“The gender challenge for STEM is that we are losing talent.”
Professor Sara Mole’s opener for the latest Equality in Science talk at the Wellcome Genome Campus on 16 September neatly summed up the ethos behind University College London’s approach to Athena SWAN. As a Gold award winner, the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology (LMCB) has a success story to tell. For those of us currently grappling with Athena SWAN applications, the key questions is – how did you do it?
In Physics in the UK, women students are mainly lost between GCSE and A level, then numbers remain relatively stable. Chemistry sees a fairly steady decline in numbers from A level onwards. In Biology, there is actually an issue with missing male talent up to undergraduate level, where 65% of students are female. Female talent is lost sharply in the transition from postdoc to lecturer, with numbers declining still further beyond that. Athena SWAN targets this loss of talent at institutional and departmental level.
UCL’s LMCB first won a Silver Athena SWAN award in 2009, graduating to Gold in 2016 when it secured only the eighth Gold award in the UK. As a postgraduate research department, with 18 Principal Investigators, postdocs do not stay on as lecturers – effectively LMCB trains them up for success elsewhere. Lecturers in their turn come from postdocs trained by other institutions. This has led to two key areas of focus for LMCB: postdoc career development and encouraging applications from women to lecturer positions. Appraisals then focus strongly on promotion, to foster a career path to associate and full professorships.
For a successful Athena SWAN application, you need to demonstrate that your actions have impact. “Changing the culture of a department benefits everyone,” Prof Mole reminded us. “We homed in on rationale, action and impact. Why did we do what we did, how and when did this happen and what were the effects?” The key for LMCB lies in solid data, otherwise it is difficult to know what changes have actually made that crucial difference.
The team behind the changes targeted a 50:50 approach, where everyone contributes and all protected characteristics were represented within the team, including a range of organisational roles and career stages. The impact of this approach has been significant – 36% of professors are now female compared to 18% in UK biosciences generally and they have achieved gender parity in applications, shortlisting and offers for PhD students. Staff surveys show that there has been a big increase in the numbers willing to encourage both girls and boys to consider a career in STEM. LMCB has taken positive action by inviting applications from under-represented groups and improvements in awareness of personal development training led to much better uptake.
LMCB works hard to bring speaker ratios closer to 50% by encouraging staff to nominate a speaker of the opposite gender. Cultural changes have led to a supportive, collegiate atmosphere underpinned by active mentorship. Postdocs have career timelines, support with writing and interview practice, meaning that female and male postdocs are now equally successful in winning promotion. Role models also have their part to play, including young group leaders who are one step ahead of the postdocs. “What is inspirational is to see someone like you or me who has taken that next step,” said Prof Mole. Careers talks also cover pathways outside academia for both genders. “We don’t want men to feel ‘trapped’ in academia or for women to feel ‘excluded’. Everyone should have equality of opportunity and the information they need to make career choices according to personal preference.”
For Prof Mole, it is important to reward and celebrate equality and diversity activities, including those that provide career development opportunities that benefit everyone, as well targeting under-represented groups. “We found our vision about half way through our Athena SWAN journey,” admitted Prof Mole. “Our hashtags #simplygoodpractice and #benefitsall indicate that everyone benefits but under represented groups will benefit most. We’re aiming for 50:50 and this should be the norm for the next generation.”
To make your changes really stick, Prof Mole has the following top tips:
- Gather your enthusiasts
- Know your data
- Find your vision
- Identify your priorities
- Fix what is in your immediate power to change
- Plan actions to address priorities
- Implement and keep up the momentum
- Keep communicating the vision
- Monitor for impact
- Don’t reinvent the wheel (“We plagiarised constantly!”)
- Keep deepening and start to beacon
Asked for two things that we could all take away with us, Prof Mole replied, “Be a really good colleague and treat others the way you would like to be treated. Get to know people to break down unconscious biases and assumptions.”
“Don’t make choices now based on what may or may not happen, just do what you want to do – that’s the best advice I’ve ever received,” she said finally. “Don’t waste time on those who are very negative at the start – let the impact and results convince them later.”
I declare myself convinced!
KatieGee 