ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to understand how university workers define scientific excellence and how they do or do not problematise it in relation to the inequalities observed at university between women and men. We organised 15 focus groups, which involved 95 staff members (70 women and 25 men) in four universities with the aim of preparing a Gender Equality Plan. The first part of those focus groups was devoted to the notion of scientific excellence and the chapter is based on the analysis of responses received during this first phase.
In general, at all universities, the notion of scientific excellence is subject to severe criticism, because of the pressure it puts on workers, the quality of their scientific work, and the quality of life at work. It is seen as an ideal that has now gone partly astray. The problematisation of excellence based on gender inequalities is hardly coincidental. Three types of discourse on scientific excellence and equality were identified. Firstly, some participants consider inequalities in careers as not dependent on university organisations and perceive the criteria of excellence as an objective one to be maintained as a guarantee of equality. Most participants, however, endorse a discourse that views scientific excellence as particularly favourable to men and implicitly gendered, leading to a single model of researcher. Finally, another important discourse endorsed the implementation of a policy recognising diversity as a condition for the viability of the notion of excellence, yet this implies a voluntary organisational change.
