The University of Western Australia (UWA) has earned its fourth and fifth SAGE Cygnet Awards, which recognise sustained institutional action to address barriers to promotion, progression, and retention for academic women.

One award recognises an overhaul of the academic promotion process to remove any bias in the system; while the other recognises a broader shift in how UWA defines and rewards academic success.

“UWA’s work in these cygnets reflects a connected effort: rebuilding the promotion system so more women can see themselves progressing and retiring a research-focused measure of success so teaching, service and part-time work are fully taken into account,” said Dr Janin Bredehoeft, CEO of SAGE.

Rebuilding the promotion process

Benchmarking showed UWA promoted academic staff at a lower rate than the rest of the Group of Eight universities. This picture was further clarified with UWA’s 2015 Athena Swan Bronze evaluation, showing women applied for promotions less often and had lower promotion rates than men in most years between 2010 to 2014.

A review found ambiguous criteria and insufficient acknowledgement of diverse careers. This failed to recognise teaching contributions and other experience, holding women back.

In 2020, UWA rewrote the rules. Clear criteria were provided for every level of promotion for staff that had teaching-intensive, research-intensive, or teaching and research roles. Academic portfolios were replaced with a shorter Case for Promotion and one annual promotion round a year was implemented instead of rolling assessments throughout the year.

In 2026, UWA added a Gender Equity in Academic Promotions Program offering guidance and writing support to women and non-binary staff in applying for promotions.

Growing confidence in promotion pathways

Promotion applications from women at UWA rose from 25 in 2017 to 57 in 2025, and their success rates matched or exceeded men’s in every year except 2022.

The overall academic promotion rate for women reached 5.3% in 2025, up from 4.0% in 2017 and peaking at 10.0% in 2020. However, the 2025 overall academic promotion rate for men was still higher at 6.5%.

Even though, women’s success rates are generally higher or equal to men’s year-on-year, women’s application rate remains a downward pressure in reaching gender-balance in the overall academic promotion rates.

A Head of School commented during a feedback interview on the growing confidence and uptake in staff seeking promotion:

“From 2014 to 2020, when the promotion system changed, I had only maybe five staff going for promotion. But I’ve had five this year alone. People are understanding applying for promotion is so much more straightforward.” (Interview, Head of School, Woman)

Redefining academic success

UWA’s Bronze evaluation also found that a narrow, research-focused definition of success was holding women back, overlooking service, engagement and teaching, and Achievement Relative to Opportunity (ARTO).

From 2008, its Socratic Index scored academics on PhD supervision, grants and publications, and was used in different ways across the university, with some Schools using it for sabbatical, promotion or workload allocation decisions, without accounting for teaching, service, ARTO, part-time FTE, or career breaks. UWA’s Academic Council discontinued the Socratic Index in 2019. A teaching-intensive pathway to Professor was also introduced, along with joining the Advance HE Fellowship scheme.

Since 2020, ARTO has given staff the ability to explain how part-time work, disability, medical conditions, cultural obligations or caring responsibilities have shaped their record. ARTO has been built into promotions and research awards, and the sabbatical policy was amended in 2022 to explicitly include teaching-intensive staff.

After academic success was redefined, women were more likely than men to receive high performance ratings.

A Head of School said the change in how teaching is regarded has been one of the clearest shifts:

“Teaching is now seen as just as important as research and that sends a really positive message to our academic community, and all of our teaching support staff.” (Interview, Head of School, woman)

Between 2023 and 2025, women used ARTO in 53.8% of promotion applications, compared to 37.9% for men. 75.3% of women who used it were promoted, compared to 71.2% for women who did not.

Future focus

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Advancement and Diversity) Professor Fiona McGaughey said the increased numbers of women applying for promotion, receiving high ratings in performance appraisals, and undertaking sabbatical was encouraging.

“Women report teaching being valued more than previously, and having access to more career development opportunities such as sabbaticals and Advance HE Fellowships,” she said.

“However, we know that staff identifying as women, non-binary, LGBTIQA+, disabled, or from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds continue to face barriers.”

UWA is open about what is still to be done. Women’s promotion application rate remains below men’s due to lower applications rates, and the women’s sabbatical rate was 2.6% in 2025, compared to 3.9% for men.

UWA will consider how to reduce barriers, such as moving the promotion deadline to a less busy time of year, plans to embed promotion discussions in performance reviews, and will establish transparent reporting on ARTO and sabbatical.

The awarding of UWA’s fourth and fifth Cygnet Awards means the University is now eligible to begin the SAGE Athena Swan Silver process, in which further barriers to gender equity will be identified and addressed.

Find out more

SAGE Cygnet Awards celebrate organisations that have demonstrated progress in making their workplaces more equitable by removing or reducing a barrier to inclusion. They must be able to show that these changes have had a real impact on staff and/or students.

This builds on The University of Western Australia’s previous Cygnet Awards on gender imbalance in engineering, women in leadership and the visibility of women. 

Read UWA’s full award applications and progress and impact summaries here.

About SAGE

SAGE is Australia’s peak gender equity, diversity and inclusion not-for-profit working with the tertiary education and research sectors to improve representation of women and marginalised groups.

SAGE delivers Australia’s only internationally recognised evidence-based, tailored workplace accreditation program that supports, advises, and guides tertiary education and research institutions to build their skills and deliver meaningful and sustained action that moves the dial on gender equity, diversity, and inclusion.