Hi

Welcome to this week’s blog. If you have been reading anything over the last few weeks, you will be aware that public consciousness seems firmly fixed on gender equality, particularly inequity in pay. Such a singular focus made me question whether the measure of gender equality is simply parity in pay and an even balance of men and women in senior management.

You may recall in “Closing the Gap”, that our biggest challenge is the over representation of women in the bottom quartile. A closer look revealed that this was largely a result of occupational segregation. Surely, gender equality is also about challenging gender stereotypes; encouraging men into roles traditionally seen as female? Gender pay reports shouldn’t really be seen in isolation. As Julie Dennis, Head of diversity and inclusion and ACAS comments, sexual harassment scandals in politics, business and film indicate that gender pay is a product of the wider workplace environment. We need to look at our culture beyond pay inequity.

Also what about equality for the other protected characteristics? Having had feedback from our Stonewall Account Manager, I know we also need to improve training and development, increased disclosure and more visible communication on LGBT. Then there’s a range of different activities to achieve Level 3 of Disability Confident.

With all this going round in my head, I was reminded of a presentation by Charlotte Sweeney OBE, on effective measures to evaluate progress against a diversity and inclusion strategy. She highlighted the pitfalls of a cut and paste of AN Others strategy. She emphasized how important it is to know your own organisation, to understand what she called “pressure points”. She went on to make the distinction between a diversity measure and an inclusion measure:

Inclusion measures like, who gets through the various stages of the recruitment process; levels of trust within the organisation and who gets “air time” in meetings.

Diversity measures included who is attracted into the recruitment pipeline and equality of pay and bonuses.

I know, it’s not rocket science, but I don’t know that I had ever thought about measures in quite that way. I was energised and inspired. If you ever get the chance to hear her talk, I would encourage you to attend. You won’t be disappointed.

I think I frustrated our previous senior diversity champion delivering what appeared to be random and unconnected activities. In my own mind though, I was experimenting with different initiatives to identify what would engage, and who would be engaged. I wanted to identify allies and champions. Colleagues across all levels of the University who would not only work with me, but would also create ideas and lead activities. There hadn’t been a previous equality and diversity post, so I wanted to explore how ambitious and imaginative the university was willing to be.

Reflecting on Charlotte’s comments, I am confident that a focus on inclusion measures will pull together the apparent disparate and random activities into a cohesive, strategic approach for the university. An approach that will encompass the range of activities required to continue progress against both external frameworks and reduce our pay gap. A strategic approach that will change our behaviours, attitudes and ultimately our culture, enabling all staff and students be the best they can be.

You can follow Charlotte on twitter @charlottesweene.

If you want to be part of the conversation, get in touch, or follow us @UoGEquality.