A Time-Series Analysis of the Impact of Athena Swan on the Representation of Women in Senior Roles

Abstract

Objectives: Athena Swan awards are designed to recognize higher education institutions’ (HEIs’) commitment to advancing ‘gender equality’. A previous study, published in BMJ Open, sought to identify quantitatively whether Athena Swan awards were associated with an increased proportion of women in senior positions over the period 2012-2018. We show that the statistical analysis in that paper was flawed. The current study addresses problems with the previous analysis in order to assess the relationship between Athena Swan awards and changes in women’s representation.

Design: Retrospective cohort study based on the UK HEIs.

Participants: 166 HEIs who provided staff data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on consecutive years between 2012 and 2019.

Outcome Measures: 1) The change in the proportion of women in senior leadership positions or professorial posts over a year.

2) Athena Swan award levels of institutions.

Results: We did not find any impact of Athena Swan awards on changes in the number of women in senior positions over the time-period studied. This is in contrast to the previous study which claimed “Athena SWAN members showed greater and faster growth in female representations”. Institutions with a low proportion of women in senior positions are more likely to be members of Athena Swan and are more likely to hold an award.

Conclusions: Institutions should not participate in the Athena Swan programme purely in the expectation of easily measured short-term improvements in female representation in senior roles.

Keywords: Athena Swan

JEL Classification: I23