Gender equality in higher education: how to overcome key challenges

Achieving gender equality in higher education remains elusive. In some parts of the world, girls struggle to access post-secondary education and even in countries where many women do embark on academic careers, there is still a marked lack of female representation in leadership roles. However, huge progress has been made through small changes like scheduling teaching hours around childcare needs or big institution-wide reform linked to SDG5: gender equality. In this collection marking International Women’s Day, university leaders and faculty share ways institutions and individuals can tackle the challenges faced by women in academia.

Female lecturer speaking to students at the front of class

Low-cost ways to support women academics

Offering mentorship opportunities, supporting peer groups and addressing bias are some of the ways institutions can support women academics

Asri Saraswati

University of Indonesia

Female construction worker surveying a building

Empower migrant and refugee women for career success

Creating educational opportunities tailored to the needs of refugee women equips them with the skills and confidence to pursue employment opportunities

Temitope Egbelakin

The University of Newcastle, Australia

Female student smiling at the camera in a library

Seven exercises to incorporate into your gender studies classes

It can be challenging to come up with new and interesting ways to educate your students on gender issues. Eunice Costilla Cruz outlines seven ways

Eunice Costilla Cruz

Monterrey Institute of Technology

A woman resting with period pains

Menstruation, maternity, menopause: making space in the academy for all elements of womanhood

Do women’s health policies in higher education meet the needs of those they are meant to serve, and how might the stigma relating to aspects of womanhood be addressed?

Christina Dzineku, Devon Oakley-Hogg

Leeds Trinity University, University of Glasgow

Woman with prosthetic arm helping colleague

How to promote disabled women in academia

Disabled women are significantly under-represented in senior roles within universities. Here’s how – and why – institutions can and should support them better for career progression

Meredith Wilkinson, Kelly Pickard-Smith

De Montfort University, University of Manchester

Women in a meeting

How can universities disrupt the gender investment gap?

Engaging with stakeholders beyond higher education and debunking myths around women and innovation can open spin-out opportunities to more women, writes Simonetta Manfredi

Simonetta Manfredi

Oxford Brookes University

A female and male researcher conducting interdisciplinary research

How to encourage gender equity in interdisciplinary research

A study into gender balances of interdisciplinary research teams shows that the presence of women is beneficial up to a point. Elisabeth Browning suggests ways funders and institutions can encourage their participation

Elisabeth Browning

Elsevier

Woman at a laptop holding temples with stress

Women in academia are doing too much non-promotable work – and that has to stop

The No Club shares advice for women about how to spend their time at work, how to change the environment to stop saddling women with unrewarded work, and prioritise the tasks that get noticed

Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, Laurie Weingart

Carnegie Mellon University , University of Pittsburgh

Women mentoring

The power of gender-sensitive mentoring

Mentoring is a powerful tool to enhance job satisfaction and work-life balance. This guide aims to help mentors adopt a gender-sensitive approach to support women and people who identify as women in teaching-focused roles

Marion Coderch

Durham University

Maternity leave can be incredibly hard to navigate for women in academia

Breaking barriers for women: how to build effective parental leave

Seven academics who recently navigated the topsy-turvy world of maternity leave make six recommendations for ensuring motherhood is compatible with academia

Ellie Harrison , Siobhán O’Brien , Tiffany B. Taylor

University of Sheffield, Trinity College Dublin, University of Bath

Higher education needs to be rebuilt from the ground up to make it a fairer place to work for women

Breaking barriers for women: enough talking, time for action

In the second part of their ‘breaking barriers for women’ series, seven female academics outline key changes to help remodel a fairer HE system from the ground up

Ellie Harrison , Tiffany B. Taylor

University of Sheffield, University of Bath

Gender-specific health issues need to be tackled in academia

Breaking barriers for women: closing the gender health gap in academia

In the final part of their ‘breaking barriers for women’ series, eight female academics propose ways to tackle the stigma and career deficits caused by women’s health issues

Nicola Hemmings , Ellie Harrison , Jo L. Fothergill

University of Sheffield, University of Liverpool

How to encourage women entrepreneurs at universities

How can we help academia produce more women entrepreneurs?

