January 2023.

Meet Kirstie Haywood, winner of the Individual Award for Excellence in Gender Equality 2022, and hear her talk about how collaborative working and active engagement with their community is key to WMS' equality, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) work.

What has been your biggest challenge in terms of culture change so far?

Working towards effective, two-way communication and a shared ownership of culture change activities. Understanding what a ‘good culture’ means for our community is of paramount importance. This requires active engagement and collaboration with people across our community – staff and students alike – to better understand and inform where change is required. Our community needs to feel that they are being listened to and that they can influence change.

The impact of the COVID pandemic and the associated change in working patterns has substantially impacted on our understanding of ‘culture’. Understanding both the positive and negative impact of these changes will be important in helping us to develop a new shared vision for positive culture change at WMS.

How are you planning to continue your work for gender equality in 2023?

"Understanding what a ‘good culture’ means for our community is of paramount importance. This requires active engagement and collaboration with people across our community – staff and students alike – to better understand and inform where change is required."

As chair for the Athena SWAN activities at WMS, I provide the leadership and support for a fabulous group of colleagues – staff and students – who share the passion for enhancing and promoting gender equality across the school (and beyond!). To support and drive forward our activities, we have defined twelve sub-groups, each with co-chairs and a membership consisting of our ‘Athena SWAN’ or ‘Gender Equality’ champions.

Collaboratively, we have identified four key themes that capture many of our activities. These include working collaboratively with staff and students to cultivate and promote an inclusive, diverse and welcoming workplace community and culture. Additionally, promoting equality of opportunities for inclusive and diverse teaching and education, for career development (including recruitment and career progression), and for staff and students taking career or study breaks, and/or wishing to work flexibly.

We have a number of ‘action points’, informed by the needs of our community and captured within our Silver Athena SWAN action plan, which help us to make progress on these themes. However, we are regularly seeking feedback from our community to advise where we can do better and identify new actions that reflect changing needs.

How do you think others can help and get involved?

We have a very active team – including a fabulous student-led group – and are responsive to new approaches that may raise the profile of gender equality and ED&I across the WMS community and beyond. As a team, we are clear that gender equality should be driven by the experiences and needs of our community. Hence, the collaborative engagement with staff and students is one of our key themes.

We are always on the lookout for colleagues – staff and students – to get involved! There are numerous opportunities to join the various sub-groups as a ‘Gender Equality Champion’ or to attend the various events that we schedule into the WMS calendar.

If you would like to inform and influence the gender equality activities at WMS, please do get in touch - I am always available to discuss and explore concerns, challenges, or innovations that colleagues may propose. If you want to find out more or see how you can get involved come along to one of our meetings.

We are always delighted to welcome new gender equality and ED&I Champions! You can also email me on .

What does gender equality look like? What do you feel you want to achieve to say your work is done?

Golly – they are two rather ‘big’ questions. Gender equality has been defined in several ways, but at its heart the concept embraces the importance of people being free to engage with careers and lifestyle choices, free of discrimination due to gender. The work around promoting gender equality, or gender equity, speaks to the importance of addressing imbalances and discrimination evident within our communities, so that ‘equality can become a reality’.

Achieving this requires our community to be aware of where inequalities exist and the potential benefit to be gained from recommended changes. At WMS, our gender equality activities are driven by the needs and experiences of our community, underpinned by data (both qualitative and quantitative) which highlights where such imbalances exist.

"I’m a great believer in the strength that can be achieved from celebrating and nurturing the diversity within our community... However, for many, additional support is required to ensure that these talents are recognised, that people can flourish, and contribute fully within society."

We’re on a continuous track of awareness and improvement - greater active collaboration and a community ownership of the gender equality agenda and the realisation of our goals and KPIs will help move us more to where we want to be. Having said that we are aware that we are part of a changing world and recognise that there will always be work to do in the area of gender equity even if its focus may shift as time goes on.

Why is gender equality something that you feel so passionately about?

I’m a great believer in the strength that can be achieved from celebrating and nurturing the diversity within our community – we all have so many varied talents and skills which should be celebrated and supported. However, for many, additional support is required to ensure that these talents are recognised, that people can flourish, and contribute fully within society. It is beholden to us as a community to ensure that we listen to understand the needs and experiences of others – so that appropriate, and on-going, support is provided. Working clinically with patients was my first insight to these challenges – that disability should not be a disabler. I believe that working collaboratively with individuals who experience barriers to full engagement with society is crucial to advancing successful gender equality, and ED&I more generally, across our community – it’s why I volunteer!

I believe that equality of opportunity is a key element of a successful community – understanding individual needs and experiences is central to providing appropriate support. To achieve this requires open and honest dialogue which fosters relationships that are grounded in trust. I believe that WMS and the University of Warwick have invested significantly in developing gender equality and ED&I and supporting a flourishing and diverse community. However, we can always do more! Greater transparency in gender equality and ED&I initiatives will demonstrate to the community that we are being proactive in our endeavours to improve gender equality. Collaborative and active engagement – community partnerships - will ensure that initiatives are both owned by and responsive to the needs, concerns, and real-life experiences of our community.

Bonus questions!

What are you currently reading?

Bill Bryson’s epic ‘The Lost Continent’ – his take on life and his wry observations make me laugh out loud!

What’s your most-used app?

My teenage boys are constantly telling me that a) I have far too many apps open on my phone and b) that my apps are just so poorly organised! (‘Mum! How can you find anything!’). I love my Strava app – it helps me to keep in touch with friends who also enjoy getting out into the great outdoors!

How do you spend your spare time?

With my family and friends – but I love being active and getting outside into the fresh air. I especially love to ride my bike. Preferably my road bike – but I love mountain biking with the boys! The muddier the better. We are then rewarded with cake!