Athena SWAN (Ireland) A4 8pp programme v03

Advance HE
Athena SWAN
Charter
Ireland Award Ceremony
November 2017 assessment round
April 2018 assessment round
www.advance-he.ac.uk/AthenaSWAN

Advance HE | Athena SWAN Charter Ireland Award Ceremony
Programme
Programme
11:30 Registration and Networking
12:00 Welcome – Dr Ruth Gilligan, Advance HE, Associate
Director of Equality Charters
12:10 Professor Chantal Davies, University of Chester, ‘Melting
the Iceberg: using positive action to address gender
segregation and disadvantage’
12:35 Dr Claire Murray, Diamond Light Source, ‘Breaking Bias’
1:00 Lunch and Networking
2:00 Dr Kevin Guyan, Advance HE, ‘Using a self-audit tool to
survey gender equality initiatives in Irish higher education’
2:25 Address by the Minister of State for Higher Education,
Mary Mitchell O'Connor TD
2:35 Awards Presentation and Photos
3:15 Closing remarks – Dr Victoria Brownlee, Advance HE,
Athena SWAN Programme Manager, Ireland

Advance HE | Athena SWAN Charter Ireland Award Ceremony
Statistics Welcome
Welcome
In a major national initiative supported by the A total of 731 awards have been conferred on
Higher Education Authority, the Athena SWAN universities, research institutes and
Charter was launched in Ireland in early 2015. departments in the UK, and the Athena
The Athena SWAN Charter was established SWAN charter now operates in Australia and
in 2005 in the UK to encourage and recognise Canada as well as Ireland.
commitment to advancing the careers of
women in science, technology, engineering, We are delighted that 21 awards have been
maths and medicine (STEMM).
achieved in Ireland since 2015, and to
recognise 10 of these successful awards
In May 2015 the Charter was expanded to today. The conferral of these awards is the
recognise work undertaken in arts,
culmination of many months’ work for
humanities, social sciences, business and law institutions and departments, and for the
(AHSSBL), in professional and support roles, Equality Charters team as well. In 2018, we
and for trans staff and students. The Charter held 53 assessment panels, and would like to
now recognises work undertaken to address thank the 275 panellists from across the Irish
gender equality more broadly, and not just and UK sector for taking part.
barriers to progression that affect women.
Dr Ruth Gilligan
Associate Director – Equality Charters
Advance HE
X
4
6
X
overall success rate
institutional awards
department awards
number of panellists

Advance HE | Athena SWAN Charter Ireland Award Ceremony
Athena Swan Awards
Athena Swan Awards
November 2017 round
INStItutIoNAl AWARDS
Maynooth university (Bronze)
Good practice: Redevelopment of online equality and diversity training to incorporate a
new focus on intersectionality.
National university of Ireland, Galway (Bronze)
Good practice: Introduction of an Athena SWAN Mid-Career Research Capacity Building
Grant for women in STEMM who have taken caring leave in the past ten years.
DEPARtMENtAl AWARDS
National university of Ireland, Galway, School of Medicine (Bronze)
Good practice: Commitment of an annual fund of €50,000 to support the targeted career
development of staff at Lecturer Above the Bar level.
university College Cork, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences (Bronze)
Good practice: Targeted action in response to female underrepresentation in Geology,
including a national ‘Girls into Geoscience’ event and supporting the launch of an Irish
Association for Women Geoscientists.
university College Cork, School of Chemistry (Bronze)
Good practice: One-to-one coaching for the Head of School and School Manager on how
to manage maternity and paternity leave.
university College Cork, School of Pharmacy (Bronze)
Good practice: Introduction of diversity training for all first-year undergraduates as part of
their orientation.
university of limerick, Department of Physics (Bronze)
Good practice: Working with the Institute of Physics to deliver outreach and education for
second-level students and teachers.
university of limerick, School of Education (Bronze)
Good practice: Prioritisation of gender equality in the education of pre-service teachers in
order to effect meaningful change in second-level schools.
April 2018 round
INStItutIoNAl AWARDS
Dublin Institute of technology (Bronze)
Good practice: Communications campaign to increase the visibility of female role models
through web and print media.
Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (Bronze)
Good practice: consultation with the Departments of General Practice, OB/GYN,
Psychology, Surgery and Urology to support medical requirements of transgender people in
Ireland.

