WeAreHERe, more than a gender campaign
Since 2019, the Politecnico di Torino has been supporting the ‘WeAreHERe’ project, dedicated to motivating female high school students to choose Engineering. The project, which was the winner of the ‘She HAcks’ hackathon aimed at the Politecnico student community, identified female engineering students as the main spokespeople. The Centre for Gender Studies is following the scientific aspects of the campaign content.Ideal STEM Academic Worker: highlighting gender dimensions and biases
The project aims to explore gender dimensions in the organisational culture of the Politecnico di Torino, through the study of the formation and impact of the so-called ‘ideal worker model’. We hypothesise that although technical-scientific universities perpetuate a narrative of meritocracy and gender neutrality, the evaluation of skills, experiences and job performance is articulated around a model of the stereotypically male ‘ideal STEM academic’. This model effectively penalises people who do not conform to it, primarily women. Our research lies at the intersection of several academic disciplines, including gender studies, the study of organisations and the sociology of work. The study involves the use of a qualitative case study methodology with the Politecnico di Torino as the main unit of analysis. This project was funded by the “Women and Science” Commission of the Université Paris Dauphine-PSL.FEDRA (CoARA)
The project (An institutional FAIR data lakE for transparent, inclusive, and reproducible Research Assessment), developed in collaboration with the Politecnico Centre for Open Science Studies, was awarded a CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) grant for the implementation of an internal data lake that respects the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) characteristics of Open Science, with regard to the gender dimension of publications.Gender Equality Report and Gender Observatory of the Metropolitan City of Turin
The project aims to collect data on the state of women’s participation and to map the gender policies implemented by the working realities of the Turin territory, in order to take a picture of equal opportunities and the framework of good practices in place to achieve gender equality in the area. The survey, carried out with qualitative-quantitative methods, is summarised in a report that will deliver the Gender Equality Report of the Metropolitan City of Turin. The construction of a stable network of contacts and the drafting of the Gender Equality Report will be functional to the creation of a Gender Observatory of the Metropolitan City of Turin, which will allow for the regular drafting and updating of the Gender Equality Report, with specific thematic focuses for each edition. The project was commissioned and financed by the association Torino Città per le Donne (TOxD) in 2023.Promoting equality: diversity and inclusion strategies for a new working model
The project aims to provide a snapshot of the state of the art of inclusion and equal opportunities in the working world on the national territory, as well as of the practices and strategies implemented in the private sector to increase gender equality and diversity within them. By means of qualitative-quantitative methods, we aim to map the main initiatives for equal opportunities and create a bridge between the private and public sector, promoting the exchange and transferability of best practices. The project is carried out in cooperation with the University of Turin and the Piedmont Region, and was funded by the BRiC INAIL 2024 call.Queering universites: the LGBTQIA+ perspective in academic spaces
The project, started in 2022, aims to explore the meaning of queer space applied to the context of the Politecnico di Torino. A queer space is defined not so much by the specific gender identities or sexual orientations of the people who inhabit it, but by the fact that it challenges a dominant canon that often causes discrimination. Through annual meeting events with academics, activists and members of the LGBTQIA+ community in participatory ways, the project aims to establish an ongoing discussion on how universities can evolve to become places of inclusion and safety for all subjectivities.- “Le prime” exhibition
The exhibition, launched online in 2023 with the physical version being in the corridors since “Biennale Tecnologia” in 2024, aims to bring to light the figures of the female architects and scientists who first distinguished themselves at the Politecnico. It will be enriched each year with new profiles, and can be visited online at https://leprime.weareherepolito.it/
- Shcherbyna, M. (2025). Beauty practices and Ukrainian women refugees in the context of Russia–Ukraine war: Another double bind (pp. 109–129). In J. Muller (Ed.), Women and their body: A cultural and historical struggle against tradition. De Gruyter.
- De Giorgi, C., Montorsi, A., Beltramino, G., Temporin, G., Cremonino, E. (2025). Cambiamo Insieme. Rispetto, partecipazione, responsabilizzazione. Gender Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing PLAN 2025-27 – Politecnico di Torino.
