Athena Swan Silver Award
1 October 2013

The Division of Medicine received a departmental Athena SWAN Silver
Award following our April 2013 application. We feel extremely honored to have
received such a meaningful
and far-reaching recognition of the efforts made to create a supportive
environment that ultimately benefits us all, men and women. The Division’s
Athena SWAN team (Ines Pineda-Torra, Prof Raymond MacAllister, Blathnaid Mahony, Prof Ian Zachary,
Prof Margaret Ashcroft, Markella Ponticos, Reecha Sofat, Petra Disterer,
Slavica Tudzarova, Aisha Carroll, John Hurst, Prof Rachel Chambers and Robin
McNaulty) worked very hard for this. We also counted
with Prof Jean
McEwan and Harriet Jones aid as well as with the strong commitment of the
Director of the Division, Prof Raymond MacAllister. We truly believe we have
come a long way since this process started. During the
past year we dedicated a career workshop and started a mentoring scheme to
facilitate the transition of female postdoctoral staff towards scientific
independence. The Division now takes a much more proactive attitude towards
senior promotions, identifying suitable women that are encouraged and mentored
through this process. The Division also appointed Prof Claudia Mauri as the new
Champion for Women and allocated funds to support students and staff during their
maternity leave. Finally, there has been a dramatic increase in female
representation at Divisional events, with a gender-balanced composition of
chairpersons and a marked increase in the number of female speakers. Many other
issues regarding gender-equality will need to be assessed in the future.
However, the first steps have been taken towards a more balanced representation
of both genders across the Division.