Barts receives Athena SWAN Silver award

Excerpted from the QMUL and Barts websites:

The School of Medicine within Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) is the recipient of a silver level award in the latest round of the Athena SWAN Charter awards.

The medical school – named Barts and The London School of Medicine – had previously obtained bronze status in 2013 and since then have continued to implement a significant record of activities to support gender equality and demonstrate the impact of good practices.

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, Vice-Chair of the School of Medicine Athena Swan Working Group at QMUL, said: “Medicine and other related biomedical science subjects have traditionally suffered from an under-representation of women which becomes evident as one climbs higher on the career ladder. The Athena SWAN Awards have been instrumental in enabling universities to address the gender imbalance and identify the barriers facing women in the workplace.”

Professor Nick Lemoine, Chair of the School of Medicine Athena Swan Working Group at QMUL, added: “Achieving an Athena SWAN Silver award is an impressive achievement and recognition of how far the School of Medicine has come in the last few years. Our goal is to continue building on this success so we can cement our position as a school which has equality firmly engrained in its culture and celebrates the role of women in science and medicine.”

To see the winning application, follow this link
http://www.smd.qmul.ac.uk/Documents/athenaswan/139006.pdf

Learn more about the Athena SWAN Charter at QMUL at
http://www.hr.qmul.ac.uk/equality/athenaswancharter

CPHC Conf: Prof. Stan Scott on Athena SWAN Challenges and Opportunities

Tweet from twitter.com/throthberghofer/status/592983514565496832/photo/1

Professor Stan Scott of Queens University Belfast’s
School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science speaks on “Athena SWAN: Challenges and opportunities” at the Council for Professors and Heads of Computing Conference at Queen Mary University of London.

Pointing out that 51% of the population are women, and only 14% are vice chancellors of universities, and 23.6% registrants for the current CPHC conference,  the presentation started out by reiterating the claim that women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.

Bachelor students in Informatics number 835,000.  The percentage of women students studying informatics BSc degrees is around 15% in the UK and about 30% in Turkey.  The figure is 20% for MSc degrees in the UK.  In the US, there is a downward trend starting in the early 80s, corresponding to the introduction of the personal computer, possibly due to marketing.

Professor Scott proceeded to give a brief history of Athena SWAN in the UK.  The Equality Challenge Unit was launched on 22 June 2005, with the first awards conferred 2006.  There are now 128 Athena SWAN members (6 Silver, 80 Bronze).  The exercise will extend to Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Business, and Law in April 2015.  In January 2013, Research Councils UK sent a letter to vice chancellors throughout the UK saying that those in receipt of RC funding must embed equality and diversity in all aspects of research practice as evidenced by participation in schemes such as Athena SWAN, Project Juno, Investors in People, Stonewall Diversity Champions.

He then shared Queen’s University Belfast’s experience with achieving and keeping the Silver award.  The university itself has an institutional Silver award that was recently renewed; two schools have Gold Awards (Psychology and Biological Sciences), and nine Silver.  Key to their success has been significant institutional support, Head of School support and an enthusiastic and committed SAT, and SWAN Champions and role model. Each school has two Champions, at the university level, there is a SWAN Champions Group, and at the management level, there is a SWAN Steering Group, which reports to, and receives guidance from, the vice chancellor.

The School, which is large and spread out over three buildings, had set out as its mission three goals: (1) to create a culture that attracts women students and staff; (2) to remove obstacles to women joining and staying; and, (3) to integrate gender equality and wider diversity into all aspects of school business.  The SAT consisted of a gender balanced collection of Professors, lecturers, a senior engineer, students (UG and PGR), business and school managers, and administrative and marketing staff.  Key SWAN themes included attracting women students and staff, career advice and support to women students and staff, making the school a good place to study/work for women students and staff.  Example activities included an audit of the website and brochures to ensure that they are women friendly, providing women applicants with information on SWAN activities, introducing a staff charter making clear what what staff can expect from line managers and vice versa, providing leadership training and development, maintaining a staff mentoring scheme, and scheduling events in support of employee wellbeing.

In conclusion, Professor Scott points to the fact that the problem remains that very few women apply to academic positions in electronic and electrical engineering and computer science.  There needs to be rigorous review and placement of advertisements, unconscious bias training for all staff, and active promotion of flexible working and part-time positions.

WISE@QMUL: And What Do You Do?


“And What Do You Do? – Helping women in science stay and progress in their scientific fields”

Are these the words you dread hearing, at any gathering, be it social or work related? Come to this practical 2-hour workshop on Friday, 24 April, 1:30pm-3:30pm, in Arts One, Room 1.28 (Mile End Campus) and leave confident about talking to people about your work and opening up new opportunities for your career.

This session is delivered by Adelina Chalmers, guest lecturer at Cambridge University Judge Business School, who is a natural connector and an expert at transforming abstract information into engaging, memorable presentations.

Registration is necessary: book CAPD course RW213 online at http://goo.gl/oWS4iK

UNESCO: Science Interactive Map

Women in Science
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
4/2/2015

This is a fantastic interactive map of global statistics for science. Data can be downloaded. (To check: whether “researchers” are included in these statistics).

Related UNESCO resources:
– One view on the above. 

THE: UCU calls for wage audits as gender pay gap endures

THE analysis reveals progress in closing gap, but female academics still earn nearly £6K less than men.

Excerpts from the article:

“Female professors also lose out in the pay stakes as they are paid 5.8 per cent less than men over the UK as a whole, according to Hesa figures. That deficit rises to 6.6 per cent in Scotland, 8.4 per cent in Wales and 10.8 per cent in Northern Ireland. It is 5.4 per cent in England.”

