Middlesex University - Addressing the Gender Pay Gap
Middlesex aims to advance Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and we have an ambitious gender action plan underpinning this over the next three years. The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2023, which assess universities against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has also recognised our commitment, ranking us #48 out of 1,081 institutions from 106 countries or regions for SDG5 Gender Equality.
Examples of work undertaken included:
- Recognising an imbalance in representation, we have successfully embedded and launched a new initiative which positions positive action statements across all job posts and on the careers section of our website, to encourage applications from more female and gender non-conforming individuals in masculinised areas. Extending the initiative to the wider community of minority groups, the statements also positively affirm our commitment to actively seeking Black, Asian and minority ethnic applicants
- We are working to embed visibility and understanding of EDI across the induction process and make completion of EDI training a condition of probation, as well as embedding more training and development on other protected characteristics
- The Inclusion and Wellbeing team are working with Organisation and Staff Development team in Human Resources Services (HRS) to ensure that EDI is factored into all future staff engagement surveys
- We send welcome communications to new starters showcasing the support available and opportunities to engage across our range of Staff EDI Networks and the wider complement of EDI focused support and initiatives at Middlesex, as well as signposting to relevant key information
- We have revised the criteria for promotion and progression to better recognise the contributions that staff make to the University, and actively monitor progression and promotion by characteristics
- To help colleagues self-identify in ways which feel representative of who they are, we have now developed the ability in our HR Systems to allow individuals, should they so wish, to self-declare their preferred pronouns. We continue to work towards being able to also update pronouns across the central address book and on Microsoft Teams, which, unfortunately, due to technical restraints, is not currently possible
- Staff can also self-declare disability, faith, preferred gender description, and sexual orientation
- We have embedded and published our Gender Equality Plan, which sits alongside our Athena Swan submission and plan and helps support applications from research and knowledge exchange colleagues when applying for Horizon Europe funding
- Supporting staff through external women-only leadership development programmes, including the Aurora Women’s Leadership Programme, which has been active since 2013
- We have been awarded the Race Equality Charter (REC) Bronze Award and work has begun to implement the actions deriving from the REC Action Plan with an intersectional lens mapping with our Gender Equality Plan
- We are working hard to achieve the objective of addressing the continued masculinised/feminised nature of some academic areas to ensure greater gender balance
- In celebration of International Women's Day (IWD), colleagues were invited to a variety of internal events and externally hosted events and activities including a Global Women’s Breakfast event to celebrate women in science to raise the profile of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM), demonstrating that women role models can succeed in STEMM careers, and at Middlesex University
- Publishing a Carer’s Policy for staff
- We have successfully implemented a comprehensive series of menopause training sessions designed to provide robust support for our staff, ensuring they are well-equipped with valuable insights and knowledge to navigate and address the challenges associated with menopause in the workplace.
As part of this work, the University is looking to further address in the gender pay gap in 2023/24 through a number of initiatives and firmly believes that working on realistic, deliverable measures will help us to build stronger relationships internally and continue to make the University attractive to the best talent. We will use our Bronze Award Athena Swan Charter Action Plan to help us address any gender equality issues including:
- Build on current performance (8.6%) against the sector (14.8%) in respect of our mean Gender Pay Gap
- Implement a new career pathway for education and developing positive action initiatives for career development so that we address any barriers for women, Black, Asian and minority ethnic, and disabled academics
- Review our professorial pay model to ensure equity of contribution vs pay
- Following our review of academic promotions; look at professional service staff routes for progression
- Further work to embed equality impact assessments.
Our data
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