UNIVERSITY OF

CAMBRIDGE

Facilitating Women’s Progression to the Top

Athene Donald

University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory and

Churchill College Cambridge

Twitter @athenedonald Blog: http://occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald/

Outline - CV

• BA (Theoretical Physics) and PhD (Electron Microscopy of Grain Boundary Embrittled Systems) from Cambridge.

• 2 x 2 years postdoc in Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University USA:

• 2 year fellowship Materials Science Cambridge

• 2 years (out of possible 5) Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Cavendish

• 1985 Lectureship

• 1995 Readership

• 1998 Professor

• 1999 FRS

• 2009 L’Oreal/UNESCO For Women in Science Award for Europe

• 2010 DBE

• 2014 Master of Churchill College Cambridge

Outline - CV • BA (Theoretical Physics) and PhD (Electron Microscopy of Grain Boundary

Embrittled Systems) from Cambridge.

• 2 x 2 years postdoc in Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University USA:

• 2 year fellowship Materials Science Cambridge

• 2 years (out of possible 5) Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Cavendish

• 1985 Lectureship

• 1995 Readership

• 1998 Professor

• 1999 FRS

• 2009 L’Oreal/UNESCO For Women in Science Award for Europe

• 2010 DBE

• 2014 Master of Churchill College Cambridge

Management: Justification to Your Colleagues

• Think of this quote I once heard: ‘It’s not about investment in diversity, it’s about investment in people – pays back in no time at all’

• Sometimes the financial as well as the moral argument is useful.

• In order to reap the full benefits of the workforce, ask: – Are you deploying and utilising to the full all your talent?

– Are you mentoring and supporting all early career researchers?

– Are you monitoring progression through the grades?

– Are you appointing the most talented people?

– Do you have mandatory (unconscious bias) training for appointment committees?

Action needs to be taken throughout an organisation

These formalities seem a good place to start because they are incontrovertible

Small Signs of Progress?

HESA Data

Data from Cambridge University

Where do Organisations go Wrong?

• Assuming individuals understand how the system works

• Assuming people will ask for what they need

• Assuming the right people will apply for a position without encouragement

• Assuming that all PI’s look after their research teams properly

• Assuming that there is no bullying/harassment

Action: You need to take steps to see if these are issues

Action: Carry out consultations/surveys with men and women to see what the major concerns are and where they are worst.

We ran some consultations with different grades of staff (researchers, academic and academic-related staff) to see what issues different groups faced

We then ran workshops to support people around specific challenges

What is Athena SWAN?

• Started off as a group just examining issues around gender equity in STEM in HEIs in the UK – Cambridge University was involved from the start.

• Has now become much more formalised with extensive application forms to allow organisations to apply for bronze, silver and gold awards.

• All subjects are now covered by the scheme.

• An analysis of where an institution currently sits in terms of gender equity and its action plans for the future are required (plus narrative).

• The University has to commit to advancing gender equality and addressing imbalances, including any gender pay gap.

University Policies and Actions

• Visible commitment from the top is crucial – senior individuals walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

• They must buy into any action plans at either university or departmental level.

Create champions (male and female) who have academic credentials that will mean they are taken seriously!

– They can work closely with senior management and relevant committees but have a single priority.

– Make sure this work is credited in any workload model.

– Do not require the latest female hire to take on the work associated with Athena Swan submissions

• Publicly celebrating the success of minorities

– Are good news stories widely disseminated?

• Think about what success means and who decides what is successful

When I was Gender Equality Champion (2010-14)

• As a senior academic I could easily get to talk to the VC and PVCs as appropriate as well as head of E+D and HR.

• Because I am also externally visible it meant I was taken seriously.

• I chaired the Gender Equality Group which was set up to monitor and analyse the outcomes from our biennial Equal Pay Review, but it does far more than this.

• I also sat on many of the relevant university committees, including University Council, and could keep pushing on areas where there were problems.

• I hosted university events in this area.

• Beyond this I continue to write and talk a lot about the issues

• Spreading the word is hugely important so that everyone works out this is something important to the institution at every level and people work out what part they can play.

Collecting Data and Monitoring

• Athena Swan is great at encouraging data gathering, but what you do with it is what matters!

• It isn’t just STEM departments that have issues

– The extension of Athena Swan to non-STEM departments will assist to identify their issues

– Different disciplines have different issues

– RCUK statement on equality covers all disciplines

• Do you carry out an Equal Pay Review? If so:

– Who takes any findings forward?

– Who identifies KPI’s and are these published?

• What analysis is carried out around promotion, grant success rates etc to see if there are systemic problems?

• Do you have a gender attainment gap at undergraduate level in some subjects?

Unconscious Bias and Stereotyping

• The problem with unconscious bias is that it is unconscious! But we can all be alert to look out for it in ourselves.

• The tests at Project Implicit https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ are a healthy reminder that we all carry internal schema which are liable to make us make assumptions about our colleagues.

• In job interviews, in interacting with people on a daily basis, these schemata can get in the way of seeing people for who they really are.

• The net effect for women trying to survive and progress in the world of science means this can be a major challenge.

