This book explores the issues around why women in academia earn less, are less likely to be published, cited, funded or promoted compared with male colleagues. Watson puts forward ideas for promoting awareness and engagement with behaviours and activities that contribute to achieving success, learning from positive role models and underpinned by evidence and theory.

Drawing on the experiences of 25 scholars alongside her own experiences, and reflecting a Positive Psychology Approach, the book focuses upon behaviours and activities that are more likely to be within an individual's control to improve their overall performance. There are many behaviours and mindsets that as academics we can adopt to optimise our potential within the existing academic sphere and in so doing, achieve societal benefit through the research that we undertake and the students who we teach.