- Shcherbyna, M., & Zvyeryeva, O. (2024). Rsn pzd: Obscenity in Ukrainian women’s voices throughout Russian invasion of Ukraine. In M. Shevtsova (Ed.), Feminist Perspective on Russia’s War in Ukraine: Hear Our Voices (pp. 129-155). Lexington Books.
- Shcherbyna, M., Leontieva, V., Siliutina, I., Sumiatin, S., & Shket, A. (2024). Inclusive culture in the real and virtual educational communication. Revista de Educación y Derecho. Education and Law Review, (29), 1-29.
- Shcherbyna, M. (2024). Inclusion, culture of inclusion and education: Phenomenon and significance. In R. Tamborrino (Ed.), Strategie di adattamento e patrimonio critico / Adaptive Strategies and Critical Heritage (Vol. 4, pp. 669-676). Aisu International Associazione Italiana di Storia Urbana.
- Shcherbyna, M., & Prokopenko, O. (2024). It helps me to fight: Socio-cultural perceptions and artistic expressions of women’s anger amidst Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In O. Smolina (Ed.), Modern and contemporary culture: Research, heritage protection, socialization (pp. 139–155). Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
- Shcherbyna, M. (2024). Obscenity and Ukrainian women amidst Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. In F. Galofaro & P. Sorrentino (Eds.), Il senso della pace: Prospettive sulla semiotica della guerra (pp. 207–223). Mimesis.
- Falzea, L., Temporin, G., Colombelli, A., Montorsi, A., & Shcherbyna, M. (2024). STEM e genere. Uno sguardo interdisciplinare alla pratica sociale di genere e ai modelli ideali di lavoratorз in accademia STEM. In Crossing Gender. Sociology Meets Other Disciplines: Book of Abstracts (pp. 113–117). Gender Studies Research Network – Italian Sociological Association, University of Perugia (Narni Branch), Italy.
- Colombelli, A., Falzea, L., Montorsi, A., & Temporin, G. (2024). ). Unpacking gendered discourse in mentorship programs: a critical analysis of the WeAreHERe campaign. Feminismo/s, (43), (pp. 177-212).
- Bongiovanni, M., Shcherbyna, M., & Gervasio, F. (2024). From invisibility to recognition: First women engineers at Politecnico di Torino. In History of Engineering. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference. Atti del 10° Convegno Nazionale (pp. 557-568). Cuzzolin. ISBN 9791281558380
- Temporin, G., & Colombelli, A. (2023, December).Towards organizational change: a framework for evaluating trends and approaches in Gender Equality Plans. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData) (pp. 1-8), IEEE.
- Cerquitelli, T., Colombelli, A., De Giorgi, C., Falzea, L., Montorsi, A., & Temporin, G. (2023).Diversità è cambiamento. Bilancio di genere 2023 – Politecnico di Torino.
- Colombelli, A., Temporin, G., Serraino, F., & Cerquitelli, T. (2022, December).Physical and mental health of university staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 4674-4680), IEEE.
- Vargas-Solar, G., Cerquitelli, T., Montorsi, A., Salvai, S., Sangineti, M. T., Darmont, J., & Favre, C. (2022, December). Promoting equity, diversity and inclusion: policies, strategies and future directions in higher education, research communities and business. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 4710-4718), IEEE.
- Ballatore, M. G., De Giorgi, C., Montorsi, A., & Tabacco, A. (2022). Balance4Better: “We Are HERe” More Than a Gender Campaign. In Women in STEM in higher education: Good practices of attraction, access and retainment in higher education (pp. 85-97), Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
- Montorsi, A. (2021). Gender disparities in research evaluation in Italy. Gendered academia, (pp. 61-70), FedOA Press, Unina University Press.
- Cerquitelli, T., Colombelli, A., De Giorgi, C., & Montorsi, A. (2020). Diversità è Eccellenza. Bilancio di Genere 2020 – Politecnico di Torino.
- Bethaz, P., Callà, R., Cerquitelli, T., Montorsi, A., De Giorgi, C. (2020). ). Proactive user engagement via friendly survey and data-driven methodologies, (pp. 56-63), IEEE.
- Montorsi, A. (2019). Neutralità di genere nella valutazione. In Donne per l'Europa 2 (pp. 78-91). CIRSDe SG Studi di Genere.