Oxford University is launching a $10,000 research project to find out why male students outperform women students at undergraduate level in all subjects except chemistry and biochemistry. Comparatively, Oxford women's performance has declined since the seventies. Cambridge is investigating a similar problem.
Science and technology (S&T) coverage in the media was monitored by the Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) during July 1995. Their findings: all major newspapers carry S&T stories but national dailies do so more than metropolitan; coverage of S&T is at the bottom end of editorial interest, there being more coverage than for education but less than the arts and entertainment, and a quarter of the coverage of sport and business. Computers and information technology account for a quarter of the space, S&T policy issues get 19%, environment/ technology/engineering get 18%, physical, space and earth sciences together rating 9%.
"Women are the single most undervalued and therefore under used resource" found the UK 1995 government science and technology white paper Realising our potential.
Professor Millicent Poole, Deputy VC at ANU in October last advocated universities setting aside professorships for women only applicants. She called for radical change in senior academic recruitment methods and said head-hunting firms should be used to ensure more women apply for top-ranking jobs.
The Minister for Women in the NSW Government, the Hon Faye Lo Po, is to chair a Premier's Council for Women, to be underpinned by a broad consultative network to feed into policy development. Representatives of Women into Politics have expressed reservations about the ability of one body to represent adequately the diverse views of Australian women on numerous topics, stating that all issues, economic, employment, communication, education, social, defence, and business, are women's issues. Contacts: Hon Faye Lo Po MLA, Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney 2000. Women into Politics Inc. Tel:(02) 9437 6916 Fax: (02) 9953 8899
Jobskills opportunity for Melbourne women. If you have been unemployed for 12 months you may be eligible for a 6 month placement with the International Women's Development Agency (IWDA) in Projects/ Administration under the DEET Jobskills training program. Contact: Tania Phillips (03) 9417 1388.
The Women's Network for the Vocational Training and Education Sector in the Asia Pacific Region is an international project being promoted by The Australian National Training Authority. The network's primary aim is to establish, enhance and assist with dialogue between women who manage and deliver training and education in the vocational sector. Currently the project is establishing a reference group. If you wish to be associated with this contact base or to be placed on the network contact: Maryellen Haines tel: (06) 207 4824, fax: (06) 207 4829, e-mail: maryellen-haines@cit.act.edu.au
The International Review of Women and Leadership is calling for papers for the July/August 1996 edition. Dedicated to Edith Cowan, it will focus on Women and Politics. Deadline for submissions is 30 June 1996. Contact: Cathy Cupitt e-mail: c.cupitt@cowan.edu.au, fax: (09) 273 8181, tel: (09) 273 8153.
Senator Cheryl Kernot requests women's organizations to
monitor closely the impact of enterprise bargaining on
women from non-English speaking backgrounds and also to consider
how the process addresses the balance between work and family.
A summary of the enterprise bargaining report is available from
her office which will also gratefully receive your information
on the experiences of women under enterprise bargaining.
Contact: tel (06) 277 3745.
The Engineering 2000 Awards provide recognition and reward for improving the participation of women in the engineering work force. Nortel Australia won the Private Section Award last year for achieving high levels of participation by women in management positions through active programs. The 1994 Education Sector Award went to RMIT, Victoria for an outreach program that increased the number of secondary school girls from rural areas to select a career in engineering.
Applications are now being invited for the 1996 Awards. Entries close on Friday, 1 March 1996. For further information and application details, contact: Meredythe Crane, Tel. (06) 270 6596 or Fax. (06) 273 1488.
The Government's Innovation Culture Program was announced by the Prime Minister in December 1995, probably as a part of the pre-election campaign. Senator Cook (Minister for Science) outlined details of the proposed innovations, designed to raise community awareness of the importance of science, technology, engineering and entrepreneurship in shaping Australia's future.
There was an emphasis on school science, with funding to be provided for an on-line science news service for schools. Most of the Innovation Culture Program will be beneficial to science education and awareness.
However, WISENET is concerned that the program makes no specific mention of women in science, and the detailed 1995 report prepared by WISET, the Women in Science and Technology Advisory Group initiated by the Minister for Science and supported by the Prime Minister's Department; indeed, the report seems to have sunk with hardly a splash. (See article on page 15.)
The existing Science and Technology Awareness Program, which has been helpful to WISENET and many other groups, seems to be in danger of being superseded by this new program. Meanwhile there is little or no information on the opposition policy on science and technology, and none on the opposition's attitudes to women's input into science and technology.
WISENET members and readers of this Journal are urged to write to the Prime Minister and to the Minister for Science Senator Cook expressing concern about what is missing from the government's science policy and urging action on the recommendations of the 1995 WISET Report on women in science, engineering and technology.
22-26 April 1996
6th International Interdisci-plinary Congress on Women, Adelaide. Themes: global restructuring, women's studies, making feminist politics, health and sexuality, sustainable devel-opment, community education, indigenous peoples, cultural representations. Contact: Festival City Conventions, PO Box 986, Kent Town, SA 5071. Phone: (08) 363 1307, Fax: (08) 363 1604.
29-31 May 1996
Association for Women in the Sciences Conference: Science - Women and our Future. Topics include: what women are doing with their science; the nature and structure of the scientific workplace; social responsibility, community participation and accessibility; what is science - what will it be tomorrow; ethics in science. Organisers seek outlines for 20 minute papers and 90 minute workshops. Contact: Helen Hancox, 86 Daniell Street, Wellington 6002, New Zealand. Phone: 64 4 389 2578. Fax: 64 4 389 2589. E-mail: hancox@actrix.gen.nz
September 1996
Professor Evelyn Fox Keller, famed for her writings on feminism and science, is visiting Sydney to deliver the Templeton Lecture. WISENET plans to arrange for members to meet her during her visit.
