Victorian WISENET
Jo O’Neil
An informal meeting of
Victorian WISENET members was held at Melbourne
University on June 18 with the aim of providing feedback about the type of
activities members would like to see happen in Victoria.
The issues discussed included:
Wisenet’s role
Difficulties facing women in science workforce, including students and isolated members
Value of journal - generally positive (Thank you! … Editorial Team)
Harassment in the workforce
What is the definition of “Achievement in Science”- not all want to be Queen Bees.
Suggestions for improvement
A Wisenet email bulletin board
Activities that have objective, documentable achievements e.g. Women Achieving in Science Conference (WAIS) , Monash AA publications
A Wisenet sponsored mentoring network involving business and industry figures as well as universities.
Joint activities with other groups, for example, WAVE (Women in Adult and Vocational Education) and WICs (Australian Federation of University Women).
Follow up:
The mentoring scheme was suggested to the Australian Federation of University Women (AFUW, http://www.afuwvic.org.au) who responded enthusiastically. Margaret James, president of the Victorian Branch of AFUW, also made the point that any mentoring scheme would need funding to pay someone to run it in a professional way.