by Carrie Bengston
This article gives a brief overview of a project I did over a year ago for a student assignment on public relations research.
I had been a WISENET member for five years. The main public relations problem I thought and still think WISENET faces is the low rates of involvement among women scientists. This project involved some preliminary research into WISENET membership aimed to aid promotion of WISENET. The research included collecting information about membership from the membership secretary, then Sarah Miller, and conducting a short survey of a few members in Sydney. I would like to thank Sarah and also the people who participated in the survey.
While the findings are a year out of date, they are probably still a good starting point for working out how to raise WISENET's profile. I commend these ideas to WISENET for discussion and, hopefully, action!
WISENET was established in 1984 at an ANZAAS Congress where there was seen to be a need for a group to facilitate networking among women scientists. The main WISENET group, in Canberra, became the 'central link team' responsible for administering WISENET's finances and membership, producing a regular newsletter and participating in various events.
In 1990, the Sydney group took on the role of central link team with the leadership of now retired Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Uni of Sydney, Dr Diana Temple. According to the WISENET constitution, the next group to take up the role of central link team is supposed to be the Victorian group but there isn't an active group in that state. This may cause a problem unless another group is willing to take on the role.
WISENET was established with the objectives listed elsewhere in this magazine. The objectives have been examined but never changed. Even though they don't really meet the criteria of successful objectives in being measurable and achievable, they generally give a good indication of WISENET's vision. It may be appropriate to reconsider them at the time of handing over to a new central link team.
WISENET is one of a number of groups for women scientists. As well as comparable groups overseas such as in Canada and the UK, there are several groups in Australia that cater for women working in specific disciplines. These include WINC (Women in Chemistry, a branch of the RACI led by Doreen Clark) and Women in Physics, a branch of the Australian Institute of Physics. No doubt some WISENET members belong to these groups and vice versa. WISENET's relationship to these groups may need to be clarified so that it isn't seen to be duplicating their roles.
WISENET is affiliated with a number of scientific and non-scientific groups. These include Women Into Politics, CAPOW! (Coalition of Associations of Professional Women) and informal links with FASTS (Federation of Scientific and Technical Societies). WISENET members have also participated in WISET, the committee for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, set up by the Federal Government to look at barriers to women's progression in science and engineering fields.
WISENET members, like most scientists, also belong to scientific societies that represent their discipline, such as the Australian Biochemical Society or the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
WISENET activities include:
All tasks are performed by volunteers. They include:
In the first half of 1995, however, a grant from the Office of the Status of Women (OSW) allowed WISENET to employ a part-time administrator and a part-time editorial assistant. This greatly helped the otherwise stretched volunteers. However, the grant was not renewed due to changes in funding priorities of the OSW.
It is possible that other funding may need to be sought from time to time. For example, WISENET allows but doesn't actively solicit paid advertising in WISENET Journal. This money is presently being used to pay for assistance with production of the Journal and could be increased.
This information was gathered in July 1995.
a) By membership category
As at July 1995, there were 355 members of WISENET divided by category as shown below.
Membership Number of category members individual 251 institutional 39 student 28 retired 14 unwaged 9 honorary 3 TOTAL 355
WISENET is not a large group as far as national associations go. For example, there are 1,880 female members of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) (Mills 1995). The RACI represents just one science discipline of the many that WISENET draws its members from.
WISENET members would represent only a small proportion of the women scientists in Australia. But, in some ways, the diversity and impact of the activities WISENET undertakes gives it the appearance of a larger group.
There is room to increase the number of members in WISENET both overall and in specific categories, e.g. unwaged, student and retired. However, this would require strategy and greater effort from members.
b) By location
At July 1995, the membership by location was as follows:
Location of Number of members members NSW 133 Victoria 61 ACT 57 Queensland 36 SA 26 WA 23 Tasmania 5 NT 4 overseas 10
NSW has the largest membership of all states. This may reflect the size of its scientific community and the fact that there are regular meetings in Sydney. The membership list shows that while most NSW members live in Sydney, there are many members in regions such as the Hunter, Illawarra and Far North Coast, especially places where there is a university or CSIRO site.
Victoria has the second highest state membership. This is surprising since it has been the perception of the central link team that WISENET in Victoria, to some extent, duplicates a group called the McClintock Collective, making WISENET participation less attractive. This perception may need to be tested.
The ACT has the third largest group. It was where WISENET began and where the first central link team was located. The ACT members participate in WISENET activities and represent WISENET at various government and non-government forums.
c) Over time
WISENET membership has varied as follows:
Date Number of members 1988 261 1989 217 1990 144 November 1991 352 December 1993 323 May 1994 226 September 350 1994 July 1995 355
The pre-1991 data may be unreliable as membership was not annual but covered receiving six issues of the Journal.
WISENET's membership has been fairly static over the past four years. This probably reflects the lack of an active recruitment strategy.
As mentioned earlier, membership could be higher than the 355 as at July 1995. This graph suggests that increasing membership is an appropriate goal for WISENET in the coming years.
d) By occupation
In September 1992, an analysis was done of the main groups of WISENET members by occupation (Temple 1992). The top four were: academics (124), secondary teachers (65), postgrad students/researchers (52), CSIRO employee (45). Another important group was journalism/writing/ editing (15).
Assuming membership by occupation hasn't changed much since these figures were collected, most WISENET members are working or studying at universities or other formal education institutions. This may reflect the distribution of women scientists in places of employment. Places of employment for women scientists not well-represented here would include: research institutes, state government departments, museums, private laboratories, industry, large companies and hospitals. This may suggest a need for special strategies to attract members from these organisations.
I conducted a short survey of four Sydney-based WISENET members by phone to determine:
The pilot survey is by no means representative of the rest of WISENET. It was really a test of the survey rather than a large scale data gathering exercise. However, these four responses suggested:
WISENET membership is seen as very to entirely worthwhile.
The main benefits of being a member are networking with other women scientists, finding out about other women's careers in science and receiving the Journal. Most of the four respondents mentioned that the special thing WISENET offers is a 'meeting place' for women, who are a minority in science.
A restriction to participation is meeting times and places not suiting members. One woman with children found the meeting times especially difficult. A heavy workload or little free time was another reason for low or no participation.
Electronic networking should be explored. Since this survey, an email listserv has been set up and is used to announce meetings and other items of interest. However, there may be more we could do in this area.
Some other activities WISENET could undertake are: mentor programs, having other institutions host meetings, workshops on particular issues, writing for magazines like the GEN (Gender Equity Network) or Australasian Science.
For a clearer understanding of where WISENET is and what the influences are on participation, the following research could be conducted. Perhaps WISENET members who are undertaking further study could consider some of them for an assignment topic!
Mills, N. (1995). What happens to women in chemistry? WISENET Journal, 37, 5.
Temple, D. (1992). A profile of WISENET's membership. WISENET Journal, 30, 4-5.