Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales, Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the School of Engineering and Informatics

This International Women’s Day we are celebrating our women Early Career Researchers – have your portrait taken and celebrate being part of the community of amazing women at Sussex.

International Women's Day (IWD) has been around for over a hundred years, as have many of the issues still impacting women's advancement.  IWD belongs to all who care about women's equality, want to celebrate women's achievements, and raise awareness about discrimination.

Last year to celebrate International Women’s Day, Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales, Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the School of Engineering and Informatics curated a set of portraits of women working at Sussex with an exhibition in the University Library, along with an encouraging comment from them for other women. The portraits are now part of our University webpages as we continue to celebrate the achievements of women, past and present, who have shaped Sussex. 

Accelerate Action with our amazing ECR women 

The theme for IWD 2025 is ‘AccelerateAction’ which emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres. At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum.

This year the IWD 2025 call aims to inspire, recognise, and showcase the diverse contributions of women in research in early career stages. We are excited to invite all women Early Career Researchers (ECR) working at Sussex to take part by sharing your story, achievements, motivations, aspirations and insights to accelerate action and inspire others and promote gender equality in research. ECRs are researchers who are in the early stages of their careers, including those who are completing their PhDs, working in postdoctoral positions or in a researcher's first tenure position.

We are preparing to open an exhibition of the photography portraits to help raise awareness, showcase ECR role models and celebrate, inspire and recognise the incredible work of women ECR researchers at Sussex. The exhibition will be on display in the Library during March and it’s not too late to have your portrait taken to be part of the exhibition.

If you are interested, please email: womenatsussex@sussex.ac.uk and internalcomms@sussex.ac.uk including:

• your encouraging comment 
• a 250-word summary of your research work
• your preferred date to book a time slot with Stuart Robinson, the University photographer. 

Stuart is available to take portraits during 21 and 27 January and 3, 10 and 14 February. We ask that you have your photograph taken rather than supplying a photo, as portraits taken in a research environment will help to highlight the breadth of roles. 

We encourage ECR researchers from all Schools and Faculties to get involved.

Dr Rendon-Morales said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the work from women researchers and particularly from ECR whose contribute a lot in shaping the future of the research at Sussex. The exhibition will showcase the valuable contribution young women make to inspire others and to share their passion about their research work and key values that really matter to them as ERC. We would like to encourage all departments and Faculties to build their own collections of portraits of role models for our students and colleagues. We also acknowledge the importance of visible role models, particularly for under-represented groups at the University.” 

Encouraging comments 

Please include an encouraging comment for other women in your email together with a 250-word summary of your research work. The encouraging comments could be:  

• a personal experience (e.g. proudest achievement at Sussex)  
• advice for women wanting to get into your field  
• a reflection on a woman who has inspired you (mother/daughter/wife/partner/friend)  

• or simply a comment supporting our celebration of women at Sussex. 

You can see some of the inspiring comments and portraits that Sussex women have already shared in this interactive board. 

Find out more about IWD. 

This work supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal: SDG 10 (reduced inequalities). You can read more about our work on the SDGs.