Athena SWAN Minutes 16th April 2014 3pm
8th Floor Meeting Room, Guys Campus
Attendees: Nik Barkas (NB); Gill Bates (GB); Peter Botcherby (PKB); Francesca Capon (FC);
Debbie Cunningham-Graham (DCG); Laura Demandt (LD); Ryan Driskel (RD); Debbie Hart
(DH); Tim Hubbard (TH); Nat Prescott (NP); Michelle Tuohy (MT); Antony Young (AY).
Apologies: Jonathan Barker (JB); Penny Mander (PEM)
1. Minutes of last meeting
1st meeting convened so no previous minutes
2. Matters arising
Discussed nature of meeting, agenda, terms of reference.
3. What is the Athena SWAN Charter?
The Athena SWAN Charter recognises commitment to advancing women's careers in
science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in
academia. The Charter was launched in June 2005. Any higher education institution
or publicly-funded STEMM-focused research institute which is committed to the
advancement and promotion of the careers of women in STEMM in higher education
and research can apply for membership.
The beliefs underpinning the Charter are:
The advancement of science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine is
fundamental to quality of life across the globe
•
It is vitally important that women are adequately represented in what has
traditionally been, and is still, a male-dominated area
•
Science cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of
the whole population, and until women and men can benefit equally from the
opportunities it affords
•
4. Membership
The committee should comprise equal numbers of women and men. The following
additions were suggested:
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•
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Stem Cells – Rob Tolhurst or Simon Broad, Shukry Habib
Twins – Victoria Vazquez and Darioush Yarand
Dermatology – TBC
Genetics - Phil Tomlinson
It was decided to consider other new members as meetings progress
5. The Athena SWAN Application
•
Collect and analyse data for the last 3 year period at a Divisional level to show
who has worked/is working in the Division over the last 3 years, their role,
promotions, reason for leaving Division as applicable, and where they are currently
employed (check exit interviews and may need to contact some leavers).
•
Emphasise the existing positive Divisional culture eg flexible and part time
working for men and women.
•
Show that men and women are treated alike at interview.
•
Staff training eg unconscious bias course (everyone on the committee should
attend, also PIs, group leaders and senior postdocs). Attendees should complete and
return the survey.
•
Demonstrate that the Division already enables home working and easy home
/ workplace communication.
•
Demonstrate the Division is family friendly eg facilities for breast
feeding/expressing.
•
Transparency and easy to access information eg website links, job
descriptions with a link to terms and conditions. Peter B is working on Sharepoint
and Divisional level information will be available there.
(Action Item MT: check links)
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•
•
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Positive case studies for both genders (eg Francesca Capon, Kerrin Small).
Track maternity leave.
Organise road shows and lectures.
Outline future plans.
6. Proposed submission strategy
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Start looking at data collection
•
MT/GB to meet and go over application form and ascertain what needs to be
actioned
7. Action Plan
•
Identify staff working within the Division over the last 3 years and identify
their PI.
(Action item MT: check the dates covered and PIs to fill in an appropriate
spreadsheet eg Google database
(Action item TH: speak to Trevor Baxter about databases). Spreadsheet to contain:
o Unique identifier and gender.
o Dates for start, finish and contract changes eg change in hours or fixed to
open contract.
o If employee left when funding ended, where are they now?
o Number of applicants for post, who was shortlisted, who was hired, also
genders.
o Who shortlisted and interviewed, also genders.
o Who applied for promotion, did they succeed or fail and what happened after
that?
•
Look at constructing Facebook style timelines for staff members.
•
Member of staff to be allocated to work on this. For now, Lewis Owen
(covering some elements of Bethan Jones role) will be spending 3 hours a week
dedicated to helping Penny Mander on general HR records which will feed into
Athena SWAN.
8. Timescale
We submit our application in November 2014, so we need to work towards completion in
time for this date.
9. Dates of next meetings
29th April 2014 2pm
13th May 2014 2pm
3rd June 2014 2pm
17th June 2014 2pm