SDG 5 - Gender Equality

We're working to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Learn about our recent work, progress, and impact.

Our recent work and impact on SDG 5: Gender Equality

SDG 5 (Gender Equality) aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, closing the gender gap and ensuring equal opportunities for all.

Our research explores equality, representation, inclusion, social justice and barriers affecting participation across education, work and society.

AIMMS

We are a founding member of AIMMS, the UK’s first National mentoring scheme supporting minority women in academic medicine. The programme connects women from ethnic minority backgrounds across clinical and non-clinical career pathways, enabling them to act as mentees and mentors.

By building networks and providing role models, AIMMS is helping to tackle underrepresentation and strengthen inclusion in medical education and research.

Student working in the RILD lab

Read our SDG 5 progress report for 2024/25

Our vision is to create a positive and inclusive working environment that is a great place to work. Promoting and embedding gender equality is central to this vision and our progress in this area has been recognised with our institutional Athena Swan Silver Award.

Following on from the University's engagement in these gender equality accreditations, the Gender Equality Group (GEG) meets termly to discuss a range of gender-related issues affecting staff and students at our institution and monitor our Gender Equality Action Plan.

Women on Boards

Women on Boards (WOB) aims to provide further support to achieve gender equality at the University, in particular at the Executive level, in addition to supporting our commitment to reducing the gender pay gap. WOB will also support our Athena Swan applications in recognising a solid foundation for eliminating gender bias and developing an inclusive culture that values all staff.

Women in Climate Network

The Women in Climate (WiC) Network is a joint University of Exeter and Met Office initiative to support the retention of women in climate science and promote diversity. Women in Climate is a bottom up initiative to support and encourage the retention of women in climate science.

Research

Shame and Medicine an interdisciplinary research project funded by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award. The project is led by Luna Dolezal (University of Exeter) and Matthew Gibson (University of Birmingham). The overall aim of the project is to research the role of shame in various aspects of health and medicine, including clinical practice, patient experience and medical student education. Shame and Medicine is engaging a team of researchers in social sciences, cultural studies, medicine and philosophy to investigate the philosophy and cultural representation of shame in medicine, while also doing empirical studies looking at shame experiences in current healthcare practices and professional culture, particularly exploring how race, ethnicity, class and gender impact on the experience of shame.