Advance HE | Athena SWAN Charter Ireland Award Ceremony
Speaker Biographies
Speaker Biographies
Dr Ruth Gilligan
Ruth Gilligan is the Associate Director for Equality
Charters at Advance HE, and is responsible for the
strategic leadership of the Athena SWAN and Race
Equality Charters in the UK, Ireland and
internationally. She joined the organisation (previously
the Equality Challenge Unit) in 2014, and was
responsible from 2014-2015 for developing the pilot of
Athena SWAN in the Republic of Ireland, which was
the first expansion of the Charter beyond the UK.
Following the success of the Irish pilot, the Charter
has now expanded to Australia and USA, and in
recent months Ruth has been supporting the
Canadian government to prepare for a made-in-
Canada Athena SWAN Charter.
Working with colleagues across Advance HE’s
Membership and Accreditation directorate, Ruth
oversees the development and operation of the
Equality Charters to ensure high-quality, worldleading
services that meet the needs of institutions
and individuals. In addition to engaging directly with
applicants, Ruth represents Advance HE in liaising
and collaborating with professional bodies, learned
societies, funders and governmental departments to
further the national equality and diversity agenda.
Prior to her work on Advance HE’s Equality Charters,
Ruth – whose academic background is organic
chemistry – worked in Science Foundation Ireland
with the policy and pre-award teams.
Professor Chantal Davies
After graduating with a Law degree from Oxford
University, Chantal Davies qualified as a solicitor with
Eversheds in Cardiff specialising in Employment,
Human Rights and Discrimination Law. In 1998, she
moved to work as a solicitor for the Equal
Opportunities Commission (EOC) in Manchester
heading up a Department tackling strategic and wider
enforcement of the gender equality legislation.
Chantal is now professor of Law, Equality and
Diversity in the School of Law at the University of
Chester. She has also developed and is Director of
the Forum for Research into Equality and Diversity.
Chantal’s past research focuses on the experiences
of ethnic minority students within higher education
and the use of positive action by organisations in the
UK. Chantal has also recently completed a funded
project looking at the gendered obstacles to research
activity faced by academics in the UK. More recently
Chantal has been funded by the Young Women’s
Trust and the Equality and Human Rights
Commission to research the use of positive action in
apprenticeships. She has sat on the board of the
Equality Challenge Unit and in this role has been
working with them to develop institutional confidence
in developing positive action initiatives within higher
education.

Advance HE | Athena SWAN Charter Ireland Award Ceremony
Speaker Biographies
Dr Claire Murray
Claire Murray is a chemist working at Diamond Light
Source, the UK's national synchrotron. Alongside her
research interests in catalysis and supramolecular
chemistry, she has developed and delivered many
events promoting diversity in science such as Project
M where students at over 100 schools carried out real
experiments. Claire contributed to the successful
Athena Swan Bronze award at Diamond Light Source
and is regularly a panellist for the peer review
assessment process. She is also a member of the
UKRI external advisory group for equality, inclusion
and innovation.
Dr Kevin Guyan
Kevin Guyan is a Researcher at Advance HE. He has
led several high-profile equality and diversity research
projects in Scotland, England and Ireland on subjects
including staff equality in colleges, university
governance, promotion and recruitment, bullying and
harassment, and the experiences of lesbian, gay and
bisexual academics. Before starting at Advance HE in
2016, Kevin completed a PhD in history at University
College London on masculinities and domestic space
in mid-twentieth century Britain.

Advance HE | Athena SWAN Charter Ireland Award Ceremony
Speaker Biographies
Minister Mary Mitchell o’Connor (tBC)
Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD is Minister of State at the accelerate gender equality in Irish Higher Education.
Department of Education with special responsibility Minister Mitchell O’Connor previously served as
for Higher Education. Minister Mitchell O’Connor is Minister of Business, Enterprise and Innovation,
committed to leading the development of national leading on the creation and maintenance of high
policy on equity of access to higher education for all quality and sustainable full employment across all
students, overseeing a range of support measures regions of the country. In 2011, former Taoiseach
that facilitate greater levels of participation among Enda Kenny appointed Minister Mitchell O’Connor as
disadvantaged students, mature students, and
the Chairperson of the Internal Fine Gael Education
students with disabilities. The Minister is determined Committee based on her successful career in
that Ireland’s female academics will have all the same education. Minister Mitchell O’Connor holds an
possibilities of career advancement as their male
Honours Masters’ Degree in Education and
counterparts. The Gender Action Taskforce,
Management from National University Ireland, (NUI)
appointed by Minister Mitchell O’Connor in 2017,
Maynooth, and has worked as a School Principal in
recently published a three-year Gender Action Plan to Meath and Dublin.
Dr Victoria Brownlee
Victoria Brownlee joined Advance HE in September
2018 to lead the development and delivery of
Advance HE’s Athena SWAN Charter in Ireland.
Victoria’s role includes delivering tailored training and
workshops to Athena SWAN applicants, moderating
Athena SWAN panels, and supporting higher
education institutions in developing their Athena
SWAN work. Victoria is the primary point of liaison for
Athena SWAN applicants, funders and associated
stakeholders in Ireland.
Prior to joining Advance HE, Victoria worked as a
Lecturer in English in universities in Ireland and the
UK. She led research projects focusing on the
intersection of gender and religion in literature, and is
the recipient of several research grants, including
awards from the AHRC and IRC. Victoria has
published books and articles on women’s writing,
religious identity, and early modern literature more
broadly, and her monograph was published by Oxford
University Press earlier this year. Having taught
widely across undergraduate and postgraduate
degree programmes, Victoria also has expertise in
embedding equality and diversity in literature
curricula.

Find out more
For more information about Athena SWAN visit:
www.advance-he.ac.uk/AthenaSWAN
or email athena.swan@advance-he.ac.uk
For more information about the gender equality challenge set by Ireland’s
Higher Education Authority visit: www.HEA.ie
www.advance-he.ac.uk/AthenaSWAN