Gender policies need improving in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

When the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia’s major medical research funding body, asked the country’s 82 universities and research institutes for their gender policies, only 42 replied. And of those, almost 70% were considered to be unsatisfactory (Canberra Times, August 1, 2014).

So the Australian universities and research institutes decided, collectively, to do something about it, especially to correct the severe under-representation of women in senior science positions. Representatives of the newly formed Science in Australia Gender Equity Forum (GEF), organized by the Australia Academy of Science, met in Canberra on July 30 to discuss systemic barriers preventing women from advancing to senior levels.

Professor Ian Chubb, Australian chief scientist, said the poor gender policies were disappointing, especially given that the issue had been acknowledged for decades. Past attempts had failed, and he suggests looking to the United Kingdom’s Athena SWAN Charter, which was established nine years ago. Member institutions in the UK are required to collect and analyze data on the progression of women and identify reasons for under-representation. Member institutions submit their gender plans to Athena SWAN annually, which issues gold, silver or bronze awards based on the progress of their plans over a three year period. Hence awards are not for the preparation of the plans, but for their successful implementation. Over the past nine years UK has seen improvements in the visibility of female scientists and the number on committees. Australia’s newly-formed Gender Equity Forum plans to undertake a pilot study to establish whether a similar program would be appropriate in this country.

However, while the number of women in science needs to be addressed, gender issues (male and female) need to be addressed in terms of total numbers of interested students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, eligible graduates entering the scientific workforce, and appropriate funding and interventions to increase interest and understanding of scientific research and development.

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