Women in higher education

Many institutions are taking steps to address the gender imbalance at senior level, however much of this effort has not yet successfully included Black women, who&nbsp;suffer double minority status. Their gender and ethnicity colour their experience in the workplace and, as a coping mechanism, Black women develop the “quit and stay mentality”, becoming disengaged while waiting for other roles or opportunities to become available.

When it comes to ethnic gender diversity at the top, British&nbsp;universities are no exception to this endemic problem, if not one of the worst offenders. Black female academics occupy a unique position due to the intersection of gender and race, and are beset by challenges. Black women in academia have only limited access to certain privileges taken for granted by their white colleagues, such as membership of “power” networks, career sponsorship, funding for career development training, and access to information and advice that can support successful career progression. They often suffer invisibility and marginality, are subjected to bullying and harassment from managers, and are held back by the challenges of sexism and racism, also known as&nbsp;misogynoir. A combination of these factors creates obstacles to career progression and impairs the overall experience in the academy.


	Collection: Being Black in the academy
	Fool’s gold: career advice for young, Black academics
	Breaking the oldest rules in the book: making promotion and tenure more equitable


The large majority of UK academic senior managers are white – 61.7 per cent are white men and 32.6 per cent white women – while just 2 per cent are BAME women, according to AdvanceHE data for 2020-21.

Among professors, the gender and ethnic imbalance is stark, with 63.5 per cent of professors being white men, and 25.6 per cent white women, while just 8.1 per cent of&nbsp;professors are BAME men, and just 2.7 per cent BAME women. Of these BAME women, only 35 of them are Black, representing less than 1 per cent. This percentage has been static for five years despite the number of professorships rising by more than 3,000 in that time. The career path for Black female professors has been described as “messy, convoluted and protracted… characterised by a lack of transparency and fairness.”

Institutions need to take urgent action to address this imbalance and create positive ripple effects to increase the representation of Black women at senior level, strengthen the recruitment pipeline of Black female academics and university staff, and improve retention within this group. An example of positive action is the 100 Black Women Professors NOW (BWPN) programme led by the Women’s Higher Education Network and focused on increasing the number of Black female professors.

Recommended actions to support Black women in academia

Start by confronting your data: this should be done by carrying out a staff audit and/or staff survey to identify priority areas, for example in certain departments or management levels, or actions required to shift the status quo.

Promote development opportunities: institutions must take proactive steps to provide and signpost career development opportunities for Black women. These could include shadowing senior staff, deputising for senior colleagues or inclusion in special projects providing leadership exposure. These opportunities are often overseen by gatekeepers who sometimes make decisions that disadvantage and exclude Black women because of affinity bias or inflexible working hours that are incompatible with childcare and other responsibilities. Professional development reviews for black female academics must include at least one specific goal that supports their career advancement.

Diverse interview panels: interview panels overseeing the selection process for internal positions must be racially diverse and include an external person from a different department within the university who can bring objectivity and challenge potential bias.

Formal reporting of promotions: if not already in place, there should be a formal reporting process at institutional and departmental level of all individuals who are promoted, seconded and/or receive career development opportunities, categorised by gender, ethnicity and disability. This will enable departments to monitor and identify imbalances or biases in their processes.

Educate on anti-racist practices: institutions should invest in unconscious bias and anti-racism training for all their staff but with a particular focus on recruitment or promotion panel members to ensure diversity in the composition of the panel. This will help with preventing affinity bias, which is commonly veiled in the aim of seeking a candidate who is “a good cultural fit”.

Set inclusion targets: institutions must include inclusion targets in KPIs for senior leaders – heads of departments and deans – and ask them to provide evidence of proactive inclusion efforts and equity in career development opportunities.

Internal sponsorship: create an internal sponsorship programme to support talented Black women’s career progression. This can be achieved through a formal process in conjunction with the HR department with a specific time frame and set of agreed outcomes.

Bespoke training: career progression training programmes should be provided for Black female academics to support them during preparation and submission of promotion applications. Black women are far less likely than their white female counterparts to have internal sponsors and are less likely to be connected to power networks in the institution.

Fair and transparent promotion: institutions and departments should be explicit about what their promotion processes involve and what they are looking for in different roles. Targets for recruiting black female academics should be set at institutional level and heads of departments should be asked to explain why, if they fail to meet these targets or when black female academics do not succeed in their applications.

Levelling the playing field is crucial to dismantling entrenched inequalities. Institutions must revisit the policies and practices that cement systemic barriers to the career advancement of Black women. The current structures in universities benefit white, middle-class men, who uphold the status quo. They are the gatekeepers and often show little effort to engage in the anti-racism initiatives that would close the degree-awarding gap and the ethnicity and gender pay gap. While this continues, the inequities around student retention, progression and graduate outcomes will remain dire for Black students and for Black female academics. Senior teams are so dominated by white men that it has become normalised and many see nothing wrong with the current structures, so it continues.

Jummy Okoya&nbsp;is senior lecturer in organisation behaviour and human resources at the University of East London (UEL)&nbsp;and chair of UEL’s Women’s Network &amp; Athena Swan Lead.

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Jummy Okoya outlines actions higher education institutions should take to encourage more Black women into academia and support their career progression

Hidden in plain sight: spotlighting invisible Black female academics 

My life is testament to the transformative power of education. Growing up in a resource-poor community in rural Zimbabwe, I almost missed my chance to go to school. Now I lead the organisation that supported my education, CAMFED, and I am a founding member of the CAMFED Association – the network of 178,000 women across Africa educated through the organisation’s programme and dedicated to turning the tide of poverty for the next generation. We are a powerful movement of female changemakers, showing what is possible when you unlock women’s leadership potential.Do unto students as they would have done to themA model for developing global expertise in blended learningHow to reach remote students with limited access to technologyWhat needs to be done to ensure girls can access and succeed in higher education?Higher education is a vital stepping stone to securing women’s economic independence and agency, yet just 8 per cent of women in sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled in tertiary education, decreasing to 1 per cent in countries like Malawi, according to Unesco Institute for Statistics data. How do we change the default settings that exclude so many women from this opportunity, and better pave the way for girls to access and succeed in higher education?Our experience provides insights into what works for some of the most marginalised girls in rural Africa. Take Enelesi, from Malawi. Enelesi grew up in a community like mine and was set to drop out of school; she is now an associate lecturer at Malawi University of Science and Technology. Her journey embodies not only the challenges vulnerable girls face but also the opportunities we have to rewrite the story.Securing girls’ right to secondary educationIn a context where secondary school is out of reach for too many girls, higher education becomes an impossible dream — with girls lacking the resources and qualifications, but also the aspiration to pursue further education.Girls need targeted material, financial and social support to meet their diverse challenges, so they can stay in school, succeed academically, and qualify for higher education in the first place. Enelesi’s parents struggled to afford food and school-going costs, and she would often go to school tired and hungry, which affected her academic performance. CAMFED stepped in, providing her with school supplies and paying her fees. She also benefitted from support from a trained guidance and counselling “Teacher Mentor”.Promoting pathways to higher educationAs girls complete secondary school, we need to help them identify and apply for tertiary opportunities, and provide career guidance, so they can set and achieve their goals. We must challenge gendered aspirations for girls, encouraging more women into STEM subjects. Relatable female role models are critical to helping girls to see what they can achieve. This can be through structured outreach by women who have completed higher education and launched successful business careers. Enelesi remembers the valuable encouragement she received from her Teacher Mentor and CAMFED women graduates. Now, Enelesi herself regularly visits local secondary schools, sharing her story and successes.We also need to raise awareness of the benefits of higher education – including the financial benefits that will accrue over the long term as women earn higher incomes – because, for low-income families struggling to support themselves, the “opportunity cost” may seem too great. Many girls feel immense pressure to earn money and support their families as soon as they complete secondary school. Recognising this, our association members run a transition programme through which peer mentors offer girls advice and practical support on their next steps, including support to manage family expectations.Supporting young women to thrive in higher educationThe need to support themselves financially at university makes young women vulnerable to exploitation, particularly through transactional relationships. They need access to financial resources to help meet the costs of higher education, including through loan and bursary programmes. Practical support with connectivity and access to technology to enable participation and learning is particularly critical as online and distance learning becomes more necessary and widespread. Training and capital for entrepreneurship can provide women with a safe form of income generation to support themselves alongside tertiary study; this is something we provide to school graduates through our Transition Programme.&nbsp;Many women from rural communities will struggle to cope with the “culture shock” of university life, as well as complicated feelings about the situation they have left behind at home. Enelesi notes that, at first, she felt isolated at university, among others from wealthier backgrounds who did not share her experience.Higher education institutions should make sure guidance and counselling services are available and actively promoted. They can also facilitate peer support networks, finding ways to connect students in similar situations, to build community and help provide coping strategies and motivation. Our association members at tertiary institutions form a ready network of peers, encouraging each other, and orienting new students into university life.From higher education to employmentFinally, graduates must secure – and be seen to secure – better jobs and economic security than they would otherwise have achieved. Institutions need to make sure that courses are relevant to industry needs and that graduates are effectively supported to secure employment, for example through work placements and careers services.Through her own dedication and the ongoing support Enelesi received at university, she graduated with a degree in Earth sciences and was one of only three students to be awarded a distinction, subsequently securing her a position as associate lecturer. Her dream is to run an engineering company, helping to strengthen Malawi’s earthquake mitigation measures and ultimately save lives.Enelesi’s story shows that change is possible. The right support at the right time increases the number of girls completing school and university and sets in motion a virtuous cycle – as we increase the number of visible female role models and promote tertiary education as a viable pathway for all, this will shift the default settings of aspiration for girls, with more accessing and succeeding in higher education. They will become a new generation of leaders and innovators, using their lived experience to make the world a better place for all of us.As we say in CAMFED, “Pamoja tunaweza”&nbsp;– Together we can!Angeline Murimirwa is executive director – Africa of the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) and a 2020 Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureate.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Angeline Murimirwa outlines the steps necessary to support young women from marginalised communities in sub-Saharan Africa into and through higher education

How to change the default settings that exclude women in sub-Saharan Africa from higher education

Women with disabilities in academia face “double the trouble of being a woman and disabled,” meaning their identities in two historically disadvantaged groups often leave them in particular positions of vulnerability within the ivory tower. Women academics have been further challenged by the pandemic. Only an estimated 1.5 per cent to four per cent of academics have disabilities, compared with about one quarter of the general population. Without role models, it is more difficult for women with disabilities to recognise career paths enabled by higher education. 


	Making online learning accessible for students with disabilities
	Intersectionality and why in 2022 inclusion must allow for multiple identities
	New norms in higher education that can help disabled students long-term


While larger institutional transformation – and the accompanying resources – is necessary to facilitate the long-term promotion and retention of disabled female academics in positions of power in universities on par with their non-disabled colleagues, there are several steps that individual allies can take to support students and mentees with disabilities. Inclusive mentoring and teaching strategies that help all students feel more welcome can be especially important to women with disabilities. 

Ask ‘What do you need to do your best work?’&nbsp;or ‘How can I help you succeed in this course?’

The reasonable adjustments (or accommodations, as it is called in the US) process is tedious and time-consuming at the best of times, and hostile and unwelcoming at the worst, so instructors and mentors can facilitate requests by trusting that students know what will enable their success. Sometimes this requires a bit of back-and-forth dialogue, because I’ve encountered students who are nervous about asking for too much. Women are less likely than men to negotiate, so encouraging women with disabilities to ask for what they need is a mentoring opportunity. Framing the question as enabling all mentees to do their best work, rather than compensating for deficiencies, will help students feel more confident. 

Include language about valuing accessibility in your syllabus and mentoring materials

The Duke Accessible Syllabus Project walks through concrete changes instructors can make to syllabi and course materials. In addition to these changes to increase accessibility, I like to signify to all students that I am open to additional suggestions with this statement: “If you think of other accommodations that would help facilitate your health and success in this course, please talk to me and we will work together. Here is a list of some ideas of possible accommodations that might help make class more accessible to get you started thinking.” 

Since making these changes, I have found that students have come to me to discuss how they can be successful in additional situations: working mothers have asked to attend class remotely for a week while they did not have daycare coverage; a woman with a learning disability asked for a few days’ extensions on quizzes, enabling her to absorb the course material better. These were easy adjustments for me to make and made my courses more accessible for my students.

Pay attention to access

Constantly being on the alert for access considerations, especially in new environments, is tiring and a huge drain on time and energy for anyone. This can be especially alienating to junior scholars. If you have tenure or high status in your profession, leveraging your privilege to be an ally on&nbsp;issues of accessibility at conferences can help support those hesitant to speak up. For example, will the childcare at the conference be physically accessible? What about lactation rooms? Support the option for online – or at least hybrid – conferences, which makes conference attendance much more accessible to women and people with disabilities, who may find it more difficult to travel. If you are a principal investigator setting up a new research group or involved in space redesign, you can advocate for accessible laboratory spaces.

Create community

Encourage an approach that views mentoring as a network model, where different needs are met by different people. If a mentee indicates an interest, try to connect her with mentors who also identify as disabled. I have included networks of disabled academics at the end of the article. On campus, if you identify as a woman or a disabled academic, you can start a faculty or student group to share experiences and provide peer mentoring. If you don’t identify as a woman or person with a disability, there are still steps you can take to build a sense of community and belonging. For example, you can include examples of women with disabilities in your classes – cite them not as heroic overcomers, but as everyday examples of academics. There are several sources for profiles of academics with disabilities, including The Mind Hears.

Disability is diversity. So is gender. The intersection deserves to be included as part of the conversation happening as our universities and colleges move forward to building more inclusive campuses. Engaging in even one of these steps – along with opportunities to be an ally in efforts for institutional change – will help the move in that direction. The rewards are plentiful. Not only will you get the opportunity to support a budding young scholar, but she may bring unique perspectives thanks to her identities.

Molly M. King is an assistant professor at Santa Clara University.

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Inclusive teaching and mentoring practices that support women with disabilities to succeed in higher education, while improving access for all students, shared by Molly M. King

Mentoring and teaching women with disabilities in universities

Universities’ efforts to work towards gender equality in research and teaching are often tied to the labour of individual faculty members. If and when those faculty members change institution, their work moves with them and the university risks losing the progress it has made. It is important, therefore, to institutionalise gender studies research and teaching within the systems of a university, so that administrations retain it as a priority and there is continuity of gender-informed teaching for the student body.Here are three suggestions about how to institutionalise gender studies that your university could implement.1. Start small and build upWhen thinking about big issues, like how your university can work towards gender equality, it is tempting to start from the top-down by creating a large-scale strategic plan or high-level committee. While these initiatives have their place, starting small and building momentum gradually can be more sustainable. This suggestion holds true in both research and teaching.Embedding gender equality: building momentum for changeWe must dismantle the invisible career barriers in&nbsp;HEWhat parents need to succeed in academia and how universities can helpStarting a gender studies reading group on campus can make a space for faculty members to meet each other and organically build research collaborations through slow and thoughtful engagement with each other’s ideas. Alongside a regular writing group where people can share their work informally, this kind of small-scale research collaboration brings in new colleagues and makes space for graduate students to get involved in gender studies work.In terms of teaching, try to use the expertise already present on campus. Rather than trying to start a major in gender studies consider starting a minor – at the American University of Beirut, our Women and Gender Studies minor requires the students to take any five courses in gender studies from across the university. This approach doesn’t tie us to any particular core courses, and means that students can take courses that count both towards their general education curriculum and their minor.2. Focus on teachingTeaching is one of the central missions of the university, and it is often forgotten about in large-scale strategic planning. One of the best ways to ensure continuity in research and outreach on gender&nbsp;is to focus on embedding it into teaching – once courses are on the books and students are committed to programmes, the university will continue to invest in work on gender, including in hiring.One way to invest in gender studies in teaching is to ensure that degree programme courses are taught through a gender lens. Can you work to ensure gender is embedded in the core curriculum for a range of degrees on campus? Courses like Introduction to Public Administration, Introduction to Statistics, and Labour Economics can be taught using feminist examples and the learning outcomes for the wider degrees such as Political Studies or Economics can then include understanding gender debates in the field.Once these required courses have been taught through a gender lens, there is the option to get new courses on the books. That could mean moving from an Introduction to Statistics course taught with examples on gender, to a Gender and Statistics course that runs every semester and can also contribute to the gender studies minor programme.Another way to invest in gender studies in teaching is to tie scholarship programmes and financial aid to students completing gender studies courses. Students should be able to take courses that&nbsp;bring in gender as a method of analysis and count towards their degree programmes. This requirement shouldn’t be a burden, but an opportunity for students to broaden their horizons. For example, a scholarship could fund a whole semester of courses for a student (15 credits) on the condition that they take three credits in gender studies. This incentivises departments to offer these courses.3. Think breadth as well as depthSustainability of gender studies research and teaching relies on there being many centres at the university that focus on gender rather than just one. Instead of investing time and money in a single research initiative or a single degree programme, consider having a central body that coordinates the range of work already being done at the institution.Ensure work in gender studies at your institution is embedded across all faculties, schools and departments, rather than having a concentration in one area such as the humanities. Having a range of research centres and different disciplinary approaches makes space for exciting collaborations, as well as ensuring a wide range of courses in gender studies for students to take. Also consider links to external organisations that are already doing work related to gender. NGOs, activist organisations, local community groups, and local event spaces may already have programming on gender and welcome support from faculty and students.Rather than having a major degree programme in gender studies, consider embedding gender studies in the core curriculum. At liberal arts institutions, all students have to take courses from the general education curriculum, so this is a great place to embed gender in a permanent way and reach all the students on campus. We have a new strand of the general education curriculum called “social inequalities”. All students have to take a course that fulfils this requirement, meaning all students will have to engage with critical work on social change.The measures I suggest here build things up slowly in incremental steps in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of gender studies research and teaching in university settings.Kathryn Maude is assistant professor of women and gender studies at the American University of Beirut.Kathryn will take part in the THE and UNESCO IESALC webinar "Gender equality in 2022: How global universities are performing” on 8 March 2022. Register for free to attend&nbsp;https://timeshighereducation.zoom.us/webinar/register/1616439759292/WN_dT2C5wYDTWOojK8RoUzhkgIf you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Strategies to ensure that gains in gender equality work at universities are not lost when the individual staff members driving them move on

Institutionalising gender equality work within a university

Many women do not take a linear path from high school to university, going from baccalaureate to master’s study and then PhD with no or little break. They take some time off after high school or, often, after their baccalaureate to have a family.

Concerns about missing out on having children push women to postpone or completely stop their studies to focus on parenting. Once the children are grown up enough, women may look at returning to university and completing their education.

Another influencing factor is women’s need for financial independence. The pandemic has increased the pressure on women to find secure employment amid great uncertainty. Their studies, therefore, often need to fit around full- or part-time jobs.


	High tech and high touch: designing a bridging system to help students prepare for STEM studies
	Only a digital drive will allow us to capture the boom in STEM interest
	Universities need to prepare for the mature student onslaught


In Canada, as other countries, the number of women entering science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and trades is slowly increasingly but challenges remain. And mature female students wanting to enrol in STEM subjects face added – often unexpected – barriers, which I&nbsp;explored in a 2019 report with co-author Heather VanVolkenburg, herself a mature biology student who returned to post-secondary education after having a family.

The key barriers to mature women in STEM

Huge variations exist in terms of entry requirements among universities and colleges in Canada – even more so around the globe. But initial barriers to mature women applying to university, particularly in STEM, include:

Admissions: it can be difficult navigating websites to find admission and entry requirements, which usually differ for mature students, thus limiting them in what they can apply for and whether they can be full- or part-time. Some programmes do not offer admission to mature students. Mature students are often advised to go part-time if they want to get scholarships as they would not qualify for full scholarships.

In class: once enrolled on a programme, being accepted by fellow classmates and academics is not always easy. In labs, young students tend to team up together, leaving out mature women, while some STEM instructors do not welcome mature women as they perceive them as taking places from younger students and not being as serious about their studies.

Outside class: financial pressures, childcare and flexibility of study hours present further challenges. Childcare is generally limited to daytime hours, and it is difficult to find care for early-morning or evening classes. Financial support is limited for mature students in most universities, and mature women may struggle to access summer employment if they cannot easily relocate. In addition, several federal and provincial programmes set an age limit for their applicants.

Potential solutions to welcome women of all ages into STEM

Higher education institutions can – and should – take steps to reduce these barriers and encourage more mature women in STEM, particularly while most countries face an ongoing skills shortage in these specialisms. For example, some UK universities took steps to make courses more flexible for learners, diversifying communications about student life and providing financial advice, when they realised that more than 28&nbsp;per cent of their undergraduate students were mature.

How to apply: application information for mature students needs to be easy to find and clearly and prominently displayed on institutional websites. Too often it is buried behind information for their younger peers, creating an immediate sense of discouragement. There should also be a realistic assessment of the costs of student life, with readily available advice on how to finance studies.

Broaden admissions criteria: admissions requirements should look at achievements and experience that sit outside previous academic grades, especially when high school is several years ago. They should consider past professional and lived experiences and the potential and capacity of the person to attend and flourish in a programme. In some cases, the possibility to accept them with a levelling course may be welcomed to prepare them for higher education.

Class accessibility: to ensure greater accessibility to courses, institutions can enable students to attend classes in-person or online, or a combination of the two. This added flexibility would make it much easier for mature students with other responsibilities and time demands, such as single parents or those with jobs, to attend. Lecture notes should be made available through the virtual learning environment and preparatory material provided before the start of the semester, to help with catching-up or levelling-up.

Challenge misconceptions: a common mistake is to assume that mature female students have enrolled on a course to simply “fill their time”, like a hobby. In fact, my experience working with mature women in my lab suggests that they are among the most effective and diligent students, in both their classes and their research. Institutions should ensure that faculty and staff have sufficient equity, diversity and inclusion training, particularly in unconscious bias, to prevent such misconceptions being perpetuated.

Support mature student needs: most activities on campus are organised by clubs and societies dominated by younger students. They are, therefore, shaped by what that demographic wants, such as pub crawls. Institutions should support mature students to pursue other priorities such as mentors and different modes of socialising. All institutions should have a Mature Student Society.

Proactive steps create inclusive classes: in labs, young students tend to exclude mature women from their groups for fear they will not contribute as much, as well as feeling less ease and relatability than with their same age peers. EDI training should not be limited to faculty and staff. To bring about cultural change across a university, all students need EDI training, covering indigenous and international cultural issues as well as gender and race. Such learning is for life and will serve students well in their future careers.

Help with childcare: day care remains a huge challenge for women, especially single parents, interested to pursuing higher education. While in Canada, the federal programme of day care may help support in terms of costs (except in Ontario), availability is an issue. Day care centres often have limited operating hours, such as 8:30am to 5pm. This leaves the students with courses that fall outside those hours struggling to find solutions – a barrier that eliminates many single women. Solutions exist in several European countries where universities have alternative types of after-hours day care to allow attendance in the evenings. This could be replicated elsewhere.

Beyond the campus: changes need to go beyond institutions’ walls. For example, many provincial and federal summer employment programmes limit the age for enrolment to 30 to 35 years old. This eliminates many mature women who would benefit from and most likely want to gain such work experience. Some are now accepting mature students due to exceptional circumstances, but this remains rare.

Removing the age limits on courses and placements would give an opportunity for mature women – and increasingly men – to continue their education and re-engage with STEM subjects and professions. Age should not be a limiting factor for learning, especially when we talk about STEM labour shortage. It is time to widen the potential talent pool.

Liette Vasseur is the UNESCO chair in community sustainability: from local to global at Brock University.

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Supporting mature women to study STEM

Mature female students face barriers to success in STEM subjects, but steps can be taken to address this. Liette Vasseur explains what needs to be done

How to support women of all ages in post-secondary science education

The challenges for parents working in higher education are many and they are not new. And while both men and women can and do take on primary care responsibility for children, research demonstrates that – on average – mothers continue to do the lion’s share of domestic labour and childcare, whether in a heterosexual partnership or as a single parent. It is thus mothers who are disproportionately affected by difficulties associated with being a working parent, outlined below, and who would benefit most from greater support.Identified through my own experience, and in discussion with parent-colleagues in the Women in Academia Support Network, the key issues are:availability and cost of childcaredisruption to childcarereturning to work following parental leavecompeting demands on time.All are often addressed in applications to Athena Swan, the well-established higher education award for gender equality in the workplace. However, approaches to meeting these needs are localised and the extent to which universities as employers support staff varies considerably. These challenges are not insurmountable, so this discussion includes recommendations for how universities can better support staff with children.Read more: How to factor family into higher educationHow to achieve equity in higher educationEmbedding gender equality: building momentum for change1. Availability and cost of childcareBy far the most frequently cited concern among staff parents is the incongruity between the hours they were timetabled to work and the hours that childcare is available. This problem is particularly acute for staff who don’t live close to work and need to factor in commute time.Teaching hours are often cited as problematic, as are staff or committee meetings that are timetabled outside core hours (usually 10am to 3pm). Covid has exacerbated this issue as many childcare facilities still operate on truncated timetables, while some universities have extended their working days to facilitate social distancing and rigorous campus cleaning.The cost of childcare is particularly problematic for those working on part-time or hourly paid contracts, whose timetabled work varies week on week. Availability and cost of childcare is likely to remain a major issue for parents in the foreseeable future.Examples of ways to support university staff with childrenMothers greatly value university timetabling systems that take childcare needs into consideration and schedule staff teaching accordingly.Departmental guidelines requiring that meetings be timetabled in core hours are greatly valued.On-site nurseries are helpful to a lot of working parents, although here it is particularly important that opening hours reflect the university timetable, in terms of mirroring the working day and providing care during vacations when staff continue to work.Universities might also take greater heed of school holiday dates and, where possible, ensuring university vacations and reading weeks match school holidays.Those on part-time contracts need regularity of working days to allow them to tailor their childcare.Provision of on-site holiday clubs – or subsidies for outside providers using university facilities for holiday clubs – is likely to facilitate parents’ work outside school term time.2. Disruption to childcareEven the most reliable childcare arrangements are vulnerable to disruption without notice – your child may be ill and unable to attend or an unforeseen event, such as a broken boiler, closes the childcare service. Covid has increased the likelihood of disruption. Last-minute disruption to carefully planned childcare arrangements can be a nightmare for working parents; they don’t want to let colleagues or students down by also cancelling last minute.Departments can support parents by:Allowing unlimited sick leave to care for ill dependents.Allowing paid short-term parental leave for those unable to work while caring for dependents during disruption to childcare.Facilitating online working for staff who can work at home when childcare is unavailable.Funding teaching cover when staff are unable to attend teaching events due to disruption to childcare.3. Return from parental leaveWhile both fathers and mothers have the legal right to take parental leave in the UK, the vast majority of this leave continues to be taken by mothers. However much a mother loves her job, the return to work after the birth of a baby can be tricky. It’s unlikely that the new mother is getting a full night’s sleep, breast- or chestfeeding and baby admin may be draining, and the infant may not eagerly fall into a changed routine with a childcare provider.How to make the transition back to work easier (as suggested by colleagues)Specific funding pots at universities such as Lancaster and Reading provide a grant that those returning from parental leave can apply for, to fund equipment, research support or training that might assist them. For example, funding for research assistants for returning parents would be a huge support.Some universities, such as Plymouth, allow new parents to use accrued annual leave to do a phased return to work, working part-time for an initial period.Allowing returning academic staff study leave in the term after they return gives parents far more flexibility than they might have in a normal teaching timetable.Parents who are breast- or chestfeeding are entitled by law to regular breaks and somewhere comfortable and secure to pump. These spaces on campus should be easy to access and close to parents’ offices to avoid wasting time with long walks to a different location, and provide refrigerated storage for pumped milk.4. Competing demands on timeParenting isn’t just about ensuring children are safe and fed; parenting comes with a variety of highs and lows that require time and attention beyond ensuring your child makes it to the school gate. Competitions, performances, prize-giving events or meetings with teachers to discuss your child’s progress or behaviour can’t always be fitted around a working day. Unsupportive working environments can make these parenting responsibilities feel like yet another obstacle to overcome in a busy week.Our respondents noted that parents value a flexible working culture that allows guilt-free breaks during regular working hours that can be made up at other times.Parenting support networks can provide an effective mechanism – through a collective voice and collective action – for facilitating improvements for working parents. Where these networks exist, universities can offer support by providing workload hours for those running and contributing to the networks, and resources to facilitate their work on campus.Nadia von Benzon is a lecturer in human geography at Lancaster University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

What parents need to succeed in academia

From working hours that fit in with childcare to a place to pump, Nadia von Benzon explains how universities can support staff who are parents

What parents need to succeed in academia and how universities can help

In the three decades that followed 1980, incremental improvements in relation to gender equality at Trinity College Dublin were painfully slow. But in 2011, European Union funding was secured for a project aimed at achieving gender equality in research. This four-year project, Institutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research (INTEGER), brought together a focused partnership of institutions with a shared commitment to improving the career progression of female science researchers. The sustainable transformational change was supported by the sharing experience, tools and learning through guidelines, case studies, role models, publications, public speaking and other forms of dissemination.Boosting female representation in STEM is crucial to global innovationIntersectionality and why in 2022 inclusion must allow for multiple identitiesWe must dismantle the invisible career barriers in&nbsp;HEINTEGER led to the Gender Equality Plan (GEP), focusing on four strategic areas:empowerment of leadership and decision-makersreview of policies, procedures and organisational practices that also shape the university’s culturecareer progression and visibility among women academicswork-life balance.Gender disaggregated data, analysis and monitoring were at the core of the Gender Equality Plan, driving the prioritised actions. This, in turn, has resulted in broader and more ambitious gender equality projects showing that, in incremental stages, one can build momentum for change. Here are the key lessons we have learned, so far, during this 10-year process:Change has to start at the top: The election of a new provost, also in 2011, helped pave the way for a more receptive environment that encouraged the provision of unconscious bias awareness training for senior decision-makers, fellows and promotion committees. This coincided with a notable increase in the number of women in decision-making roles, such as college officers and faculty deans. Unconscious bias awareness remains important to challenging attitudes and norms of behaviour. The university has extended this training through workshops for unconscious bias observers who are engaged in recruitment.Identify where action is needed: At an institutional level, the action plan involved examining the gender composition of university governance – the board and council, college officers, deans, heads of school and membership of university committees. This demonstrated where the gender deficits were and how new appointments could alter it. An objective was then set to ensure that college committee representation should not exceed 60&nbsp;per cent for any gender. Within 10&nbsp;years, this was achieved. In 2021, Trinity College Dublin elected its first woman provost since its founding in 1592. Looking back to 1984, when just 5&nbsp;per cent of chaired professors and 4&nbsp;per cent of fellows were women, this marks a major step forward.A focused action plan for gender equality: Once you have identified where key issues lie, you can focus efforts for the greatest impact and efficiency. Actions of fundamental importance to achieving our goal were:examining the recruitment and promotion processesmonitoring the outcomes, annually, of new appointments and promotion callsannual monitoring, by gender, of applicants, interviewees and appointments or promotionsencouraging science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) schools to diversify their selection of external examiners and guest speakers to better reflect the gender composition of the academic communityengaging women academics in “Soapbox Science” promotion and featuring them in videos capturing what it means to be a scientific researcher, mindful of their influence on the next generation.Invite mass involvement and participation: Encourage greater buy-in by ensuring that everyone benefits from gender equality work. Gender Equality Plan actions were designed and implemented by INTEGER self-assessment teams with membership from all genders. Staff of all genders were invited to INTEGER events, which included promotion workshops, European Research Council funding masterclasses, talks on demystifying fellowship and the h-index as a measurement of research publications’ impact.Link with existing gender equality projects: We encourage female staff to get involved in AdvanceHE’s Aurora leadership development initiative, which seeks to address under-representation of women in senior roles. Now entering its second decade in Irish higher education institutions, Aurora works with female academics and university staff to develop and explore issues relating to leadership roles and responsibilities.Collaborate beyond your campus: Inter-university collaborations provide opportunities for exchange of experience and best practice. We did this via institutional peer review site visits and by inviting speakers from institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan and Columbia universities in the US;&nbsp;Tromsø and Lund universities in Norway and Sweden, respectively. In the UK, we engaged with institutions recognised by Athena SWAN – the well-established higher education award for gender equality in the workplace – including Edinburgh, Queen’s University Belfast, York, Cardiff, UCL and Imperial College London.INTEGER project partners collaborated in identifying good practices to promote gender equality. The overarching questions we sought to resolve were – what works, and could it work for our institution? Finally, there were links established with the sister EU projects Female Empowerment in Science and Technology Academia (FESTA) and GENOVATE (Transforming Organisational Culture for Gender Equality in Research and Innovation).Build on your knowledge and experience: Through urgent and delicate negotiations, in 2015 we saw the extension of the UK Athena SWAN Charter into Irish higher education. This ensured that gains from the EU gender equality projects would not be rolled back, but would lead to continuous improvements. Lessons from INTEGER were used to shape the EU Horizon 2020 Systemic Action for Gender Equality (SAGE) Project 2016 to 2019, and build on previous good work. Coordinated by Trinity College Dublin, SAGE focused on the following vital components to drive change:Gender disaggregated statistics for data-driven actionsMainstreamed, coordinated Athena SWAN gender equality plans at institutional and school levelsBuy-in, from the top down led and bottom-up drivenINTEGER (now Athena SWAN) self-assessment teams now in place in all 24 university schools, across all three faculties, to draw up and implement their Gender Equality PlansIncentives such as a core hours policy limiting meetings to between 10am and 4pmInvolvement by all genders as champions, Athena SWAN self-assessment team members and chairsUnconscious bias awareness trainingCommunicate successes via all effective channels, such as Twitter, your institutional website and videosMuch has been achieved, assisted by EU funding, to enable our institution to meet gender equality challenges. For example, the “grade&nbsp;A” professoriate achieved 33&nbsp;per cent female representation in 2022. However, with the internationalisation of higher education in Ireland, the university needs to adopt an intersectional approach that takes account of the interplay of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity and orientation, age, disability, family status and other potential grounds for discrimination. An ongoing challenge will be to ensure a sharp focus on gender in the context of promoting broader equality, diversity and inclusion issues.Eileen Drew is fellow emeritus and director of the Trinity Centre for Gender Equality and Leadership (TCGEL) at Trinity College Dublin.INTEGER partners were the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, Trinity College Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, Siauliai University Centre for Gender in Lithuania, and the Centre of Excellence Women and Science in Germany.Dr. Drew will take part in the THE and UNESCO IESALC webinar "Gender equality in 2022: How global universities are performing” on 8 March 2022. Register for free to attend.&nbsp;If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE&nbsp;Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Eileen Drew explains how positive leadership, data-informed actions and priorities, mass engagement and collaboration all feed into a successful gender equality initiative

