and constructive approach and provide employees with tools to handle experiences of discrimination and unwanted sexual attention in their daily work,” says Jørgen Frøkiær, head of the Department of Clinical Medicine.

Game based on real incidents

KVINFO’s report also showed that just twenty out of the 110 respondents who stated that they had encountered discrimination on the basis of gender or unwanted sexual attention had informed the management of their experience.

One reason for this is the fear of it possibly affecting their careers, and not expecting that they would be taken seriously. For this reason, the Department management team has focused on promoting a culture in which all employees can feel safe sharing their experiences.

The material in the dilemma game is based on the KVINFO study and cases from the publication “Sexism in Danish Higher Education and Research”, which consists of more than 700 testimonies of experiences of discrimination and offensive behaviour in the world of research.

According to Ellen-Margrethe Hauge, Deputy Head of Research at the Department of Clinical Medicine, who helped to develop the dilemma game, it is crucial that the game is not based on hypothetical scenarios, but on situations that have actually taken place at Danish universities.

“At any workplace, there will always be misunderstandings and inappropriate jokes, and the aim of the workshop is not for everyone to agree on a ‘correct answer’. We want to give our employees an opportunity to talk about some of the dilemmas that can be difficult to deal with in their everyday lives, and in this way create greater attention and broader understanding of the challenges of discrimination and unwanted sexual attention,” she says.

Positive experiences with dilemma games

This is not the first time that the Department of Clinical Medicine has used a dilemma game to place difficult topics on the agenda. It also happened in 2021, when all of the academic environments held a workshop with the same format under the theme of “responsible research conduct”.

“It’s not enough just to draw up guidelines if you want to change a work culture. The dilemma game turned out to be a really good way to get committed employees right across the department to talk about some topics and issues that can be difficult to relate to. We want to build on these experiences, and we hope that it can help to make the Department of Clinical Medicine an even better place to work,” says Ellen-Margrethe Hauge.

The game, which has already been tested in a few research groups, consists of ten cards with a description of a dilemma. The participants are asked to envisage a situation in which they are spectators to the episode, and discuss possible reactions, which are indicated on the back of the card.

The workshop will be carried out in groups of 4-6 people with participation from young staff members, senior researchers and technical/administrative staff.

The plan is for the dilemma game to be held in all departments before the summer break.

Contact:

Deputy Head of Research Ellen Margrethe Hauge
Department of Clinical Medicine
E-mail: ellen.hauge@clin.au.dk
Tel.: +45 2478 6025

Department Head Jørgen Frøkiær
Department of Clinical Medicine
E-mail: jc@clin.au.dk
Tel.: +45 2023 4527