Gender Champion
Professor Libby John
Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of College of Science
"I would like to understand more about how gender impacts on the day-to-day lives of colleagues and students. On SLT I will try to challenge policies and initiatives that impact differentially by gender and be open to consider any ideas from our University Community for minimising these impacts"
"I have long been concerned about why our gender continues to have such huge impacts on factors such as our educational attainment, career aspirations and progression, freedom from harassment and day-to-day safety. I hope as SLT Champion I can be part of trying to ensure that at our university these impacts are minimised or eliminated.
Safety is a big concern and through the Women’s Safety Group many colleagues are working hard to try to ensure that staff and students feel safe on campus and in Lincoln. We also need to continue work through Athena Swan and other initiatives to ensure that our workplace is as gender-neutral as possible and that we don’t inadvertently make it more difficult for some people to succeed and feel included due to their gender. We also need to look at our educational offer to ensure it is attractive to male and female applicants and we encourage more diversity in subjects such as Computer Science.
As a female scientist I have long been aware that even in science subjects with large female undergraduate cohorts there is a ‘leaky pipeline’ leading to reducing numbers of women progressing to the top of our profession. This is not a problem that has resolved itself over decades of awareness and initiatives and we must continue to strive to unpick the issues that cause this leakage of bright and capable people".
