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Gender Equality

At the Department of Economics, we are committed to realising UCL’s Equity and Inclusion Plan 2020-21. In this, our community makes a determined effort to ‘acknowledge, understand, and tackle structural inequities and unjust social power imbalances that affect our communities across the institution.’ We are concerned with imbalances in our communities as well as inequalities experienced by students and staff such as the gender pay gap, unconscious bias, or the gendered impact of COVID-19 for example, caring responsibilities and career progression.

Key figures and strategy

Athena Swan Chair

conti
Meet Gabriella Conti, our Athena Swan Chair. You can contact Gabriella at gabriella.conti@ucl.ac.uk with any related concerns or if you're interested in getting involved in Athena Swan at Department level. 

Athena Swan is a charter which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research.
 

 

Athena Swan Comittee Members

athena swan logo
•    Attila Lindner
•    Elena Bassoli
•    Snjezana Voloscuk
•    Frank Witte
•    Elena Ashtari Tafti
•    Heather Little
•    Victoria Dominiczak
 

 

Across the Department, there is an average 40:60 ratio of female to male members of staff. This ratio varies widely across staff categories; roughly 80% of our administrative and managerial staff are women. In teaching, we have a 43:57 ratio of females to males. However, women only make up a quarter of the academic team and a third of research staff. 

For students, the distribution shifts towards males as students progress throughout their studies. About 35% of all undergraduate and postgraduate degrees awarded by the Department go to females. This imbalance is more pronounced in the masters and research degrees (data collected in 2018/19).

These numbers reveal immense room for change, a responsibility we recognise and takes seriously. Taking an active approach to tackling gender imbalances, the Department of Economics aspires to apply for an Athena Swan Bronze award in the 2021/22 academic year, headed by Dr. Gabriella Conti with support from an inclusive group of members of staff at all levels. 

The Department’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee is continually working on strategic objectives to reduce gender inequalities and imbalances. The EDI strategy is informed by internal data, policies and feedback which includes:

●    Mandatory unconscious bias training for all field coordinators on recruitment panel
●    Online diversity training


Further resources

Pregnancy

There are many groups and networks across UCL that are open to students and members of staff at the Department of Economics. These include:

●    The Gender Equality Working Group
●    The Gender Equality Network (Virtual)
●    The Male Allies Network, for men actively supporting gender equality
●    UCL Menopause Network
●    UCL Women, for members of academic staff