The key change required to help female academics found spin-out companies is rebalancing the gender diversity of the investment community, but universities have a part to play, too

Simonetta Manfredi

Oxford Brookes University

How to embed gender equality work into an institution's teaching and research practices so it is not lost when key individuals move on

Institutionalising gender equality work within a university

Strategies to ensure that gains in gender equality work at universities are not lost when the individual staff members driving them move on

Kathryn Rebecca Maude

American University of Beirut

Advice on steps universities should take to ensure pandemic doesn't result in a long-term reversal of gender equality work

Urgent steps to prevent the pandemic stalling women’s academic careers

The pandemic put a disproportionate strain on female academics, research suggests, so now universities need to take robust action to ensure these women do not lose out in tenure and promotion decisions, reducing future diversity

Adrian Daub, Alison Dahl Crossley

Stanford University

Recommendations for support measures universities could put in place to support working parents among their staff

What parents need to succeed in academia and how universities can help

From working hours that fit in with childcare to a place to pump, Nadia von Benzon explains how universities can support staff who are parents

Nadia von Benzon

Lancaster University

Universities and society at large must promote female involvement and achievements in STEM

Boosting female representation in STEM is crucial to global innovation

Addressing the gender disparity in STEM isn’t just a question of striving for a fairer society, it’s also fundamental to solving the complex challenges that affect us all

Jennifer Tour Chayes

University of California, Berkeley

Advice on building a sustainable long-term gender equality action plan to improve female representation at your institution

Embedding gender equality: building momentum for change

Eileen Drew explains how positive leadership, data-informed actions and priorities, mass engagement and collaboration all feed into a successful gender equality initiative

Eileen Drew

Trinity College Dublin

Steps institutions should take to encourage more mature female students to complete STEM courses

How to support women of all ages in post-secondary science education

Mature female students face barriers to success in STEM subjects, but steps can be taken to address this. Liette Vasseur explains what needs to be done

Liette Vasseur

Brock University

Advice on supporting Black women to progress in academic careers

Hidden in plain sight: spotlighting invisible Black female academics

Jummy Okoya outlines actions higher education institutions should take to encourage more Black women into academia and support their career progression

Jummy Okoya

University of East London

Advice on mentoring and teaching women with disabilities in higher education

Mentoring and teaching women with disabilities in universities

Inclusive teaching and mentoring practices that support women with disabilities to succeed in higher education, while improving access for all students, shared by Molly M. King

Molly M. King

Santa Clara University

Advice on the support needed to get more young women into higher education in sub-Saharan Africa

How to change the default settings that exclude women in sub-Saharan Africa from higher education

Angeline Murimirwa outlines the steps necessary to support young women from marginalised communities in sub-Saharan Africa into and through higher education

Angeline Murimirwa

CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education)

University admissions policies could be hold back diversity efforts for students wanting to study STEM subjects

Are STEM admissions processes hindering our diversity efforts?

The requirement for potential STEM students to have studied traditionally related subjects such as maths and physics seems outdated and unnecessary, says Judy Raper

Judy Raper

TEDI-London

Universities can help encourage women into coding by reclaiming this mind-expanding skill from big tech

How do we get more women into coding? Fix how it’s taught and used

It’s time women said to the tech industry: ‘It’s not me, it’s you.’ And universities can help by not confusing the art of computer programming with rather dull ‘careers in coding’

Andy Farnell

Visiting professor

Do EDI kitemarks provide any real protection for female academics subjected to online abuse?

Do EDI kitemarks help protect female researchers from online abuse?

While they allow institutions to claim commitment to gender equality, kitemarks do little to challenge them on their actual policies, say Andy Phippen and Emma Bond

Andy Phippen, Emma Bond

Bournemouth University, University of Suffolk

Selection criteria in academia often creates invisible barriers for underrepresented groups

We must dismantle the invisible career barriers in HE

Despite surface appearances, universities’ recruitment and selection practices still present hidden obstacles to under-represented groups

Rebecca Jarrett

Cranfield University