Professor Suzanne Cory has been appointed Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne to follow Professor Sir Gustav Nossal on his retirement in June. She will be the fifth Director in WEHI's 80-year history. Previously Professor Cory was joint head of the WEHI Molecular Biology Unit and Professor in Molecular Oncology at Melbourne University.
On the announcement of her appointment, Professor Cory said the primary goal of the Institute: to excel in basic biomedical science, will remain. Professor Cory's goal for the Institute is to become a leader in the field of "the new biology, genetics, (which) will totally transform the medicine of tomorrow".
Dr Winifred Curtis, AM, DSc, formerly Reader in Botany at the University of Tasmania, was the winner of the 1995 Mueller medal awarded at the 1995 ANZAAS Conference in Newcastle.
This medal is awarded annually in honour of the pioneering nineteenth century botanist, Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller. The medal is for important contributions in anthropology, botany, geology or zoology, with special relevance to Australia. The citation for Dr Curtis describes her as an outstanding botanist whose research and distinguished publications into plant taxonomy have added greatly to our knowledge of Australian flora. She also campaigned successfully to establish a herbarium at the University of Tasmania.
The Unsung Hero of Science, an award initiated by the Association of Science Communicators in 1994 and presented at the ANZAAS Congress, was again in 1995 won by a woman: Dr Bobbie Vale, an astrophysicist, for her innovations in using her research with the Parkes telescope as part of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project to enhance her teaching of physics to students at the University of Western Sydney. Bobbie Vale, who has an inoperable brain tumor, has a commitment to and enthusiasm for her subject described as inspiring.
(The first "Unsung Hero", in 1994, was Dr Caroline Mountford, who was quoted as saying the award had changed her life, as her medical colleagues and grant giving bodies now take her more seriously.)
Dr Caroline Baillie has been appointed Women in Engineering Coordinator at the University of Sydney to promote engineering as a career for women, to encourage and support students, and to organise a mentor program within the department. In 1995 almost half of the Chancellor's Industry Scholarships in Engineering (worth $10 000) were awarded to women. The School of Civil and Mining Engineering is offering awards of $500 to the four women with the highest TER scores who enrol in the school in 1996.
WISENET congratulates the winners of 1995 Michael Daley Awards for Science, Technology and Engineering Journalism, presented by the Minister for Science at the ANZAAS Congress. The awards recognised 14 journalists from over 100 entries. Winners included 8 women: Tania Ewing of The Age, Karina Kelly of ABC TV Quantum, Lynne Malcolm and Judy Rapley of ABC Radio National The Science Show, Tanya Petersen of ABC Radio PM, Gael Jennings of ABC TV 7.30 Report, Megan James and Margaret Sleath of ABC TV Quantum. Highly commended were Melissa Sweet and Alicia Larriera of the Sydney Morning Herald and Gael Jennings and Mara Blazic of ABC TV 7.30 Report. Other winners were Peter Hiscock and Graham Davis (TV), who won the best overall award, Trevor Marshallsea (Print), Donald Palmer (print photography), Bernd Lottermoser (radio), and Mark Kestigan (print).
Justice Elisabeth Evatt, former president of the Law Reform Commission, has been awarded the Human Rights Medal for 1995 from a record field.
The Nobel Prize for Medicine went to three researchers, including Christiane Nusslein-Volhard of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tubingen, Germany, adding to the short list of female Nobel Laureates.
Refractory Girl issue #49, October 1995, spotlights economics from the feminist viewpoint. Major articles examine the emergence of feminist economics, inherent problems for women of an income-based system of old-age support, fitting children into the economics agenda, how to overcome "economics anxiety". Contact: (02) 9908 2707
A Social and Economic Profile of Women in Queensland - 1995 contains a large amount of statistical information gathered from a variety of sources including the Australian Bureau of statistics, annual reports and administrative data from government agencies and private sector organisations from 1992 to 1995. Chapters profile demographics, education and training, employment, childcare, income, housing, health, crime and justice. The final chapter, titled "Decision Making", focuses on the number of women in elected political positions, in senior government positions and on boards of statutory authorities. No surprises in the inequality this chapter reveals.
To obtain a copy, contact Women's Policy Unit in the Office of Cabinet, Parliament House, Brisbane or Women's Infolink, tel: (07) 3229 1264.
Critical Visions: rewriting the future of work education and
gender published by DEET examines the issues women face in
the restructured world of work, the role of vocational education
within a restructured education sector and the changing nature
of careers in education. It presents more of those terrible statistics
about the gendered nature of work, the gendering of skill, and
examines the relationship between paid and unpaid work. Contact:
Anne Watt
Tel: (06) 240 7023.
"Make Things Happen" is a CD-ROM developed by James Cook University. It focuses on attracting more women into engineering and encouraging interested science students to at least consider engineering as a career.
The CD shows engineers and students as positive people with rewarding and exciting jobs. The gender balance is great for encouraging female students.
The package has been trialed in a number of schools in the Townsville area. Contact: A. J. Johnston, Dean of Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld. Tel. (077) 81 5212. E-mail: Archie.Johnston@jcu.edu.au