Alliance Manchester Business School has this week enjoyed successful application for the Athena SWAN Bronze award.
The Athena SWAN Charter is designed to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women across a range of disciplines in higher education and research.
Established in 2005, the Charter was expanded in 2015 to recognise work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law and it now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly.
Head of School, Professor Fiona Devine, CBE, FAcSS, FRSA, praised the School’s endeavours: “I am delighted with this news and would like to thank the School’s Equality and Diversity Committee, chaired by Dr Isabel Tavora, for its hard work and commitment in not only raising awareness of equality throughout the School but for the application process itself. It was very much a team effort with numerous colleagues from all areas and levels of the organisation contributing.”
Dr Isabel Tavora, who led the School’s Athena SWAN application, said: “I am really pleased to have the hard work of the Equality and Diversity Committee rewarded with this award, which recognises the School’s commitment to advance gender equality. The Athena SWAN action plan is designed to raise awareness and to support this journey towards greater equality and inclusion. We have worked on a number of initiatives, from the creation and expansion of a carers’ support fund, to new guidelines for inclusive gender balanced events alongside organising our own various awareness-raising and information sessions.
“The Athena SWAN action plan also includes looking into our recruitment and human resource practices to consider ways in which we could improve the gender balance of our studentship and staff, particularly in higher grades, where women are very under-represented. To achieve this, we really need the engagement of all colleagues in its implementation.”
The School join the Schools of Computer Science; Earth and Environmental Sciences; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Law; Mathematics; Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering; Physics and Astronomy and Social Sciences as Bronze Award holders.
The award will be officially presented at a ceremony at the University of York on 24 June.
The submission of the award will be published on the School website soon.
