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Astrea responds to the UCL Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap report

Last month UCL published it gender and ethnicity pay gap report revealing a pronounced gap in earnings of UCL staff by gender and ethnicity. The gender pay gap at UCL is 17.5 per cent, close to the UK average of 18 per cent, which means that men earn on average 17.5 per cent more than women at UCL. The ethnicity pay gap is 13.1 per cent, meaning that Black and Minority Ethnic staff earn on average 13.1 per cent less than their white counterparts. A breakdown by specific ethnic groups and gender combined is not provided, however, from these reports we can infer that pay gap is largest between white men and Black and Minority Ethnic women.

The Women's Equality Party are clear: there are many ways of measuring the pay gap, but however it is measured, "women earn less per hour, less per job and less overall." Speaking at the recent Women's Higher Education Network (WHEN) held at UCL in March, Jemima Olchawski of the Fawcett Society said the existence of the gap speaks to a woefully outdated paradigm of the male breadwinner, which, if it ever existed in reality, looks especially shaky now. Nationally, women earn only 52% of what men earn, are still the primary caregivers: women's paid and unpaid work is undervalued.

The UCL report is candid about the pay gap and cites the steps already taken to reduce the gap, which has fallen from 19.5% since 2013. In 2013 UCL provisionally reported on its gender pay gap and, at that stage the mean gap was 19.5%.

The report explains:

Demographics have changed slowly over time, but more action is needed to increase diversity at higher levels of the organisation which will directly lead to a reduction in the gender and ethnicity pay gaps. For example in 2013 only 23% of professors were female (and this is around the same proportion as is currently the case across the Russell Group). At UCL the proportion has increased to 28%.

The gender and ethnicity pay gap is not inevitable. Targeted time-bound action is required. The full list of objectives, which Astrea welcomes, are laid out in the report are as follows:

  • Bold recruitment - applying positive action measures to the widest possible pools of talent
  • Flexible working - including senior job shares, to hang on to talent
  • Shared parental leave - addressing inequality in caring responsibilities
  • Minimising sexual and gender-based harassment - responding better and preventing
  • Supporting career progression and improving talent spotting - removing unnecessary systemic barriers to promotion and development
  • Inclusive leadership - reducing implicit bias, valuing different contributions of talent and leadership, and enabling a culture of sponsorship
  • Utilising 'tie-break' provisions, implementing robust obligations on search firms, pioneering a sector-leading Fair Recruitment Specialist initiative
  • Ensuring flexible working and job-shares are systemically offered to all candidates
  • Offering generous leave for fathers and promoting senior male role models with caring responsibilities
  • Establishing a Preventing Sexual Misconduct Strategy Group to help ensure all women have a positive experience in the workplace and do not leave academia
  • Introducing a new academic career framework for more equal advancement of academic careers, piloting talent management frameworks, making local promotions procedures more transparent, supporting research active academics returning from parental leave
  • Developing an Inclusive Advocates sponsorship programme, delivering wide-spread implicit bias training, offering leadership training for underrepresented groups models with caring responsibilities
  • Establishing a Preventing Sexual Misconduct Strategy Group to help ensure all women have a positive experience in the workplace and do not leave academia
  • Introducing a new academic career framework for more equal advancement of academic careers, piloting talent management frameworks, making local promotions procedures more transparent, supporting research active academics returning from parental leave
  • Developing an Inclusive Advocates sponsorship programme, delivering wide-spread implicit bias training, offering leadership training for underrepresented groups

We look forward to working with colleagues across the institution to help deliver the ongoing cultural shift required to effect change and deliver positive outcomes for women building rewarding careers at UCL.

The Inclusive Advocates sponsorship programme is particularly encouraging. It is designed to ensure high-performing, under-represented groups reach their full potential at UCL. There will be a focus on Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) staff but intersectionality is emphasised.

The two-year programme connects senior leaders ('Advocates') to high-performing Grade 7 and 8 staff ('Protégées').  The role of the senior leader is to proactively ensure the protégé receives robust growth opportunities and access to useful networks, hopefully resulting in career advancement.

UCL's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team have had such a positive response to their first call for senior leader 'Advocates' for the programme that they are attempting to arrange an additional training event for the end of July. To find out more and to register your interests please contact Ash Talwar - a.talwar@ucl.ac.uk

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