The Women in OR & Analytics Network is a network for female OR practitioners and academics.

The gender imbalance in OR and STEM in general still presents many challenges both for academics and practitioners.

Whilst there is a lot of literature about the low proportions of women in STEM careers, no work had specifically been undertaken on the UK OR profession until 2018 when The OR Society sponsored three MSc research projects on the theme of women in OR.

Key findings from the three projects concluded that The OR Society should establish a network for women at work in OR and analytics to build strong, encouraging connections.

We need you

We need your voice, your knowledge and your experience in this group. Help us to build a strong, self-supporting network and to set better conditions for the next cohort of young women launching into their careers in OR and analytics.

Network Committee

Come to our next event

WORAN Lightning Talks

16 May 2024, 13.30 - 14.30

Register HERE

WORAN's occasional "lightning talks" sessions are always enjoyable and inspiring, giving a peek into the great variety of work being done by our female colleagues across OR in a series of 5-minute talks.

Do join us for 2024's session, where we have a fantastic line up of speakers from all stages of the OR/analytics career path, and from many different corners of the OR/analytics research and practice world, who have accepted the challenge of sharing some of their work and achievements, condensed into 5 minutes maximum:

• Xiaochen Feng, University of Bath.
• Shraddhi Ghatkar, University of Sheffield
• Ruth Kelly, Chief Analyst, National Audit Office;
• Jasbir Lally, Bank of England;
• Karrie Liu, Independent Data Consultant, Hypatia Analytics;
• Prof Dilek Önkal, Northumbria University.

SAVE THE DATE!

Propellors and barriers: comparing our experiences

20 June 2024 13.30 - 14.30

Register here

We often talk, in WORAN, about the barriers facing women’s full participation in OR careers; and it is true that the ‘leaky pipeline’ leaks more women than men, whilst more men than women reach senior roles. But every story is individual, every person wants different things from their career, and very few of us know from the outset what we want, and even less how to get it.

For this panel event, we are delighted to be joined by Gilbert Owusu, Director of Data and AI at BT and President of the OR Society; Heather Tewkesbury, currently Chief Strategic Relationships Officer and formerly CEO of Smith Institute; Maria Battara, Professor of OR at University of Bath and Paul Harper, Professor of OR at University of Cardiff, who will share their own career stories, before opening up to Q&A.

The aim is to stimulate us all to reflect: on our careers to date, on how we might move forward ourselves, and on how we help each other to move forward. We will encourage our speakers also to reflect on how their demographic characteristics – be it gender, age, ethnicity, social class or any other – may have influenced their professional lives and outcomes.

Events Subcommittee

PR & Media Subcommittee

Mentoring Subcommittee

Past meetings

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OUR WORAN SPONSORS: