Our work on Goal 5

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Goal 5: Gender Equality

Goal 5: Gender Equality

As one of the world’s leading research institutions and the UK’s first university to have social responsibility as a core goal, we’re tackling the SDGs in four inter-related ways: through our research, learning and students, public engagement activity and operations.

Here’s a selection of our work addressing Goal 5.

Research

Influencing international and national employment policies to promote inclusive labour markets

Our Work and Equalities Institute is providing the evidence base to inform global employment debates and policies.

Research in three key areas is undertaken: minimum wage and collective bargaining; the gender pay gap; and precarious work.

This work is shaping guidance produced by international policy bodies and national policies of multiple countries, and is also providing evidence for European trade unions in their interactions with EU and national policymakers.

On Gender

We produced On Gender to identify what we know – and what we need to know – about gender inequality in tackling the big policy agendas devolved to Greater Manchester and other areas, with devolution deals in areas such as ageing, labour markets, education, parenting and sexual violence.

 

Learning and students

Girl Guides Rwanda remote volunteering

We work in collaboration with Association des Guides du Rwanda (AGR) to provide volunteer opportunities for students to help girls and young women in Rwanda acquire skills for their development and become agents of positive change.

Students’ and women’s rights

Our students started a Misogyny Is Hate campaign, leading to the government directing police to record crimes motivated by a person’s sex or gender for the first time.

Our Students’ Union also runs Reclaim the Night, resulting in around 2,000 women marching in the streets each year to raise awareness of sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

 

Public engagement

#LetsTalkLynch campaign

We partnered with gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal to raise awareness of our research into Lynch syndrome and what it means for cancer screening practices.

We created a series of short videos outlining this research, what it means, and the real stories of women and families who have been affected by Lynch syndrome and Lynch-related cancer.

Women in STEM

We have a range of initiatives that empower women and girls to enter predominantly male fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Our academics have set up ScienceGrrl – a grassroots network to address the under-representation of women in science and engineering.

A Women in Environmental Science group has been established to create space for environmental discussion among women from diverse backgrounds.

We also host Girls Night Out – a twice-yearly event at our Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre to celebrate and encourage females to pursue careers in STEM.

 

Operations

Gender equality policies

Our Equality and Diversity Policy prevents discrimination based on gender and/or sex.

Our Dignity at Work and Study Policy covers harassment and discrimination against women.

Our Report and Support system addresses alleged cases of bullying, sexual harassment or discrimination.

Gender pay gap

Our Gender Pay Gap report measures differences between the average (mean and median) earnings of men and women who work at our university.

The median gender pay gap (GPG) is 11.8%, while the mean is 17.2%, which is caused by the under-representation of women in senior roles.

We therefore aim to increase the number of women who are senior lecturers, readers and professors (currently 32%) until they are representative of the pool of women at lecturer level (currently 47%).