Professor Terry Threadgold FLSW is a feminist scholar, internationally acclaimed for her work on gender, race and identity. Here, she charts the equity, diversity and inclusion [EDI] journey the Learned Society of Wales has been on since it formed in 2010 and identifies the hurdles that remain to be cleared. 

It is interesting, as I begin to think about finally retiring this year from my position as chair of the LSW Council’s EDI Working Group, to reflect on the progress we have made since 2017 and to think about both some of the stages of the journey that have got us to where we are today and the obstacles we faced along the way as well as all the work that still needs doing.

The LSW was founded in 2010 with the election of 55 men and 6 women.

I was elected a member of LSW Council in 2016. I am not usually lost for words but, in that still very masculine context, I could not really see where I belonged, what I might have to say, or how I might contribute. I spoke about this to one of the then Vice Presidents and over coffee he explained there was a job for me here if I was interested. Council needed to appoint a Chair to carry out a review of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in all aspects of the Society’s work. Agreeing to do it, I thought, would certainly get me included. Accomplishing inclusion was, however, just as difficult at the time as most attempts at inclusion of others tend to be.

In 2014, Professor Terry Rees had carried out a review of gender in the Society. A key recommendation of her report was to increase the number of women nominated; in that year, the percentage of women nominated was 14%. A subsequent review in 2017 derived in part from this Rees report and also from a commissioned series of interviews. These explored external perceptions of the Society and, along with the views of the fellowship, fed into the Society’s next five-year strategy.

The world does not stand still and our processes and our forms need to keep up with that change.

A number of issues emerged from those interviews: the Society was not telling a clear enough story about what it was for and what it was doing; and those interviewed argued for greater diversity in its people and its work. It also highlighted that the definition of ‘learned’ needed to be broader, to include others, perhaps from industry or in the earlier stages of their career. However, it was also felt that the impact of the work and leadership of the Society, the voice of the Society, as it were, had great potential ‘to help power Wales forward.’

By 2017, women made up 27% of those elected to the fellowship. There were by then 380 men and 85 women. By this time, there was a small administrative staff team and an established election process, albeit one that was designed to be ‘exclusive’ rather than inclusive. There was clearly a great deal of change to be considered and the brief for the 2017 review, approved by Council, included the entire nomination process, the structure, form and governance of the Scrutiny Committees, the governance of the Society particularly the human resource area, and the drafting of a strategic equality plan.

A review group was set up comprising of 4 external members and 17 Fellows. This group set up a nominations working group, a diversity working group, and a strategic plan task and finish group. I chaired a series of focus groups across Wales and held interviews with scrutiny panel chairs. The changes that resulted from this work were extensive. The nomination forms were rewritten to be more inclusive of a number of otherwise excluded groups: women, people from universities other than Swansea or Cardiff and staff whose profiles and excellence displayed different forms of research activity, in teaching and scholarship or civic mission, for example. We introduced benchmarking, to provide transparency and clarity. The cap on Fellows elected each year was restructured from 40 to ‘around 40 and clear criteria was introduced, which, if met, would always result in election. Feedback was provided for unsuccessful candidates, and an individual circumstances form introduced.

In addition, a Fellowship Committee was established, to be chaired by the Vice Presidents and to carry out, among other things, a regular review of the nomination process. The world does not stand still and our processes and our forms need to keep up with that change. Similar changes were made more recently to include a whole range of difference and diversity under the heading of ICAP: Industry, Commerce, the Arts and the Professions. The Fellowship committee rewrote the former C1 scrutiny panel to introduce two ICAP panels with their own requirements relevant to the particular nominees who may need to use them and who, when elected, diversify and enrich our Fellowship.

Change will involve not just supporting those colleagues, but also making the target of the change not these individuals, but those of us who are privileged, and teaching ourselves about the ways in which we may be complicit with oppression.

Following all of this, in 2022 we had our first year of near gender equality in our elected Fellows – partly as a result of our Council members pledging to specifically nominate Women. However, the numbers are not are not stable and we will continue to encourage our Fellows to nominate Women every year.

These changes are all examples of equity in practice. But we still have more to do.

We have not yet addressed the whole range of other protected characteristics listed in the 2010 Equality Act. We are just beginning to address the issue of nominating more people from an ethnic minority background and celebrating their contributions to learning in Wales. One third of those elected in the 23-24 election process, with a special effort by Council members, were Fellows identifying as from a minority ethnic background. We will not be able to maintain this without continuing with this work.

Change will involve not just supporting those colleagues, but also making the target of the change not these individuals, but those of us who are privileged, and teaching ourselves about the ways in which we may be complicit with oppression. The excellence in achievement, reputation and impact that we are looking for in our fellowship must be judged in relation to both the intersectional circumstances an individual has faced, and to the quality not quantity of achievement or output.

I am going to conclude this blog by asking you to note the vacancies that are currently being advertised on the EDI Working Group. The deadline for expressions of interest is on the 13th January – if you are interested in putting your name forward and supporting the continuation of this work, please do. We are also more than happy to talk to anyone who is interested in finding out more – please reach out and speak to our Head of Equity and Engagement, Helen Willson on hwillson@lsw.wales.ac.uk