International Women’s Day 2018 at Queen Mary

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

Now, more than ever, there's a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity. The theme for this year’s IWD is #PressforProgress, asking individuals and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive.

Queen Mary is committed to gender equality through its participation in the Athena SWAN Charter, which recognises excellence in an institution's commitment to gender equality.

Celebrating influential Queen Mary women

Pioneering alumnae and staff from Queen Mary have been listed in the University of London’s ‘Leading Women’ campaign. The list includes novelist Sarah Waters, who cites her PhD at Queen Mary as the inspiration for some of her books, as well as entrepreneur Colette Bowe and historian Anna Keay, who both gained PhDs at the university.

The late historian and broadcaster Lisa Jardine, who is also on the list, was Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary from 1990-2011. The Lisa Jardine Lecture is now held in her honour.

Discover more about the ‘Leading Women’ campaign here.

Take part in celebrating International Women’s Day

20 women from Rio's biggest favela give their testimonies of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), as part of the SCAR installation. Credit: Marcia Faria.

• Queen Mary has many experts who research gender equality issues. For example, Professor Rainbow Murray, the university's first Senior Diversity Lead and a recognised expert on gender politics, will be delivering an inaugural lecture tomorrow, Thursday 8 March that focuses on why certain men dominate politics, considering how we define and recognise merit.
• Why not join Queen Mary Students' Union’s Equality in Leadership Society who will be celebrating this year's theme, #pressforprogress, with a panel event centring on the experiences of women in the workplace?
• Queen Mary is participating in the Southbank Centre’s Women of the World (WOW) Festival from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 March.A multimedia art installation produced by People’s Palace Projects will be on public display and is free to visit. The installation, SCAR, is part of a transnational research project on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) led by Queen Mary, King’s College London, the Latin American Women’s Rights Service, Redes da Maré, and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. As part of the Festival celebrations, Professor Lois Weaver from the School of English and Drama has won the ‘Fighting the Good Fight’ award at the WOW Women in Creative Industries Awards. This award recognises women who have demonstrated great tenacity and ongoing commitment to excellence within the creative industries.
• Visit the Queens’ Building foyer at Mile End which will have a display exploring Queen Mary women past and present. 

Progressing gender equality over the past year at Queen Mary

Queen Mary, which is participating in the Aurora Programme for 2017/2018, welcomed its first cohort onto the autumn programme last October.

• In April 2017, we received a Silver Athena SWAN award for the first time, in recognition of our commitment to the advancement of gender equality in academia. Read more about the Athena SWAN Charter here.
• Queen Mary is again participating in the  for 2017/18, with the latest cohort starting on the spring programme tomorrow, Thursday 8 March. This is the first time that we are funding 20 places centrally, which is a result of feedback from our silver Athena SWAN application process that highlighted the need for more central support for colleagues looking to take the next step in their career development.
• A Women’s Mentoring Scheme was set up in March 2017 to encourage women into more senior academic roles.
• We reviewed and rolled out the Women into Leadership programme for both academic and professional staff. 
• We introduced training to help tackle unconscious bias, which is when our brains jump to make quick judgements and assessments of people and situations without us realising it. 

Queen Mary is committed to reducing the gender pay gap and we will continue working with all our stakeholders to address this. If you would like to discuss or find out more about gender equality at Queen Mary, please contact the Equality and Diversity team at hr-equality@qmul.ac.uk.

The women of Queen Mary

Many of our colleagues have shared their stories with us over the past year, find out more by clicking on the links below (QMUL login needed):

• Hannah Swain is an Events Officer within the Events and Ceremonies team
• Dr Mangala Patel is Reader in Biomaterials in Relation to Dentistry and Senior Tutor at the Institute of Dentistry. She joined Council as an academic staff representative in September 2017
• Priya Clarke is a Widening Participation Officer within the Widening Participation and Outreach Office
• Penny Green is Professor of Law and Globalisation in the School of Law
• Andrea Brady is Professor of Poetry in the Department of English and has also been heavily involved in developing Queen Mary’s new arts and culture strategy
• Anna Fons Garcia is the Employability Coordinator at the Students’ Union, helping students engage with all of the development opportunities available to them at Queen Mary
• Dr Catherine Molyneux and Trish Brown from the Institute of Health Sciences Education, make up part of the team at Queen Mary’s new medical school in Malta
• Dr Elena Calciolari, a clinical research fellow in the Institute of Dentistry, who received the L’Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Award 2017 for Italy
• Dr Viji Draviam is a Senior Lecturer in Structural Cell and Molecular Biology in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences
• Dr Aylin Baysan is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Dentistry
• Kate Price is the Head of Library Services
• Nancy Schumann is the Doctoral College Administrator
• Soomi Park is a Media and Arts Technology PhD student and was awarded the 2017 Designers in Residence which will feature her work at the Design Museum
• Carla Valentine is Technical Curator at Barts Pathology Museum.
• Zarah Laing is the Director of Health and Safety at Queen Mary.
• Dr Gale Raj-Reichert is a lecturer in Economic Geography in the School of Geography with research interests around labour governance in global production networks in developing countries.
• Christina Perry is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law. She is also Deputy Dean for Taught Programmes for Humanities and Social Sciences and is the Academic Lead for Engagement, Retention and Success (ERS)
• Dr Suzy Solley is a research associate in the School of Geography and completed her PhD on widowhood and wellbeing in Nepal
• Professor Anita Patel is Chair in Health Economics in the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health
• Dr Tina Chowdhury from the School of Engineering and Materials Science who won the Gold award at the Reimagine conference for her work on the Virtual Lab project

The women who work at The Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD) have also been celebrated in a new monthly profile series from the SMD's Athena SWAN team. Find out more at: http://www.smd.qmul.ac.uk/about/athenaswan/smd-people/facts-about-smd-women/.