Editorial
|
|
|
In this issue are notes and summaries from all of the presentations from WISENet’s 25th Anniversary Forum, held at the University of Wollongong (UOW) on Friday, 27 November, 2009. The Forum was very well organised, hosted and MC’d by Lynne Wright*, Director of Employment Equity & Diversity, UOW, with able assistance from Judy Wallis from the same Department.
The Forum was largely a celebration – of WISENet, of achievements of women in science, and of the women who outlined their work that day. We also celebrated other prominent women in science today – the Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett, the President of FASTS, Dr Cathy Foley, the CEO of FASTS, Anna Maria Arabia, and the CEO of CSIRO, Dr Megan Clark, and the many other Vice-Chancellors, DVCs, and prominent women academics, public servants and industry leaders.
The other side of the Forum questioned a continuing role for WISENet. If WISENet and other NGOs, as well as public sector bodies, the Government and Industry have not managed to implement policies enabling women to succeed equally with men – after 25 years of work – then what is our future role? But if we look back, we can see that although there is still much to achieve, we have come a long way. Many obvious obstacles have been overcome or have lip service paid to them (e.g. married women working, non-discriminatory job advertisements, maternity leave, childcare). Perhaps in the next 25 years we need to lobby to have lip service turned into concrete achievements, and to tackle more intransigent and subtle barriers, such as bias and entrenched networks. Some of you may be around for the 50th Anniversary Forum. We hope to see you there!
Rosemary White
*Lynne has been active in women’s issues in a number of ways, and you may be interested to view the results of a survey of UOW women entitled What women have said helps them to succeed (see link below). This seems particularly relevant for the question about Where to for WISENet? and in light of the recent FASTS report on Women in Science: Maximising Productivity, Diversity and Innovation. Lynne might be able to offer other advice, since she was named Illawarra Boss of the Year for 2004!
Link for UOW survey of women’s programmes: http://staff.uow.edu.au/ content/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE