Women in leadership and
management project
●
Prof Janette Atkinson
j.atkinson@ucl.ac.uk
Sarah Guise
s.guise@ucl.ac.uk
(Equalities and Diversity Officer, HR Policy Team)
Women in leadership and management project
Prof Jan Atkinson
Visual
behaviour & EEG/ VEP
Development
(electrophysiology) Unit
adult vision
normal development
(UCL &
Oxford)
adult
brain imaging
(fMRI)
paediatric
developmental
disorders
also:
Head of Research Department of Developmental Science (Div of Psychology &
Language Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences)
UCL Co-ordinator Athena SWAN. Chair SWAN Athena Advisory: women in
Science, Engineering, Technology (medicine, maths, built environment)
Women in leadership and management project
High density steady-state VERP recording
• EGI Geodesic
sensor net
• 128 channels
• Measure distribution
of brain responses,
eg to coherence of
form & motion
patterns, in normal
development and
developmental
problems (e.g. very
premature infants)
Women in leadership and management project
Brief History of Athena SWAN in UCL:
• 2003-4 JA suggests to Provost that Gender Equality Issues are
incorporated into White Paper
• 2004 JA joins UCL into ASSET survey - 12 talks in depts / PGIs,
contacts 45 SET department administrators - good UCL response
~ 500 SET staff (20% of total) highest in UK universities
• 2005 JA sets up AAG (Athena Advisory Group) & SWAN SAT (Self
Assessment Team)
• 2005 Provost ‘Champion’- SWAN Charter as Founder Signatory
• 2005-6 SWAN Charter (Bronze) submission and award
• 2007 JA , one of two appointed by Provost to take strategic
responsibility for Gender Equality Scheme, submitted to
Government
• 2008-9 UCL SWAN charter renewal (Bronze) & four SWAN Silver
awards: Div of Psychology & Language Sci (8 depts/institutes)
MRC Lab of Molecular Cell Biology
Dept Chemical Engineering
Dept Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering
Women in leadership and management project
three key areas for women’s career
development:
• getting in (first academic post)
• getting back (after career breaksmaternity/paternity leave/carer’s
responsibilities,)
• getting on (promotion and leadership)
• UCL has set up ‘relatively’ successful
initiatives to improve career
development (particularly for women)
in all of these areas (e.g. flexi-time,
life/work balance, paternity/maternity
schemes, returner’s work load –
teaching versus research, mentoring)
over past few years
However,
• there are still rather few female professors
across the whole of UCL, compared to
women at earlier stages of their career.
• There is a low % of women on most of the
main executive committees of UCL and
only a small increase over the past 3-5
years.
Women in leadership and management project
Professors
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
2005
2006
15
17
% female
2007
19
Women in leadership and management project
The Provost has asked Prof Jan Atkinson to lead on a
project ‘UCL Women in Leadership and Management:
•
To build on the success of the UCL Athena SWAN Charter Award
(Bronze renewal) and four Athena SWAN Silver Charter awards in
2009 - to work towards a Athena SWAN Charter Silver award for
UCL as a whole in the near future.
•
To increase the number of women across the whole of UCL in SET
and non-SET departments with the aspiration, knowledge, skills and
experience to apply for and get senior management roles in UCL
•
To identify any identifiable organisational or procedural barriers to
the appointment of women to management and leadership roles in
order that they can be addressed.
Women in leadership and management project
Methodology
Consultation across UCL to gather experiences and
perceptions and to understand the key issues
affecting women in the University.
JA will talk to:
• Faculty Deans and their Senior Management Teams
• Women currently in senior academic management
positions
• Researchers whose work relates to gender in the
workplace (e.g. Prof Virginia Valian: F/M leadership
styles, business argument for diversity and equality)
• Lay members of Council who are themselves
distinguished women who can add insights and be
supportive of the project.
Women in leadership and management project
Areas of potential focus
•
Creation and leadership of an advisory group interested in
improving the number of women at senior levels within UCL.
•
Consider developing champions in each faculty to lead the
examination of women’s issues locally.
•
Review the work in the departments/divisions which were
successful in SWAN Silver Award applications – identify the
lessons learnt and support new depts for SWAN submissions
•
Identify any barriers in UCL’s recruitment, promotion or worklife balance arrangements that may militate against women
progressing their careers or lead to bias in decision making.
•
Link with the work of the Research Staff Sub-Committee of the
Academic Appointment and Promotion Committee on the
career progression of women researchers
•
Learn from best practice in other universities, especially
amongst the Russell Group
Women in leadership and management project
Can something be done to speed up the process
of gender balance and equality ?
Possibilities:
• Make mandatory - all ‘significant’ meetings/gatherings to be in
family- friendly hours (start: 10am or after, finish: 5pm)
• Create ‘Female Ambassadors’ in faculties/institutes
• Adapt membership/terms of reference of major executive
committees so that new recruits to committees are female/male to
move towards a 50: 50 ratio.
• Universities to include in career advice, information on women’s
career prospects (relative to proportion entering)
• Government to extend subsidized nursery schemes to before/afterschool/half term / holiday schemes for all.
• Government research grants to be extendable in time to
accomodate career breaks (absence of specialized researcher)
Women in leadership and management project
Issues to discuss:
• Current senior staff reflect academic recruitment 15 years
ago. Should women be ‘fast-tracked’ to improve balance?
• Are men and women differentially prepared to put
themselves forward for promotion and management?
• Can/should senior roles reflect a more ‘family friendly’
culture?
- children at school – half the day, half the year
- senior staff may have caring responsibilities (on the increase)
• Do women bring a diversity benefit to decision and
management processes, apart from issues of equity?
• Can mentors/circle of advisors develop women for senior
management roles? Faculty female ‘ambassadors’?
Reverse mentoring?
I’m looking to current senior groups for suggestions/actions
Suggestions as to how you can assist me in this project ?
• Deans/ Directors, Hs of Ds, DEOLOs take this information back to
your department/institute (virtually- email or department meetings)
• Discuss ‘Ambassadors for women’- Senior women to advise
women in faculty through the ‘Women in Leadership and
Management Advisory Group – ‘UCL Women in L& M’
• If your department does not have a SWAN Charter, discuss setting
up a SWAN Charter Self Assessment Team (SWAN SAT) to put in for
a charter
• (Sarah Guise and I, plus departments already with SWAN Charter
Award hopefully to assist over this)
• Departments with a SWAN Award already, aim for a GOLD Charter
• Encourage members of your departments to feed back their
thoughts and ideas (in confidence if they would prefer) on the
issues raised to myself and/or Sarah Guise
End
Thank you for
your time