Good Practice in
Chemistry Departments
Sarah Dickinson
Royal Society of Chemistry
and
Caroline Fox
Athena Forum
Outline

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Numbers: women in science
Career intensions of PhD students
Work with Athena
Good Practice
Both men and women benefit
from good practice, however,
women in particular are
adversely affected by bad
practice
Overall Students Numbers: HE is
increasingly a female environment
60
Undergraduate
51
52
51
Postgraduate
55
54
53
56
56
56
44
44
45
46
44
58
57
55
53
50
46
57
56
45
46
46
2000
2001
47
48
49
49
2004
2005
% Female
42
39
40
37
33
38
39
39
1995
1996
34
30
20
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1997
1998
1999
Year o f graduatio n
2002
2003
2006
2007
Chemistry Student Numbers: getting
there….
60
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
50
46
40
% Female
52
34
36
35
37
36
30
30
25
26
27
1991
1992
1993
37
32
38
41
40
37
33
37
34
1996
1997
1998
37
43
39
35
42
39
39
47
40
36
46
38
40
47
40
22
20
10
0
1990
1994
1995
1999 2000
Year of graduation
2001 2002 2003 2004
2005 2006 2007
Chemistry Student Numbers: but it’s
not all good news…
3000
Chemistry student number
M en
Wo men
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1995 1996
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year of graduation
% of female staff
Percentage of female staff by grade in all
subjects
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1997
2003
2005
2006
Researcher
Lecturer
Senior Lecturer
Professor
Percentage of female staff by grade
50
Chemistry
45
All
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Researcher
Lecturer
Senior lecturer
Professor
Some comparisons….
Chemistry
Biosciences
All
100
Civil Eng
Business
79
75
80
% female staff
Physics
Nursing & Para
72
62
60
40
20
49
30
43
47
46
40 41
29
26
25
18
17 18
14
33
37
9 9
14 16
6 3 5
0
Researcher
Lecturer/Assis Prof
Senior Lecturer/ Assoc
Prof
Full Professor
18
Postgraduate surveys: 1999 and 2006
 Women postgraduates were more likely to
seek careers advice from careers services,
and earlier than men.
 Equal proportions of men and women said
that they had received careers advice at the
end of three years but men were more likely
to have spoken to supervisor as their sole
advisor
 79% of women and 86 % of men intended to
use their science in their careers
Do you plan to be a research chemist?
80
73
72
Percentage agreeing
70
61
60
59
56
50
37
40
Women
Men
30
20
10
0
1
2
Number of Years into PhD
3
Possible reasons for giving up
 Positive decision to do something else
 Negative experience of research in
academic chemistry
 Pessimism about future job prospects in
chemistry (salaries, job security, lack of
promotion)
The results do have policy implications
 The findings of the research have serious
implications especially as the proportion of
women graduating in chemistry approaches
50 percent
 Any increases in the number of chemistry
graduates may be counteracted by the “leaky
pipeline”
 The need for action to encourage women to
stay in chemistry is becoming even more
important than it was!
Just a bit of fun…
The Athena Moment…
the moment when the proportions of
female and male staff are equal
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Chemistry - 2038
Biosciences – 2015
Physics - 2102
Mathematics - 2237
However, parity in chemistry full professorships is not
likely for eighty years
Athena Project 1999-2007
ATHENA AIMS
To advance and promote the careers of women in science,
engineering and technology in higher education (HE) and
research and to achieve a significant increase in the number of
women recruited to top posts
ATHENA FOCUS
Working in partnership to encourage, support, develop, identify
and disseminate good practice, which is
simple
cheap
effective
And changes ‘how we do things round here’
Athena successes
 Development grants – projects in 12 universities
 LAWNs – Local Academic Women’s Networks in 15
universities
 7 Royal Society Athena awards for good practice
 27 Reports on good practice
 Athena Survey of science, engineering and technology
(ASSET) of13,000 + scientists & engineers
 Athena SWAN Charter and recognition awards
 Some 80 universities have worked with Athena
Factors affecting career choices of
graduate chemists
Published in 1999, this study found that:
 Both men and women had concerns about long
hours, low pay and career structure
 Women alone were concerned about:
 Poor working conditions
 Emphasis on results rather than process
 Isolation and segregation
 Working environment in academic chemistry deters
large numbers of women from remaining
 Structure of departments and the nature of the
subject creates barriers to their promotion
Recruitment and Retention of
Women in Academic Chemistry 2001
 A few chemistry departments were observed
to have a significantly greater proportion of
women staff than most
 Was this purely by chance or was there more
going on?
 Study sought to find out through interviews
with a number of female staff in a number of
different departments
Conclusions
 The introduction of good management practice has a
identifiable impact on the willingness of women to
apply to and remain within departments
 The personality—and personal circumstances—of
the head of department are significant in determining
good management practice
 Institutions have a role in ensuring that selection
procedures for department heads prevent
departments selecting leaders in their own image
 The best departments do not target measures
specifically at women
Strategic Messages I
1. The problem of increasing the number of women in
chemistry and in senior positions is not intractable.
2. But good practice is patchy and needs to be spread
to become the prevailing ethos:
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in UK chemistry departments
in science departments in general.
3. Good practice is embedded in department cultures,
histories and personalities: it will take time to
become universal.
Strategic Messages II
4. The RSC, universities and departments need to:
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
plan to sustain long-term culture change
take short-term initiatives to improve the immediate
position.
5. Both sets of measures should take account of needs:
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over the working week
over the career trajectory.
6. Action to promote change:
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should largely be gender-neutral
create a better professional and employment
environment for men and women.
Good Practice Report 2004
 To provide a tool to allow departments to
assess themselves for good practice
 And to provide examples of good practice
Methodology
 Checklist sent to all chemistry departments
and returned by 25 (about half).
 Followed up responses with telephone
interviews
 Selected five departments with considerable
“good practice” for visits
 Spoke to individuals to learn about their
experiences
Good Practice Report 2nd Edition 2008
 Updated checklist sent to all chemistry
departments and so far returned by 36
 Followed up responses with telephone
interviews
 Carried out departmental visits
University of
Utopia
University of Utopia
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Welcoming
Supportive
Encouraging
Accessibility
Transparency
Accountability
University of Utopia
Open doors….
Open minds
Good practice….
Good science
Sustainable careers….
Sustainable departments
Athena Partnership Toolkit
 Good Practice checklist now based on five
Key Performance Indicators, available as a
checklist for university academic departments
 IOP, RSC are piloting a generic departmental
good practice visit and benchmarking report,
which can be undertaken by other science
professional societies
KPIs of Good Practice = Juno Principles
 A robust organisational framework for action to
deliver equality of opportunity and reward
 Appointment and promotion processes that
encourage men and women to apply for academic
posts at all levels
 Career progression arrangements that are actively
managed and supported
 Departmental organisation, culture structures and
systems that are inclusive
 Flexibility across the working day, working year and
working life to maximise individuals’ contributions to
SET at all life and career stages
Thank you
Sarah Dickinson
(dickinsons@rsc.org)
Caroline Fox
(caroline.fox@royalsociety.org)
www.rsc.org/Diversity.asp