Diversity and Inclusion

The Society has launched its Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Roadmap as it is committed to the principles of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and to creating a community and culture in which they are embedded across all activities.

The Society values people as individuals with diverse opinions, cultures, lifestyles and circumstances. We welcome all physiologists irrespective of all ages, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.

The Society will champion diversity, promote inclusivity, and strive for equity until it is fully inclusive and provides opportunities fairly and equally for all; this includes removing barriers to participation and promoting engagement that improves diversity of representation and participation in all our endeavours.

We will:

1. Establish a learning and awareness programme to grow Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) competence and, build allyship among staff, Trustees and committee members.

• a. Use our values as a framework to develop inclusive behaviours among Society staff, Trustees and committee members that we actively reinforce through feedback and measure performance via review of data, monitoring objectives and qualitative feedback. SMT is responsible for collecting and reviewing the data of their respective departments and updating the CEO and Trustees on an annual basis.
• b. Identify the specific cultural challenges relating to EDI in The Society that we want to address. Following our research and analysis we will develop a learning programme that is targeted and relevant to our Society’s needs that is tailored for those working in specific roles with specific needs.
• c. Support activities that promote positive research culture within the physiology community.

2. Increase the overall participation of groups which are currently underrepresented in leadership of The Physiological Society. We will be proactive in ensuring our Board committees and editorial boards are more representative of the communities we serve, taking into account all protected characteristics.

• a. Develop opportunities to create diverse and inclusive leaders in physiology through schemes such as the Journal Fellowships. Create ways to proactively encourage more diverse participation in Committees, including less experienced members, where they fully contribute to decision making.
• b. Nurture a habit of bringing in external diverse voices to improve quality of decisions, for example, inviting people for specific items where more expertise/lived experience would be beneficial.

3. Active promotion of diverse voices.

• a. Reach out to different communities to improve the balance of voices, taking into account all protected characteristics, across different platforms, blogs, podcasts informal communications, events, and conferences. These voices need to resonate with the community to ensure they feel empowered.

4. Create an inclusive membership charter – incorporating voices

• a. All members shall abide by The Code of Conduct, a breach of which may result in that individual being removed from the Membership in accordance with the Articles and supporting Regulations. There is also a code of conduct for Trustees and event participants.
• b. Provide more information/learning resources on what ‘inappropriate behaviour’ looks like with explanations as to why it is unacceptable. This will be available on our Member Area.
• c. Provide a space for open discussion about equity, diversity, and inclusion in physiology through the appropriate channels such as membership, community, and networking events.

Watch our video ‘Being Black in Physiology: Diversity for Scientific Excellence’

Support mechanisms at The Society

Grant for Carers

In order to ensure our activities are inclusive we have established a Carer’s Fund to support members with caring responsibilities, as well as those that need carers. The grants are intended to offset the cost of the attendee’s care arrangements for any meeting or workshop that we organise.

Support and Inclusion Fund

The Support and Inclusion Fund supports individuals that have contributed (or may contribute in future) to the advancement of physiology, and/or their dependants.

Resources to Support Mental Health

We have funded access to some online resources to help support the mental wellbeing of our Members and the wider scientific. To gain access to a particular resource please email Andrew Mackenzie, Associate Director of Strategy and External Relations.

Other useful links

• Our blog posts about equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility
• Physiology News Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Special Issue, published in September 2021
• Physiology News Diversity Special Issue, published in July 2019
• Animation on Unconscious Bias The Royal Society: The key concepts and academic research around unconscious bias
• Crossing Boundaries: Encouraging Diversity Margaret Ann Armour: A keynote session looking at diversity in academia and publishing
• Gender and Funding – is there a problem? The Physiological Society: A discussion hosted by The Society to investigate links between gender and funding success
• Making a case for diversity and inclusion McKinsey & Company: 2015 research makes the case that companies with a more diverse workforce perform better financially

Historical celebrations of women in physiology:

• Oral histories of Sally Page, Ann Silver and Gerta Vrbova
• Women Physiologists: Centenary celebrations and beyond  (published by The Physiological Society)
• Women In Physiology booklet
• Read about the history of women in The Society