Athena SWAN

The Athena SWAN Charter and Awards enable organisations to demonstrate their commitment to, and progress on, equality and diversity by recognising advancement of gender equality, representation, progression and success for all. Surgery and Cancer is committed to promoting equality for all within the workplace and creating a diverse, inclusive and supportive working environment for all staff and students through its Athena SWAN programme. We currently hold an Athena SWAN Gold award.

Advance HE’s Athena SWAN Charter was established in 2005 to encourage and recognises the commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in higher education and research. In May 2015 the charter was expanded to recognise work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law (AHSSBL), in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students. The Charter now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.

Surgery and Cancer and Athena SWAN

• September 2013 - Surgery and Cancer formed an Academic Opportunities Committee (AOC) 
• September 2014 - Bronze Athena SWAN Award
• December 2015 - Silver Athena SWAN Award
• March 2016 - Academic Opportunities Committee changed its name to Committee for the Promotion of People and Culture to reflect change in Athena SWAN charter
• November 2018 - Silver Athena SWAN Award
  
• August 2019 - Committee for the Promotion of People and Culture changed its name to Culture and Engagement Committee as part of the faculty reorganisation.
• March 2024 - Gold Athena SWAN Award

What we're trying to achieve?

• A fairer working environment for everyone in the Department; men, women, support, technical and academic staff
• Better communications to highlight achievements and share relevant events and initiatives 
• Educating managers on their responsibilities 
• Encourage and coach our staff to reach their goals

How are we doing this?

• Holding dedicated staff days and surveys to gauge opinions and using the outcomes of these to develop new initiatives 
• Implementing our action plan
• Sharing achievements along with relevant training opportunities through the Departmental blog and twitter 
• Redesigning the Departmental website to make information more readily available and easier to find, as well as showcasing and promoting everything we do to a wider audience
• Having annual Departmental meetings to share developments and issues 
• Developing tools to help support our staff

What we are doing

As part of our commitment to the principles laid out by The Athena Swan charter and to tackle growing demands within the department, we are continuously and actively exploring ways to enhance our culture and implementing policies and practices to further promote equality. Through feedback from staff surveys and Departmental staff days, we are listening to issues and responding by working on developing a number of initiatives to help drive this change. These include: