The Athena SWAN charter was established in 2005 by the Equality Charity Unit, a UK charity, to try to rectify the problem in academia. To achieve an award, departments or institutions must thoroughly analyse their own gender composition, and reflect on why it is as it is. I will admit that I was initially an Athena SWAN sceptic. In the December of 2015, however, I was asked to lead the renewal of my own Division’s Athena SWAN Silver award. It’s too soon to know if Athena SWAN can bring real gender parity into the academic sciences.

Source: The Guardian October 11, 2016 07:30 UTC