Professor Fiona Robson, Head of Edinburgh Business School and Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Dubai.
Educators have a responsibility to provide an inclusive learning environment that allows women students to grow and prosper and prepares them to be leaders of the future. What might this look like?
- Encouraging women to take on leadership roles when working in teams
- Building confidence and recognising good performance
- Inspiring students through case studies of inspirational women and women-led organisations
- Coaching students to develop their self-awareness and identify their strengths and weaknesses
- Creating a learning environment where challenging questions can be debated in a respectful way
- Offering real-life organisational problems to solve
- Helping students to build their network and social capital
In universities, we need to ensure that our teaching reflects cultural diversity in the examples and scenarios that we discuss. We encourage challenging conversations and the importance of developing workplace skills such as cultural and emotional intelligence.
Students can be inspired by hearing about the journeys of their women lecturers and learning from their reflections on what has worked well and what they might have done differently. Some universities established clubs and societies where women can provide support to each other and engage in activities.
Educators should acknowledge that even in 2025, there remains much evidence of the inequities between men and women in the workplace, which can be seen through the numbers of women leaders in senior roles and pay inequalities, to name only a couple of examples. In exploring actions that could and should be taken, we are sending out the leaders of the future with the appropriate skills and knowledge to enable them to do this.
Students should be supported to be ambitious about their careers and not de-select themselves for fear of rejection. Specifically, women tend to downplay their skills and experience when constructing their CVs, so guidance and feedback should be provided to encourage them to sell themselves.
Workplace inclusivity
Organisations should aim to have a diversity of staff at every level in the organisation, and where this isn’t the case, think about what actions could be taken to encourage more diverse applicants. The concept of ‘you have to see it to be it’ is important and where there are women in leadership positions, this can be inspirational to those who are earlier on in their careers.
Creating an environment and opportunities where people can shine is also mutually beneficial. For employees, this can provide a sense of purpose and act as an important part of their career development. Organisations can benefit from higher levels of employee engagement which may contribute positively to identifying and retaining organisational talent.
Clear commitment from the top of the organisation
All employees have a responsibility to embrace inclusivity, and this needs to be a clear commitment from the top of the organisation. They must walk the talk and be committed to having a positive workplace culture where all staff are valued. The commitment to inclusivity needs to be evident from the stage of recruitment and selection through induction and performance management so that organisations can show how they live their values.
Line managers are critical in role-modelling organisational values and dealing with any performance or behaviours that do not support this. This may mean having difficult conversations and visibly challenging stereotypes and assumptions. It is vital that they are cognisant of their own unconscious biases and those of their team members. Line managers will need appropriate training so that they can carry out their roles effectively, particularly when in their first-line management role.
Women may benefit more from sponsorship in the organisation
There is a growing tendency to treat mentoring as the ‘solution’ in supporting women employees. However, to have a truly positive impact, women may benefit more from sponsorship in the organisation, having an ally to support and advocate for them in pursuing their career.
To gain maximum benefits, organisations need to understand what the needs of their employees are and then they can put together an appropriate plan that will meet the needs of all the key stakeholders. Obviously, some financial investment may be needed to enact the plans and deliver high-quality interventions.
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