50:50 Gender Equality Group
Wednesday 20th November 2013
MINUTES
Present:
Annett Dolphin(Co-Chair)
Rob de Bruin
Sarah Chaytor
Anna Cox
Purvangi Dave
Rosalind Duhs
Vicki Baars
Sarah Guise
Marjan Jahanshahi
Charlotte Lemanski
Robb Mcdonald
Ifat Yasin
In attendance:Harriet Jones(Secretary)
Apologies were received from: Patrick Wolfe,Judith Stephenson,Sarah Winmill,Geraint Rees and Andrew Clark
1Update on changes to 50:50 group and plans for the future
1.1 SG explained that a paper (circulated to the group) was sent to the Senior Management Team outlining suggested changes to the 50:50 group. This was put together after an Athena SWAN SAT meeting in June, and in response to feedback from Athena SWAN on our University Bronze Athena SWAN renewal. The Athena SWAN panel were confused about how the 50:50 group and the Athena SWAN self assessment team (SAT) worked together.
1.1.1All recommendations were accepted by SMT
1.1.2The Provost agreed to chair the 50:50 group, which will take a lead on Athena SWAN, and act as the SAT
1.1.3There will still be a female co-chair for the 50:50 group, and this is likely tobe the new Gender Champion as Mary Collins is stepping down as Gender Champion.
1.1.4It is proposed that there will be a set agenda at each meeting, to ensure the views of all staff groups are represented. In addition to thematic agenda itemsstandingagenda items will be: STEM Faculties and Athena SWAN, HASS Faculties and GEM (the new Gender Equality Mark for non-STEM faculties), and Professional Services staff to ensure issue from all staff groups are picked up on.
1.1.5The membership will continue to represent the views of staff from across the different Faculties, and different staff groups and both men and women.
1.1.6There will be a number of ex-officio roles on the new 50:50 committee, including Faculty SWAN leads and the UCLU Women’s Officer. Faculty SWAN leads will communicate information to and from the Departmental SAT teams in their Faculties.
1.1.7The new committee will keep the 50:50 name and logo.
1.1.8Current 50:50 group members will be asked to re-affirm their interest in being part of the new committee as there were more limited places due to the merger of the SWAN SAT and the 50:50 group.
1.2 The group raised concerns over the amalgamation of the SWAN SAT and the 50:50 group, and asked whether HASS and Professional Services staff will be taken into consideration.
1.2.1SG noted that there will be a fixed agenda, so that STEMM, HASS and Professional services will be discussed at each meeting.
1.2.2There is also a new Gender Charter Mark (GEM) for HASS subjects. This is currently being piloted in the Greek and Latin department, but will be rolled out to other UCL departments in due course. The new 50:50 group will also have responsibility for monitoring the progress of GEM.
1.2.3HJ commented that many of the issues relevant to SWAN are important for all staff at the University, for example improvements or extra support in the appraisal system or promotions process.
1.3RMcD asked whether the 50:50 group would have responsibility for applying for University silver Athena SWAN award, and if this was planned for the near future. SG confirmed that the group would be responsible for this and it was planned for the 2014-2015, depending on the success of departmental SWAN applications.
1.4RMcD also asked whether Deans had been asked to identify a Faculty SWAN lead. SG noted that an email will be sent in December.
1.5AD asked about how big the new 50:50 should be. The group agreed that there should be no more than 20 members.
1.6AD asked about the hierarchy for the new group – who would report to the 50:50 group and would it be reporting to a senior committee. SG noted that the 50:50 group will be reporting new Equality and Diversity Committee, which will be chaired by Professor Graham Hart.
1.7SG noted that there were also new networks that will feed into the 50:50 group, these include:
1.7.1UCL women – for female academic staff (post doc to professor) in the School of Life and Medical Sciences
1.7.2Astrea – a new network for women in professional services
1.7.3VB said that there is a ULU gender and feminism group, which staff are welcome to join.
1.7.4AC noted that PALS has a women’s group
1.7.5SG also mentioned that she starting a parents and carers network. This will involve monthly meetings, and will be organised by a steering group.
1.8RD commented that it will be important for the new 50:50 group to have clear objectives
1.9RdB asked whether information on the 50:50 group is on the UCL website. SG confirmed that information was on the equality and diversity website. This site is currently being reviewed and refreshed, so will be improved.
2Actions undertaken to date
2.1AD went through a list of actions coming out of the formal meetings in order to take stock of what the group had achieved since February 2012. Below are the notes from the discussion:
2.1.1There were some actions around requiring data, some actions asking for ‘better data’ after data had been presented to the group. SG noted the difficulty in providing extra, or more detaileddata sets.
