Organisations setting the standard

Five organisations that have been awarded UKRC’s SET Fair Standard:

Arup has been awarded an 'Achieving' SET Fair Standard award. Arup is a an independent, global firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists with a reputation for delivering innovative and sustainable designs that reinvent the built environment. The firm is responsible for the iconic structural design of the Sydney Opera House and, more recently, the National Aquatics Centre created for the Beijing Olympics. In 2009/10, Arup’s turnover was £889.2m. It has a global workforce of around 10,000 and a UK workforce of around 4,400. Arup were given the award for achieving excellence in gender equality best practice and, in doing so, playing a leadership role in tackling gender inequality in the wider sphere of science, engineering and technology (SET).

Read more about Arup and its ConnectWomen Network, set up with support from the UKRC

Read Arup's press release 'Arup receives 'Achieving' SET Fair Standard

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) supports and funds science and technology and works with the academic and industrial communities to share its expertise in a range of science  and technology fields including materials science, space and ground-based astronomy technologies, laser science, particle and nuclear physics, alternative energy production and radio communications. STFC has achieved an 'Achieving' SET Fair Standard award for the commitment and positive action the organisation has demonstrated towards gender equality.  STFC has created good foundations and clear leadership in this area and taken a number of practical steps to creating an inclusive workplace culture such as embedding an excellent set of monitoring and analysis processes and providing a wide range of family friendly benefits.

Bradford College Engineering Department led the way for further education providers by being the first in its field to be recognised as Committed to gender equality in SET. Assessors found the team demonstrated good practice through initiatives such as engineering courses designed for and delivered by women, with the feedback helping them improve female participation across their courses as a whole. The Department also made sure staff, learners and partners knew about the need for more recruitment and progression of women on its courses, with a track record of learning from feedback at all levels.

Halcrow Group Ltd was recognised as an Achieving organisation in gender equality good practice. The company is a leading consultancy with more than 8,000 employees and operates from a global network of over 70 offices. They have a wealth of female and family friendly policies and practices and they have made a commitment to tackling gender inequality public to their staff and partners. Halcrow have been working hard to recruit and retain more women into their SET professional and technician roles and already have a fair proportion of women overall, with very encouraging figures in some areas such as front-line management. They have a wide range of flexible working patterns and positive staff feedback from both women and men on career progression, and the fairness and transparency of decision-making in the field.     

Card Geotechnics Ltd is a small geotechnical and geo-environmental consultancy recognised as an Achieving organisation in gender equality good practice. They showed that gender equality good practice is equally as important in small organisations as well as the larger SET multinational companies. More than half their staff are female, and they have a relatively high proportion of women in management. They made a strong and ongoing business case for tackling gender inequality to staff, clients and partners. They also have a new gender equality policy which is expressly designed to take account of recent staff and other feedback. Card Geotechnics Ltd has made improvements in policy and practice, including extensive data collection and analysis that is especially good for such a small company. Staff are keen to point out how fair and equal they feel workplace culture and career progression is at Card Geotechnics, and how different this is from other companies in their experience.