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Anthena SWAN Silver Award © ©Athena Swan

Athena SWAN SILVER Award

Our Athena SWAN Silver Award was renewed in May 2021, in recognition of our efforts to support gender equality in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine (STEMM) in higher education. Experimental Psychology was one of the first in Oxford to receive a Bronze award in 2012 and was awarded Silver in 2015.

In the interests of best practice, you are able to download our 2021 Athena SWAN Silver Award Application by clicking here. If you decide to view our application, it would be very much appreciated if you could:

1. Inform hod.office@psy.ox.ac.uk, stating your full contact details

2. Cite the application in your documentation

If you have any questions regarding the application, please email our Athena SWAN Lead Professor Kate Watkins.

Athena Swan charter

Recognising advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all.

ECU’s Athena SWAN Charter was established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in STEMM employment in higher education and research.  In May 2015 the charter was expanded to cover women (and men where appropriate) in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students in relation to their representation, progression of students into academia, journey through career milestones, working environment for all staff. For further information about Athena SWAN, please visit the ECU website

Recent ongoing projects include:

* Understanding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the careers of students and staff 
* Improving work-life balance
* Early Career Research Committee established to provide peer support, knowledge exchange, mentorship, and training opportunities
* Supporting grant and fellowship applications including mock interview practice and mid-fellowship reviews
* Building our network of alumnae via our EPICs project to showcase career pathways and achievements of previous members of the department
* Supporting LGBT+ staff
* Improving diversity of staff and students and ensuring staff from minority groups feel welcome and supported in the department
* Support for mental health: 18 mental health first aiders trained and available throughout the department; mental health seminar series of public lectures
* Providing dealing with bullying and harassment and bystander training; bullying and harassment advisers
* Improving the provision of career advice and talks for all, including undergraduates, and publicising the many career talks and courses available in the university
* Providing mentoring and personal development reviews for all staff
* Making workloads more transparent so they are seen as fairer
* Improving induction processes so new members of staff and students feel welcomed, integrated and supported, and have all the information they need
* Maintaining gender balance in speakers invited to the department and asking them to provide a short summary of their career pathways to showcase the diversity of routes into and through academia
* Improving participation of women and individuals from under-represented groups in seminar discussions 

Supporting parents at work - see webpage here.