Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological
Societies (FASTS) Report
Sharon Bell, with assistance from Kate O’Halloran, Jesslyn Saw &
Yu Zhao
Women in Science in Australia: Maximising Productivity, Diversity and Innovation
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Workshop – 17 September, 2009
Launch of report by Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon. Kim Carr – 19 October, 2009
It seems fortuitous that the 25th anniversary of WISENet should precede by just one year the 25th anniversary of FASTS, and that FASTS should commission this
report on Women in Science for release and dissemination in this particular year. Perhaps if WISENet and other women in science/engineering/technology organisations/networks/advisory groups had been completely successful in promoting gender equity in science, and getting policies implemented towards that aim, WISENet would not need to exist! We would all be happy, and maybe this latest report would be full of success stories!
The report was commissioned because women are still under-represented in science, despite their high entry into higher education and into certain areas of science at undergraduate level. The benchmark was the 1995 Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, Australia report to the Australian Government (1). This earlier report had a series of 14, specific, multic-omponent recommendations aimed at overcoming barriers to women’s participation in science and to women’s promotion to the most senior positions in science and technology.
However, with the change in Government in 1996, none of these were implemented, and there is persistent vertical and horizontal segregation of the science workforce; i.e., women are concentrated in jobs that are traditionally lower-paid and have less responsibility, and they are also clustered at junior levels within particular job/career strands. As the FASTS report states in the
Executive Summary, any changes have been minimal; the similarities between the earlier and current reports are indeed telling.
The FASTS report focuses on two key concerns: 1) That under-representation of women in the science and technology workforce represents a waste of human capital and 2) Under-representation of women undermines national innovation potential because it constrains diversity of new ideas and perspectives.
The report itself can be downloaded here:
www.fasts.org/images/news2009/fasts%20women%20in%20science%5B1%5D.pdf
The FASTS press release is also available: www.fasts.org/images/news2009/mrwis-03-09.pdf
The report provides up-to-date data on the position and participation of women in science in Australia, mainly within the higher education and public service sectors. The focus on loss of human capital is important, as this represents a substantial cost of attrition of highly trained and skilled potential workers at a time of emerging skills and labour shortages. The retention and promotion of women in science has been investigated elsewhere for example, Queensland commissioned a task force to produce the report Supporting Women’s Participation in Emerging Industries: Science, Engineering and Technology (2006) (2). Further afield, we have Beyond Bias and Barriers (2007) (3) from the US National Science Foundation, and SET Fair (2002) (4), commissioned by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in the UK. Each has a specific set of concrete recommendations to overcome difficulties faced by women in science.
The FASTS report aimed at pinpointing specific problems, providing data on the current situation and emphasising the cost of attrition. The report also reminds us that ‘persistent gender inequality hurts men as well as women by narrowing choice and reinforcing historic workforce patterns.’
The recommendations from this report are broad and include advancing the agenda linking diversity with innovation; clearly mapping career paths with mechanisms enabling women to thrive; influencing institutional cultures and decision-making to support implementation of family-friendly and equitable workplace policies; improving the evidence base and continue evaluating existing policies; and empowering leaders to address these issues.
The next step is to formulate targetted, concrete policies and processes that can be implemented in science organisations, with the specific aim of overcoming obvious and hidden impediments to the full participation of women in science at every level. The FASTS report can be used as a launching pad, and organisations such as WISENet can participate in this second stage of reformation in the science and technology workplace.
This has been done before, of course. In May 1993, the then Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Science and the Minister for Science and Small Business, Senator Chris Schacht, established the Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Advisory Group to advise on strategies to improve women’s participation in SET careers and education, resulting in the 1995 report mentioned earlier (1). The principles adopted for this report were primarily to shift away from asking what is wrong with girls and women to questioning what it is about the environment of SET (and society’s perception of it) that it does not attract and retain the interest of girls and women. This included paying more attention to the range of behaviours towards women and girls by those who dominate both the educational and employment contexts of SET (that is men and boys).
The Advisory Group thought that one set of their recommendations could be implemented almost immediately through the Women’s Statistics Unit within the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but the WSU was disbanded (‘mainstreamed’) by the incoming Government in 1996, and the recommendations were taken no further. In summary form, these were:
Recommendations for Implementation in the Short Term
(excerpted verbatim from 1)
Initiate an awareness raising program targeted at employers, unions, the schools sector, the TAFE sector and the higher education sector aimed at improving understanding and recognition of gender harassment and other behaviours which inhibit women’s access to and progression in SET-based education, training and employment.
Establish a Women, Science, Engineering and Technology Unit (WISETU) (for at least a four year period) to initiate, develop and monitor policies for advancing women in science, engineering or technology, in collaboration with relevant government departments and agencies, employer and union interests and the professional associations.
The Women’s Statistics Unit within the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in conjunction with DEET and DIST, discuss improved registering of employment statistics on women in SET-based employment which records a discipline and sub-discipline breakdown of science, engineering and technology more generally and which also records the different levels at which women participate and the nature of their employment (part-time, casual etc). Monitor and report on women’s participation in SET education and training courses on the basis of disciplines and sub-disciplines rather than only in science, engineering and technology as a whole. The Women’s Statistics Unit be tasked with gathering the necessary data as part of gathering employment data noted above. Examine and report on the policy implications of marked inter-institutional variations in enrolment of women in SET disciplines in the higher education sector and to identify whether a similar situation exists in the TAFE sector. Ask the Australian Research Council to include examination of the factors which affect women’s participation in disciplines and sub-disciplines when it undertakes discipline reviews and advise on any interdisciplinary differences.
Let us hope that the FASTS 2009 report does not suffer the same fate and disappear into oblivion. To this end, WISENet and like-minded groups need to continue lobbying within our local workplaces, and maintaining contact with our local and federal politicians, to restart the stalled improvement for women in the science, engineering and technology workforce.
Women in Science, Engineering and
Technology, Australia, 1995. Report by the Women in Science, Engineering and
Technology Advisory Group (WISNET). The report is no longer available from
the Government, but is available at the site below.
www.engineersaustralia.org.au/shadomx/apps/fms/fmsdownload.cfm?file_uuid=7151DBC1-9910-4D8A-EE4D-401BA13D3912&siteName=ieaust
Supporting Women’s Participation
in Emerging Industries: Science, Engineering and Technology. Smart Women –
Smart State Taskforce Concept Paper, June 2006
www.women.qld.gov.au/work-and-life/smart-state-strategy/documents/setconcept-paper.pdf
Beyond Bias and Barriers.
Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering, 2007.
National Science Foundation, USA
This can be read online:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11741
SET Fair. A Report on Women in
Science, Engineering, and Technology, 2002
http://extra.shu.ac.uk/nrc/section_2/publications/reports/R1182_SET_Fair_Report.pdf
