Gender diversity in academic medicine

The BMJ analysis article examining the effect of gender diversity incentives in the UK’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funding awards process (doi:10.1136/bmj.m3975)1 has come at an interesting time.

Athena SWAN is a three level charter (bronze, silver, and gold) offered since 2005 to organisations that meet criteria to increase gender diversity. In 2011, the then chief medical officer and head of NIHR, Sally Davies, introduced a requirement that applicants for NIHR grants and places on academic training schemes must be working in institutions that held at least a silver Athena SWAN award. In September, as part of new measures to reduce bureaucracy for UK researchers in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic, Louise Wood, co-lead for NIHR, announced an end to this requirement.2 Wood’s announcement will come as a blow to those who believe gender equality to be a basic human right and gender diversity to be vital to the quality of health and …