Athena Swan Bronze Award for the Department of Economics
Athena Swan Bronze Award for the Department of Economics
Wednesday 12 Jan 2022We are delighted to announce that the Department of Economics has achieved a Bronze Award from the Athena Swan Charter in recognition of our commitment to gender equality.
The Athena Swan Charter, now part of Advance HE, is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within Higher Education and research. Based on ten key principles removing barriers to equal opportunities, the recognition is awarded to institutions with outstanding work promoting gender equality.
In 2021, the Department of Economics completed a self-assessment, led by Dr Michela Redoano and a small group of members of the Wellbeing, Equality, Diversity, and Gender Group (WEDGG), who undertook the task of gathering evidence of our recent work to embed the principles of gender balance and equality in the key areas of our work: student and staff recruitment, opportunities for professional development and progression and improving the quality of the working environment. The work of the group resulted in an application for the Athena Swan Bronze award submitted in May 2021.
The Athena Swan Submission Document outlined our strengths in some areas and recommended improvements in others, with a detailed action plan to progress our work in ensuring equality of opportunity for all and to achieve those goals outlined in our submission. One of the key priorities for us is to engage in activities to increase the representation of females in the Department which currently stands at 38 per cent of students and 30 per cent of academic staff (2020/21 data). The award is valid for 5 years until December 2026 and marks an important step in the Department’s continuing efforts to address gender equality in the field of economics.
The Department of Economics’ achievements referred to in its applications include:
- A robust action plan that builds on the self-assessment and addresses the criterion outlined in Athena Swan using SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based).
- Praise for identifying challenges and building on the opportunity to include outreach programmes, wider consultation work, targeted recruitment activities and the role of Advisor to Female Students.
- The development of the Department of Education 'work for us' webpage, signposting applicants to flexible working procedures and University support networks.
Dr Michela Redoano, speaking for the Department of Economics Self-Assessment Team, said:
“We are delighted to have been successful in achieving our Bronze award. This was a team effort which helped us to identify and address some of the barriers we faced when tackling gender equality and it will underpin our future work in implementing the Athena Swan Action Plan. We’ve already started the work on embedding the plan into all of our activities.”
Commenting on the award, the Head of Department, Professor Jeremy Smith said:
“We are very proud of this achievement which marks a significant progress in our work on gender equality in recent years. Thank you to the Self-Assessment Team who have worked extremely hard to make it happen. Our work in this area will continue and progress further in the coming months and years, as part of the Athena Swan Action Plan.”