Athena SWAN

The University of Southampton is a founding signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter and holds an silver-level Athena SWAN award. As a signatory, we recognise the specific challenges that affect men and women in academic careers, which leads to fewer women at senior levels of higher education. We are committed to addressing these issues, to maximise the potential of all our people.

The Charter was founded with six principles in 2005, focused on the specific issues preventing women academics progressing in STEMM careers. These were revised in May 2015 to recognise the barriers in other disciplines - including those for men, trans people and the impact of race. The Vice Chancellor signed up to these principles in January 2016, demonstrating our commitment to addressing them.

The Athena SWAN Principles:

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.

For more information about Athena SWAN please see the University of Southampton's Diversity website .