LSTM is delighted to announce it has been awarded the Athena Swan Silver charter mark, for its ongoing work to promote gender equality.
The Athena Swan Charter is a framework that is used across the globe, to support and transform gender equality in higher education (HE) and research. The charter was originally set up in 2005 to recognise the advancement of careers for women, in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) roles. It now addresses broad gender and intersecting equality, and their impact on individual and institutional success.
Key successes that contributed to the school winning the award include: increases in numbers of senior female staff; an anonymous reporting mechanism for bullying and harassment established; reductions in our gender pay gap and fixed-term contract use and increased staff retention; greater staff satisfaction with work-life balance and flexibility; an enhanced package of COVID-19 support; career development, especially benefiting female early career researchers; gender equity and improved transparency in promotion and progression; and, gender benchmarks achieved in education. Further details can be found in our Silver application submission here.
LSTM previously held two faculty-level bronze Athena Swan awards, which were superseded by a Small and Specialist Institute bronze award. Whilst the Silver Athena Swan award recognises LSTMs progress in gender equality and endorses our next five-year action plan, is just part of a longer-term plan as LSTM director, Prof David Lalloo explains: “LSTM remains committed to progressing through the Athena Swan Charter mark system and work begins now on delivering the five-year action plan that formed a key part of our submission. For LSTM, the principles and ideals behind the Athena Swan charter reflect the equitable working and learning environment we are striving to create.”