Athena SWAN equality charter could cover ethnicity and disability

"Professionalising assessment panels, and thus relying on a smaller pool of experts rather than a wide group of volunteers, is one idea being explored." A great idea IF it leads to consistency without personal biases or agendas being set that dilute the value, the potential for 'professionals' SWANning around behaving like seagull parents causing mayhem then flying off leaving decimation in their wake would need to be guarded against. "The length of time an award is held could be increased, with one suggestion that bronze awards could last for four years, silver for five or six, and gold for seven." NO, it takes constant attention to maintain an achieved standard, too easy to ignore things until the next assessment, then it becomes a huge mountain to climb all over again. "Other changes being considered include looking beyond academic departments to assess the treatment of “all staff in the university” and exploring how to evaluate the “culture” of an institution overall." This is a good idea, especially with collegiate working across departments, the corrosive effects poor core central (mis)management can have on ALL staff's lives, even those in 'GOLD' departments has been ignored for too long.

Drop all of the labels and focus on equality per se. There is inequality and discrimination within genders as well as between them. Will the focus become winning the Athena Swan prize as a marketing tool rather than making an environment better for everybody ? Presumably it will result in metrics driving behaviour just like the league table rankings.

Equality is not a box-ticking exercise, it occurs when everyone makes decisions based on merit alone without reference to gender, ethnicity, disability, or other characteristics that are irrelevant to the job we are trying to do. Preening yourself over an award says nothing, 'equality' is something we do, not something we have been given an award for doing. Is Athena SWANN mere virtue-signalling? If so, it should be ditched, or at least subjected to a cost-benefit analysis. Continuing to focus on 'gender' (or any other characteristic) perpetuates differences, highlights some people as being 'other' from the rest of us. This is why I won't fill out any of those questionnaires on such characteristics.

There is already an existing framework within the UK for equality and that is the Public Sector Equality Duty and associated Specific Duties. In Scotland there are heavy reporting requirements, through the Specific Duties, including progress reports on ALL the protected groups. The EHRC have responsibility for auditing these and ensuring compliance. Athena SWAN and the various charters are in danger of creating a confused landscape, where statutory responsibility gets hidden and is less valued because it doesn't provide a charter award. I too am concerned about the cost to Universities of completing charters while at the same time expecting statutory duties to be met and reported on. In reality the issues being identified by Advance HE in their proposal are already being identified through Equality Outcome Action Plans and are being tackled, often without money being thrown at it. Whether successfully or not is a different argument. I also agree with the point about tweaking around the edges. At the very least we should acknowledge that each part of the UK has a different legal requirement in relation to diversity and it is only through a full and thorough review that these,and other different aspects of the diversity landscape, can be taken cognisance of.

In Australia we already include 'Indigenous' as an area of reporting in the Athena Swan application. It needs further thinking and development. The overlap (dare i say, intersection) between ethnicity and gender needs careful consideration.

Is this just another flavour of the month scheme that is designed to tick the politically correct boxes and in turn creates a lot of administrative work, is empire building. Why not go back to the basics? Do everything to ensure dignity and respect for all employees, students and stakeholders built on the principles of equality and diversity.