Australian Visit of Julia Higgins
Diana Temple in Sydney
Pauline Gallagher in Melbourne
In November 2001, an eminent English woman scientist visited Australia as the inaugural Solomon Lecturer, sponsored by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Dame Julia Higgins is Professor of Polymer Science at Imperial College, London, a famous British scientific establishment. She has many awards, is a Fellow and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society London, a member of the Council for Science and Technology, a top advisory body to the UK government, and has recently been honoured by the Queen as a Dame of the British Empire. She chairs the Steering Committee of the Athena Project, which is funded by the British government to investigate reasons for the scarcity of senior women in science and technology in British universities.
Most of us women scientists, battling with our professional lives and personal responsibilities which often include households with husbands or partners, children, or parents, must be somewhat in awe of the achievements of a woman like Julia Higgins.
When you meet her, she is easy, friendly, relaxed, and happy to talk of problems common to all scientific women.
WISENET in Sydney was fortunate to be involved in a Forum on Women in Science and Engineering, initially proposed by the Deans of Engineering and Science at Sydney University, both of whom are women. WISENET was included as co-host. The discussion was chaired by Karina Kelly, presenter of the ABC TV science programme, and the panel comprised Emeritus Professor Ann Sefton for WISENET, the two Deans Professor Judy Raper (Engineering) and Professor Beryl Hesketh (Science), and Professor Helen Garnett who is executive director of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. A large lecture theatre was filled with science academics, senior research students, some women from industry, plus groups of senior girl students from a number of secondary schools. The University also provided a buffet lunch.
Professor Higgins addressed the assembly, saying that it is vital for society that women, as well as men, are educated about scientific issues on which they may have to make decisions, for example cloning and genetically modified foods. She said young women wanting science careers need curiosity, communication ability, capacity for collaborative team-work, the determination to succeed and confidence. She emphasised the importance of good teachers at school, able to enthuse young people. In answers to questions from the audience, Julia summarised her own background which led to her distinguished career. At school, she had inspiring teachers in maths and physics, and less inspiring chemistry teachers, so that her first degree, at Oxford, was in pure physics, and her DPhil in neutron diffraction. This led to post-doctoral projects in which she used neutron diffraction to study polymers, from which her expertise in polymer science derived.
Her words were well received, as indicated by the following comment in a letter to the organisers from a Sydney University student: "Very motivational, not only to me because I am female, but because I'm lacking motivation, but I learnt that you can be what you want to be, you just have to work to your full potential"
The social
and practical reasons for encouraging more women into science higher education
and to aspire to promotion in their fields were the bases for the
establishment of the Athena Project, which Julia described. The report which
follows of her meeting with the Melbourne WISENET group contains information
on this admirable initiative. If only the Australian government had the same
interest in women scientists!
In Melbourne nine of us sat down to lunch with Professor Dame Julia Higgins at the University of Melbourne on 22 November 2001. We were lucky to catch her for one final meeting in Australia before she left the country. Her visit had been assisted by two deans of faculties in the University of Melbourne, so it was an appropriate as well as pleasant place to catch up with her
Julia started off by talking about the Athena Project and how it came about. Athena, of course, was the Greek goddess of hunting, war and handicrafts - a skillful fighter and worthy emblem for women in the sciences.
Her involvement in women in science started when, following "Rising Tide", a seminal report on women in sciences in the early '90s, Imperial College set up a group to explore the issue of women in the science areas within the college. This group conducted a survey as its first initiative and found that maternity/ maternity leave was the big issue for women trying to build careers in the science areas. From the work of this group, Imperial College established a one-year fellowship for women returning from maternity leave. The fellowship was for research only, as that part of the work was what suffered most from lengthy absences, and loss of expertise was the main impediment to taking time off or returning to academia.
Julia followed this project through to deliver a report to the UK Funding Council. She was surprised at how quickly the idea of the Athena Project was taken up. She attributed this response, and the much greater amount of funding than expected that it was awarded, to the links and contacts she made in important places. Having high-level support for the Project she believes was the key to it getting off the ground so easily.
We had time for some questions and discussion round the table before Julia had to leave for the airport. We covered:
the need
for leadership at the top to better support women in science,
the impact of performance contracts and subjective judgements about performance at senior levels,
the "superwoman phenomenon" and standards men tend to accept as norms for women in science when women simply want reasonable career prospects,
how can you say 'No'? to unreasonable work demands (Julia was strong in her opinion that women with tenure CAN rock the boat),
whether women should be treated separate from other areas of diversity in science. Julia was clear about this: women are not a minority group in the population,
uptake of family friendly provisions,
blocking at middle management,
the potential for international activity or an international body for women in science.
Julia made particular mention of the Daphne Jackson Fellowships which were operated from Surrey University. They were aimed at bringing back into science women who had been out of academia for a time. Again, as getting back up to speed with research was seen to be the primary hurdle for women, the fellowships funded 50% research only for two years.
Special thanks to Jo O'Neil who seized a very small window of opportunity to organise what turned out to be a stimulating and timely lunch for the Victorian Network.