Athena Swan in high gear

The deadline for applying for our Athena Swan award was getting closer and closer. And there was still a lot to do! So after things such as fieldwork and applying for promotion I would still do the occasional things that really need doing, like dealing with my master student, but otherwise I was full-time on the application. During the day. During the evening. In the weekends. It was exhausting, but at least I knew it would be temporary. And it felt good to have some help.

On the topic of my own promotion, by the way; I figured I would be a fool to sacrifice my own career to that of the School; I basically had done that before by working myself a terrible RSI, only to be threatened with redundancy. And I wasn't keen on repeating anything like that. Hence that when I received feedback from my line manager, I prioritised my own promotion application over the Athena Swan application of the School, and spent a Saturday on that. 

I would feel so good once I would have submitted the Athena Swan application! And then, of course, the wait is on to see if it would be granted. If it is, that would be fab. If it isn't, we get feedback, and the opportunity to resubmit within six months. But at least these are not the busiest six months of the academic year. In winter, for instance, I was already working on the application, but I was so bogged down with marking work that I got very little else done. And that is one of the reasons why it comes down to the last minute now. With a resubmission I suspect less of that. Wish me luck for the final sprint!