{"id":175,"date":"2012-05-04T14:53:33","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T14:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/?p=175"},"modified":"2012-05-04T14:53:33","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T14:53:33","slug":"achieving-gender-equality-in-academic-careers-queens-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/2012\/05\/04\/achieving-gender-equality-in-academic-careers-queens-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Achieving gender equality in academic careers: Queen\u2019s case study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Does your university make <strong>provision for maternity leave<\/strong> in its PhD studentships? Does it insist on <strong>female representation<\/strong> on all committees, or run a <strong>buddy system<\/strong> linking female postdocs to female PhD students? These are just some of the initiatives in place at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qub.ac.uk\/\">Queen\u2019s University Belfast<\/a>, which was recently named as the lead university in the United Kingdom for tackling the unequal representation of women in science.<\/p>\n<p>Queen\u2019s has been given a \u2018Silver University\u2019 award by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.athenaswan.org.uk\/html\/athena-swan\/\">Athena SWAN Charter<\/a>, a recognition scheme that rewards UK universities committed to <strong>advancing and promoting the careers of women working in science, engineering and technology<\/strong> (SET). It\u2019s the highest level of award currently held in the United Kingdom, and Queen\u2019s is the only university with the accolade. Tom Millar, dean of the faculty of engineering and physical sciences, says the university\u2019s gender-equality initiatives are \u201cpart and parcel\u201d of the regular business of the institution. \u201cIt is this integration, or mainstreaming, of an equal opportunities focus that has made our efforts sustainable,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples of initiatives at Queen\u2019s include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Personal mentoring programme for female postdocs and academic staff<\/li>\n<li>Monitoring of processes at all stages of recruitment and career development<\/li>\n<li>Regular surveys, courses and workshops on aspects of academic careers<\/li>\n<li>Profiling of female scientists on websites and in print<\/li>\n<li>Teaching-free semester for staff returning from maternity leave<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yvonne Galligan, director of Queen\u2019s Gender Initiative \u2014 which has been the main driver of recent progress since it was established in 1999 \u2014 says the university\u2019s ambition is to create a <strong>gender-equal environment<\/strong> for staff and students. \u201cWinning the institutional Silver award was not an \u2018event\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is [one] stage in a process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To achieve a Gold award, the highest possible, Millar and Galligan say the university must extend its gender-equality success to its arts and humanities departments and do more to <strong>tackle the loss of female academics at key career stages <\/strong>\u2014<strong> <\/strong>the so-called \u2018leaky pipeline\u2019. It\u2019s a process that will take time \u2014 Peter Mason from Athena SWAN explains that to be awarded Gold, a university would need the majority of its departments to hold individual Gold departmental awards. Currently only the department of chemistry at the University of York is at this level.<\/p>\n<p>While Queen\u2019s works towards this goal, Millar is understandably proud of the university\u2019s achievement to date: \u201cIt is recognition of the enormous contribution and commitment, for more than a decade, of many staff, academic and non-academic, male and female.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How does Queen\u2019s compare to your institution for gender equality? Could you see similar initiatives being implemented where you work? Let us know your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does your university make provision for maternity leave in its PhD studentships? Does it insist on female representation on all committees, or run a buddy system linking female postdocs to female PhD students? These are just some of the initiatives in place at Queen\u2019s University Belfast, which was recently named as the lead university in the United Kingdom for tackling the unequal representation of women in science.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/2012\/05\/04\/achieving-gender-equality-in-academic-careers-queens-case-study#wpn-more-175\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/2012\/05\/04\/achieving-gender-equality-in-academic-careers-queens-case-study\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":422,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,65,197,50],"tags":[270,269,163,271,272,213],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia-2","category-phd","category-postdoc-2","category-uk","tag-equality","tag-female","tag-gender","tag-queens-university-belfast","tag-united-kingdom","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}