Author Archives: Athene Donald

Working Together for Equity

Posted on 1 December 2019 by Athene Donald

This week I was honoured by the THE as the winner of their ‘Lifetime Achievement’ Award during their annual awards’ ceremony, for my work around gender equality issues. Photo courtesy of THE. With me are John Gill (L), their Editor … Continue reading →

Posted in champion, complicit, Equality, Lifetime Achievement Award, UCU | Comments Off on Working Together for Equity

How Silly Are You (or Pompous or Forthright)?

Posted on 27 November 2019 by Athene Donald

What’s wrong with being called gutsy? The new book by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton use it as a term of approbation, but it didn’t find favour with Emma Brockes in the Guardian. Why? ‘It’s partly that descriptors like “gutsy” seem … Continue reading →

Posted in adjectives, Equality, gendering, RateMyProfessor, Unconscious bias | Comments Off on How Silly Are You (or Pompous or Forthright)?

Doing Your Bit

Posted on 21 November 2019 by Athene Donald

When you have vulnerable people being harassed, what can you do? And I mean you. I have written a lot recently on my blog about the importance of bystanders. To learn more, I attended a recent training session regarding Bystander … Continue reading →

Posted in Bystander, education, Equality, harassment, intervention, toxic | Comments Off on Doing Your Bit

Science and Government, Science in Government

Posted on 15 November 2019 by Athene Donald

Before pre-election purdah set in, two interesting reports got published, one with more fanfare than the other. The one with more publicity attached was the long-awaited report (Changes and Choices) on options for future international funding by Adrian Smith and … Continue reading →

Posted in Adrian Smith, Areas of Research Interest, Jon Agar, Public Laboratories, Research, RSRE | Comments Off on Science and Government, Science in Government

Bias in Publishing

Posted on 6 November 2019 by Athene Donald

You’ll have heard the story about women whingeing about how their proudly-submitted papers got rejected by a premier journal without being sent out to referees. Or that the comments they received from referees were unduly harsh, but a male colleague’s … Continue reading →

Posted in editors, pipeline, Research, Royal Society of Chemistry, success rates, UKRI, Women in science | Comments Off on Bias in Publishing

Who’s a Crazy Bitch Then?

Posted on 27 October 2019 by Athene Donald

I was interested to read an article (not such a recent article in fact, but I’ve only just come across it via Twitter links) describing the misogynistic name-calling of senior women in Canadian universities. Headlined ‘The “crazy/bitch” narrative about senior … Continue reading →

Posted in Carole Cadwalladr, Equality, misogyny, Miss Triggs, name-calling, Women in science | Comments Off on Who’s a Crazy Bitch Then?

Seeing Red

Posted on 20 October 2019 by Athene Donald

Is anger a good spur to getting on and getting by? The recommendation to use it as a positive force came from three eminent colleagues this past week. I had the enormous pleasure of facilitating (I think that’s the right … Continue reading →

Posted in Carol Robinson, Daphne Jackson Trust, Julia Goodfellow, Julia Higgins, Women in science | Comments Off on Seeing Red

How Many ‘Firsts’ does it take to Change a System?

Posted on 13 October 2019 by Athene Donald

As the new academic year starts in Cambridge the University Library is  marking 150 years of women studying here, even if admission to degrees came much later in 1948. Collectively we can also note that for the first time essentially … Continue reading →

Posted in Equality, gender pay gap, Lucy Marshall, Sally Davies, Sonita Alleyne, University Library, Women in science | Comments Off on How Many ‘Firsts’ does it take to Change a System?

Another Year, Another Speech

Posted on 5 October 2019 by Athene Donald

Writing and delivering uplifting speeches comes with the territory of being the head of an Oxbridge College. Although my interview for the position at Churchill did not require a dry run of this, to check that I was capable of … Continue reading →

Posted in Baroness Brenda Hale, Christopher Frayling, CP Snow, education, Freshers, stereotyping | Comments Off on Another Year, Another Speech

What Do We Know about the Research Ecosystem?

Posted on 1 October 2019 by Athene Donald

While funders make decisions about where their money goes, and PhD students decide what to study, with whom and where before they go on to wander along the career maze; while publishers decide who to publish and universities around the … Continue reading →

Posted in careers, Equality, James Wilsdon, Research, RoRI, Science Culture | Comments Off on What Do We Know about the Research Ecosystem?