Julie Baz Communications Advisor PennyOxford Learning Advisor The University of Sydney

 The Women in Science (WiSci) project, sponsored by the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney, was officially launched by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Michael Spence, on 8 August 2008.

 

Professor David Day, Dean of the faculty, initiated the project after becoming aware that although women are well represented among undergraduate and postgraduate students and even among postdoctoral fellows, they are under-represented among staff in senior academic roles. According to Professor Day, women are also over-represented in the lower levels of the academic hierarchy and tend not to apply for promotion in the same numbers as men.

The project’s goals are to identify the obstacles that prevent women achieving senior roles in the sciences, to encourage more women in the sciences into senior academic roles, and to support more women in achieving satisfying and productive careers in science.

At the launch, Dr Spence said that he was concerned about the ratio of women in senior positions at the University of Sydney. “Gender balance is very important for the quality of work across the entire University,” he remarked. “Men and women work better in teams together.”

A WiSci website has been created to function as a central information source for women in the sciences at the University of Sydney. The website details the project’s goals and initiatives, and contains information on University resources such as family-friendly fellowships and links to other useful websites.

The project’s first initiative was to survey male and female academic staff within the Faculties of Science, Veterinary Science, Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and the School of Medical Science. The survey was designed to surface the most pressing issues for women in the sciences and also to benchmark the experience and attitudes of academic women with those of male academic staff.

The survey questions covered research grants, development opportunities and participation in different types of leave. Participants were also asked to agree or disagree with series of statements, for example: I feel like a valued member of the University community, and My working environment is generally accepting of gender difference.

The survey received nearly 200 out of a possible 800 responses, a response rate of approximately 22%. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents were female academic staff. The responses are currently being analysed and the issues raised will be followed up with focus groups to gather more detail. A report will then be circulated to all the WiSci stakeholders.

According to the project team, some interesting trends have already emerged. For example, over 40% of female respondents, but less than 5% of male respondents, are currently working or have previously worked part-time. The project team plans to use focus groups to investigate the impact of a period of part-time work on an academic career and the availability of rewarding part-time roles.

Additional comments provided at the end of each survey response have also provided some interesting insights into the issues that are of greatest concern
to women in the sciences. These include a lack of female role models in senior academic roles, a lack of female mentors, concerns about workloads for early career academics and a perceived lack of career paths and job security for both teaching only and research-only academic roles.


Further surveys are planned for general staff, particularly those in technical roles, and PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.