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Universities, like many organisations, remain spaces where male privilege and dominance persist, despite assumptions of gender neutrality in their structures and practices. Research shows that journal metrics, such as impact factors and citation indexes, exhibit gender bias, disadvantaging female authors in publication, citations, and funding opportunities. These biases affect promotion, tenure, and hiring decisions, yet discriminatory practices are often justified in the name of promoting research ‘excellence.’ An increasing number of researchers are now acknowledging the gendered construction of ‘excellence’. At the same time, others are actively seeking ways to move towards responsible initiatives (e.g., CoARA, DORA, The Leiden Manifesto, and the Hong Kong Principles). We argue, however, that these initiatives– seen as ‘the way forward’– still fail to acknowledge implicit gender biases and leave the current neoliberal patriarchal academic order relatively untouched. We posit then that moving away from the assumptions of objectivity that often underpin the literature’s definitions of ‘responsible’ initiatives, and shifting towards ‘responsive’ approaches, makes it possible to illuminate existing biased practices. This conceptual shift, inspired by Mair (2009), may help prevent practices such as ‘genderwashing,’ where superficial or symbolic statements that appear to support gender equality and inclusiveness are made without implementing meaningful changes that truly advance these goals. Significantly, this allows us to examine not only their limitations but also the hidden potential of certain initiatives to bring about substantial change.