50:50 Gender Equality Group
Wednesday 20th November 2013
MINUTES
Present:
Annett Dolphin (Co-Chair)
Rob de Bruin
Sarah Chaytor
Anna Cox
Purvangi Dave
Rosalind Duhs
Vicki Baars
Sarah Guise
Marjan Jahanshahi
Charlotte Lemanski
Robb Mcdonald
Ifat Yasin
In attendance: Harriet Jones (Secretary)
Apologies were received from: Patrick Wolfe, Judith Stephenson, Sarah Winmill, Geraint
Rees and Andrew Clark
1 Update on changes to 50:50 group and plans for the future
1.1 SG explained that a paper (circulated to the group) was sent to the Senior
Management Team outlining suggested changes to the 50:50 group. This was put
together after an Athena SWAN SAT meeting in June, and in response to feedback
from Athena SWAN on our University Bronze Athena SWAN renewal. The Athena
SWAN panel were confused about how the 50:50 group and the Athena SWAN self
assessment team (SAT) worked together.
1.1.1 All recommendations were accepted by SMT
1.1.2 The Provost agreed to chair the 50:50 group, which will take a lead on
Athena SWAN, and act as the SAT
1.1.3 There will still be a female co-chair for the 50:50 group, and this is likely to
be the new Gender Champion as Mary Collins is stepping down as Gender
Champion.
1.1.4 It is proposed that there will be a set agenda at each meeting, to ensure
the views of all staff groups are represented. In addition to thematic agenda
items standing agenda items will be: STEM Faculties and Athena SWAN,
HASS Faculties and GEM (the new Gender Equality Mark for non-STEM
faculties), and Professional Services staff to ensure issue from all staff
groups are picked up on.
1.1.5 The membership will continue to represent the views of staff from across
the different Faculties, and different staff groups and both men and women.
1.1.6 There will be a number of ex-officio roles on the new 50:50 committee,
including Faculty SWAN leads and the UCLU Women’s Officer. Faculty
SWAN leads will communicate information to and from the Departmental
SAT teams in their Faculties.
1.1.7 The new committee will keep the 50:50 name and logo.
1.1.8 Current 50:50 group members will be asked to re-affirm their interest in
being part of the new committee as there were more limited places due to
the merger of the SWAN SAT and the 50:50 group.
1.2 The group raised concerns over the amalgamation of the SWAN SAT and the 50:50
group, and asked whether HASS and Professional Services staff will be taken into
consideration.
1.2.1 SG noted that there will be a fixed agenda, so that STEMM, HASS and
Professional services will be discussed at each meeting.
1.2.2 There is also a new Gender Charter Mark (GEM) for HASS subjects. This
is currently being piloted in the Greek and Latin department, but will be
rolled out to other UCL departments in due course. The new 50:50 group
will also have responsibility for monitoring the progress of GEM.
1.2.3 HJ commented that many of the issues relevant to SWAN are important for
all staff at the University, for example improvements or extra support in the
appraisal system or promotions process.
1.3 RMcD asked whether the 50:50 group would have responsibility for applying for
University silver Athena SWAN award, and if this was planned for the near future. SG
confirmed that the group would be responsible for this and it was planned for the 20142015, depending on the success of departmental SWAN applications.
1.4 RMcD also asked whether Deans had been asked to identify a Faculty SWAN lead.
SG noted that an email will be sent in December.
1.5 AD asked about how big the new 50:50 should be. The group agreed that there
should be no more than 20 members.
1.6 AD asked about the hierarchy for the new group – who would report to the 50:50
group and would it be reporting to a senior committee. SG noted that the 50:50 group
will be reporting new Equality and Diversity Committee, which will be chaired by
Professor Graham Hart.
1.7 SG noted that there were also new networks that will feed into the 50:50 group,
these include:
1.7.1 UCL women – for female academic staff (post doc to professor) in the
School of Life and Medical Sciences
1.7.2 Astrea – a new network for women in professional services
1.7.3 VB said that there is a ULU gender and feminism group, which staff are
welcome to join.
1.7.4 AC noted that PALS has a women’s group
1.7.5 SG also mentioned that she starting a parents and carers network. This will
involve monthly meetings, and will be organised by a steering group.
1.8 RD commented that it will be important for the new 50:50 group to have clear
objectives
1.9 RdB asked whether information on the 50:50 group is on the UCL website. SG
confirmed that information was on the equality and diversity website. This site is
currently being reviewed and refreshed, so will be improved.
2 Actions undertaken to date
2.1 AD went through a list of actions coming out of the formal meetings in order to take
stock of what the group had achieved since February 2012. Below are the notes from
the discussion:
2.1.1 There were some actions around requiring data, some actions asking for
‘better data’ after data had been presented to the group. SG noted the
difficulty in providing extra, or more detailed data sets.
