Athena Swan Gold renewal success for SHW!

Published: 13 June 2023

We are proud to share the news with you that Advance HE has confirmed the renewal of SHW’s Athena Swan Gold award from 2023 to 2028, in recognition of our ongoing efforts to ensure that SHW is an inclusive place to work and study, and we thank everyone who has contributed to this important activity

We are proud to share the news with you that Advance HE has confirmed the renewal of SHW’s Athena Swan Gold award from 2023 to 2028.

Photo of Breda Cullen holding a bunch of flowers

This reflects the efforts that our SHW community has made to ensure that this is an inclusive place to work and study, not only with regard to gender equality but also more broadly. We are particularly grateful to those who have volunteered their time as members of our self-assessment team and working groups.

The award renewal was based on the outcomes and impact of our previous five-year action plan, led initially by Cindy Gray (below) and then by Breda Cullen (above). Despite the upheaval of the pandemic, we made excellent progress on our actions and learned from regular consultations and reviews in order to formulate new actions and initiatives along the way.

Prof Cindy Gray presenting on topic of Athena SWAN

Examples of our achievements include

Julie Langan Martin (below, with Breda Cullen and our current Athena Swan self assessment team) will be the SHW Athena Swan Champion for 2023–24, leading the implementation of our new action plan. Drawing on a range of feedback from surveys and consultations, we have identified seven priority areas:

Group photo of the School of Health and Wellbeing Athena Swan self assessment team in June 2023

  1. Equitable workload modelling for academic staff
  2. Career progression for professional services staff
  3. Multisource feedback for staff in leadership roles
  4. Staff wellbeing
  5. Understanding and addressing intersections between gender and other characteristics
  6. Career development for Early Career Researchers
  7. Sustaining and expanding Athena Swan initiatives.

We will also continue our ongoing work in the areas of LGBTQ+ staff and student inclusion, mentoring for staff and postgraduate research students, supporting student wellbeing, and supporting parents and carers.

Find out more about Athena Swan in School of Health and Wellbeing 

Join one of our Athena Swan working groups

Breda Cullen
Past SHW Athena Swan Champion 

Julie Langan Martin 
Current SHW Athena Swan Champion 

First published: 13 June 2023

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