Athena Swan

Here at WBS we are proud to be the first business school in the UK to obtain a gold award. 

Athena Swan was originally established in 2005 to encourage and recognise a commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) in higher education employment and research. In 2015 the Athena Swan charter was expanded to recognise work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law. The charter now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women. The main principle of the Athena Swan charter is to recognise the advancement of gender equality and enhance the career opportunities for women.  

At WBS we are committed to the promotion of gender equality and the Athena Swan eight key principles. Whilst we believe there is a strong business case for providing equal opportunities for men and women, our commitment to Athena Swan exists because we believe it is the right thing to do. At WBS the programme of work is given high priority and is led by a self-assessment team including the Dean, Professor Andy Lockett, and the WBS executive team. 

The challenge is considerable. Across UK business schools as a whole, the representation of women in senior positions is poor. Globally, reflecting the gendered nature of management as an occupational group, MBA courses tend to recruit more men than women. These are well-known and general problems in the business school community, which we are working hard to address within WBS. 

Initiatives and successes

The Athena Swan charter has created a range of good practice initiatives to contribute to a community of good practice and facilitate the ability of higher education institutions and research institutes to continue to promote and progress gender equality. At WBS we have worked hard to deliver on our action plan and progress our work even further.  

Here are some highlights of activities and achievements in this area: 

Activities 

• WBS has developed a fully transparent workload model that enables us to measure workload by gender and allocate work fairly

• The creation of a gender balanced staffing committee responsible for key staffing decisions such as merit pay, senior staff review, promotion and study leave

• We have created a ‘future leaders board’ designed to give junior academics experience of managing projects in higher education

• We have extended our staff mentoring programme, which previously supported only Assistant Professors, which has meant that 34 mid-career female academics are now supported and championed by a senior academic mentor

• We have introduced a Talent Management Programme to support professional services staff to develop their careers. 

Achievements 

• Since our last application the gender pay gap within WBS has fallen dramatically. At junior and senior levels annual merit pay and senior staff review are allocated equally, with women academics receiving on average slightly higher awards

• WBS has implemented a policy to reduce the number of academic staff on temporary contracts. We have made all teaching fellows, senior teaching fellows, and principal teaching fellows permanent members of the University

• We have supported and developed a series of initiatives, leading to the creation of an ‘early career researcher network’ and a ‘women’s academic network’

• We have sponsored a number of junior and senior academic and professional services staff, inviting them to participate in university level mentoring and leadership training programmes, as well as high profile national programmes, such as Aurora. 

Strategy and practice

Alongside key initiatives and policy changes, we have been working hard at changing day-to-day practices. In a large department like WBS, linking goals and values to everyday work activities is a central challenge. 

Data collection 

For academic programmes, through a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures, we actively monitor: 

• Gender composition of our courses 

• Student performance and attainment by course and gender 

• SSLC membership and seminar membership by gender 

• Representation in promotional marketing materials 

• Structure and delivery of open days 

• Culture of the classroom.