Women in Engineering

Background

A number of initiatives exists aimed at encouraging women participation into STEM subjects.

The Athena SWAN charter was developed to recognise University and Department best practice in recruiting and retaining women in Academia. In recent times, Professional Bodies and Institutions have taken an active role in supporting the diversity agenda and have come together to proceed with a common strategy to synergise effort and initiatives.

The Athena SWAN has recently created a working group looking at ways to improve the award and other membership processes of the Athena SWAN Charter. At the first meeting of the SWAN working group (June 2008), a number of changes were discussed and it became clear that with the increasing number of award submissions, direct involvement of Professional Bodies and Institutions is sought. The involvement might concern helping with submissions in their preparatory phase and/or judging submissions. In particular, the IoP has its own scheme, the JUNO Project, which will work in synergy with the SWAN Charter; the RSC is on its way to formalise support to departments’ best practice.

The SPIDER network is a partnership of STEM Professional Institutions with founding members being the IoP, RSC, RAEng, and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC). The Engineering Institutions represented at the SPIDER meeting in June were IMechE, ICE and the Engineering Council.

Proposal

Given the large number of Engineering Institutions, it would be very difficult to assure consistent participation into all the initiatives and therefore it could be useful to have a common approach with the EPC being the overarching referent body, together with the Engineering Council and the RAEng. It is proposed that the EPC actively takes parts into the SPIDER network by becoming one of the members.

Julie Ashdown, Senior Policy Adviser and Athena Swan Charter Coordinator, is very adamant to expand the awards beyond the ‘traditional’ ones of chemistry and physics and she is prepared to make formal contact with the EPC.

Raffaella Ocone