Previous Winners - Excellence in Gender Equality
Our Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team and Gender Taskforce have created the Excellence in Gender Equality Awards to celebrate individuals and teams making a positive difference on gender equality across the University and share best practice.
You can see information about our current years' winner here, and all of our previous winners below.
Congratulations and well done to all!
Our 2022 Winners
Student Award
CHAYN SANJAY KOHLI
Second-year BSc Management student WBS, Chayn Sanjay Kohli won the Student Award for excellence in gender equality 2022. Chayn has been recognised for her gender equality work in India, as well as at Warwick as she has raised awareness and funds to support education and rights. Chayn is the is the Vice President of Indian Student Association (INSA) and writes for The Boar and other blogs at Warwick. We asked her five key questions about her work and passion for gender equality.
Photo: Chayn Sanjay Kohli, winner of the 2022 student award.
Learn more in our interview with Chayn
What progress have you seen over the last year regarding gender equality?
I think accessibility is increasing, especially in male-dominated industries. In recent times, women have been able to penetrate through the job market. With increased awareness and access to the internet, more women who do not have the resources to gain the education and skills they wish can access them easily. Even mindsets are changing where more communities and people now give equal importance and respect to women and men.
However, even though we have made great progress in the last few years, there is still a long journey ahead of us. We still need to contribute and do more to ensure women are given the same opportunities and women from disadvantaged communities can escape their historical cycle.
What would you say is the biggest challenge, and how do the challenges differ in Warwick compared to India?
The biggest challenge in India and Warwick remains common: awareness. Women are unaware of the opportunities they can monetize and do not understand the scale of their dreams. While in Warwick, awareness relates to understanding external opportunities related to finding jobs and building inclusivity in male-dominated sectors. The biggest challenge in India remains internal awareness, as most women are not even allowed to dream. Parents earning low incomes would rather educate their sons than their daughters, and thus, women from such communities have less access to opportunities and need to convince not only employers but their families of their capabilities to achieve their dreams.
What would you like to see happen for gender equality in 2023?
Firstly, I’d like to see more people contributing to the gender equality movement by spreading awareness in their homes and local communities about the severity of the problems that persist in our society regarding gender equality. I would like to see more women who have successfully won their battles and inspired many in the process to help other little girls fight for their dreams and inspire some even to have faith in the idea of dreams themselves. Furthermore, it would be amazing to see more strong, empowered women come together and fight for their rights and those of other little girls in the generations to come. Through awareness, we can raise our voices, and with our voices, we can demand change.
How can others get involved?
Everyone can contribute in their own little ways. Small contributions come together to create a significant change.
One can get involved by reaching out and engaging with NGOs close to them, making women aware of opportunities available to them, simply motivating other women, or volunteering to teach women from disadvantaged communities. These are just some of the many little ways you can get involved and inspire other young girls. Every small action and contribution towards change causes a ripple effect, and these little actions come together to create a difference.
What would you say is the most rewarding thing about your work?
Growing up, my grandmother always told me that a dream is the most valuable gift you can give yourself as it adds purpose and meaning to your life. When I work with different women, I make them aware that they are allowed to dream, show them a path to their dream and encourage them; the smile I see on their face and the fire I see in their soul is the most rewarding part of my work. A single dream can change your life - giving you the grit to fight and giving your life the meaning, you always searched for.
Bonus Questions!
What would you take to a desert island? I would carry a satellite phone, granola bars, and a lighter (to make fire - the most crucial element to surviving a deserted island).
House plants or pets? Pets any day! I love animals, especially dogs. I wish to have five dogs, three ducks, and one hamster in my home one day.
What’s your favourite place on campus? The lake by the medical school is the perfect spot to eat lunch and watch the geese.
How do you spend your spare time? I spend my spare time discovering new places and trying new food dishes. I love experimenting with new places and food recipes.
Staff Award
KIRSTIE HAYWOOD
Kirstie was recognised for sustaining the contribution to culture change which has meant that gender equality is now mainstreamed across Warwick Medical School and all of her work on WMS' Silver Athena Swan award. Kirstie ensures that collaborative working and active engagement with the WMS community are key components of the school's EDI work.
Photo: Kirstie Haywood, winner of the 2022 staff award.
Learn more in our interview with Kirstie
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?
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.
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!
Team Award
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY ATHENA SWAN SELF-ASSESSMENT TEAM
The department of Sociology Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT) - led by Professor Nickie Charles and Dr Maria do Mar Pereira have led sector level discussions to benefit of other institutions. The team have also created widely used Athena Swan templates, events, and publications. They hosted a well-attended workshop and provided great evidence of commitment plus sharing of best practice.
Photo: (L-R) Professor Nickie Charles and Dr Maria do Mar Pereira, leads of the Department of Sociology Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team.
Learn more in our interview with Nickie and Maria
What has been the biggest challenge in Gender Equality for 2022?
