Women in Science and Engineering Summit Evokes Commitments from Powers That Be, but What Will be the Results to Follow? (April 15, 2011)

The Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Summit was held this past Monday at Parliament House. What was discussed is well described by the following paragraph taken from an opinion piece in today's National Times written by the Chief Executive of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technologic Societies (FASTS), Anna-Maria Arabia.

The plain fact is that at mid-career level women are dropping off. It is rare to find women holding high-ranking positions in academia. In CSIRO, 39 per cent of employees are female but only 8 per cent are at Level 8 (on a scale of 1 to 9) – representing a 4.5 per cent increase in the past decade. At this rate of increase it will take about 60 years until the number of women at Level 8 is equal to the level of female representation at CSIRO. Female engineers make up about 10 per cent of the workforce but 77.8 per cent of them are in lower responsibility positions (Levels 1 to 3 on a scale of 5). The Learned Academies offer no good news – their fellows, among the most eminent and respected scientists in the country, are overwhelmingly men. Six and half per cent of the Fellows of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering are women, while the Academy of Science has just 7 per cent. In government, the technology divisions of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) have just 5 per cent female participation and low numbers of women in senior positions.

The WiSE Summit issued an initial communiqué following its close.

Research leaders act to stop female brain drain (11 April 2011)

CSIRO, Australia’s largest employer of researchers, committed on Monday 11 April to remove barriers to the promotion of highly skilled women and to increase incentives to encourage women to return to the workforce after maternity leave.

These were two of many commitments made on that day by research funders, leaders and employers who came together for the first time at the Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Summit in Parliament House, Canberra.

The Summit, attended by the Hon Kate Ellis, Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare and for the Status of Women, discussed how to keep women in science and encourage more young women into engineering in order to boost productivity and equity.

Importantly, the nation’s leading research funders, the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Council (NHMRC), agreed to changes in how they assess research publications in the grant applications of those with interrupted careers. The ARC committed to extending the period taken into account. The NHMRC this year will consider any nominated five years of an applicant’s career rather than simply the previous five years. It has also agreed to monitor gender issues in general.

Further commitments to action made at the Summit include:

• The Australian Technology Network universities have set a performance target that the number of female staff who teach science, engineering and technology (STE) subjects will be in the same proportion as women employed in STE industries (about 16 per cent);
   

• IBM, a significant employer of scientists and technologists, has agreed to support CSIRO’s Science in Schools program;
   

• The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), Australia’s peak body for science and technology, has undertaken to work with scientific societies Australia-wide to conduct an audit of practices with a view to increasing the participation of women through best practice;
   

• FASTS will also gather examples of existing practices, programs and policies which have been successful and develop a toolkit to guide the science and technology sector;
   

• All research leaders agreed to take the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles back to their organisations with a view to adopting them;
   

• Other CSIRO commitments include:

  • To increase the number of Payne-Scott awards—designed to bring women back to the workforce after maternity leave;

  • To report on gender participation within the CSIRO; and

  • To remove cultural barriers, and build greater trust and respect within the CSIRO.