• If managers believes women are unreliable, can’t do maths or wire up a plug there may be a problem!

• See recent study in PNAS www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1211286109 ‘Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students’

Consult and Monitor - Ongoing • Consultations may tell you nothing you didn’t know, but evidence is better than

anecdote.

• In CU’s recent consultations we heard time and time again ‘women don’t like to self-promote’

– We ran a series of workshops in response to this

• Women feel they aren’t informed about promotion

– Why not? Is something systematic going on?

• Women can feel excluded – from decision-making, networks etc.

– Possibly due to timing of meetings (down the pub after work?)

– Possibly because they are systematically overworked

• Are they being used optimally, particularly when they are in short supply?

– Don’t just randomly stick them on committees to make things look good

– Make sure they are used on important committees which make strategic decisions, not bulking up statutory ones (such as H+S or childcare provision)

• Actions: Do you have good mentoring, appraisal and support?

• Do you have workload models?

Early Career Researchers and Progression

• Where women are in a minority, they can feel very isolated.

– Do you provide networks, peer-to-peer mentoring, appraisals for postdocs or other support?

– What about careers’ advice?

– Do women get support and encouragement when it comes to promotion?

• What training is available for transferable and leadership skills for the ECRs?

• Are there exit interviews when people leave, to help identify areas where there may be problems?

• Are the experiences of men and women similar or very different?

Action: Think about questionnaires – Athena Swan likes evidence that culture is embedded and that you have data as to where local problems sit.

‘Deficit Model’

• Organisations and individuals have to be careful not to fall into the ‘deficit model’ way of thinking

• In other words, that there is something wrong with the women which needs fixing.

• The problem is that there is something wrong with how women are viewed and what society expects of them.

• Steps taken need to factor this in.

• We need to re-evaluate how society values women and their actions.

• This applies across all subjects, in the boardroom just as much and probably elsewhere (journalism for instance).

Broadening the Criteria for Success • Cambridge University’s project The

Meaning of Success interviewed many women at different levels to work out what women saw as ‘success’.

• https://www.cam.ac.uk/women-at-cambridge

• Is all we care about metrics and a ‘mine’s bigger’ culture?

• Excellent research does not need to mean that individuals are ‘trampled on’

• And teaching, appraisals, outreach and policy work all have their place in HE yet do not necessarily get rewarded.

• This is not about feminine traits, it is about encouraging a diverse workforce in its broadest sense.

• And diversity tends to lead to better outcomes…..

Unconscious Bias and Negotiation

• If women act too feminine and don’t ask, they end up with lower salaries.

• If they act too masculine and ask, then people don’t want to work with them.

• Bowles, Babcock and Lau Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 103 (2007) 84–103 found from various experiments:

• Participants evaluating written accounts of candidates who did or did not initiate negotiations for higher compensation. – penalized female candidates more than male candidates for initiating

negotiations.

• In watching videos male evaluators penalized female candidates more than male candidates for initiating negotiations; female evaluators penalized all candidates for initiating negotiations.

• Perceptions of niceness and demandingness explained resistance to female negotiators.

• Training women to negotiate in itself will not solve the problem of salary differentials (as Stanford found when they tried).

Unconscious Bias Letters of Reference

• Evidence shows how letters of reference are gendered: J. Madera, M. Hebl and R. Martin Journal of Applied Psychology 2012

• Men are much more likely to be described by ‘agentic words’ :assertive, dominant, ambitious and intellectual.

• Women by ‘communal words’: affectionate, tactful, sensitive and helpful

Concrete examples from letters I saw recently:

• Woman A

• ‘ a consistent output of more than a dozen papers per year, despite a period of maternity leave and currently working less than full time; more than £2M of current research funding held as PI….however she is still at a relatively early stage of her career and this makes me uncomfortable about recommending her….’

• Man B

• ‘I should comment on the fact that all but 3 of B’s recent publications do not include Y [his mentor, still in the same department] as a co-author. However for about half of these B appears to be the senior author, and presumably the intellectual driving force behind the work….my overall view is that…he is highly deserving…’

The Power of Images and Self-Affirmation

• There are simple things that can be done!

• For individuals they can ‘think positive thoughts’

• Apparently this self-affirmation exercise had a marked effect on girs’ performance in physics tests

• ‘15-minute writing exercise closes the gender gap in university-level physics’ see Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1195996

• Likewise having images of diverse people around a department or college can make people realise that ‘people like them’ can succeed.

– What are the images like on the walls in your college?

• What about the texts students in philosophy are set to read ? Are they all by male authors?

• Do students get exposed to writings or experiments done by women during tutorials and lectures?

Family and Work-Life Balance- The Long Hours Culture

• Many young women believe it is ‘impossible’ to combine a serious science career and a family, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

• It appears that even with visible role models there is still a high level of fear about trying to cope with what is seen as a high pressure job and the demands of a family.

• Dual career issues seem more likely to affect women than men, with women tending to follow their partners more than conversely.

• This reduction in flexibility obviously limits job opportunities.

