Industry targeted, reports Roger Livesey

March 2007 saw the launch of the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Charter for Women in SET, backed up by the UKRC (UK Resource Centre for Women in SET) Quality Mark. The Charter applies to industry the approach pioneered in the 2005 UKRC Athena SWAN Charter, which is accompanied by a system of SWAN awards.

The aim of the UKRC CEO Charter is to increase the participation, at all levels, of women in SET, to develop and communicate the business case for gender equality and to promote change within major companies and networks.

The CEO Charter and the Quality Mark were launched by Minister for Science and Innovation, Malcolm Wicks, at the UKRC annual conference in March this year.

At the time of writing, the UKRC CEO Charter had been signed by the CEOs of two major companies, thus committing themselves and their senior managements to actively support this aim. One UKRC Quality Mark had been awarded – to Freescale Semiconductor, which has a major semiconductor manufacturing operation in East Kilbride. The company impressed the UKRC sufficiently to be awarded the mark at ‘silver’ level (assessment is an ongoing process and a company might be expected to start at the lowest level, ‘bronze’, and proceed through ‘silver’ to ‘gold’).

Commenting on the award of a silver quality mark, the UKRC final assessor Dr Clare Wilson, Employer Liaison Coordinator, said: ‘This was an excellent performance, especially considering the relatively short time Freescale has been working in the area. However, it built on excellent work on other aspects of equality with very good existing approaches in a wide area, for example its approach to flexible working.’

The two major companies which had signed the CEO Charter were Atkins and BT Openreach. More are in the process of signing.

Businesses of any size are eligible to apply to sign the CEO Charter.

SWAN Charter

Membership of the Athena SWAN Charter, which has been administered by the Royal Society, is open to all UK universities, university departments and research institutes which are committed to working towards the achievement of the aims of the Athena Project: ‘the advancement and promotion of the careers of women in science, engineering and technology in higher education and research, and to achieve a significant increase in the number of women recruited to top posts.’

So far, 25 members have signed up to the Athena SWAN charter and 16 SWAN awards have been made – 11 bronze and five silver. Some case studies can be found on the Athena website.

Details of the CEO Charter and UKRC Quality Mark can be found on the UKRC website.

To date, the UKRC has provided sole funding for the Athena SWAN charter; but in the future the UKRC and the ECU will be providing joint funding. 

Rachel Morfill works flexibly

A Chartered Electrical Engineer and Data Analysis Manager at National Grid, Rachel joined 14 years ago as a graduate – one of three women among 16 men.

The changes since then have contributed to her staying at National Grid. ‘It’s when you have a child you find that working 9 to 5 and staying late isn’t always the right option,’ she says.

Rachel believes it was important that these changes were driven from the top, lead by Steve Holliday, who is now the company CEO. ‘National Grid would not have moved forward without the senior level support,’ she says, ‘but it’s not just that; a big problem for women is lack of confidence, and knowing that there’s support behind you gives you the confidence to be yourself.’

Rachel works flexibly, working from home one day a week to meet family commitments. In addition, over half of her all-male team works flexibly. ‘It’s not just a thing for women,’ she says.

An example of the change was the differences Rachel experienced during her two periods of maternity leave. ‘The first maternity leave was only three months but on my return I was completely out of touch. The second time I was on leave for a year but the introduction of a “Keep in touch” scheme meant when I came back, I knew all the new faces and was up to date on developments,’ she says.

The voluntary scheme ensures that employees on leave receive regular news by email, are invited to team briefings and social events and hear of job vacancies while they are away.

Roger Livesey is the UKRC’s Public Relations Officer