Case Study: Occupational Segregation - University of Southampton

Southampton University set up the WiSET (Women in SET) Network after extensive auditing work revealed that women were under-represented in the Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) disciplines. This was the first of the University’s networks to be set up. WiSET has a large group of members who meet on a regular basis to discuss the promotion and recruitment of women in what is very much a male oriented career group.

The WiSET group has been instrumental in a number of positive initiatives for women, such as, Action Learning Sets where women can share experiences and explore career options, and Mentoring Schemes in various academic schools. The group also holds the annual Campbell lecture where each year a prominent woman speaks about her achievements and experiences in science, engineering and technology.

Since the network was set up, further auditing work has revealed that the gender profiles for SET disciplines have improved, for example, the number of female professorial staff in the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Maths has doubled from 3 to 6. The achievements of the group have inspired similar networks to form in the Law, Arts and Social Sciences faculties.

The University completed its second equal pay review which showed that the equal pay gap for the Education, Research and Enterprise career pathway reduced from 14% in 2005 to 6%. In a Times Higher Educational Supplement article on equal pay in universities, Southampton had the smallest pay gap of all the Russell Group universities.

Specific achievements of the WiSET Network include:

• Developing a website and marketing campaign to publicise its work
• Inviting world leading computer scientist, Professor Deborah Estrin, to speak about wireless sensing systems at the annual Campbell lecture
• Organising an audience for women in the university with a female deputy Vice-Chancellors to provide an insight into the career path of a senior female academic within the university
• Advancing a mentoring scheme for post-docs in the School of Medicine and evaluating its effectiveness. The scheme will now be rolled out to other schools
• Producing an action plan including developing more school focussed reporting, setting up an induction programme in the School of Medicine, raising the question of the structure of part-time contracts, and making clear the University’s targets on promoting women in SET