“The biggest pay differential for professors occurs at St George’s, University of London, where women are paid on average 19 per cent less than men, while female academics at the medical school are paid 17 per cent less. …”

“When academics of all kinds are considered, City University London had the highest pay gap among larger universities with an 18.4 per cent difference – equivalent to £12,222. …”

“King’s College London, where female academics are paid about £10,000 less than men on average (18.2 per cent), said that it is “working hard to understand the reasons for our gender pay gap”.”

Read more at https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/ucu-calls-for-wage-audits-as-gender-pay-gap-endures/2019452.article.

Female FTSE Board Report 2015

Dr Elena Doldor, Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at QMUL’s School of Business and Management is co-author of the Female FTSE Board Report 2015​.

Excerpt from executive summary from The Female FTSE Board Report 2015:

This year we have seen significant progress on FTSE 100 boards. All-male boards have totally disappeared with Glencore, the last, appointing a woman to its board. The percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards is 23.5%, almost exactly where we predicted in last year’s report. This puts us on track to hit the 25% target by the end of 2015. The percentage of women in executive directorships on FTSE 100 boards is at an all time high of 8.6% with 24 women holding such roles.

FTSE 100
In the FTSE 100, Diageo and Intercontinental Hotels Group plc tie for first place with 45.45% women on their boards. Forty one companies in the FTSE 100 have now reached the 25% target. An analysis of 12 different sectors highlights both companies who have reached the 25% target and companies who have not, indicating that sector is not a barrier to the appointment of women directors.

FTSE 250
The percentage of women directors on FTSE 250 boards has also risen to 18%. Sixty five FTSE 250 companies have reached the 25% target but 23 still have no women on their boards. There are now 8 females holding Chairmanships of FTSE 250 companies. The percentage of women holding executive directorships has fallen back to 4.6%, the level we had in 2012.

March 2015 FTSE 100 FTSE 250
Female held directorships 263 (23.5%) 365 (18%)
Female executive directorships 24 (8.6%) 25 (4.6%)
Female non-executive directorships 239 (28.5%) 340 (23%)
Companies with female directors 100 (100%) 227 (90.8%)
Companies with at least 25% female directors 41 (41%) 65 (26%)

Strategies to Ensure Success in Meeting the 25% Target
The UK now ranks fifth in Europe and the world in terms of the percentage of women on its top corporate boards. We are on track to make the 25% target this year. Following interviews with senior business leaders, executive search firms and other subject experts, future action needs to focus on the following:

1. Build a sustainable pipeline of executive women.
2. Develop an agile working culture in which real meritocracy is nurtured.
3. Extend greater robustness and transparency in the board appointment process. Look at the suitability of women candidates outside of the corporate sector.
4. Ensure that women make more headway not only as NEDs but as Chairs, Senior Independent Directors and Heads of Nominations Committees. More work is needed on the development of board directors.
5. Many Chairmen champion gender diversity. This needs to be extended to CEOs and senior managers to develop the female pipeline.
6. Champions of change outside of business are also needed, such as the equivalent to the Davies Committee, the Government, media and researchers, to ensure that progress continues.

NYTimes: Fewer Women Run Top Companies than Men Named John

This 2 March 2015 article in The Upshot section of the New York Times by Justin Wolfers shows just how much women are outnumbered by men in many important decision-making roles in the US.

The article introduces the Glass Ceiling index as a measure of the under-representation of women in decision-making roles. The index is defined as the ratio of the number of men named James (Jim), Robert (Bob), John, or William (Bill) in these roles to the number of women in similar roles.

CEOs of large firms have a glass ceiling index score of 4.0.  If Hilary Clinton were to be elected US President, the glass ceiling index for US Presidents would be 15.0.  Republicans in the US Senate have an index of 2.17, while Democrats in the US Senate have an index of 0.3.  The US Supreme court has an index of 0.33.

Extending the study to academia, and looking at Economics departments at Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, full professors at the economics departments of these institutions have a glass ceiling index of 1.12.  The index remains unmoved even when accounting for the international nature of faculty membership by considering also Jaimes, Robertos, Juans, and Willems.

Guardian: Academics Tackling Everyday Sexism in University Life

Source: www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/24/sexism-women-in-university-academics-feminism

Quotes:

“Our universities are highly sexist institutions. Women are outnumbered and relegated to junior posts. More than 60% of academics are men, and about 80% of professors. Official statistics show that more women are on temporary contracts than men.”

“Behind the numbers lie depressing examples of everyday sexism. … A new survey by the Royal Historical Society (RHS) shows that female academics,… are exploited and marginalised by “macho practices and cultures”.”

“not that women are somehow less able to cope when aggressive behaviour is aimed at them… It is rather that aggressive behaviour can heighten women’s feeling that they do not belong, by reinforcing the masculine nature of the environment within which they work and study.”

“When women do engage in combative debate …, we receive no kudos: what is assertive in a man is arrogant in a woman. … many academic men can’t deal with female equals.”

“Increasingly, universities fail to advertise prized permanent academic jobs, simply filling the post with their favoured candidate – invariably a man. … lazy stereotyping means men are assumed to be “brighter” than women; assertive polemic is taken as evidence of intelligence.”

“As one woman complained, “I have been asked if I was married, while my colleagues have been asked what they think”. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked by male academics have asked me if I have children. My husband, also a university lecturer, can’t recall ever being asked this.”

“… the RHS survey found that many women “get stuck mid-career”, often overburdened with administrative tasks.”

“Most men questioned by the RHS regard their university’s gender equality policies as “good”, but most women consider them “poor”.”