MSCA Grantee Dr. Giulia Lausi: Investigating Gender Bias Dynamics

In a significant achievement, Vilnius University's Law Faculty secured funding for the postdoctoral fellowship project “Investigating Gender-Based Discrimination: Unveiling the Underlying Mechanisms (UnveilGBD)”. Led by Dr Giulia Lausi from the University of Rome Sapienza, and supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr Ilona Michailovič, this project delves into the complex dynamics of gender bias.

Funded under the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF) , this initiative aims to unravel the interplay between cognitive functions, sexist beliefs, and gender stereotypes contributing to discrimination. Through interdisciplinary analysis, Dr Lausi seeks to develop a model informing international policies to prevent gender-based violence.

Assoc. Prof. Dr I. Michailovič is delighted with G. Lausi's win and thinks that everything is important in this project – an interdisciplinary comprehensive approach to the study of gender discrimination, and a synthesis of psychology, victimology and criminal justice in the context of the problem under consideration. She is sure that Dr G. Lausi's project will make a significant contribution not only to raising awareness of gender discrimination, but also to finding effective mechanisms to prevent it.

Dr. G. Lausi explained how she prepared the project and how she felt when she found out about the results.

How did you feel when you found out that you‘ve received a grant for your project?

I was stunned. I knew that this was something hard to achieve, so I didn‘t expect to win. Of course, I knew, that I had a good project, but I didn‘t think it was good enough to compete with such amazing experts that win these awards.
It was 6 AM when I checked my email and found the letter, announcing that I won, and I woke up my entire family by screaming out of joy. It was amazing – I can say with confidence that this was my biggest accomplishment ever.

And what is the process like of getting a grant? Was it difficult?

I have always liked doing research, so I think that coming up with the idea for the project was the easiest part for me. Then came the practical aspects, like for example – how to write it all down concisely and how to get funding. I had never written a project like that before – the only time I had to present something of this sort was my PhD project, and then I was constantly under the guidance of my supervisor.

I would say the writing part was the most difficult, and convincing people that I‘m the best candidate for such funding. I learned a lot throughout this process, for instance – I had never really thought about the economic impact of gender-based violence before writing this project. It turned out to be an important aspect of the 2030 EU agenda. So, to answer your question, I think the hardest part was having to read a lot of papers on things I didn‘t previously know about.

Can you describe more in-depth what your project is about?

The project is called “Investigating Gender-Based Discrimination: Unveiling the Underlying Mechanisms (UnveilGBD)”, so the idea behind it is to develop research to find out what factors are mostly at fault for the persistence of discrimination against women. Some cultural aspects of misogyny vary between different countries, but some things are more worldwide. The goal is to investigate the reasons for these phenomena.

Your supervisor is Assoc. Prof. Dr Ilona Michailovič, who specialises in legal science, and your science field is psychology. How did you decide to choose a legal expert as a supervisor? How do you think what advantage this interdisciplinary approach can bring to your research?

I chose Assoc. Prof. Dr Ilona Michailovič as my supervisor because despite my background in psychology, my research in forensic psychology has already integrated legal aspects. Moreover, since my research focuses on gender-based violence, which spans multiple disciplines, having a supervisor from a legal background enriches the interdisciplinary nature of my work. Assoc. Prof. Dr I. Michailovič's expertise in legal science is particularly beneficial for developing effective policies and guidelines, ensuring a more realistic and practical approach to addressing gender-based violence.

When did you first become interested in the topic of gender-based discrimination?

Whenever people ask me this, I always say that I‘ve always been interested in it; I just wasn‘t aware of it because gender-based discrimination is so ingrained in my everyday life since I‘m a woman myself. I even thought about writing a thesis on this topic at the end of my Master‘s degree, but I ended up writing it on the topic of cyber crimes against women, which is also closely related. While working on this topic I learned about phenomena that I didn‘t even know had a name. So I‘ve been studying gender-based violence since 2017.

Can you give an example of such phenomena that you learned about while writing your first thesis?

Mainly it was about online hate speech. It helped me understand that an aggressive comment isn‘t always just a comment – it‘s often aggressive just because the recipient is a woman, which makes it a gender-based hate crime. Also, most women have experienced catcalling, and we often chalk it up to something that just happens, but while writing this thesis, I understood that it‘s also a form of violence.

Lastly, what advice would you give to other young researchers who might want to apply for a grant?

I think it‘s really important to have someone who will be with you throughout the process and support you because having a support system helps tremendously. My supervisor guided me with a lot of care and I think I wouldn‘t have been able to develop a project in such a short time without her help. My second piece of advice would be – just try. Sometimes we underestimate our abilities and think that we won‘t be able to achieve something, so we don‘t even try. You might surprise yourself.