To celebrate International Women’s Day, The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey, will host a discussion on leading change featuring speakers from four departments that have made the shift in the last ten years to close their academic gender gaps. The panel will include:

Professor Barbara Petrongolo, from the Department of Economics, which recently became the only Economics department in the country to hold a Silver Athena Swan award. Since 2018, their proportion of women Full Professors has risen from 8% to 17% and among Statutory Professors, the share of women has risen from 9% to 44%, above the current share of female professors at any other leading Economics department in the UK.
Professor Richard Hobbs, former Head of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, which achieved the University’s first Gold award in 2023. Between 2012 and 2023, the department progressed from having no female professors, to celebrating 5 female professors and 7 female Associate Professors.
Professor Sonia Antoranz Contera, from the Department of Physics, which recently became the first Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) Gold Athena Swan department. In the last 5 years, their proportion of female Associate Professors has risen from 14% to 40%.
Professor Rebeccah Slater, from the Department of Paediatrics, which also this year became a Gold Athena Swan department. They have increased their share of female professors from 1 of 6 (16%) in 2018, to 5 out of 11 Full Professors (45%) and 5 out of 8 Associate Professors (62%) in 2023.

There will be a chance to put your questions to the panel during a Q&A. For those attending in person, there will also be an opportunity to network over tea and coffee until 2.30pm.
This is an inclusive event and we warmly invite everyone to join and champion change for current and future generations of women.