Happy International Women's Day 2022
Joint statement from your Vice-Chancellor of the University and President of the Guild:
When we took up our posts, as Vice-Chancellor of the University and President of the Guild, we both made strong personal commitments to champion Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, recognising that valuing and celebrating difference is essential in building a contemporary global institution that is an exciting, inspiring and welcoming place to be.
This week has seen the spotlight shining on the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women across the globe, but also on the critical importance of accelerating the changes still needed to achieve true global equality for women and girls.
While we have a strong history of championing equality at Birmingham (for example we were England’s first university to accept students from all backgrounds on an equal basis, and were the first UK University to welcome women to study Medicine), we recognise that there is much more that we still need to do.
So we are reaffirming our own commitments, for example to working with partners to ensure women can feel safe around our campus and city, to continuing work to close the gender pay gap, to supporting more female academics through their careers to become Professors, and to increasing the visibility of female academics through our new partnership with the BBC5050 equality project. The Guild will continue to champion the work of societies such as the Intersectional Feminist Association, Reclaim Campus and Women in Law, Finance and Politics, supporting their dedication as changemakers in the fight for women’s equality.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #BreakTheBias and there are still lots of ways you can still get involved and show your support this month.
Best wishes,
Mikey Brown Adam Tickell
President, Guild of Students Vice-Chancellor, University of Birmingham