Embedding gender equality: building momentum for change

Mary-Ann Russon, a BBC technology of business reporter recently asked:&nbsp;“What can we do to get more women into coding?”&nbsp;My answer is “lots”, but if you work in the tech industry, you might not want to hear it.

I’ve been programming and teaching it most of my life. The demands of conceptualising problems, finding solutions, crafting symbols a computer can execute, then testing and making that usable by another human are generally underestimated. What we call “coding” is one somewhat overrated part of a larger skillset that takes 10 to 20 years to master.

The highest attainment is purpose, not just knowing what you’re doing but why you’re doing it. Sadly, the word&nbsp;“hacker”, once preferred by internet founders, is damaged by misuse. Its friendlier replacement “coding” omits the playful, curious, creative, interpersonal and moral aspects&nbsp; of our work, and so obscures a grander socio-political reality.

So what is coding? Is it science? Engineering? As a computer scientist and electronic engineer with deep roots in physics and maths, I can assure you it’s really neither. But don’t take my word for it. Revered computer scientist Donald Knuth titled his lifelong work, an impeccable grimoire of algorithms before which all mortal computer scientists bow,&nbsp;The&nbsp;Art&nbsp;of Computer Programming – note the word “art”. Meanwhile, two of the greatest instructors of code, Hal Abelson and Gerald Sussman, tell us that programming is a form of “creative magic”.


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Those who’ve read Ada Lovelace know that she, like her older contemporary Mary Shelley, was a century ahead of the bean counters in apprehending technology. Is anyone, whatever their gender identification, not intrigued by creative magic? 

Elizabeth Tweedale, co-author of the Kids Get Coding series of books,&nbsp;believes “men and women often have different learning styles…men often follow a linear approach of going from A to Z when solving problems, while women often start from the problem and work backwards”. Indeed, the latter is how all good computer programmers should work. If&nbsp;brain differences&nbsp;were significant, they would give women a clear advantage in creative coding. So what went wrong that we now talk of tech as “male-dominated STEM”?

The issue is nuanced. For a start, what is being “sold” to women here? Several commentators advise teaching Python (a common commercial computer language) to women because “there are jobs” and they often require it. That’s bad faith. It’s selling the industry, not programming. They are not the same thing. 

Conflating the art of programming with tech-industry careers makes for bad teaching. When learning to code, understanding trumps application, especially in a fast-changing world. Healthy intellectual growth connects imagination and emotion, so it’s a mistake to desecrate the learning setting with premature “skill-building”.

Coding is only as engaging (or dull) as the courses we design and the goals to which it is directed. Courses that tick boxes “set by industry” in pursuit of “getting a career in tech” dodge a moral crisis in our age. The tech industry itself has lost its ethical direction yet continues to recruit universities as not only subsidised skills camps but as ideological grooming grounds at a time when young people are wisely more sceptical. 

According to the BBC article, we should offer “exciting prizes like money or internships with tech giants”. Seriously, if my child shows any talent for coding, I’ll try to steer her well clear of toxic workplaces steeped in the values of surveillance and manipulation. The industry may paint women as “bad programmers” for not being performant but, on the contrary, it’s to their credit if women baulk at becoming “tech bros” with a laddish bent to&nbsp;“move fast and break things”. 

Tweedale may be correct that brain differences play a part, but for the wrong reasons. In my opinion, we do not offer sufficiently humane motives to engage the level of intelligence that women bring. Prevalence of women programmers won’t be improved by “environments and user interfaces to draw women in”, as Tweedale hopes. That unfairly puts the onus on supposed gender differences, not to mention that it’s immensely patronising when “softer” interfaces – supposedly better suited to women’s brains – are proffered as substitutes for “real coding”.

