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Funders get Tough

This post is not, as UK readers might think from the title, a tirade about one of our Research Councils’ shortsightedness.  On the contrary, it is a plaudit for a UK ministry, who are showing admirable...

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Leadership from the Top

What will it take for true equality to occur, not just in academic science but in employment anywhere? One key aspect is that people at the top not just ‘talk the talk’ but ‘walk the walk’. So, when...

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Are We Nearly There Yet?

The Equality Challenge Unit has recently published its annual survey of statistical information about staff and students in UK universities (this year there are two reports covering separately all...

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How Hard Do You Work?

Career progression and promotion require that you tick all the right boxes when panels scrutinise your CV.  If you are trying to optimise your chances of advancing up the greasy pole, this requires...

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Why We Need to Start Young

Recently the Royal Society of Edinburgh released its report looking at the position of women in STEM in Scotland and what ought to be done by their Government; it also looked more broadly at the...

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Just How Bad Is It?

It is easy to think that science is uniquely bad amongst the academic disciplines in the problems that some women may face. In the past few weeks I have visited various Universities to discuss some of...

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Raising Expectations: Funders Get Tough(ish)

About 18 months ago, Dame Sally Davies, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, unilaterally raised the bar for Medical Schools wanting to apply to future rounds of funding through the Biomedical...

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Leadership Strategies for Dealing with Jerks

My last post about jerks in academia struck a chord with many but also raised questions – jerks abound, yes, but what should we do about them? What can we do to ‘out’ them and so to attempt to...

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Changing the Departmental Mind-set

Another bumper batch of Athena Swan awards have just been announced: ever more universities and departments are participating. With the hint of financial consequences looming from RCUK funders for...

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Moving On (Part II)

As readers will know, improving the situation for women in science is dear to my heart. One of the roles in which I’ve been able to make some sort of a contribution has been through chairing the Athena...

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Do You Believe It’s All Your Fault?

Currently I spend far more time giving talks around gender issues than about my science. I don’t know what I feel about this. I am, after all, a physicist not a psychologist or social scientist but...

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Why Such Tepid Governmental Aspirations?

The Government talks about ‘naming and shaming’ to close the pay gender pay gap, aspiring to close it within a generation. It is perhaps worth remembering when the Equal Pay Act came into force – 1970!...

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Eradicating Gender Stereotyping: How can Athena Swan Awards Help?

There is nothing like seeing gender stereotyping through reverse eyes to highlight its stupidity. Women are used to intrusive, inappropriate questions about their looks and dress, even in professional...

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Now I understand Proust better (but feel less positive about Athena Swan)

You know the story about Marcel Proust and the madeleine – how the memories came flooding back when he nibbled at one with a cup of tea. I always thought this was slightly ridiculous, but perhaps...

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Our Bullying Culture

Many of you will have already seen the OpEd I wrote in the Guardian last week on the subject of bullying and harassment in our universities. I was heartened by the response it received, in so far as it...

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Unconscious Bias Training Isn’t a Magic Wand

This week saw a sober assessment of the impact – both positive but also depressingly negative – of schemes to improve gender equality. As the Athena Swan Review Group wrestles with how to improve their...

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Thinking about Your Workload

The first time I was asked to serve on a research council (standing) committee, when a young(ish) researcher, I did not seek my head of department’s position. I informed him, since it happened we...

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We’ve Come a Long Way But…..

When Rita Colwell was born in 1934, neither Oxford nor Cambridge Universities had yet appointed a female professor in any discipline; Dorothy Garrod, the first woman to hold such a chair (the Disney...

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Research Culture, Fairness and Transparency

A week after the Science and University Ministers announced with respect to chartermarks such as Athena Swan “We have therefore asked the OfS, UKRI and NIHR to ensure that they place no weight upon the...

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How are Universities Supporting Those Worst Affected by the Pandemic?

This pandemic has thrown all kinds of inequalities into sharp focus, ranging from fundamental matters of health and wellbeing to job security. The consequences of all these issues will echo down the...

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