Steering by Evaluation in Times of Impact Orientation and Monitoring?

Gender equality is a goal of German and Austrian higher education policy, which is currently being shaped by decentralised policy implementation and a distinct orientation on impact. In this article, we discuss the contribution that evaluation can make to the interplay between the two. In doing so, we draw on the evaluations of two gender equality policies aimed at raising the share of women professors. Using these two examples, we demonstrate the role that evaluation can play with regard to policy steering and the impact evaluation can create or strengthen. Our focus thereby lies not just on the use of evaluation results by the commissioning bodies but also on the acceptance and use of evaluations and their associated instruments by the higher education institutions themselves, thereby allowing evaluation to contribute to a general discourse on gender equality politics.