Between April and September 2022, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team delivered the Athena Swan Roadshow to Schools, Institutes and Departments across Queen Mary. The Athena Swan Roadshow has engaged over 4,000 members of staff across schools, institutes and departments, involving colleagues in The University’s work towards gender equality and the People, Culture & Inclusion Enabling Plan.

The Roadshow shared key findings from our recently successful Athena Swan Silver Award renewal and outlined key areas of impact over the last 5 years. These include:

• • Improving our representation of women from Lecturer to Reader;
  • Reducing our gender pay gaps;
  • Reducing the overrepresentation of women on fixed term contracts.

The Roadshow also launched The University’s Gender Impact Plan (2022-2027), highlighting key flagship actions leaders have committed to and commissioned in order to achieve our ambition to be the most inclusive university of our kind, anywhere. Our actions include:

• • Piloting Athena Swan in at least two Professional Service Directorates;
  • Providing bespoke support for carers;
  • Undertaking intersectional (gender and ethnicity) pay gap reporting;
  • Building on Schools’ good practice of Returners Schemes to support those returning from parental leave (>3 months);
  • Scoping suitable models for enhancements for parental leave.

Early information gathering has highlighted areas of progress against commitments made in our Gender Impact Plan already. These include:

• • Significant investment in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) resource at Queen Mary;
  • Enhancements in academic promotion processes;
  • Progression of a number of actions relating to supporting career development and establishing progression pathways for Professional Services staff;
  • Meeting our commitments to address bullying, harassment and misconduct with the development of new strategy to address issues and progress action;
  • Launching a Special Leave policy to support dealing with emergency situations and balance caring responsibilities;
  • Significant work to enhance the support for trans staff and students at Queen Mary.

If you were unable to attend the Roadshow, you can find more information here. This page provides links to the Institutional Athena Swan Silver Application, which includes our Gender Impact Plan, as well as the accompanying Executive Summary.

How can I get involved and find out more?

If you are interested in finding out more about Athena Swan, particularly the new Transformed Charter which provides a specific route for Professional Services Directorates to apply, then please contact our EDI Manager, Liz Grand (l.grand@qmul.ac.uk).  

Upskill your understanding of how we can promote positive and inclusive behaviours in our workplace by taking the Introducing Inclusion e-learning module or refresh yourself with the module if you haven’t taken it in the past two years. 

Update your equal opportunities data in MyHR if you haven’t done so already, and update your personal record if any of your circumstances change.