Equity for women in STEMM academics as a strategic priority
Photo credit: Julia Walton
Prof. Paul Walton describes his commitment to building diverse research teams and faculties, using evidence and literature as the basis for action.
By Paul H. Walton with Janet G. Hering
28 October 2025, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16892389
Prof. Paul Walton has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York since 1993. He served as Department Chair between 2004 and 2010 [1]. During this time, he defined equity as a strategic priority for the department and did the ‘uncomfortable’ work needed to increase the representation of women on the chemistry faculty.
Since then, he has become a leading advocate for increasing diversity, a topic on which he has given 100’s of talks [2]. I had the opportunity to hear him speak at ETH Zurich on more than one occasion and was struck by his elegant integration of personal experience and research evidence [3]. This year, Paul Walton received the Inclusion and Diversity Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry [4]. He is a member of the advisory board for the GENIE (Gender Initiative for Excellence) project at Chalmers University in Sweden, for which he recorded an interview last year [5]. Video of one of his talks is also available online [6].
To me, Paul Walton is an inspiring example of a male ally who has worked to promote diversity for over two decades. As Patricia Maurice and I wrote in our post on male allies [7], it is important to acknowledge and celebrate such efforts. I am delighted that Paul Walton was willing to take the time to answer a few questions about his work on diversity.
Why do you believe it matters to have women in leadership positions?
Quite simply, because leadership is about talent, and talent is not the preserve of one gender. When half of the human population is systematically underrepresented at the top, we are wasting reservoirs of ability, insight and creativity. Diverse leadership teams make better decisions, not only because they reflect a wider range of experiences but because they disrupt the comfortable groupthink that can set in when everyone in the room has walked similar life paths. And from a moral standpoint, fairness is non-negotiable. If the playing field is uneven, then it’s our duty to level it.
What unique qualities and capabilities do you believe women leaders contribute to organizations and societies?
I tend to be wary of saying “all women bring X” because that can slip into stereotyping. But research — and my own experience — shows that when you have a critical mass of women in leadership, you often see more collaborative decision-making, stronger emphasis on consensus, and a heightened awareness of how policies affect the wider community. There’s also the power of visibility: women leaders signal to young people of all genders that leadership isn’t defined by outdated notions of who “looks the part.”
What was there in your life and career that led you to become an ally to women in STEMM?
The pivotal moment came when I first confronted the data — stark, unarguable statistics showing how women drop out of STEMM careers at every stage. You can’t un-see that. The second, equally important, was listening — truly listening — to women colleagues describe their experiences. Hearing their stories made me realise that good intentions weren’t enough; action was required. And then, as a department head, I saw the direct benefits of making equity a strategic priority.
Did you have any specific leadership training that helped you to become a more effective ally for women in STEMM and more broadly in leadership?
No, nothing that came neatly packaged in a course entitled “How to Be an Ally.” What I had was the privilege of working alongside people who were generous enough to educate me — sometimes patiently, sometimes bluntly — about the realities they faced. The “training” came through those conversations, through reading the literature on gender bias, and through the discipline of reflecting on my own assumptions. And I must add: making mistakes, being told, and learning from them.
Could you offer some examples of things you have done or seen other men do that have been particularly helpful for advancing women in leadership?
One simple but powerful action is amplification — ensuring that when a woman makes a point in a meeting, it is acknowledged, attributed, and built upon rather than quietly absorbed and re-branded by someone else. Another is sponsorship, which is different from mentorship: actively advocating for women to be considered for opportunities, grants, or promotions. I’ve also seen male colleagues take on the “office housework” — the thankless administrative tasks — so it doesn’t always fall to women. These actions send a message that equity is a shared responsibility.
What do you think academia could learn from other sectors to help better support women, especially in leadership?
Some sectors — particularly parts of industry — are more proactive in identifying leadership potential early and providing structured development paths. Academia could borrow from that playbook: formal succession planning, leadership shadowing, and clear criteria for advancement that are not based on unwritten rules or opaque networks. Also, other sectors tend to be more comfortable with measuring outcomes and holding leaders accountable for diversity targets. We could use more of that rigour.
What can we as an international community do to help women break through glass ceilings in STEMM and be successful in leadership positions?
We need coordinated action on three fronts:
Policy — enforceable measures for equal pay, parental leave, and anti-discrimination.
Culture — challenging everyday biases and ensuring women’s contributions are visible and valued.
Pipeline — investing in girls’ education and mentoring networks that stretch across borders.
And critically, we must share data openly. Transparency makes it much harder to ignore inequity.
Conclusions and questions for further thought
The case for women in leadership is not an optional extra — it is integral to excellence, fairness, and progress in STEMM and beyond. But cultural change is slow unless deliberately accelerated. The questions I’d leave you with are:
Are you, personally, willing to be uncomfortable in order to make change happen?
How can we make allyship the norm rather than the exception?
What systems have you inherited that need dismantling or redesigning — and what will you do about it?
Links and references
[1] https://www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/people/pwalton/ (accessed August 13, 2025)
[2] https://www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/people/pwalton/equality/ (accessed August 13, 2025)
[3] https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/associates/services/Anstellung-Arbeiten/fuehrung-und-entwicklung/leadership-development/P%20Walton%20Unconscious%20bias%20in%20an%20academic%20department.pdf (accessed August 13, 2025)
[4] https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/professor-paul-walton (accessed August 13, 2025)
[5] https://www.chalmers.se/en/current/news/a-journey-from-awareness-to-change/ (accessed August 13, 2025)
[6] https://www.nccr-mse.ch/en/equal-opportunity/paul-walton-on-gender-equality/ (accessed August 13, 2025)