Alison Rodger
•  BSc (hons), PhD 1985, Sydney
•  Research Fellow, Newnham College, Cambridge
•  Research Fellow, St Catherine’s, St Hilda’s, Oxford
•  Glasstone Fellow, Oxford
•  Warwick since 1994: Biophysical chemist: polarized
light spectroscopy of DNAs, proteins etc.
•  Reader 2003, Professor 2005.
•  Director of EPSRC-funded Doctoral Training Centre
and of Warwick Centre for Analytical Science.
•  Only female academic in chemistry > 11 years.
Warwick: Bronze: University, WMS, psychology
Silver: Chemistry, Physics
Submitted: Engineering, WMG (resubmission), Life
Sciences, Chemistry
In progress: Maths, Stats, ?? Computer science
Athena SWAN at Warwick
especially in
Chemistry
Where we were
where we are going
why we bother
Surely we’re past all this?
Why bother?
•  We can get on to a hobby horse of political correctness
but why should we even bother to consider gender
equality in SET/STEM?
•  Figures suggest there is an issue, but does it matter?
•  Will addressing it make Warwick a better place in terms
of
–  happiness
–  productivity
–  finances
–  reputation
•  At a job interview in 1988 I was asked what would happen
if I had children — it was deemed a reasonable part of a
selection process
•  2012 at a dinner at Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
asked by a senior US colleague “Who are you with?”
•  Recent research shows
appointments committees
assume men are more likely
to be successful in science.
What happens to women?
Warwick/Chemistry
•  Two aspects of % of women decreasing
with seniority:
–  women leave
–  women are not promoted.
•  AthenaSWAN paperwork: what academic grades are
female staff in? (Men make the total to 100%)
SET=STEM
UG=PhD=PDRA
PhD/5
6
7
8
9
7/8
9
•  Changing either requires a culture change
which won’t happen unless academics
are committed to the concept.
•  Not imposed from above or by admin.
Gender equality
•  The funnel points are different in different disciplines
What is gender equality? (not 50:50 in SET)
1
What did we want to achieve?
•  Our Pulse Survey (staff satisfaction survey) was pretty
ropey, especially on communication, feeling of
involvement. University said we needed to fix it.
•  All male promotion committee.
•  Women not involved in decision making committees.
•  We’d lost our teaching workload model. ‘Everyone’
thought their workload was higher than that of
colleagues.
•  New staff felt at sea, especially PDRAs.
•  People not clear about promotion options.
•  People felt dispirited — (though metrics looked OK).
Athena SWAN action plan
•  We used our Athena SWAN silver application to create a
process to address these issues.
•  Communication: email lists that work, monthly
newsletter (not just academic), suggestion box.
•  Agreed we’d try to have women on
promotions and executive committee.
•  Improved (created) induction material
•  Worked on reviving our post doc forum
•  Transferable skills training for PhD
students and post docs — Women
seem to benefit more than men
Terms of reference of
Chemistry’s WCC
•  To promote a positive working culture
and collegiate environment within the
Department of Chemistry.
•  Responsible for facilitating effective communications
within the Department.
•  To take forward the Action Plan from the Athena
SWAN and PULSE survey, encouraging participation
from all members of the Department.
•  To provide reports to Staff meeting and to Executive
Committee when requested.
Quotable quote
•  Both men and women benefit from good
practice, but women are adversely
affected by bad practice more than men
Sean McWhinnie
Ex. RSC
Departmental AS Committees
•  Chemistry had an AS Self assessment group. After we got
silver this was changed to Welfare and Communication
Committee in order to
–  Make it part of normal departmental business (not an
add-on)
–  Avoid the ‘why fuss about women?’ question
–  Address head-on our two biggest problems at the time
–  Meets 1 or 2 times per term
–  Chaired by HoD
•  WMS, WMG also have W&C. Psychology has AS SAG.
Physics has Juno committee. SLS has Communication and
Culture.
Warwick/Chemistry
•  AthenaSWAN paperwork: what academic grades are
female staff in? (Men make the total to 100%)
SET=STEM
UG=PhD=PDRA
PhD/5
6
7
8
9
7/8
9
•  Our challenge is PDRA to independent career
2
PDRAs
•  Chemistry postdoctoral researchers’ forum
•  Postgraduate certificate in transferable skills for postdocs
It is a national problem
•  Irène Joliot-Curie Conference
ESTABLISHING AN INDEPENDENT
CAREER IN CHEMISTRY
October 1–2, 19 universities
represented.
•  Communication & Impact for Female
Early Career Researchers
•  4–6 January 2013, Cumberland Lodge,
Great Windsor Park
University Athena SWAN network
•  Grew from the original University Self Assessment
Group
•  Informal, meets once or twice a term over coffee or
lunch
•  Good representation across our 10 STEM departments
•  Desperately dependent on SB’s energy and organisation
•  Enjoyable, sharing of ‘best practice’
•  ‘To do’ agenda of supporting AS
applications
•  Members play some role in their
department activities
•  Has a researcher representative,
academics, HR, administrators, not enough men
Warwick Medical School
•  Had been talking but NIHR provided motivation.
•  I had thought it was a pretty awful place because I only
heard the problems.
•  AS has been extremely valuable in getting good practice in
WMS more widely known as so much of it was 1–1.
•  Their Welfare & Communication Group has been successful
in addressing issues that have nowhere else to go.
•  E.g. they wanted a nursery on site.
… Realised core issue was that parents
couldn’t leave their parking space to visit
a baby in nursery. So they have got
parking spaces set aside for parents.
Getting people together
•  Lunch for female academic staff
(occasional, now monthly)
•  WCG
•  Athena SWAN University network
•  AS Steering Committee
Where
The best
angels
andfear
the
to
worst
tread
Outsider’s
view
of medicine
•  WMS Athena SWAN application showed us how to
up our game—so many examples of good practice
•  But no-one believes me when I tell them that!
•  Medicine has the reputation (and reality) of being
o hierarchical
o chauvinist (poppet)
o not caring about people
o exploiting young doctors and academics
o not supporting people who can’t survive the system
(men and women)
•  So how do you deal with it?
Not… “I survived so they
should…”
Why Athena SWAN?
–  Data driven
–  Can find out good things that are happening
and expand them
Use it to make your
department a better place
3
Way forward…
•  Think about WHY you might want to be involved in an AS process
•  Decide what changes your department/university needs
•  Women often prefer to work
collaboratively rather than
competitively — recognition for it??
•  Child care practicalities
•  Women on promotions committees
•  Women on departmental executives
•  Workload models (for what???)
•  Identify where to put your efforts
•  E.g. “Establishing an independent career in chemistry” one day
Conference and networking event
Where next?
•  PDRA return from maternity leave (if funding has run out)
•  Collaborative working recognition
•  Support colleagues: mentoring, informal, to aim high
4