Mostly International Women’s Day related news from last week – Manifesto for Change from British Council’s Women in Higher Education Leadership initiative, study shows persistent graduate gender pay gap, NUS releases report on sexism in higher education, and an event at LSE to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Last week saw International Women’s Day (8 March) with events to mark the day taking place all across the world. As part of British Council’s Women in Higher Education Leadership (WHEL) initiative, a ‘Manifesto for Change’ was presented at Going Global 2013. The manifesto follows the British Council research which demonstrates that women are under-represented at senior levels in higher education. The manifesto sets out a number of actions to address this under-representation.

Equality campaigners used this occasion to raise the issue of graduate pay gap. According to the study by the Warwick Institute for Employment Research on behalf of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu), women graduates are at the lower end of the salary bracket between £15-17,999 and £21-23,999 while men graduates are more likely to earn £24,000 or more.

This ties in quite neatly with the report published by the National Union of Students last week on sexism and lad culture in higher education. The report ‘That’s what she said’ notes that 50 per cent of study participants identified ‘prevailing sexism, laddism and a culture of harassment’ at their universities. In light of the findings, NUS has called on Women and Equalities Minister Jo Swinson to convene a summit on ‘lad culture’.

And finally, something a little celebratory. At the London School of Economics, we are celebrating Women’s History Month and the arrival of the Women’s Library at the School by holding a drinks and discussion event on ‘Working with the past’. The event will take place on 12 March from 5pm onwards. Tickets can be booked through www.workingwiththepast.eventbrite.co.uk.

Have something to add? Please write to Equality.and.Diversity@lse.ac.uk.