Female professors!

When I started my work at Bangor University, our School had one female professor. As far as I know, that was the only one we had ever had. And after a few years she retired (which resulted in me taking over in the dissertation module from her). That left the entire professorat male! That didn't sit well with me at all. These are the 2020; not the 1970s. And over the years, I saw female colleagues drop by the wayside. All these women had been on their way up, but would never reach a professorship. 

The pandemic in the associated financial struggles of the University didn't help; for quite a while, there was a promotion stop. But we are past that now. There was a promotion round open! I didn't go for it. But one day I spoke with my Belgian colleague Katrien. She said she had applied for a promotion. She was a senior lecturer; the logical next step is reader. But she said she had applied directly for Professor. That was bold! But I hoped she would succeed.

We did have two female readers; they were the most senior women in the School. I had really hoped they would go for a professorship at some point. But would they, in this round?

Then one day at the end of the day, an email came in from the Head of School. The subject line said something about success and promotions. That piqued my interest. I opened it, and it said two of my colleagues had been promoted from junior lecturer to senior lecturer. Excellent. Two as well had been promoted from senior lecturer to reader. Also excellent. And then there were three people having been promoted to professor. And they were my Belgian colleague and the two female readers! This was such amazing news! That really lifted my spirits.

We had, and still have, seven male professors, so from being just one blokey block, it has now turned into a company with 70:30 gender ratio. (As I write this, one of the former readers is still listed as a reader; I hope they sort that soon.) That is such an improvement! Immediately, the School feels more welcoming to me. Hooray for our marvellous three new professors!