You are invited to join us for an evening of wine, canapes, and talks at the Salford Museum on 21st March 2022 (5:30-7:30pm).
Initiatives that seek to close the gender pay gap, reduce sexual harassment and discrimination in universities in the UK have recently been criticised as ineffective, not addressing the issues at hand, or even as contra productive. We invite all members of SEE to join a discussion on problems that were caused by solutions put in place to improve diversity and inclusivity.
Questions that we wish to address are: Which are the solutions that appear to be ineffective, can mechanisms be identified that are systemic and overlooked in the efforts to improve inclusion and diversity and, which alternative approaches exist that might yield clearer results?
Please join the discussion at the Salford Museum. After a wine reception the event will commence with short talks followed by a podium discussion moderated by Joe Sweeney.
Our speakers are:
Prof Carole Mundell (President, The Science Council, Bath). Carole has extensive experience in tackling bullying and harassment in her field of astrophysics and is known for addressing the systemic failure in science to effectively engage with these issues. https://www.gov.uk/government/people/carole-mundell
Dr Marina Leontiadou, Lecturer in Physics and Co-Chair of SEE’s Athena Swan SAT, hosted an online event to celebrate on the 11th of February: the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022. There were several invited guest speakers at different stages of their careers, to discuss their own work in STEM and the barriers they faced as a female. The guests were from the University College London, Imperial College London and the University of Salford. You can watch the recording here
Sadly, Professor Haifa Takruri has decided to step down as Lead of Athena Swan in SEE. I am sure you will agree, we wouldn’t have been able to receive our Bronze award without her!
Taking the reins now is Dr Tanja Poppelreuter (T.Poppelreuter@salford.ac.uk), Dr Marina Leontiadou (M.Leontiadou@salford.ac.uk) and Prof Angela Lee (a.lee8@salford.ac.uk). Feel free to reach out and join the team to ensure that all our processes and procedures in SEE support gender equality.
We’re a little late the party to share this, but the International Day of Women and Girls in Science did not pass us by here in SEE at the University of Salford! We celebrated on the 11th February 2021 with an online event. Our event consisted of talks by national and international women speakers at different career stages who discussed their work and career paths. The event was organised by Dr Marina Leontiadou and was part of the Juno actions to celebrate the event. Short biographies of the guest speakers can be found here.
We also conducted a survey of our audience which showed equal representation of staff and students within the audience and that they considered this as “a great and inspirational event”. You can watch the event here.
Prof Haifa Takruri and the Athena Swan team in the School of Science, Engineering and Environment can report that we have successfully achieved our Athena Swan Bronze Award!
The process of bringing the former schools together and aligning our previous work on gender equality has taken us a little while and this is by no means the end of the road. But we’re proud of the way we have come together and the action plan we’ve drawn up. The challenge now is to implement that action plan to see the necessary change for our staff and students. This is a challenge for our leadership and all of us in the School.
We’ll be publishing our successful submission shortly so watch this space for more details.
Monday 8 March was International Women’s Day #IWD2021! In partnership with Salford’s Women’s Voice network and with support from HR we’ve created some podcasts which we’ll be sharing throughout the week. Why celebrate for only one day?!
The first is a series of podcasts in conversation with the chairs of the staff networks; Women’s Voice, Salford Proud, Salford Ability, the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Network, and the Parent’ Network. We were also joined by the coordinator for the Network of Networks, which supports the chairs and brings the networks together. The conversation is split into three episode where we talk about motivations for leading the networks, some of the challenges faced, and the labour and privilege of ‘Choosing the Challenge’ – the theme of IWD2021. We think it’s a really interesting conversation and hope you find it thought provoking.
Dr. Sara Biscaya, Chair of the Women’s Voice network, has also been in conversation with women from across the university talking about their careers and experiences in academia. They cover some of the highs and lows and some things in between. The first is a conversation with our own Chair of SEE Athena Swan – Prof. Haifa Takruri MBE.
