Griffith University has earned its second SAGE Cygnet Award in recognition of their improvements to attracting and recruiting women to academic roles in the Sciences Group.
Griffith is currently the only Queensland University to receive any Cygnet Awards and one of only eight Australian universities to have earned a Cygnet Award under the internationally recognised Athena Swan accreditation program for gender equity, diversity and inclusion.
Making change to women’s recruitment
The Award recognises the work Griffith has done to change their processes, resulting in:
- increasing women in the Sciences Group by 6% , in the School of Engineering by 15%, and in the School of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by 19%.
- increasing women at senior levels (level D & E) in the Sciences Group by 8%.
Innovator and advocate for women in STEMM Professor Chamindie Punyadeera said one of the reasons she joined the university in 2021 was that Griffith engaged with staff to drive real change.
“In a changing world, with respect to technological, environmental and societal shifts, it is important for an organization to lead activities on diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said.
A deep commitment to change
SAGE CEO Dr Janin Bredehoeft congratulated the team who drove this work.
“Griffith has made a deep commitment to improving gender equity in the science disciplines and it’s seen them tackle this challenge from many different angles, including hiring practices, flexible work and the visibility of diversity on staff.
“Their work to make change in STEMM has been thorough and impressively transparent. This Award recognises how seriously they have taken the challenge to build systemic, sustainable change.
“A big congratulations to everyone who has been involved.”
Provost and Athena Swan Committee Chair, Professor Liz Burd said this award shows how Griffith is making strides towards better representation of genders across the university.
“We are proud to receive our second SAGE Cygnet Award, demonstrating Griffith’s continued effort towards improving gender equity, diversity and inclusion,” Professor Burd said.
“This Award recognises the deliberate and targeted action to recruit more women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines over the past few years, in addition to significant improvements to the processes that support this recruitment.”
Griffith’s full application for the award can be found here.
About the Award
This second Cygnet achievement complements Griffith’s previous Award for LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
SAGE Cygnet Awards are earned by organisations demonstrating progress and impact in removing or reducing barriers to gender equality.
Once an organisation has successfully achieved five SAGE Cygnet Awards, they are eligible to apply for an Athena Swan Silver Award – an award that recognises and rewards progressing organisational maturity in gender equity, diversity and inclusion.
