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As part of the EDI annual report 2022-23, the University of Sunderland show how they have supported gender equality.
In September we saw our 2021/2022 cohort of Aurora participants celebrate at the Fire Station in Sunderland. Aurora is the Advance Higher Education leadership development programme. The programme supports women at all stages of their careers and focuses on leadership success, identity, impact and voice, politics and influence and adaptive leadership skills.
We teamed up with Hope Street Exchange and The Office Rocks to celebrate International Women's Day. On the 8 March, following a welcome reception, we showcased some amazing guest speakers and panel members from the region, including Sophie Milliken MBE, CEO & Founder at Moja Group, Kylie Dixon, Author & Founder of The Northern Lass Lounge and Claire Goodliff and Debra De Luen, Founders of Amazing Jane Activewear.
We used internal comms to raise awareness of the varying rates of diagnoses between sexes and how it can be easier for women to 'mask' their symptoms.
We used internal comms to raise awareness of male suicide, health, fatherhood and custody to encourage our staff to talk about their problems.
Our Menopause Staff Network has done lots of work this year to raise awareness. We celebrated World Menopause Day and ran sessions covering topics such as the menopause and nutrition.
We've made a conscious effort to recruit student ambassadors who more accurately represent our student body and to make a fairer recruitment process. We specifically targeted male students to address the gender imbalance. As a result, our male Student Ambassadors have increased from 29.7% in 2018 to 35% in 2022.
The Athena SWAN Charter is a framework used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within Higher Education and research.
Now the second academic department at the University to be recognised after Psychology in 2019, Professor John Murray, Academic Dean of the Faculty of Technology said "This is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates our commitment to gender equality and diversity and particularly within STEM".
50 pupils enjoyed presentations from a panel of inspirational women comprising staff and students from the University who embraced the 2023 theme of 'Embrace Equity'.
A panel of female founders and innovators discussed how people can harness and unleash the power of innovation within their organisations, and retain their excellent female talent.
Two consultants from the NHS joined us for our International Women's Day symposium. They shared their experiences with the aim to celebrate female achievements and drive gender equality.
EDI is considered highly when planning and delivering activities for schools and colleges. This year we've built strong foundations to improve our offer and ensure we're inclusive of gender, including our First Choice Progression Scheme. This included:
A blue plaque was placed at one of Sunderland's most iconic buildings to commemorate South Shields-born and Oxford scholar Eileen O'Shaughnessy. Eileen went on to marry famous writer George Orwell and was said to have a strong influence on George's writing style.
SunGen has managed to more than double the total number of blue plaques recording women in Sunderland (from two to five).
We welcome feedback on equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Please contact our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team, inclusion@sunderland.ac.uk or the Students' Union at yoursu@sunderland.ac.uk.