Resilience of Women in STEM: Surviving Covid-19 lock-down
The 23 June 2020 was International Women in Engineering Day – #INWED20 – and, as we have done in previous years, Salford wanted to celebrate. Typically, we might welcome local school children into our buildings for demonstrations or hold face-to-face talks. This year has been different of course. However, undeterred Prof. Haifa Takruri MBE set about organising an online panel discussion. Being able to draw on the skills and experiences of Salford Alumni from across the world meant we were able to put together a panel of inspirational women.
We asked our panel to speak about their experiences of lockdown and coronavirus disruption. We know that lots of talks have become dominated by coronavirus recently; however, we also know that in this disruption women are more likely to have picked up additional domestic and caring responsibilities. For sectors where women are already underrepresented, undervalued or under-promoted disruptive events like this could have a dramatic impact on career progression and hard-won equality gains.
The panel included a range of experts from various engineering and related disciplines and working across a wide breadth of sectors from architecture to pharmaceuticals. Our panel was also global, with speakers here in the UK, and from Canada, Singapore (via Myanmar), UAE and New Zealand. Technology, in this case, enabling us to bend time zones and invite even more speakers – to whom we are extremely grateful for getting up early, taking time out of their workday or staying up late.
Thank you to our panel!
Duaa Al-Hamed, Data Telecommunication and Networks, Lecturer/PhD candidate, Auckland University, New Zealand
Dr Sara Biscaya , Built Environment, Lecturer in Architecture, University of Salford, UK
Karimah Es Sabar, Biochemistry, Chief Executive Officer & Partner, Quark Venture LP Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Dr Claire Hendby, Honorary PhD from University of Salford, Director at Deloitte, UK
Dr Diana Kennedy, Mechanical Engineering, Vice President, Strategy, Architecture and Planning, BP, UK
Dr Shafaq Khan, Computer Science, Assistant Professor, Zayed University, UAE
May Phyu Kyaw, Data Telecommunication and Networks, Pre-sales and Solutions Partner, Orange, Singapore
Dr Marina Leontiadou, Physics, Lecturer, University of Salford, UK
Helen Sheldon, Physics with Acoustics, Associate, RBA Acoustics Ltd
Shola Slough, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Product Marketing Specialist, ON Semiconductors, Ontario, Canada
Dr Melisa Sterry, Built Environment, Design Scientist, Systems Theorist, and Futurist, Global
Vicky Stewart, Audio Technology, Associate Acoustic Consultant and National STEM Coordinator, Atkins, UK
Some of our panellists joining together via MS Teams.
Each panellist shared their own reflections on their lockdown experiences, the disruption and how they have been supported or supported fellow colleagues as workplaces adjusted to new working patterns.
So much was shared so generously that it’s hard to summarise it here, but I will try to pick out some of the recurring themes.
Technology to the rescue?
We spoke a lot about how technology has been deployed to enable team meetings, remote working and generally staying in touch. But as one panellist noted, meeting via video has partly helped to humanise colleagues and technology. Perhaps most famously demonstrated by Professor Robert Kelly and family but also the zoom cat cameo all mean that we have had to accept the human side of colleagues as partners, children and pets all pop up unexpectedly on screen without warning. Not to mention that hairdressers and barbers have been closed for weeks… Accepting a more relaxed approach to digital presentation seemed popular, but for those keen to maintain some mystery remember you can always get creative with your background.
The rapid and considerable move to remote working also possibly demonstrates or creates opportunities to work in different locations and communicate with a wider network as logistics of travel are removed with the event itself being an excellent example. We also talked about how meeting dynamics might be changing as we all occupy the same little boxes on a screen. With the chairperson no longer occupying the seat at the head of the table, maybe meetings can become more inclusive? An interesting thought, and something to be considered alongside other potential inequalities of technology perhaps.
Blurred boundaries, solid structures and transient timetables
With so many now working at home, work-life boundaries were a hot topic. Several of our panellists shared how their early in their lockdown experiences they had lost sight of the boundaries between work and home lives. This is completely understandable, as for many work and the rest of their life were now mostly happening in the same space. Work-life balance and ‘always-on culture’ is obviously not a new concern, but something intensified by lockdown. It was generally felt to be important to maintain the balance and take some time out. For some though, their new responsibilities for daytime childcare and education for example, meant that boundaries have had to shift. Taking advantage of employers’ openness to more flexible working has been important for some. Being able to fit work in earlier or later than ‘normal’ has helped. With such an illustrious group we benefitted from contributions from some very senior professionals and they agreed. Trusting your employees to manage their time is important, establish structures to make sure things don’t fall through the cracks, but trust your people.
We managed to gather some tips. Setting up structures for children to follow seemed to have worked well. Things like preparing lunches and snacks ahead of time and drawing up a ‘school’ day timetable. We also heard that using your previous commute time to take a walk had helped some to make distinctions between work and down-time and helped them to stay active. Finding what works for you and your situation is important, and across our panel people’s new working lives looked quite different.
Some tentative benefits?
More time spent at home means more opportunities to be at home with family and to eat with the family. More flexible (sometimes out of necessity) working hours has provided opportunities to take a walk or cycle during the day. Others have taken the opportunity to cook new recipes. No pressure from us to take up a new hobby or learn a skill during lockdown, but we found agreement on the need to allow yourself some time to take a break.
Final thoughts
Know your value. Easier said than done, but this certainly chimes with our ethos as a group working on gender equality in academia. Here at Salford our gender pay gap has been closing and stands at 11.2 – 11.6%. Something we as a group will continue to focus on and will keep a close eye on how Coronavirus might be impacting on this and other equality issues.
And as one panellist suggested, we should remind ourselves to take a break. Here’s a friendly reminder: eat lunch!
We aren’t starting from scratch and many people have contributed to the important work on Athena Swan and gender equality in the SEE School and our previous form as separate schools. We’re thankful to them for their work. Indeed, as we have come together as a new School many of the same people are still working hard in this effort.
We were at different stages as a group before we came together, so it’s been a process of getting to know each other better, working out where we had all gotten to and learning about each other’s disciplines a little more. As a starter, here are the existing Athena Swan Bronze Awards held by our former School of Computing, Science and Engineering and School of Environment and Life Sciences.
As an institution the University of Salford is also working on gender equality and to help set out our current position, you can read out institutional Gender Pay Gap Report from 2018. The gender pay gap for our institution is in the region of 11.2% to 11.6% (median and mean averages respectively). This is one of the issues we’re focused on in our work related to Athena Swan.
Our next steps are to work on what is called an interim award, this is designed to help us explain how we have unified but also to work through some of the complexity of bringing together diverse disciplines and work together in tackling gender inequality in our work. Watch this space for future updates.
This is a place where we will share progress and invite contributions related to our application for an Athena Swan Award as the new SEE School. As a team, lead by Professor Haifa Takruri, we co-ordinate the work of the school around Athena Swan; however, we also hope to use the blog to champion successes in the School with a focus on gender equality broadly.
By way of introduction to Athena Swan,here are the 10 key principles of Advanced HE’s Athena Swan Charter. They set out the principles institutions commit to embedding within their policies, practices, action plans and culture, and form the framework for our work at Salford.
1. We acknowledge that academia cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of all.
2. We commit to advancing gender equality in academia, in particular, addressing the loss of women across the career pipeline and the absence of women from senior academic, professional and support roles.
3. We commit to addressing unequal gender representation across academic disciplines and professional and support functions. In this we recognise disciplinary differences including:
the relative underrepresentation of women in senior roles in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law (AHSSBL)
the particularly high loss rate of women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM)
4. We commit to tackling the gender pay gap.
5. We commit to removing the obstacles faced by women, in particular, at major points of career development and progression including the transition from PhD into a sustainable academic career.
6. We commit to addressing the negative consequences of using short-term contracts for the retention and progression of staff in academia, particularly women.
7. We commit to tackling the discriminatory treatment often experienced by trans people.
8. We acknowledge that advancing gender equality demands commitment and action from all levels of the organisation and in particular active leadership from those in senior roles.
9. We commit to making and mainstreaming sustainable structural and cultural changes to advance gender equality, recognising that initiatives and actions that support individuals alone will not sufficiently advance equality.
10. All individuals have identities shaped by several different factors. We commit to considering the intersection of gender and other factors wherever possible.