2.1.2Data on fellowships –AD noted that the issue is at the point when researchers approach UCL with a fellowship and ask to be sponsored/to hold their fellowship at UCL. AD was concerned that this could have an impact on gender equality at UCL. RdB noted that this is not the case in all departments as the MRC LMCB interview for these ‘sponsored’ posts. SG asked if AD could write a summary paper on the issue, which could then be taken to the first ‘new’ 50:50 group meeting in February. SG agreed to make an amendment to the gender sabbatical policy to include fathers or partners who had taken at least 3 or 4 months of additional paternity leave, to reflect the good practice around paternity in the REF.
2.1.3Leadership programmes for women:
- SG reported that UCL have funded 6 women to attend the Aurora course that is being run by the Leadership Foundation. Springboard, a national programme for women, is also available for research and professional services staff. Because of these opportunities, there is currently no in-house training specifically for women in leadership, though women’s participation on the leadership programme is monitored.
- CL noted that while Springboard might be useful for women, it requires a lot of time, and this might be putting women off taking up this opportunity. She suggested that the group could ask Deans to select a number of women to attend each year, and their workload would be officially adjusted to allow them to attend
- In relation to this, SG explained that she is undertaking a research project into the Head of Department role, and trying to understand why women are not taking up these positions as often as men in relation to the pool. This might lead to the HoD role being reconfigured.
- VB noted that there is a current NUS campaign on women in leadership. UCL is sending 4 female students to take part.
- AD suggested there should be a consistent policy across UCL for HoDs to be in post for a fixed term of 3 or 5 years.
- CL agreed with this proposal and noted that in her department, all roles with a large workload (for example admissions tutor) are fixed term, and a 2 term sabbatical is available after the 3 years.
- The group had proposed a regular ‘Did you know’ section in The Week @ UCL to cover relevant policy e.g. flexible working etc. However this was not accepted by the Communications team. They agreed the50:50 group could include one-off sections in The Week.
- Head hunters: being discussed by SMT,specifically asking headhunting firms to sign up to the code of conduct of the 30% club. It was raised that head hunters should not be interviewing the long list on UCL’s behalf. CL suggested a UCL representative should be present at these interviews.
- Awards: SG noted that she had tried to get the gender balance of awards from departments but there were different and highly devolved systems and procedures in place; not all of these are monitored. SG had put together a monitoring form (tabled) that departments could send back to the 50:50 group annually. SG agreed to circulate this for comments.
- The group noted that they would like the 50:50 logo so that they could use it as email footers and posters. HJ agreed to send the logo to all members of the new 50:50 group
- The group agreed that the 50:50 group should have a tag line. All members to send suggestions to HJ
- Recruitment waiver for REF: SG noted that the 50:50 group had successfully influenced a proposal to extend the recruitment waiver from Professorial posts to Lecturer posts and above. The group agreed that it would be interesting to see what impact the waiver had on the gender balance of new recruitments in the run up to the REF. SG agreed to source data on this.
Action: AD to write a summary paper outlining her concerns about fellowship positions at UCL.
Action: SG to amend the sabbatical policy to be more inclusive to fathers/partners
Action: SG to circulate awards monitoring form and 50:50 group to send comments
Action: send the 50:50 logo to all members of the new 50:50 group
Action: all members to send HJsuggested tag lines for the 50:50 group
Action: SG to source data on recruitment waiver and gender balance.
3AOB
3.1HJ gave a brief update to the group on Athena SWAN:
3.1.16 departments successfully gained an Athena SWAN award in April 2013: PALS renewed their silver, Ophthalmology, Mental Health Sciences, Division of Medicine and Institute for Women’s Health received a silver award and Neurology were awarded bronze.
3.1.2The current number of awards across UCL is 12: 9 silver awards, and 3 bronze awards. Physics also hold a Juno Practitioner award which is equivalent to an Athena SWAN bronze.
3.1.311 Departments planned to submit at the end of November: 8 silver, 1 silver renewal and 2 bronze
3.1.4If all departments receive an award, UCL will have a total of 23 Athena SWAN awards, with 56% of all STEMM departments holding an award.
3.1.5This will mean that UCL can apply for a University silver award (a university has to have a majority of its departments with an award before it can apply)
3.1.6 5 departments planning to apply in April 2014 – 2 silver renewals, 1 silver and 2 bronze applications.
3.1.7Harriet would soon be approaching all STEMM departments who have not started working on Athena SWAN
3.2VB noted that the UCLU Women’s Officer has three key aims this year:
3.2.1Women in leadership
3.2.2Safe campus
3.2.3Child care