2.1.2 Data on fellowships – AD noted that the issue is at the point when
researchers approach UCL with a fellowship and ask to be sponsored/to
hold their fellowship at UCL. AD was concerned that this could have an
impact on gender equality at UCL. RdB noted that this is not the case in all
departments as the MRC LMCB interview for these ‘sponsored’ posts. SG
asked if AD could write a summary paper on the issue, which could then be
taken to the first ‘new’ 50:50 group meeting in February. SG agreed to
make an amendment to the gender sabbatical policy to include fathers or
partners who had taken at least 3 or 4 months of additional paternity leave,
to reflect the good practice around paternity in the REF.
2.1.3 Leadership programmes for women:
 SG reported that UCL have funded 6 women to attend the Aurora
course that is being run by the Leadership Foundation.
Springboard, a national programme for women, is also available for
research and professional services staff. Because of these
opportunities, there is currently no in-house training specifically for
women in leadership, though women’s participation on the
leadership programme is monitored.
 CL noted that while Springboard might be useful for women, it
requires a lot of time, and this might be putting women off taking up
this opportunity. She suggested that the group could ask Deans to
select a number of women to attend each year, and their workload
would be officially adjusted to allow them to attend
 In relation to this, SG explained that she is undertaking a research
project into the Head of Department role, and trying to understand
why women are not taking up these positions as often as men in
2.1.4
2.1.5
2.1.6
2.1.7
2.1.8
2.1.9
relation to the pool. This might lead to the HoD role being
reconfigured.
 VB noted that there is a current NUS campaign on women in
leadership. UCL is sending 4 female students to take part.
 AD suggested there should be a consistent policy across UCL for
HoDs to be in post for a fixed term of 3 or 5 years.
 CL agreed with this proposal and noted that in her department, all
roles with a large workload (for example admissions tutor) are fixed
term, and a 2 term sabbatical is available after the 3 years.
The group had proposed a regular ‘Did you know’ section in The Week @
UCL to cover relevant policy e.g. flexible working etc. However this was not
accepted by the Communications team. They agreed the 50:50 group
could include one-off sections in The Week.
Head hunters: being discussed by SMT, specifically asking headhunting
firms to sign up to the code of conduct of the 30% club. It was raised that
head hunters should not be interviewing the long list on UCL’s behalf. CL
suggested a UCL representative should be present at these interviews.
Awards: SG noted that she had tried to get the gender balance of awards
from departments but there were different and highly devolved systems
and procedures in place; not all of these are monitored. SG had put
together a monitoring form (tabled) that departments could send back to
the 50:50 group annually. SG agreed to circulate this for comments.
The group noted that they would like the 50:50 logo so that they could use
it as email footers and posters. HJ agreed to send the logo to all members
of the new 50:50 group
The group agreed that the 50:50 group should have a tag line. All members
to send suggestions to HJ
Recruitment waiver for REF: SG noted that the 50:50 group had
successfully influenced a proposal to extend the recruitment waiver from
Professorial posts to Lecturer posts and above. The group agreed that it
would be interesting to see what impact the waiver had on the gender
balance of new recruitments in the run up to the REF. SG agreed to source
data on this.
Action: AD to write a summary paper outlining her concerns about fellowship
positions at UCL.
Action: SG to amend the sabbatical policy to be more inclusive to fathers/partners
Action: SG to circulate awards monitoring form and 50:50 group to send comments
Action: send the 50:50 logo to all members of the new 50:50 group
Action: all members to send HJ suggested tag lines for the 50:50 group
Action: SG to source data on recruitment waiver and gender balance.
3 AOB
3.1 HJ gave a brief update to the group on Athena SWAN:
3.1.1 6 departments successfully gained an Athena SWAN award in April 2013:
PALS renewed their silver, Ophthalmology, Mental Health Sciences,
Division of Medicine and Institute for Women’s Health received a silver
award and Neurology were awarded bronze.
3.1.2 The current number of awards across UCL is 12: 9 silver awards, and 3
bronze awards. Physics also hold a Juno Practitioner award which is
equivalent to an Athena SWAN bronze.
3.1.3 11 Departments planned to submit at the end of November: 8 silver, 1
silver renewal and 2 bronze
3.1.4 If all departments receive an award, UCL will have a total of 23 Athena
SWAN awards, with 56% of all STEMM departments holding an award.
3.1.5 This will mean that UCL can apply for a University silver award (a university
has to have a majority of its departments with an award before it can apply)
3.1.6 5 departments planning to apply in April 2014 – 2 silver renewals, 1 silver
and 2 bronze applications.
3.1.7 Harriet would soon be approaching all STEMM departments who have not
started working on Athena SWAN
3.2 VB noted that the UCLU Women’s Officer has three key aims this year:
3.2.1 Women in leadership
3.2.2 Safe campus
3.2.3 Child care