Not to set up any binary identity as a great hope, or imply that women are never sociopaths, but maybe one reason “women don’t go into tech” is that its values are so depressing. Surveillance capitalism is a debasement of the art and science of computing that mocks the genius of so many visionaries who strove for liberating and humane technology. Conning people out of their money, personal data, autonomy and dignity should be beneath us. I think that if Ada Lovelace were alive to see Google and Facebook, she’d throw herself under a train.

So, if women don’t want in, I applaud their wisdom. It’s time women said to the tech industry: “It’s not me, it’s you.” To get more women into code, let’s change what coding&nbsp;is for. Code is both an expression of, and a way to change, the values of society – something women have played a dominant role in for millennia. 

And universities can help. We must re-humanise coding and put the mutuality&nbsp;and&nbsp;care back into it. Confusing the delightful, mind-expanding and still wide-open art of computer programming with rather dull “careers in coding” won’t do. Let’s find more universally human examples, metaphors and case studies to motivate learning. Let’s replace the tired canon of e-commerce, social media and big data mining with fresh, vibrant problems from music, art, sports, medicine and nature conservation.&nbsp; &nbsp;

For example, teaching face-recognition falsely implies a consensus of people in computing endorse the values of industrial surveillance. The same knowledge can be better explored through algorithms to detect cancer in medical scans. And in the absence of firm evidence of how gendered biological brain differences affect learning styles let’s stop carving out special interpretations of “code for women” – it’s patronising and unhelpful.&nbsp; 

A challenge facing all governments, universities and society in general today is the dominance of big tech. One solution is not to split up monopolies, adding more heads to the hydra, but to fund radical alternatives that will naturally displace Google, Microsoft and Facebook, changing the very nature of tech. Right now, women with a disaffected attitude to established tech may be our saving grace. Instead of trying to make women more like incumbent Silicon Valley apex predators, isn’t it time we changed the values of tech and gave them a foothold to reclaim it for a better society? 

Andy Farnell is a British computer scientist specialising in signals and systems. He is a prolific speaker, visiting professor, consultant, ethical hacker,&nbsp;author&nbsp;and lifelong advocate for digital rights. He is teaching cybersecurity while writing a new book,&nbsp;Ethics for Hackers.

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It’s time women said to the tech industry: ‘It’s not me, it’s you.’ And universities can help by not confusing the art of computer programming with rather dull ‘careers in coding’

How do we get more women into coding? Fix how it’s taught and used

In 2021, not a single Nobel winner in the scientific categories was female despite us all benefiting from the work of many brilliant women scientists. Women make up less than a quarter of the STEM workforce and, in the UK, just 16 per cent of engineering graduates. While progress has been made, these facts serve as a stark reminder of the need to do more to boost gender diversity in science and engineering.Addressing this disparity isn’t just a question of striving for a fairer society. It’s also fundamental to giving the scientific community the best possible chance of finding solutions to complex challenges that affect us all. If we don’t encourage women scientists, or fail to give them the support, tools, funding and environments they need to flourish, we will severely limit our ability to tackle global issues such as the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.Imagine the global Covid-19 response without Sarah Gilbert’s discovery of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine or Katalin Karikó’s invention of the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. There would arguably be no end in sight to the pandemic; no hope of returning to normality. Other members of the scientific community would have stepped forward, but this scenario illustrates a fundamental point: as a global society and economy, we cannot afford to lock out female talent.Only a digital drive will allow us to capture the boom in STEM interestHow a flipped classroom model improves learning in online STEM coursesTop tips to improve the teaching of mathematics in universitiesThere are two major steps we need to take to boost female representation. The first is structural, embedding mentoring programmes within educational institutions to ensure that nurturing and supporting female scientists is a strategic priority. The second is cultural, giving appropriate recognition to women responsible for scientific breakthroughs and establishing them as role models to inspire and energise others.Building inclusive environments&nbsp;Boosting female representation in STEM should be a priority. University faculty and administrators need to ensure that gender diversity within STEM is a strategic priority for their institution.Like any serious approach to change management, this must begin with the setting of defined objectives at the beginning of the academic year related to female representation and performance. These goals should exist to positively challenge and energise staff in identifying promising female students and prioritising support for them in reaching their potential.Removing bias from the application process must be a first step. Universities should consider relevant training for admissions officers and consider tactics such as “name blind” applications to ensure that unconscious biases aren’t allowed to influence selection for STEM majors and careers.For universities, mentoring and training programmes, as well as community outreach aimed specifically at young women, have huge significance. This could involve respected academics becoming trusted advisers to exceptional female students and connecting them with opportunities to practise STEM skills. We must find ways to encourage more women to participate in challenging science courses and give them the confidence and know-how to flourish.Universities can also develop formal relationships with local schools. This could involve academic researchers delivering career talks in assemblies, giving students regular exposure to mentors and state-of-the-art facilities or collaborating with organisations such as the British Science Association to boost STEM engagement through forums, events and open days.There must also be appropriate recognition of female scientific achievement within higher education. &nbsp;At an everyday level, regular praise from faculty and administrators and championing even small wins can be extremely powerful in encouraging greater interest and future success. This alone can provide female students with the impetus to explore and engage further.Yet while educational institutions serve a critical role in motivating and encouraging female scientists, there is only so much they can do.We need broader cultural change to ensure that these young women witness the power of scientific endeavour and realise they have an opportunity to play a pivotal role in solving complex local and global challenges.Celebrating female role models&nbsp;Throughout the myriad challenges of the past two years, we have also fundamentally changed how the public views innovation. The media profile of epidemiologists has reached new heights, while the discovery of vaccines – and the unique step-by-step development journey people have been privy to – has illustrated how science can touch every one of our lives.Sarah Gilbert received widespread media coverage for her work on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and it’s almost impossible to imagine just how many millions of young women around the world will have been inspired by her work.But we can’t stop there. We must build on this momentum to capitalise on growing public interest in science by ensuring female scientists receive the praise and platform they deserve – especially as we reach the latter stages of the pandemic and media interest begins to wane. We can’t afford to default to a position where female scientific genius is only recognised within academic circles.Awards – at global and local levels – have an unrivalled role to play in celebrating achievement and establishing the status of future role models. It is for this very reason I agreed to be part of the judging panel for the VinFuture Prize Foundation, a global awards programme set up in Vietnam last year, which pledges $4.5m annually to reward breakthrough scientific research and innovation that is improving lives around the world. I’m delighted that Katalin Karikó has just been awarded the grand prize at the inaugural ceremony.Through its Special Prize for Women, the foundation is playing its part in helping revolutionise the way we value, reward and recognise female scientists. This year’s winner, Zhenan Bao, has been recognised for her groundbreaking work on developing flexible electronics with the sensing properties of human skin. This has huge real-world potential to revolutionise medical diagnosis and smart healthcare when applied to wearable and implantable devices, enhancing quality of life.By celebrating her extraordinary achievement, we can continue to inspire and energise millions of young female scientists within the field of electronics and STEM more broadly.Every one of these initiatives will provide a much-needed step forward. If we remain on this path and accelerate our efforts, we can create more opportunities to support talented young women as they take on STEM challenges and make positive change in the world.Jennifer Tour Chayes is associate provost of the division of computing, data science and society, and dean of the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. She has received numerous awards for both leadership and scientific contributions, including the 2016 John von Neumann Prize of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, widely recognised as the world’s top honour in applied mathematics and one that has only been awarded to six women in its more than 60-year history.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Boosting female presence in STEM is crucial to innovation 

