The UNIque Guide for Women

You're brilliant at research. Nobody taught you the rest.

You've navigated a PhD, published, presented, maybe even landed a permanent post - all while quietly wondering why the career side of academia feels harder than the research ever did. Why does speaking up in meetings feel risky? Why does asking for what you're worth feel like overreaching? Why do the women around you seem to be disappearing from the senior ranks, one leaky pipeline story at a time?

You are not imagining it. Women hold fewer full-time posts, fewer professorships, and face a persistent pay gap across UK universities - and no one hands you a map through it.

The UNIque Guide for Women is that map.

Written by Dr Emma Williams - physicist turned researcher development consultant with over 30 years in and around Higher Education - this book combines the evidence with the empathy. You'll find the data on where women researchers really stand, practical frameworks for building visibility and confidence, and honest, first-person stories from a career spent inside the system you're trying to navigate.

This isn't a book about fixing women. It's a book about understanding the structures you're working within, and building a proactive, positive career in spite of them.

Inside, you'll find tools to:

• Recognise and name the barriers that are shaping your career, so you can plan around them rather than blame yourself for them
• Build genuine confidence and gravitas, without pretending to be someone you're not
• Take practical, timely action on your next career step - whatever "next" looks like for you

Whether you're a PhD student, postdoc, early career lecturer, or established academic wondering where your voice went, this book is the conversation you've been needing to have with someone who's been there.

Your career is UNIque. It's time to embrace it, confidently.

Dr Emma Williams is on a mission to enable researchers to take their next career step positively and proactively. With over 30 years' experience in and around Higher Education - from physicist to training business owner - she speaks, writes and trains on all things researcher development.Emma's flagship UNIque women's development programme has been delivered at Imperial College London, King's College London, Queen Mary University of London, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Strathclyde. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling UNIque Guide for Women and the widely acclaimed What Every Postdoc Needs to Know, described by the University of Oxford's Careers Service as "the postdoc bible."Emma holds a physics degree, PhD, and completed a postdoc at the University of Cambridge. She was named in the 2025 Inspirational Women in STEM and Construction Awards, and her book Leaving Academia was highlighted by Nature as one of nine essential career guides and shortlisted for the Business Book Awards.Her favourite soapboxes include women's development in universities and encouraging researchers to investigate all things enterprising. She brings creativity, empathy and usually a large coffee to her work.Emma is based in Cambridge, UK, and works with universities, funders and research organisations across the UK and beyond.