Athena SWAN News & Views
Published: 10 June 2019
Regular updates from the Athena SWAN Committee
Monday 24 June 2019
Dr Leandro Lemgruber writes:
Science report on a new fellowship programme by a Dutch engineering university, Eindhoven University of Technology, which, for the first 6 months, will only be open to female applicants. The university are aiming for 50% women at assistant and associate professor stage and 35% at full professor - a signifiant increase from their current levels of 29% women at assistant/associate level and only 15% at full professors.
Monday 17 June 2019
Dr Leandro Lemgruber writes:
The journal eLife have just launched an Award - the Ben Barres Spotlight Award - aiming to provide visibility and collaboration opportunities for scientists from underrepresented groups.
The maximum amount that will be awarded is $4,500 and the deadline for the first call is August 01st.
More information can be found here.
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The Guardian published a short series of interviews with female BAME professors, highlighting a report commissioned by UCU on the additional hurdles that black women face in promotion and career progression in academia.
There are currently only 25 black, female professors across all subjects in all UK universities. The UCU report provides a series of recommendations to increase the accessibility and inclusivity of professorial appointments.
The personal interviews give a challenging insight into some of these women’s experience.
Monday 10 June 2019
Dr Leandro Lemgruber Soares writes:
The BBC last week reported on a paper published in Sustainability by researchers at the University of Cardiff and ParisTech with the headline that ‘Gender not children holds women academics back’. The data behind this headline is much more complex of course and the article itself, which you can access here for free, is worth a read.
The study examine responses from a survey completed by over 2000 academics based in Russel Group UK universities in 2013. The authors find that women are less likely than men to be university professors (no surprises there) and that increased time spent on teaching, especially for women, has a negative affect on academic rank. In contrast to other similar studies, the authors find that having children has no negative association with career progression - and that, in fact, there is a positive correlation between the number of children under 18 and the academic rank of both men and women - but only when those individuals have timed having their children with career considerations in mind. The discussion on why this may be is an interesting read.
The authors call for two changes in policy to help reduce the gender gap - to make teaching work load more equitable, for example through transparent workload models; and to ensure that promotion criteria are clear and transparent. If this is a subject of interest to you - the paper itself - rather than the brief BBC text, is worth your time.
Monday 03 June 2019
Dr Megan Macleod writes:
'Travel for Two': an interesting comment in Science about the struggles of being a scientist and single parent to attend conferences and going on field trips.
Monday 20 May 2019
Dr Megan Macleod writes:
Nature report on increased mental health challenges faced by ECRs
Nature report on the first international meeting on postgrad mental health taking place in Brighton 16 - 17th May 2019 during Mental Health Awareness Week.
The editorial in Nature points out a study that show that PhD students may be twice as likely to suffer from mental health difficulties compared to the highly educated population in general. UKRI are funding a £1.5million study into the challenges faced by ECRs and to examine how universities can provide better support.
Nature point to the importance of students having access to pastoral support from multiple supervisors. If you are a student or postdoc in 3Is with concerns - please speak to your supervisors, advisors or mentors about your concerns and ask for their help.
Thinking about a career beyond academia
SULSA have collated some brilliant case studies of scientists now working in various types of jobs and their advice on how to move on from academia.
Monday 13 May 2019
Dr Megan Macleod writes:
In the career column in Nature last week, Yoo Jung Kim and Erik Faber report on the ways US universities are helping their graduate students avoid 'burn out'. They highlight that stress leads to reduced productivity and creativity, as they state, 'two traits...key to being a successful scientist.'
Also in last week's career section, you can find Nature's Careers toolkit featuring articles on CV, grant and paper writing and on developing your career in and outside of academia.
Monday 27 August 2018
Dr Alberto Bravo-Blas writes:
Is it really that terrible to leave academia after PhD or postdoc positions?
Here’s a Nature Jobs podcast from the Euroscience Open Forum this summer with input from a number of leading researchers including Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, the president of the ERC. The discussion centres on “the lost generation” of scientists who leave academia and what we can do to make reporting of career paths within science more transparent.
Monday 13 August 2018
Dr Antonio Bravo-Blas writes:
Not sure where you want your career to go? Have a look at the Careers Exploration Road Map on the Science Careers website that may help focus your questions as you plan your future career.
Monday 2 July 2018
Dr Alberto Bravo-Blas writes:
Speaking of transparency
As scientists, we know that words matter when we need to convey a precise message. The following BBC news article by David Silverberg, highlights how using some words can send different signals to different people and how this can influence people’s decisions for applying for a job, or not.
The more diverse, the better
According to this editorial piece in Nature, a more representative workforce is more likely to pursue questions and problems that go beyond the narrow slice of humanity that much of science is currently set up to serve.
Women in science; patriarchy, leaky pipelines and the ‘two body problem’.
Listen to this podcast from Nature jobs in which female researchers from across the globe discuss career barriers and the important of work life balance in academia and industry.
Monday 4 June 2018
Dr Megan Macleod writes:
PLOS Pathogens have an insightful article written by Prof Alice Prince, professor of paediatrics from Columbia University. Prof Prince has an enviable publication record and impressive record in training successful scientists. In this article,”Omissions from a NIH biosketch”, she highlights all the life achievements that don’t make it onto a scientist's CV.
And the BBC news highlighted last week that it’s not just science that struggles with promoting women to the top jobs. Have a look at the woeful excuses some FTSE companies have for not having gender balanced boards.
Monday 21 May 2018
Dr Megan Macleod writes:
Last week’s Nature editorial led with a discussion on putting the “health” of the lab at the centre for research institutes. Following a wide scale survey of 3,200 scientists from across the world, Nature have put together a toolkit of commentaries and suggestions for improving lab management and productivity. The survey results make for interesting reading: e.g. while 90% of PIs claim to look at their lab’s raw data, only 57% of lab members agree!
The commentaries cover topics such as the importance of good leadership and training, research misconduct, and importance of making expectations and the research structure clear to graduate students to improve equality in STEMM subjects.
Please follow this link to Nature for the data and commentary that are well worth a look.
First published: 10 June 2019