Bridget Kauma

Elizabeth Rendon-Morales, Sasha Roseneil and David Ruebain open the exhibition

Canelle Tassin de Montaigu

A new exhibition has opened in the Library to celebrate our women early career researchers to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March.

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.

The exhibition features 20 photographic portraits of inspirational women from across our Faculties who are at the start of their research career. Alongside the pictures you can see a summary of the women’s research work and a quote to inspire current and future generations of women. Early career researchers (ECRs) are researchers who are in the early stages of their career, including those who have just completed their research degree, are working in postdoctoral positions or are in a researcher’s first tenure position.

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.

These Women at Sussex are accelerating action – as Dr Bridget Kauma, Associate Professor in Economics at the Business School said in her inspirational quote: “The best part about rising to the challenges that present themselves in your career is the knowledge that there have been many women that have gone before you who have succeeded against even greater odds. These are the metaphoric giants that have inspired women the most and who provide the shoulders upon which you sit. These women blazed the trail you now follow and demonstrated that being a woman is not a constraint on what you can achieve in life."   

Dr Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, Research Fellow ​in the School of Life Sciences, said: “Women are proving that the impossible is achievable, and I see it every day with colleagues and with the young generation of women in ecology. Keep asking bold questions and striving for impactful discoveries—you’re making a real difference!" 

About the exhibition

The exhibition has been curated by Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales, Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the School of Engineering and Informatics, and each of them has been taken by our University Photographer, Stuart Robinson. It has been funded by the EDI Unit, the Library, and the Schools of Engineering and Informatics and Life Sciences. With special thanks to the Library team, Graciela Madrid and Majid Hafezparast.

Come along to the Open Learning Space, just past the main Library service desk, from 5 to 31 March to see the portraits and read some inspiring words shared by the early career researchers involved.

Accelerate Action with Sussex Women’s Leadership Academy

Taking a decisive step to achieve gender equality, we are also launching the new Sussex Women's Leadership Academy, which is a programme developed with the aim to empower early-career researchers and in particular women researchers -inclusive of all women and minority genders – to maximize their research potential and take their career to the next level. 

The programme will be running between late March and June, it will be bookended by one-day workshops with Fiona Reith, a Designing Your Life coach who has helped put the programme together.  Weekly online seminars will focus on common barriers and more practical skills, including time management, collaborating and communicating, research grants, and promotion.

The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Monday 10 March. See the Academy webpage for further details and to apply.

About the Sussex Women’s Leadership Academy

Prof. Erika Mancini and Dr. Elizabeth Rendon-Morales are leading this initiative, with support from the Sussex Researcher School.