• The frequent expectation that a postdoc or research fellow is at their desk/bench for very long hours works against families too, despite the fact that this may not be a productive means of working.

• Who is the primary carer of children or parents?

Isolation, Mentoring, Role Models

• In some disciplines the absolute number of women is tiny, and that is when isolation becomes a problem

• Who do you turn to for advice and support?

• Mentoring is an attractive option and often happens completely informally but by having a structure in place to facilitate it, it should mean no one gets missed.

• Mentors do not have to be female!

• What is important is that they are trusted, and are willing to invest time in the individual.

• And that is often a sticking point since time is seen as so precious.

• For some women, having a senior role model in mind appears to be helpful, but the evidence for this is sparse.

Impostor Syndrome http://occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald/2012/01/29/what-am-i-doing-here/ http://occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald/2014/02/02/getting-away-with-it/

• Impostor syndrome: that feeling that you don’t belong, or that you have been asked to do something, due to a clerical or other error.

• And one day, probably soon, you will be FOUND OUT!

• You can say I’m not up to this and walk away

– Let fear paralyse you and never find out what strengths you have

• Or you can say, someone believes in me and I’ll give this a try.

– Use it like an actor uses stage fright, to get the adrenalin going.

– What is the worst that can happen?

– How bad will it be if you fall on your face, and how likely is that to happen?

• Remember that many, many people suffer from this. They just don’t talk about it and so you don’t notice.

Bullying and Harassment • Mild bullying maybe can be dealt with unofficially and through peer group

support. • However there comes a point where this is not sufficient. • People need to familiarise themselves with their local procedures.

– Is mediation on offer? – Is there a woman’s officer to whom you can turn in the first instance? – Who do you report complaints to? – Is there someone to support you when you do so?

• Vital that everyone understands who they can turn to and that problems aren’t ignored when issues are raised.

• Whistleblowers must be supported • The reality is that formal procedures are always horrible, even if your case

is fully justified. Informal processes should always be tried first. • It is also the case that once formal procedures are implemented strict

confidentiality will be imposed, which can be curiously painful as informal support is then difficult to obtain; only formal channels should then be used.

• Formal complaints should definitely be seen as the place of last resort.

Support Networks

• If you haven’t got a mentor, support networks can be useful.

• Again these can be formal or informal; in the latter case it may be simply a group of friends who have had similar experiences.

• Support networks can also be a source of specific information: who to approach with a question, what experience you need to apply for a more senior position etc.

• But where there are more personal issues – about bullying for instance – they can also serve a very useful purpose since other people/peers may have been through similar situations and found coping strategies they can pass on.

Finally – the daily grind

• One of the most powerful obstacles is the daily, trivial frustrations and petty fights many women experience.

• This might include – Being ignored/talked over at committee meetings

– Being expected to do tasks others won’t, and which probably won’t be ‘good’ for career progression

– Being ‘forgotten’ to be invited to after work drinks

– Having to listen to casually sexist remarks

– Seeming to be invisible

– Being accused of being emotional or ‘not able to take a joke’, particularly when registering a complaint about someone else’s behaviour.

• None of these are in themselves hugely serious, but day after day they can lead to a general feeling of ‘what am I doing here?

That’s an excellent idea Miss Triggs. Perhaps one of the men here would like to make it

Reflections

• There are no simple answers!

• In the UK a large report has just been published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission pointing out how substantial the gender pay gap – across the board – is.

• But that is in some senses the least of the problems for women.

• It is a combination of standing out ‘as different’, of being isolated, of not having sufficient support – mentors, heads of department etc – of being stereotyped and being offered or choosing to do tasks that may not be the wisest in terms of career progression.

• It is the fear or the actual difficulty of finding a work-life balance that works and that permits a personal (including family) life that is satisfying.

• And just finding too many small irritations that can add up to a feeling that it is all more than one can bear and that it isn’t worth continuing.

#Just1Action4WIS • Call out bad behaviour

• Encourage women to dare, to take risks

• Act as a sponsor or mentor

• Don’t let team members get away with demeaning behaviour

• Seek out and remove microinequities

• Refuse to serve on single sex panels or at conferences without an appropriate level of female invited speakers

• Consider the imagery in your department • Consider the daily working environment to

see if anything inappropriate is lurking. If so, do something about it

• Demand/require mandatory unconscious bias training, in particular for appointment and promotion panels

• Call out teachers who tell girls they can’t/shouldn’t do maths, physics etc

• Don’t let the bold (male or female) monopolise the conversation

•

• Ask schools about their progression rates for girls into the traditionally male subjects

• Nominate women for prizes, fellowships etc • Tap women on the shoulder to encourage

them to apply for opportunities • Move the dialogue on from part-time

working equates to ‘isn’t serious’ to part-time working means balancing different demands

• Recognise the importance of family (and even love) for men and women

• Be prepared to be a visible role model • Gather evidence, data and anecdote, to

provide ammunition for management to change

• Listen and act if a woman starts hinting that there are problems, don’t be dismissive because it makes you uncomfortable

• Think broadly when asked to make suggestions of names for any position or role