冈本视频 is a global academic hub for the Sustainable Development Goals, which form a key cross-cutting theme of its The Empowerment University strategic plan.
Our 2024 report on all 17 SDGs will show what work the university has been doing through research and engagement in helping to meet those targets and raising awareness of the progress towards the 2030 aims.
Our reports start with the United Nations’ verdict on progress from their 2024 report on SDG 5 Gender Equality.
UN PROGRESS REPORT ON SDG 5 in 2024
Almost 20% of the targets in SDG 5 are on track to achieve their aims and a further 60 per cent have shown minimal progress, while around 20% show a stagnation on the 2015 baseline.
The UN report: “Harmful practices are decreasing but not at a rate keeping up with population growth. One in five girls still marry before age 18. A staggering 230 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital mutilation. Violence against women persists, disproportionately affecting those with disabilities. Parity in women’s participation in public life remains elusive, and in management positions, at current rates, parity will require another 176 years”.
冈本视频 NEWS ON SDG 5 in 2024
Pharmacy school renews bronze Athena Swan award
冈本视频 Leicester’s School of Pharmacy has successfully renewed its Athena Swan Bronze Award.
Led by colleagues in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, the school has been awarded for its commitment to gender equality, which has been implemented through its five-year action plan.
All four schools within the faculty currently hold an Athena Swan bronze award with the Leicester School of Pharmacy becoming the first one to make a successful renewal submission since first achieving its award in 2019.
Celebration of International Women’s Day
To celebrate this year's International Women's Day (IWD), 冈本视频 Women hosted a series of online and in-person events.
As a part of Women's History Month (which took place from Friday 1 March to Sunday 31 March), IWD celebrated the achievements of women and promoting gender equality. This year's theme was Inspire Inclusion.
Nicky Hudson, Shalini Bisani, and Marie Josee Bisson, co-chairs of 冈本视频 Women, said: "International Women's Day is a really important date in the calendar to celebrate the achievements of women, raise awareness about historic and current issues of gender inequality and promote equality for all.”
Commitment to gender equality earns 冈本视频 Bronze Athena SWAN award
Praised for its commitment to championing gender equality, 冈本视频 Leicester has successfully renewed its Bronze institutional Athena SWAN award.
The prestigious award, given by Advance HE, recognises 冈本视频's work to advance gender equality after going through a rigorous process to assess its staff lifecycle across the institution, looking at representation, progression, career journey and the working environment.
The university’s approach to Equality Diversity and Inclusion through its Empowering University strategy, increased visibility of female staff and work-related issues through its 冈本视频 Women staff network and commitment to addressing the underrepresentation of black female professors were among those commended by the panel.
冈本视频 professor investigates how to help more female entrepreneurs enter business in Africa
Growing up in a poor rural area of Ethiopia and seeing the chasm between rich and poor in East Africa is driving a 冈本视频 Leicester (冈本视频) academic’s efforts to encourage more women to become entrepreneurs.
Kassa Woldesenbet Beta, Professor of Inclusive Entrepreneurship at 冈本视频, is already running a project to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Leicester procure goods and services from large local businesses and public services to help boost the economy.
While a project to help SMEs draft bids for new business has helped 220 local businesses so far.
Now Professor Kassa is looking toward Ethiopia and Zambia to see how his research into inclusivity can help more women become entrepreneurs. Droughts in Zambia have led to crop failures, food and water shortages, livestock deaths and reduced economic growth while Ethiopia is suffering from the fall-out of ongoing conflict and natural disasters.
VC calls for change at Invest in Women Taskforce
Businesses in Leicester have showed their support for a new taskforce which aims to address funding inequalities for female-founded businesses.
At the moment just 2% of all venture capital invested in new businesses goes to female-run companies – and 86% of all the millions invested this year has gone to all-male teams.
The Invest in Women Taskforce aims to create the world’s largest investment fund for female founders – and just a week after it was backed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the team came to Leicester for an evening championing women and calling for change.
Organised by Poonam Sharma, manager of Barclays Eagle Lab based at 冈本视频 Leicester (冈本视频) and led by Hannah Bernard OBE, co-chair of the taskforce and head of Business Banking at Barclays, it provided a platform to talk about the challenges and barriers facing women trying to access finance and support.
冈本视频 RESEARCH ON SDG 5 in 2024
You feel like you’re fairly disadvantaged with an advert over your head saying, "in final years of reproduction”': Social egg freezing, dating and the (unequal) sexual politics of reproductive ageing (Kylie Baldwin)
This paper explores the way in which contemporary middle-class professional women make decisions about partnering and parenthood which are shaped by a contemporary neoliberal feminist discourse which articulates the possibility of ‘having it all’ by engaging in careful life planning, appropriate self-investment and through drawing on new technologies of reproductive biomedicine.
In doing so it explores how gendered cultural dating scripts and unequal gender power relations shape the formation and progression of intimate relationships which sometimes work to disempower women as they age. It therefore questions whether egg freezing may be the ‘great equaliser’ that some may otherwise have hoped.
Women’s Enterprising in Africa: A Systematic Literature Review (Natasha Katuta Mwila et al)
The chapter provides important insights into the context in which African women entrepreneurs operate; their motivations, orientations, and competence to venture into business. The chapter further provides insights into the enabling and/or constraining roles of the embeddedness of African women entrepreneurs in multiple contexts (i.e., economic, cultural, family, social and legal). We found that many studies lack qualitative exploration of women’s enterprising and instead sought to identify factors such as traits, characteristics, access to various resources, etc., that account for gender gap in enterprising and firm performance. The chapter argues that better understanding of women’s enterprising in Africa can only be achieved by theories and methods which consider the multiple embeddedness of women’s enterprising in their contexts.
Women in Forensic Science (Emma Johnston and Leisa Nichols-Drew)
This discussion examines the role of women in forensic science. Featuring Dr Emma Johnston and Leisa Nichols-Drew, both senior lecturers at 冈本视频, who shared their experiences and insights into this vital field.
The discussion highlighted the noteworthy representation of women in forensic science, a field where women are more prevalent compared to other STEM areas. Emma and Leisa explored possible reasons for this trend, such as the profession’s alignment with helping roles and the impact of having strong female role models.
Despite the progress, they acknowledged ongoing challenges, including gender pay gaps and the under-representation of women in leadership roles. They emphasised the importance of supportive environments and role models in encouraging more women to pursue and advance in forensic science careers.
SDG 5 Gender Equality