The impact of Athena Swan accreditation on the lived experiences of early- and mid-career researchers: A qualitative study of an Athena Swan gold award-holding department

The Athena Swan (AS) charter was established in 2005 as a benchmark charter to address gender inequality issues in UK higher education institutions. In addition to providing a framework for implementing equality and diversity policies and practices among participating members, the bronze, silver and gold awards given by the AS certify participating institution’s commitment to and progress towards gender equality initiatives. Despite the increasing significance of the AS benchmark in the UK higher education sector, studies have seldom examined how the impact reported in the studies has shaped the lived experiences of the institutional members. This is especially important for women academics in their early- and mid-career stages in Science, whose voices are rarely recorded in relation to their daily life in AS-accredited departments. Therefore, this thesis adopts a Straussian grounded theory approach using a case study to examine the impact of AS accreditation on the lived experiences of early- and mid-career academics in Science disciplines in a department recognised as excellent in terms of successfully implementing Athena Swan principles within its culture.
This thesis empirically contributes to the literature on the impact of AS accreditation by showing that despite the case study department being recognised as excellent by the AS benchmark charter, the lived experiences of the early- and mid-career academics do not reflect the AS principles of inclusivity in their workspaces. Moreover, AS accreditation can be seen as window dressing with limited impact on the real-life experiences of early- and mid-career researchers. The AS gold action plans, without understanding the specific needs of the postdoctoral researchers, have resulted in its failure to improve the everyday working lives of early- and mid-career researchers who explained the loss of faith in gender equality initiatives like Athena Swan. Thus, in the context of this thesis, it is argued that the Athena Swan has, essentially, failed as an instrument to improve gender equality in academia
Furthermore, this thesis has wider implications for performative theory in relation to subcultural spaces wherein the departmental culture was found to be weak in promoting values of inclusion and support across the subcultures. Thus, the spaces become performative for women, requiring them to perform the ideal scientist role in accordance with the hegemonic norms in their subcultural spaces, suggesting that the AS accreditation of the department has not challenged the ideal scientist norm in Science disciplines.