Female academics at Leicester are paid almost £10,000 less than male counterparts

Last year, Leicester University became one of 10 universities in the world to support the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign, led by Emma Watson, in a “quest to advance gender equality”. But it is still amongst the top five Universities with the largest gender pay gap. 

With International Women’s Day coming up, on Tuesday 8th March, the University and College Union have released a report ranking the inequalities in pay for academic staff at different institutions. The report reveals that the average academic salary for women working at Leicester University is £36,085, compared to £45,878 for men.

That’s £9,793 less, per year, for women working the same hours from early/mid-career to professorship level, proving that Leicester still has a few fundamental inequalities to address in order to “close the gap between men and women in key academic and career areas”.

The report also revealed that only 23% of professors across all institutions are women. Even in this minority, female professors at Leicester receive on average £6,265 less than men.

The University’s support for the gender equality campaign has been enforced through other commitments to “develop and implement a gender sensitisation curriculum for students, faculty and staff”, an initiative that was kick-started with the introduction of compulsory “anti-lad” classes for all students. A strong move, but is it bold enough considering one of the most fundamental gender inequalities is still apparent at a University priding itself on its advocation of the HeForShe gender equality movement?