University of Warwick awarded Athena SWAN Silver Award

The University of Warwick has been awarded the Advance HE’s Institutional Athena SWAN Silver Award.

The Athena SWAN award ceremony, which recognises advancement in gender equality, took place on Monday 10 December and was hosted by the University of Southampton.

While the University of Warwick was awarded a Silver Institutional award overall, Silver awards were also given to the University of Warwick’s Life Sciences department and Business School.

In addition, the University’s Politics and International Studies (PAIS) department was awarded Bronze.

The Silver award was picked up by Warwick’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion services who tweeted that they were “honoured” to be collecting the award.

The University tweeted that it was “thrilled” to have won the award.

Advance HE’s Athena SWAN Charter evolved from work between the Athena Project and the Scientific Women’s Academic Network (SWAN).

The Charter was established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in higher education and research.

In 2015, the charter was expanded to recognise work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law as well as in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students.

The University has however come under scrutiny in the past in regards to issues of gender equality. For example, an investigation by The Boar found that a gender pay gap exists at all levels of academia, and it was also reported that Warwick had the second worst gender pay gap in the Russell group in 2017.