Research on gender equality projects has found that management is a key factor for success, especially, the degree of managerial responsibility, impact and organizational basis, covaries with the project's long time success rate. The studies not only emphasize that gender equality is a management responsibility, but highlights the follow-up in practice. Policies, statements etc. are not enough; management responsibility must be followed up by line responsibility, and in order to have effect management involvement must include a method to engage each level and individual in the process. Here we describe the steps and method used in a process changing the discourse of an organization. We draw on data collected in an action research project at a STEM faculty of a large Norwegian University. The faculty under study was participating in a gender equality project funded by the Research Council of Norway with the ambition to increase the number of women in senior research positions. The collected data; interviews, anonymous written workshops evaluations with comments, observations and participatory research, of twelve half day workshops with ca 200 male and female ph.d supervisors, is used to examine the impact the managerial activity had on the change of discourse in the organization. We propose a theoretical model, in order to understand our results.  The data first shows an initial situation with limited management involvement. This included a number of workshops displaying a tendency towards strong resistance regarding the idea of academic organizations as gender unequal. The discussions never moved from criticism of gender models and theories, with unwillingness to talk about one´s own experiences e g as PhD supervisors.  Analysing this situation, we employed a new method of greater management involvement, emphasizing knowledge development and recognizing controversy and resistance to gender balance. This included a five-day gender equality program for the faculty management team. A key matter was to shift the burden of problem recognition from those experiencing the effects of gender inequality to the management. The result of the program can be summarized as follows:-       The management's task is to take responsibility for the analysis of the organization as gender unequal-       The management team needs development as a group to take on this responsibility Our data shows that more and better leadership involvement is important – but also, that it needs to be combined with methods to change the organization as a whole, and create “bottom up” and not just “top down” involvement. We developed a method to involve the organization as a whole, focused on raising awareness and curiosity regarding how gender actually works in the organization. This was a further development of Joan Ackers model (1992/2006), described in the paper, offering “tools” for the individual, for observing and understanding gender in the organization.   The combination of these steps and methods – management involvement shifting responsibility for the problem and offering a method for participants’ own investigation of gender in the organization – created a new discourse were the workshop discussions changed from resistance, denial and ambivalence, towards an interest to understand one´s own role and possibility for improving gender equality.  The data shows that when the faculty management clearly stated that the faculty still had gender-related challenges, the discourse within the organization changed. However, even more important for the change of discourse was the choice of theoretical approach and method for the organization's gender equality work. When the management team contributes to the knowledge base through education in a gender perspective and offers a method for the organizational work that all employees can use in their everyday life, opportunities for change at all levels in the organisation are created.