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campusreview.com.au
Gender equity means big changes
Retaining and promoting women in STEM fields
and academia requires sweeping reforms in
structure and mindset – and that’s as it should be.
By Steve Chapman
L
ate last year, a car was sent to pick
up one of our female professors
to take her to a gala event for the
university. She appeared at her door and
was immediately ushered into the back seat
of the car by the driver. After some time,
she noticed the driver pacing up and down
the footpath and she asked him if he was
all right. He said, “Yes, I’m just waiting for
the professor.” That’s a true story. Yes, it is
humorous, but it also has an underlying
message – it’s still difficult for some men to
even countenance that a woman could be
a professor.
So how far have we gone in addressing
gender parity? Well there has indeed been
much progress across Australia. There are
many advocacy groups trying to achieve
gender equality. For example, we have the
30% Club Australia, Women on Boards,
STEM Women, and the Workplace Gender
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Equality Agency. In higher education,
there is the Science in Australia Gender
Equity (SAGE) initiative of the Australian
Academy of Science, in partnership with
the Australian Academy of Technological
Sciences and Engineering.
I would like my university to be a beacon
for gender equality in Australian higher
education. In that context, it is fitting that
Edith Cowan University (ECU) is named after
a woman, the only one in Australia to be so
named. Edith Cowan was undoubtedly the
best known woman in Australia during the
first 30 years of the 20th century. Her many
achievements include obtaining the vote for
women in Western Australia, founding the
Children’s Protection Society and creating
the Western Australian National Council
for Women. In 1893, during her quest for
equality for women, one of her opponents,
the member for West Perth, proclaimed
“… ladies, like cats, were best at home”.
She was not to be denied, however, and in
1921, at the age of 60, she became the first
woman elected to an Australian Parliament.
What an inspiration, and what a name for a
university to have!
The differences between the way women
and men may react to events and stimuli
are precisely why we want a balance in
future generations of leaders, inventors,
innovators, researchers and educators.
Without that symmetry, we fail to attain
the full complement of skills required for
organisations and even countries to be as
successful as they can be.
I don’t believe it is controversial to
suggest that we could have achieved
complete gender equality already if
gender inequity had been acknowledged,
and conscious and unconscious bias
obliterated, across genders. So what can
we do that’s different? Australia is the
first nation beyond the UK and Ireland to
pilot the Athena SWAN Charter program
(the ‘SAGE Pilot’). We must learn from the
trends, and experiences, in other parts
of the globe. I think we can all agree that
waiting for gradual change is not an option.
The Australian Academy of Science