School of Government & International Affairs

By Dr Tessa Ditonto – Associate Professor  

What was the key change/highlight within your department to receive the award? 

I'm not sure that there was one change that helped us to achieve a Silver departmental award, but rather a number of actions that we undertook while working on our Bronze action plan that the award panel pointed to as indications of SGIA's commitment to gender equality. A number of these have to do with our formal incorporation of gender equality considerations into the school's organisational structure and activities. For example, they mention the fact that we have formalised our EDI committee, placing it on equal footing with our Research and Education committees. They also point out positive changes we made to our Athena Swan self-assessment team composition,  including instituting a workload allocation to members of the SAT and ensuring that members of staff in senior leadership roles are included on the committee. They also recognise that we met a number of our Bronze-level goals related to an increase in the percentage of female academic staff, an increase in satisfaction with our departmental induction process, and increased satisfaction with the promotion process.

Finally, the committee noted that several aspects of our application went "above and beyond" the requirements for a silver award, such as including intersectional data and actions (looking at both gender and race/ethnicity), providing longitudinal data on staff perceptions of gender equality within the school, and including findings from additional focus groups and consultations around various issues that arose. 

Why does your department feel this is an important agenda to contribute to? 

SGIA is stronger as a school thanks to the diversity of our staff and students. We are committed to creating an equitable environment for everyone, and this requires a real commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion across all areas of the school. The Athena Swan action plan provides a comprehensive framework that helps us to take concrete steps toward these objectives and gives us an effective way to reflect on our progress and keep ourselves accountable. 

How does/has this benefitted your staff? 

Engaging with the Athena Swan process has helped us to identify areas in the school in which gender-based inequities were an issue, and given us a formal way to address those inequities. Because of this process, we have made real progress in a number of areas. For example, thanks to an emphasis on gender equality in our recruitment process, we've achieved near-parity in the number of women and men on our staff, with a strong representation of female PhD students.

We've also seen improvement in the "leaky pipeline" of promotion and progression for women staff members thanks to targeted activities (such as women-focused promotion workshops) and the new university-wide promotion system, though there is more to be done in this area. Staff survey results also indicate that female staff members understand the promotion process better and are more likely to feel that the promotion process values the full range of an individual's skills and experience now than in previous years. Women and men are both also more likely to say that SGIA is a great place to work now than in the past. 

How does this positively impact current/prospective students and staff? 

Our Athena Swan Silver award and our ambitious action plan should signal to prospective staff and students that we are fully committed to making SGIA a more equitable and inclusive place to work and study, and this will help to ensure that staff and students can reach their full potential.  

How does your department plan to build on this for future? 

Our new action plan sets out an ambitious set of goals that seek to improve gender equality in various aspects of our research, education and departmental culture. If we successfully achieve these goals, they will have a positive impact on SGIA and make it an even better place to work and study than it currently is.

Over the next several years, we will work to increase representation of women in our undergraduate and post-graduate taught programmes, continue to make gender equality in hiring a priority, and formalise a strategy that ensures more women have the opportunity to serve in leadership positions within the school, for example. We also recognise that a truly inclusive approach to gender equality must be intersectional in nature and inclusive of non-binary and trans colleagues and students. To this end, we plan to deliver staff training on gender inclusivity and ensure that all of our departmental data collection includes questions that allow individuals to express non-binary and trans identities. Eventually, we hope to achieve a Gold award! 

 Find out more about the School of Government & International Affairs