IfWH ATHENA SWAN ACTION PLAN
1: ACHIEVE GENDER-BALANCED RECRUITMENT OF STUDENTS AND STAFF
More women than men are offered research posts and places on taught courses at IfWH. The proportion of all male applicants receiving offers for taught courses is consistently greater than that for all female applicants.
1.1
Achieve gender balance in applicants for taught courses and research degrees
1.2
Eliminate unconscious bias in recruitment to taught courses, research degrees and all staff posts
1.3
Increase numbers of women externally recruited to senior research positions
2. TARGET LOSS OF FEMALES AT KEY CAREER TRANSITION POINTS
The total proportion of female academic staff increased from 55.9% in 2009 to 59% in 2012. In our survey only 22.2% of staff reported barriers to career progression, however there is attrition of female staff to senior research grades. 80% IfWH Research
Assistants/Associates are female; 25% of IfWH Professors are female.
2.1
Reduce attrition of women at reader/professor level
2.2
Reduce attrition of women at research assistant and post-doc levels
2.3
Make promotion opportunities visible and accessible
2.4
Transparent strategy to identify candidates for promotion at IfWH
2.5
Monitor and publicise promotion rates by gender
Issue 3: PROVIDE MENTORS AND REGULAR REVIEW OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT WITHIN AND OUTSIDE OF APPRAISAL
UCL offers a range of career development courses and recently introduced a mentoring programme, however the need for mentoring and better access to career development opportunities within IfWH was highlighted by our staff survey.
3.1
Set up IfWH mentoring scheme
3.2
Annual appraisal for all, including review of career development, work-life balance and flexible working
3.3
Induction meeting to include discussion on career development
3.4
Up to 10 protected ‘transferrable skills’ training days per year for all research students and post-docs (Roberts Report 2003)
3.5
Develop peer-support structure within IfWH
3.6
Promote IfWH leadership training programme
Issue 4: ACHIEVE CORE WORKING HOURS, MAKE FLEXIBLE WORKING OPPORTUNITIES EASILY ACCESSIBLE
IfWH endorses the University’s flexible working policies and 80% of IfWH staff surveyed (72% response rate) felt that they had enough flexibility in their working hours, however workload is not monitored and there is no current policy for core working hours
for meetings and seminars.
4.1
Establish core working hours (10am-4pm) for all meetings
4.2
Monitor attendance at meetings, seminars and social events
4.3
Core working hours for seminars and some social events
4.4
Hold annual IfWH family picnic and family events
4.5
Increase visibility, accessibility and support of flexible working opportunities for all staff, particularly those with caring responsibilities
4.6
Monitor workload
4.7
Provide tailored support for those planning or returning from maternity, paternity and adoption leave
Issue 5: ORGANISATION AND CULTURE - ENSURE TRANSPARENCY OF RECRUITMENT, PROMOTION AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES
We have a gender-balanced department with good and improving career progression opportunities for men and women. We now aim to embed the Athena SWAN principles of transparency and gender-neutrality into our working practices.
5.1
Embed Athena SWAN principles within all departmental practices
5.2
Monitor staff membership of external committees
5.3
Increase proportion of external female speakers as positive role models
5.4
Make Athena SWAN activities visible to IfWH and other staff
5.5
Transparent institutional policies and procedures for recruitment, promotion and funding
Issue 6: MONTIOR GENDER BALANCE IN IfWH PRACTICES, MONITOR ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE, RESPOND TO RESULTS
Our student and staff statistics are collected by gender however these data are not routinely reviewed and are published sporadically. A key part of our ongoing Athena SAT work will be regular review.
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
Conduct annual staff survey
Disseminate and review annual staff survey results
Conduct annual student survey
Disseminate and review student survey results
Conduct quarterly review of gender balance data
Disseminate gender balance data
Monitor hits to IfWH website