The University’s work towards promoting gender equality was recognised by a Bronze Athena Swan Institutional award in 2021, and we are currently working towards a renewal application in 2026. We were recently offered the benefit of a Mid-term Review, delivered by Advance HE, to focus our thinking in this next phase of gender equality work

The Mid-term review was a facilitated meeting with the purpose of reviewing progress against our action plan,  to clarify and sense check our priorities, and to maintain momentum towards our next submission.

The review took part on Thursday 25 April, and was attended by members of the institutional  Gender Equality Steering Group as well as other key stakeholders from the University Executive Team, HR and Student Experience.

The session was led by Sally Baden, a consultant at Advance HE, Sarah Guthrie, who chairs the Gender Equality Steering Group and Sarah Law (EDI consultant). Work in the action plan centres on areas that include career development and promotion, the gender pay gap, inclusive practices with respect to transgender and non-binary people, well-being and work-life balance, dignity, and respect.

During the review meeting, interactive group work used change management theory to evaluate our current institutional actions and the effectiveness of these to help us meet our desired outcomes.

There were also insightful discussions around barriers and enablers, with attendees using Lego to think creatively about the obstacles to progress within our current landscape, and ways to overcome these.

In the current Institutional Athena SWAN Action Plan, we have committed to several short and medium-term outcomes in key areas, including Promotions and Remuneration, Support for Parents and Carers and Dignity and Respect. Some examples of our target outcomes include:

• A target of over 70% of female staff reporting that they are treated with fairness and respect.
• A target of 80% of carers feeling more supported in their careers.
• Develop initiatives to support leadership development at Sussex, such as the Sussex Leader Re-developed guidelines.
• To decrease the gender, pay gap to 10.4% by 2025 (currently 14.4%)
• Publish intersectional pay-gap data in relation to ethnicity and gender (intersectional pay gap for black women is 21.9%.

During the mid-term review participants considered the activities that will help us reach those outcomes most effectively. We explored the outputs and assumptions that underlie current activities, and we identified some new activities that will strengthen our action plan and support progress. Examples of some of the new activities identified include:

• Develop activities to help understand employee experience, including exploring the reason people stay and exit the university.
• Review returning to work procedures for parents and carers.
• Examine promotions data with an intersectional lens to uncover any potential blockages so that action can be more targeted.
• Explore initiatives to support the career development of professional service staff.
• Recirculate and re-embed the new Dignity and Respect and Inclusion Policy.
• Join up processes to ensure a more consistent approach to leadership, such as promotions criteria being linked to ADR processes.

The current Athena SWAN action plan can be viewed here: file.php (sussex.ac.uk).

The Gender Equality Steering Group  meets to review progress against the action plan each term. Insights from the mid-term review will inform reformulation of some aspects of our action plan to accelerate progress towards our goals.

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