Athena SWAN
We are delighted to announce that the School of Biological Sciences has been awarded an Athena Swan Bronze Award. This award was only made possible by the tremendous work and insights from the Self-Assessment Team, as well as staff and students from across the School, with participation from members of the Department of Pharmacology.
As part of the School-based Bronze application, the School has affirmed its commitment to the following:
- Support women at key career transition points, including recruitment, progression and retention.
- Build School-wide infrastructure for embedding the Athena Swan Charter principles and wider Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy.
- Develop and employ effective interventions to address bullying and harassment and build a culture where everyone feels included.
- Improve data collection, analysis, and storage to inform gender equality initiatives and action planning through dedicated focus groups.
- Support the wellbeing of our students.
The Athena SWAN Charter evolved from work between the Athena Project and the Scientific Women’s Academic Network (SWAN), to advance the representation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics (STEMM). Many women go into science at the undergraduate level, but the proportion of women continuing to the highest levels of their chosen field does not reflect those undergraduate numbers. Athena SWAN encourages and recognises commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment. The initiatives launched under the Athena SWAN umbrella seek to redress that imbalance by creating the optimum conditions to enable the progression of women in science and to increase the representation of women in senior roles.
The University of Cambridge was a founder member of the Athena Swan Charter and has held a Silver Athena SWAN award since 2018 (read more about the University of Cambridge Athena Swan Action Plan Updates). A number of the University of Cambridge departments hold bronze or silver awards. The Department of Pharmacology was delighted to achieve an Athena SWAN Bronze Award in November 2013 and April 2017 which currently runs until September 2023
The application process involved providing an overview of the department and its female staff and student population, supported by data relating to the gender balance in the department, promotion, recruitment, family-friendly provision and other areas of particular relevance to women in their careers. We also provided an assessment of initiatives already underway in the department and the wider University to support women in Pharmacology and related fields of scientific research. The action plans submitted in conjunction with the applications can be found below: