Promoting improved gender equity in academia

For the past twelve months, two multi-disciplinary teams from the University have been working with The British Council (UK) and AdvanceHE to promote improved gender equity in higher education and research institutions.

In India, we are working with their Department of Science and Technology (DST) on the Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI) project which promotes women in STEMM at tertiary institutions.

In August, GATI University of Manchester lead Dr Laura Richards visited the University of Delhi and met with University of Delhi’s Vice Chancellor, Senior Leadership Team, and the GATI Self-Assessment Team to discuss gender equality initiatives, share relevant experiences and discuss potential collaboration opportunities.

Planning is now underway for Dr. Laura Richards and Professor Rachel Cowen, the University’s Academic Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (Gender and Sexual Orientation Equality) to attend a cross-partnership GATI workshop in India in November with expected attendance of representatives from 15 Indian and three UK higher education institutions, DST and The British Council. In the meantime, our virtual engagements with our GATI partners are enabling the development of action plans within the new GATI framework and the sharing of example Athena SWAN charter materials.

In Brazil, the parallel Women in Science scheme (UK-Brazil Partnerships) is progressing well with its virtual engagements and planning is underway for a potential hybrid workshop in Brazil very soon.

Following the success of our International Women’s Day event which included speakers from India, Brazil and the UK, our related article ‘Connecting over Gender Equity Initiatives’ was published in The Academic Woman (Harris, D., Cowen, R., Ateeq, B., Ribeiro, F.N.D., Edge, D., Rath, S., Carbone, S., Mackinlay, A. & Richards, L.A., (2022). Connecting over Gender Equity Initiatives. The Academic Woman. Issue 8, p8-11).