4th June 2008, 09:09 AM
Thanks very much. In reality it may take a few months - here's why.
Women (and men) are very supportive of a group, but as it's the first of it's type it's going to take some organising! From the survey results, women want positive action and we really want to get it right. We hope to address issues through mentoring, the promotion of family-friendly working patterns (which will, I suspect, staggeringly increase profitability for units especially!) and networking. The forum will be part of all that.
Apart from this forum, it's actually very difficult to get hold of archaeologists, even when they're contained in universities! So yes, it's happening and we're enjoying the process of learning what needs doing. There are also many groups out there which have some policies we can affiliate on. In particular, another new group -Women in Heritage - is looking at mentoring schemes and we may partner on that with them. There is EU funding the IFA have used for their recent survey and other types of funding from central government. Money helps, and if we can get some assistance again we can do more, more quickly. This would be used for training mentors etc.
I hope this has helped give everyone an idea of what we're up to - but keep talking! When we acknowledge it, we're halfway there....
Women (and men) are very supportive of a group, but as it's the first of it's type it's going to take some organising! From the survey results, women want positive action and we really want to get it right. We hope to address issues through mentoring, the promotion of family-friendly working patterns (which will, I suspect, staggeringly increase profitability for units especially!) and networking. The forum will be part of all that.
Apart from this forum, it's actually very difficult to get hold of archaeologists, even when they're contained in universities! So yes, it's happening and we're enjoying the process of learning what needs doing. There are also many groups out there which have some policies we can affiliate on. In particular, another new group -Women in Heritage - is looking at mentoring schemes and we may partner on that with them. There is EU funding the IFA have used for their recent survey and other types of funding from central government. Money helps, and if we can get some assistance again we can do more, more quickly. This would be used for training mentors etc.
I hope this has helped give everyone an idea of what we're up to - but keep talking! When we acknowledge it, we're halfway there....