Guidance and resources
The following policies, guidance and external resources are related to the Athena Swan initiative at Heriot-Watt. If you know about other relevant resources not shown here, please send details to equality@hw.ac.uk.
Heriot-Watt practice and policies
- Human Resources (all policies)
Information on Family Friendly policies including maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental leave, unpaid parental leave, emergency dependants leave, time out for antenatal appointments, and flexible working.
You will also find the University's promotions, remuneration, equality and diversity, and performance and development policies.
The University has developed an inclusive workload framework to ensure workloads are fair and transparent including consideration of part-time modes of employment.
Your home life and your work life are rarely completely separate. What’s happening at home has an influence at work and vice versa. Here we share some of the different ways Heriot-Watt can support you in finding the optimum balance in your family, personal and work commitments at our UK campuses. Case studies demonstrate real-life examples.
Starting or adding to your family can be a wonderful and exciting time. As you transition to your new circumstances, these tailored coaching sessions provide structure and support to help you work through the issues that are important to you, such as maintaining work/life balance or furthering your career whilst being a parent.
A peer support network of staff and students at Heriot-Watt who are parents and/or carers. An online Teams space provides a forum for sharing experiences, exchanging tips and advice, and connecting with others. The network aims to have a few in-person gatherings per year.
The University supports staff and students to continue to breastfeed on their return to work or study. We provide dedicated facilities for breastfeeding, expressing and storage of milk at our Edinburgh and Dubai campuses. Where dedicated facilities are not available, arrangements can be made on a case-by-case basis with your line manager, to provide you with a private, healthy and safe environment to breastfeed/express. Where possible you will also be provided with access to a secure, clean fridge to store the milk.
If you would like to know more about your local dedicated facility, to arrange a visit or gain longer term access, please contact the relevant person listed below:
Edinburgh Nursing Room: Hugh Nisbet Building, Room 2.22, contact: Main Reception, extn 3501, or email Frontdesk@hw.ac.uk This room is fully equipped. There is also a small rest/feeding room at the Lyell Centre on the first floor: Room 1.06., lockable, drop-in use (not bookable, but contact Fiona Jackson faj@bgs.ac.uk or Malcolm Laird mdcl@bgs..ac.uk if any problems or feedback). Kitchen facilities nearby for bottle sterilising and storage.
Borders Nursing Room: Room 216 of the High Mill, contact: tex-business-support@hw.ac.uk
Dubai Nursing Room: Female Block, contact: Hari Krishnan m.harikrishnan@hw.ac.uk
Baby changing facilities are provided all around our campuses. Please contact Main Reception if you are having trouble locating a suitable facility.
External resources
Publications
- “Girls Are as Good as Boys at Math” Implies That Boys Are Probably Better: A Study of Expressions of Gender Equality - Chestnut and Markman (2018)
- Females in computing: Understanding stereotypes through collaborative picturing - Berg, Sharpe and Aitkin (2018)
- LERU advice paper: Implicit bias in academia and what to do about it (2018)
- The abrasiveness trap: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews - Snyder (2014)
- Elite male faculty in the life sciences employ fewer women - Sheltzer and Smith (2014)
- The Presence of Female Conveners Correlates with a Higher Proportion of Female Speakers at Scientific Symposia - Casadevall and Handelsman (2014)
- Successful female leaders empower women's behavior in leadership tasks - Latu, Ioana M el al (2013)
- Gender differences in scientific productivity: a persisting phenomenon? - van Arensbergen, P et al (2012)
- Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students - Moss-Racusin, C.A. (2012)
- The Matilda Effect in science: Awards and prizes in the US, 1990s and 2000s - Lincoln, A. E. et al. (2012)
- Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality - Gaucher D et al (2011)
- Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science - Ceci, S. J. and Williams W. M. (2011)
- A linguistic comparison of letters of recommendation for male and female chemistry and biochemistry job applicants - Schmader T et al (2007)
- Work-related travel, gender and family obligations - Gustafson, P. (2006)
- Social incentives for gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations: sometimes it does hurt to ask - Bowles, H et al (2006)
- "Someone like me can be successful": Do college students need same-gender role models? - Lockwood P (2005)
- ‘Are You Going Home Already?’ The long hours culture, women managers and patriarchal closure - Rutherford, S. (2001)
- The Matthew Effect in Science - Merton, R. K. (1968)
Web resources and tools
- Athena Forum statement on tax exemption for childcare costs when attending work-related training
- Avoiding gender bias in letter of reference writing
- Equate Scotland: Women in Science, Engineering & Technology
- Gender decoder for job adverts based on Gaucher et al 2011
- Harvard Implicit Association Test
- Henpicked - Menopause support
- The Women's Room directory of female experts - register yourself!
- Using positive-action language to recruit diverse talent (Equate Scotland leaflet)
- Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)
- Women's Engineering Society (WES)
- Women in Mathematics
- Women in Research (Facebook)