Support for Female Academics in the Media

A number of female academics have reported instances of abuse when using both online and mainstream media to disseminate their research. Whilst any instances of abuse in the media are of concern, women appear to being disproportionately targeted, both in the type and level of abuse.

We know from our work with Athena SWAN that a major barrier to women’s career progression is the difficulty of balancing caring responsibilities with the need to travel to promote research. Online and print media provide a means of promoting research without travelling, and it is therefore of particular concern if women feel unsafe or threatened when engaging with these channels.

We would like to invite you to a “lunch and learn” workshop for female academics which will be hosted on 28 March. As well as hearing from women about their experiences, there will also be presentations from the press office and social media teams on how they can support academics to ‘stay safe’ online and with the media.