A report on the Athena Swan Charter scheme has concluded that there is insufficient evidence that it has delivered its key objectives, whilst the financial cost of the scheme to the university sector remains unquantified. The scheme, one of the largest equality initiatives in the UK, was established in 2005 to advance the representation of women in STEM disciplines in UK universities. In 2015, the scheme was expanded to cover non-STEM disciplines, as well as men, trans identified staff, and professional and support staff.
Co-author of the report, ‘Taking stock of Athena Swan: What value does it add and who decides?’, Dr Lucy Hunter Blackburn said:
Sex inequalities in the higher education sector persist. For over 30 years, women have made up the majority of undergraduates and yet only 30% of professors are female and the sex pay gap in the sector is 13.7%. The Athena Swan scheme has now been running for nearly two decades. Despite that, surprisingly little emphasis seems to have been placed on gathering good quality evidence on its effectiveness as a mechanism for addressing sex inequalities in promotion or pay. What evidence there is suggests at best a limited effect. Even those in charge of the scheme recognise that it creates an administrative burden on institutions, which is widely understood to fall disproportionately on women. Yet there appears to have been no attempt to quantify the cost – administrative and financial – to a higher education sector under increasing pressure. As the scheme approaches its twentieth anniversary, and in these financially straitened times, we suggest the university sector should look harder at how well its investment in the scheme is delivering on improved outcomes for its female staff.
The report was commissioned by Oxford University’s Women’s Equality and Inequality Programme. The programme’s director is Professor of modern history and Tutorial Fellow in History at St Hilda's College, Selina Todd.
This is a timely report given the new government’s stated commitments to equality and to increasing access to meaningful paid work. Athena Swan is one of the UK’s largest and most longstanding initiatives to promote equality in the workplace. Yet the report demonstrates that sex discrimination and inequality remain significant in higher education. The report demonstrates that we need evidence-based strategies that focus on eradicating sex discrimination in promotion and pay. Historically, women established their own campaigns to achieve these objectives and the report makes clear that women’s networks and organisations retain an important role today.
You can read the full report here and a summary of its key findings here.