School of Social Sciences Athena Swan

Achievements

We are proud to have made substantial advancements in gender equality, including:

• Active Self-Assessment Team and EDI Steering Committee
• Representative gender balance on leadership teams
• Inclusive student recruitment process across the gender spectrum
• Curricula include gender equality content across all programmes
• Closed gender awarding gap
• Strong student engagement with gender equality initiatives
• Improved progression opportunities for research staff
• Excellent training and mentorship opportunities for staff
• 100% success rate for women’s promotion applications in 2023
• Covid marking relief for people with caring responsibilities

Key priorities

We have also identified areas requiring further work and our current key priorities are:

• Advancing women’s career trajectories
• Improving provision of training, development, and mentorship for staff
• Tackling bullying and harassment and supporting wellbeing
• Enhancing research culture for staff
• Addressing intersectional inequalities and promoting transgender inclusivity

Activities

We have an ambitious 50-point Action Plan to address our current key priorities. We hold regular events including celebrations for International Women’s Day, Trans Day of Visibility and International Men’s Day.

We also receive regular feedback (both quantitative and qualitative data) from our students and staff and engage with our community about gender equality concerns.

We review a wide range of data sources to identify gendered patterns and work with our School Executive Team to enact policies and processes for enhanced gender culture.