How our work helps Universities strengthen their Athena SWAN status
At Parent & Professional (P&P), we’re proud to support a number of clients in higher education who are committed to making real progress on equality and inclusion. Many of them, like University College London (UCL), choose to work with us not only to create better support for staff, particularly working parents, but also to enhance their Athena SWAN Charter work.
So, what is the Athena SWAN Charter, and how does our work fit in?
A Quick Overview of the Athena SWAN Charter
The Athena SWAN Charter is a framework that supports gender equality in higher education and research. It was established in 2005 to advance the careers of women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, and Medicine). Over time, it’s evolved, now supporting equality for all genders across all disciplines and roles, including both academic and professional services staff.
It helps universities identify and tackle barriers to inclusion, with the aim of creating fairer, more supportive workplaces where everyone can thrive.
You can read more about the updated Charter here.
What We Do at P&P to Support Athena SWAN Goals
Many of the universities we partner with are working toward achieving or renewing their Athena SWAN Bronze, Silver, or Gold awards.
Here’s how our coaching and programmes help:
1. Identifying Barriers and Taking Action
We help universities spot the specific challenges faced by underrepresented groups, such as working mothers, and take practical steps to remove them. This might include setting up tailored coaching, reviewing return-to-work support, or improving understanding of flexible working.
2. Supporting Working Parents
Much of our work focuses on making it easier for parents to balance their roles at home and at work. Whether through coaching, our parental transition digital learning platform or group sessions, our support helps parents feel seen and valued, and helps universities retain top talent.
3. Helping to Build a More Inclusive Culture
We support People Leaders and HR teams to have more confident, inclusive conversations – whether about parenting, caring, menopause or other life stages. These conversations are key to building the kind of inclusive culture that sits at the heart of the Athena SWAN framework.
4. Offering Evidence of Impact
When universities apply for or renew their Athena SWAN status, they need to show clear evidence of action. Our work offers practical examples and measurable outcomes that can feed directly into their submissions. We comprehensively evaluate our 1-1 coaching and group workshops, reporting on quantitative and qualitative data – showing how our work has increased support, wellbeing, confidence and career trajectory.
A Real-Life Example: University College London (UCL)
We worked with UCL to help tackle the equality barriers facing working mothers. This involved looking at how the university could offer more tailored support, such as return-to-work coaching and guidance for managers, so that staff felt better supported and more confident in balancing work and family life. Over our 10-year partnership, support has widened to help all working parents (not just new mums) to better manage their work/family balance.
You can read more about our work with UCL here.
Looking Ahead with Athena SWAN and Parent and Professional
We know that frameworks like Athena SWAN are most powerful when they lead to meaningful, lasting change. That’s why our focus is always on practical, people-first solutions that create a better experience for everyone.
If your university is working toward Athena SWAN goals and looking for fresh ideas or meaningful support, whether for working parents, carers or inclusive leadership, we’d love to help.