One big challenge is trying to get beyond the more obvious associations that people make with “gender equality work” in order to be able to produce change in areas that are less easy to see, but no less important. For example, many people associate gender equality interventions with increasing the numbers of women, but such interventions need to go beyond measuring easily quantifiable variables or focusing exclusively on women. During 2022, for example, we did a lot of work on how emotional labour is distributed in academia, something that is very difficult to measure. We’re also starting an innovative project supporting men students to change cultures of masculinity, as well as strengthening our ongoing work with non-binary students. It’s important to go beyond counting women, and try to do gender equality work in more expansive, creative, critical and intersectional ways.
Can you give an overview of your work outside of Warwick?
Most Athena Swan work tends to be focused on diagnosing and changing gender equality issues within one’s own department or institution. That work is very important to us – there’s much we can improve within our environment! – but we wanted to go further than that and use our Athena Swan work also to help promote change beyond Warwick Sociology. We’ve done this in many ways. We’ve organised several national and international events bringing together academics, students, administrators and practitioners across 60+ universities, to exchange best practice and provide mutual support. Colleagues within our team have also produced reports and articles about Athena Swan which have made significant contributions to the national and international debate about equality certification systems in academia. Next year, we hope to do work with local schools, engaging with young people on issues of gender equality.
How will you continue this work for 2023?
In 2023, we will be focusing on two initiatives that we are piloting for the first time. One is a peer discussion group for men undergraduate students, which we hope will offer a supportive space for them to come together and discuss challenging aspects of their everyday experiences which they don’t usually get to talk about elsewhere. The other is the Sociology Care Collective, a staff group which we have set up to organise social events, provide peer support, and strengthen the sense of community among staff in the department. We hope that creating this Collective and giving it resources and workload recognition will improve the way we support, acknowledge and celebrate the generous work that so many staff in Sociology already do to help each other and make the department a positive working environment.
What has been your proudest moment so far in your Gender Equality work?
We are very proud that some of the work we have done in Sociology has helped colleagues in other Warwick departments advance their own gender equality work. From the start, we’ve treated Athena Swan as a collaborative, rather than competitive, exercise, and we have tried to support other departments applying for Athena Swan awards, drawing on our recognised expertise in gender. One key action we took was to share with others the templates we had created for departmental culture surveys, a type of survey which has to be carried out by any unit seeking an Athena Swan award. Our survey templates have now been used by over 10 Warwick departments, spanning all 3 Faculties. If you’d like to take a look at these survey templates and use them in your department, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!
What kept you motivated while doing this work?
We believe food is key to bringing people together and generating new ideas, so our joint thinking and writing has been fuelled over the years by lots of delicious pizza and cake. We are looking forward to eating together again very soon to celebrate receiving our brand new Silver Athena Swan award!
Our 2021 Winner
ACTIVE BYSTANDER INITIATIVE
In 2021, we had just one award. This was won by the Active Bystander Initiative (part of the Community Values Education Programme), an intervention designed to provide a campus environment in which all members of our community feel safe and are respected. Taking part in this course is a positive way to contribute to efforts to build a community that embodies our values, tackling issues such as sexual violence, misconduct, and abuse.
Photo: Puja and Jane, 2021 award winners.
Learn more in our interview with Puja and Jane
Tell us a little more about the Active Bystander Initiative...
The active bystander approach was originally developed to help tackle sexual misconduct and abuse but can also be applied to other types of unacceptable behaviours such as racism, homophobia, and transphobia. At Warwick, the Active Bystander Initiative aims to equip students with the knowledge, confidence, and skills to recognise and safely challenge behaviours which may be contrary to our shared values.
All incoming students are offered an ‘Introduction to Active Bystander’ workshop online (supported by their department) which introduces them to the principles of the approach (notice the problem, interpret it as a problem, feel responsibility to act, and possess the skills to act) and discusses the five intervention strategies (Distract, Delegate, Direct, Delay, and Document) through practical scenarios.
We then offer the longer active bystander intervention course (register here for Be An Active Bystander) that addresses sexual misconduct and abuse in more detail. We are also developing new and additional content based on staff and student feedback, partnering with other teams (such as Report and Support) where relevant.
What roles do you have within the University?
Jane is the Academic Lead for Community Values Education Programme (CVEP) as well as being a Reader in the Law School. Jane drives the strategic direction of the project, ensures that activities are evidence-based, and aims to promote learning from the project in academic spaces (and beyond).
Puja is the Programme Manager and works on the development and the implementation of CVEP activities full-time. She enjoys co-creation activities, developing relationships with departments and other teams, and working with the Students’ Union (SU). Sam Parr (Senior Tutor) is another core member of the team, delivering activities and supporting our link with the SU. Sam was also involved in the initial development of the initiative.
We are supported by a dedicated team of Tutors who deliver the active bystander workshops and courses, contribute to the development of resources and identify opportunities for promotion. Each tutor wears multiple hats and is engaged in other roles/studies at the University, bringing different expertise and perspectives to their role.
How did this initiative come about?
The project started in 2019 as a collaboration between the Students’ Union and the Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL, who also funded the pilot), later moving under the ‘Community Values Education Programme (CVEP)’ umbrella in the Dean of Students’ Office. The Students’ Union and the University agreed that introducing and embedding educational interventions of this nature were of vital importance and would benefit the community. The initiative and the wider programme have continued to grow each year.
We are grateful to the many staff and students who contributed to development and implementation of the Active Bystander Initiative (and the wider CVE programme) over the past few years. We also acknowledge the original Intervention Initiative work upon which our activities are based.
What’s the most important outcome of this initiative?
There are many:
- We’ve been able to raise awareness of the active bystander approach and introduce students to a community-led strategy for responding to unacceptable behaviour.
- Feedback from students who have engaged with activities so far has been positive and we’ve been acting on feedback to help improve resources.
- Over 2000 incoming students have received the Introduction to Active Bystander workshop this term so far. We are thankful to each department for helping us to facilitate this.
- We have established a good partnership with the Students’ Union so at least two members of the executive committee from each Club and Society attend the Active Bystander Intervention course.
Do you have any plans or further ideas for the future?
We hope to increase our reach through new and additional activities. We are currently exploring the use of a text-message-based course as a gateway activity into more detailed content (in partnership with the Social Inclusion team). Our team is also growing to support us to increase our reach. In October, we recruited a team of Student Engagement Officers to develop and deliver outreach activities. All current students (UG and MSc), they are already busy developing a social media presence. The Student Champions Group was also recently established. These are ‘graduates’ of the longer active bystander intervention course who are volunteering to promote the course with others.
This September saw the launch of the ‘We Act’ digital campaign, raising awareness of what being an active bystander can look like and to help people become more familiar with the concept. Readers are directed to the CVEP website to explore how they can get involved further. Our ‘Active Bystander in the Teaching Space’ project has just received funding from WIHEA and will help us support those in a teaching role.
We also recently launched the Kindness on Campus Award to recognise and celebrate acts of kindness shown by our staff and students. All too often kindness is undervalued yet even small acts have the power to overcome differences, break down prejudice, and bring us closer together as a community.
There are also other projects under the CVEP umbrella, all of which support the promotion and everyday understanding of the Warwick Values (such ‘Say My Name’ and ‘Bystanders Can Save Lives’). And we welcome collaboration and encourage others to contact us to share their values-based activities, so we can help to promote them and share good practice via our platform.
Our Trophy Design Competition Winner
There was a competition to design a trophy for the Excellence in ED&I Award winner, which was won by Ant Brewerton, who presented this trophy to the winners in 2021.
Photo (Right): Ant, trophy design competition winner.
Learn more in our interview with Ant
What is your role within the University?
My role is Head of Academic Services in the Library. I work with my teams to develop and promote Library resources and services to support our students and staff. My teams include the Academic Support Librarians, the Modern Records Centre archives team, the Community Engagement teams who run Study Happy and other events, a team that delivers teaching and e-learning support, our widening participation support, and our Marketing and Communications Officer.
The spaces we operate in include the main Library, the Learning Grids, PG Hub, Research Exchange, Teaching Grid, our new Co-creation Space, all over campus… and all over social media! I am also a member of the Social Inclusion Committee and chair the University’s Stonewall Self-Assessment Team.
Where did you take your inspiration from for the design of the trophy?
My inspiration for the trophy design came from the work of the Social Inclusion Committee. The intention was to represent successful ED&I in the University – diverse elements of our community, brought together and interconnected to make a strong whole. The ring part of the design is made up of 12 links, representing the 12 characteristics covered by the work of the Social Inclusion Committee.
One of the Committee’s terms of reference is
"to devise, co-ordinate, and monitor steps taken by the University to comply with the Equality Act 2010, with particular regard to the specific protected characteristics of age, disability, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, and marriage or civil partnership as detailed in the Act; to undertake the same with respect to other marginalised groups including in relation to socio-economic background, care leavers, and asylum seekers.
The trophy’s design symbolically brings these 12 groups together, all firmly linked and united in one University.
ED&I at Warwick supports us in our differences but unites us in the values that we hold in common. This is what my design hoped to capture.
Tell us a little more about the trophy and how it was made...
I had originally scribbled down some ideas and made a quick watercolour one Saturday afternoon. Following my design being chosen for the award, colleagues in the School of Engineering mocked up a prototype which they then created on a 3D printer.
How did it feel seeing your trophy for the first time?
I was delighted! It was lovely to see my little sketch become a reality – close to my original design but improved in the production process by some very talented colleagues.
How was the ceremony and being able to present your trophy?
I was pleased with the way the trophy turned out but I was even more pleased to present it to a very deserving winner. All the projects mentioned during the ceremony were terrific – it makes you so proud to work for the University. But the work of Jane Bryan and her team is exceptional and I was very happy to present her with ‘my’ award.
Photo: Ant's original trophy design.
Photo: The trophy once made.