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Why has Universities Australia wanted to see this model
implemented?
We represent universities all around the country and we’re keen for
there to be better gender equity inside universities, for graduates
to see the full range of opportunities for themselves. It would be
insane for us not to strongly support this particular measure.
There are also a number of other measures in this kind of area,
so there’s a real push to address some of the issues with gender
equity inside STEM and we hope it will go broader to all the
disciplines inside the universities. There’s a program called SAGE, by
the Australian Academy of Science, that is also good.
SAGE is modelled on a thing in the UK called the Athena SWAN
program, which awards universities bronze, silver, or gold stars
depending on how well they’re doing in gender equity. These
stars are hard to get, so this is not yet another box-ticking exercise.
Universities have to have a long hard look at themselves; they have
to collect a whole bunch of data about how well they’re doing in
gender equity in STEM professions, and then they have to make
change if they want to get those stars.
If we didn’t have an example, it might be hard to believe that it
works, but in the UK it’s genuinely been making some change. It’s
been going for about 10 years there. A large number of institutions
have signed up, and there have been good independent analyses
on how the program has worked. The fantastic thing is not just that
women are reporting things are better, it’s that whole departments
are reporting things are better. There are better arrangements
about parental leave, there’s just a better feeling of morale. So
a whole lot of stuff’s changed. In Australia, it’s only just starting.
There’s a pilot and we’re incredibly pleased that 30 Australian
universities have signed up to it. On top of that, 10 public research
institutions [are involved]. There’s a big wave of change coming,
and Universities Australia is strongly behind it.
Apart from efforts to break down the historical male domination
of some fields, such as engineering and computer science, what
other barriers do you think female undergraduates need help
in overcoming?
Some barriers are things you can sort of immediately nominate,
like the sorts of career [breaks] many women take because they’re
having children. We all know the way your progress is measured
inside universities is often how