The University’s continued drive to improve fairness and equality for women has been rewarded with silver and bronze awards as part of the UK-wide Athena SWAN initiative.
The Athena SWAN Charter, administered by the country’s Equality Challenge Unit, places a prime focus on women’s careers in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine) disciplines.
New awards made by Athena SWAN to Southampton include Silver for Chemistry, new Bronze awards for Mathematical Sciences & Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI) and Physics & Astronomy. In addition, the University’s Faculty of Health Sciences renewed its Bronze award.
Southampton – a founding signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter – currently holds a Bronze award at institutional level which, combined with the departmental awards, help recognise the University’s efforts to build a solid foundation for eliminating gender bias and its work towards the development of an inclusive culture. These new awards for Southampton join previous subject areas recognised by Athena SWAN including Electronics and Computer Science, Engineering and the Environment, Medicine and Ocean & Earth Science and the Centre for Biological Sciences.
Head of Chemistry, Professor Phil Gale said:
“We have changed our way of working over the last two years and have made considerable progress towards our goal of being a flagship department with regards to Equality and Diversity. The most noticeable effect has been a genuine feeling of cultural change within our department, a sense of belonging and openess, and inclusion for all.”
University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Don Nutbeam added:
“We’re very pleased that our work in recent years to develop and deliver a wide range of activities in support of staff equality is recognised through these Athena SWAN Awards. It’s important for us, as a progressive and forward-thinking University, to identify, develop and promote our talented women as we continue to foster a supportive environment for study, research and work.”