Addressing the gender disparity in STEM isn’t just a question of striving for a fairer society, it’s also fundamental to solving the complex challenges that affect us all

Boosting female representation in STEM is crucial to global innovation

Addressing taboo or difficult subjects can be challenging in higher education, yet without open dialogue, and student and staff participation, we cannot change the inequalities that affect our university community. Through collective action, we can create an inclusive environment where openness and understanding replace stigma and shame. 

Edinburgh Napier’s student-led collective tackling period poverty and menstrual shame, Bleedin’ Saor (saor is Gaelic for “free”), was launched in response to the Scottish government’s pledge to provide free access to menstrual products for all in education. This move was universally welcome but did not address how these products were made available, product sustainability, period poverty or, vitally, menstrual shame.

Of course, government initiatives are not the only indicators of where you can make a difference. Other experiences that can cause students to feel isolated and unheard include economic hardship, gender inequalities, racial prejudice and stereotyping. Look at current affairs and your wider community and use simple observation to identify what makes topics taboo in the first place as well as the root causes of stigma and shame.

How to create an open atmosphere where taboo topics can be addressed

In order to talk about difficult subjects, such as menstruation, sexual health or body image, everyone must be able to participate in a way they feel comfortable. This means all students (including remote, part-time and international), staff, the local community and industry bodies. Sometimes a lack of understanding around an issue stems from a generational, economic or gender divide. In the case of Bleedin’ Saor, it was important to remember that not all women menstruate and not all people who menstruate are women. 

Here are the pillars we use to ensure this happens:


	Educate: To demystify taboo topics, create resources that are accessible to all. Make content available in more than one format, across multiple platforms and through internal communication networks. This might be a website, digital documents, films or podcasts. 
	Student led: Addressing difficult topics gives students essential communication skills and the university gains fresh ideas and perspectives. Student-led collectives, interdisciplinary projects and collaborative work placements are great forums to tackle taboo subjects. Work with external organisations to coordinate active-learning experiences and embed these in the curriculum. 
	Be bold: Develop activities and events that make people stop and think. Our goals for the first university Bloody Big Brunch were to collect period product donations and to end the silence around menstruation in a bold and fun way. The events included period-themed food and drinks, photo booths, live music and educational demonstrations. 
	Collaborate: The more, the merrier – involve community groups, charities, businesses and international organisations. When we established Bleedin’ Saor in 2019, our first step was to find meaningful ways to collaborate with organisations working in the menstrual movement. Our project partners Hey Girls provided mentorship and design challenges and we involved many contributors in the production of our documentary, Bleeding Free. 


Starting the conversation is often the hardest part 

It’s not easy to broach taboo or uncomfortable subjects, but you can get people talking through: 


	Consultation:&nbsp;You can learn a lot from what other groups are doing. Talk to students, staff, the community and stakeholders. Attend conferences and events or engage on social media. Use student societies to involve students. Sometimes there is a danger that organisations working to tackle social issues may see others in the field as competitors, but collaboration and an open mind can break down barriers.&nbsp; &nbsp;
	Humour: Yes, humour. It can address challenging topics sensitively and without alienating anyone. As part of our Bleedin’ Saor social media campaign to get our message across, we used wordplay such as “stop ovary acting”, “it’s just blood” and “don’t let your period cramp your style”. 
	What’s in a name? A name can express your goals and ethos in an immediate and memorable way. Bleedin’ Saor, for example, communicated our belief that period products should be free for all while also making our Scottish identity clear. The look and feel of your logo, branding, content and events have a massive impact. Take branding seriously and involve students in the decision-making. Make sure you don’t infringe upon existing names or logos and are inclusive in your language and graphic styles. Our Bleeding Free educational booklet was designed to support young people early on in their menstrual journey, so we used simple, clear language as well as bold visuals. 


How to instigate positive change

Practical steps you can take to enable difficult topics to be addressed include:


	Embed taboo topics and social challenges in the curriculum:&nbsp;Are there group or interdisciplinary projects or work-based learning modules to address these topics where students can collaborate? 
	Find funding:&nbsp;We were able to access government, learning and teaching, and mobility funding to support our project. 
	Engage university staff: We created Period Blether (blether translates as “chat”), a blog where contributors talk about their experiences of menstruation. We invited staff to contribute as well as students, so we led by example in breaking down barriers. 
	Social media and digital content:&nbsp;Use polls to gather opinion, promote your events and encourage change in a visually engaging way.
	Document your project: Storytelling is a powerful tool in breaking down barriers. Document your journey through film, images, blogs and articles. Bleeding Free has been screened at film festivals, conferences and educational institutions across the world. This has led to our campaign for menstrual dignity going global and breaking down barriers internationally. 


Lindsay Morgan is placement officer for the School of Arts &amp; Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University and co-producer of Bleeding Free.

The Bleedin’ Saor initiative was shortlisted for Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at&nbsp;the&nbsp;THE Awards 2021. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be&nbsp;found here&nbsp;and the winners are here.

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Women in higher education

Hidden in plain sight: spotlighting invisible Black female academics

How to change the default settings that exclude women in sub-Saharan Africa from higher education

Mentoring and teaching women with disabilities in universities

Institutionalising gender equality work within a university

How to support women of all ages in post-secondary science education

What parents need to succeed in academia and how universities can help

Embedding gender equality: building momentum for change

How do we get more women into coding? Fix how it’s taught and used

Boosting female representation in STEM is crucial to global innovation

Talking about taboos: how to create an open atmosphere for discussing difficult subjects

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