All-staff talk: #BreakTheBias
11 March 2022
Chief Financial Officer Sam Foley introduced our session celebrating International Women’s Day, where she was joined by four female colleagues who gave their personal perspective on challenging gender stereotypes in their fields and working to #BreakTheBias.
Sam has recently been appointed the University’s Executive Board Sex Equality Champion, which means she represents the views of our female colleagues at the most senior leadership level at the University. In this role she collaborates closely with the other diversity champions on the Executive Board, the Diversity and Inclusion team, and the Women@Reading staff network.
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Professor Christine Carin works in the Chemistry department in 2016. Christine reflected on the immense changes for women in science in the 50 years since she started her PhD. Christine said at the start of her career women in science were not taken seriously, it was “assumed you’d get married, have babies and quit science. I did first two but not the final one!”, as a science is a key part of her identity, but that now “I don’t often think about being a woman in science, but I certainly used to…and that I am crazy to do this.”
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Yemisi Bolade-Ogunfodun is a Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Henley Business School. Her collaborative research projects examine the role of culture in African entrepreneurship and management. Yemisi spoke about the challenges and biases she has had to overcome during her career, contrasting her early career in banking in Nigeria with her working life as a black female academic. Key for her success as an academic was the importance of selecting role models from a wide variety of backgrounds, and to build strong support networks.
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Miriam Marra is an Associate Professor of Finance at the ICMA Centre. She is the organiser of the annual Henley Business School Women in Business event and is passionate about the topic of encouraging diversity and women in leadership. Miriam spoke about the importance of flexible working arrangements and the important role this plays in women’s identities. For those wanting to work flexible, she emphasised the importance of purpose and clarity when proposing this to their managers, and that the University does have the policies and procedures in place to help women to work flexibly.
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Trish Reid - is the Head of the School of Arts and Communication Design and a Professor of Theatre and Performance. Trish talked about her varied career which began in Glaswegian all-girl punk bands before she entered academia in her thirties. She elaborated on many challenges that remain for women, even though they may be less overwhelming and daunting than previously. The higher education sector is not yet an even-playing field or a meritocracy, and it is vital that women continue to organise themselves, like the Women@Reading network, and challenge these barriers.
You can also access the recording on Microsoft Stream.
Previous talks
- Engaging the media (Thursday 24 February)
- Disability and Neurodiversity Review (Wednesday 9 February)
- University's role in plans for development of Shinfield (Wednesday 2 February)
- Portfolio Review Pathway update (Thursday 13 January)