Interview with Catherine Galvin
Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of meeting up with Catherine Galvin, a lecturer and researcher at the ANU, to ask her about herself, and her experiences with gender equity in STEM.
1. How did you end up in the STEM field?
I was mostly motivated by my parents. My mum was a mathematician, but came from a family that didn’t want to educate girls. However, she was determined to be educated and use to hide in the toilet to study. After she left home, she got a job which involved using some of the first mechanical computers. She eventually became head of this company and went back to night school to get herself further educated.
My dad came from family with no education. During World War II, he worked on the shop floor of General Motors. He saw the windows of the draftsmen and engineers up above and wanted to get up there. One day, the head of the company was walking past and he asked how to get up where the windows were. He was told that he had to be educated, and this motivated him to get an education. After getting an education he ended up working on rockets at WRE (Weapons Research Establishment) in Woomerra.
So growing up with rock bits all over the house, I was always interested in education and knew that I wanted to go on to further study. After graduating high school, when it came time to decide between law, medicine or engineering, engineering was the obvious choice as I enjoy problem solving and due to the background of my family.
2. What is your role at ANU?
At ANU my time is divided into a 70% teaching load and a 30% research load. I am currently lecturing the first year electronics course, working on some of the system engineering courses by helping develop new curriculum and preparing to take over one of the systems engineering courses next year. My research is to do with knee osteoarthritis and the mechanics of the knee. I am excited about both the teaching and the researching parts of my role as the research I am doing can have a direct impact on people’s lives and am passionate about maintaining high quality teaching.
3. What subjects are you most interested in?
I have a typical mind full of curiosity, which is to say, I’m interested in everything. I started off in electrical engineering, and then went back and did my sports science degree. I am interested in the different methods of improving health. In particular, I am interest in looking for ways to improve health using an engineering approach and combining the knowledge different areas of science have on the same topic. This interest lead to my PhD topic of knee arthritis and learning more about the mechanics of the knee. I was looking for engineering solutions for joint health with a focus on early diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis, which would allow for prevention and treatment, extending the life of the joint.
4. Why do you think gender equity in STEM is important?
Gender equity is not important just in STEM but in all areas of life. There is a quote from Abdu’l-Bahá (1912) about gender equity that I quite like, “The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.” I like this analogy because it demonstrates the need for gender equity. If a wing is left to wither and die then the whole bird will not be able to get food and the whole bird will die.
On reflection of my childhood, having a mother who was educated was extremely important and influential for me. This is as women are the first educators of young children, boys and girls. It is important to educate women as they can educate and motivate future generations.
I can remember my mum getting paid 70% of what her male co-workers were getting, and her marching on the street demanding equal pay. So we have come a long way, but there is still a fair way to go. Many STEM fields such as engineering are still considered a fairly masculine endeavor and taught in masculine way. Not only this, but STEM will have a huge role to play in the future of the world, as science will determine the decisions to be made in terms of sustainable practices and policy making.
We need as many women in STEM as men, as it will reduce the risk. Risk reduction is having gender equity. When there is not gender equity things can go wry very quickly. If people calculated the risk of not having gender equality and put it dollars, more people would be advocating for gender equity.
5. What is one strategy that you have seen used to promote gender equity in a school, university or workplace that has had a positive impact?
I think more women are increasingly drawn into engineering as they see the direct impact engineering can have on people’s lives. The difficulty in engineering is that, unlike medicine, you don’t really know what you are going to be doing at the end. I have seen recently more promotion of women in engineering magazines such as Engineers Australia which I think has a great impact as women can see the benefits of engineering through the feature stories. Committees on gender equity and getting women in the faculty involved is a powerful tool as well, but within these committees there needs to be equal men and women representation. Equal representation is important as it does get fatiguing, being the only woman or one of a few, that is always asked to talk on gender equity.
6. What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self to make your journey in STEM easier?
I don’t have just one piece of advice, but my list is as follows.
Enjoy the journey. Relax.
Be brave, apply for everything. If you look at a job description and think, “I only fulfill half of the criteria”, apply anyway.
Keep the passion. Read what other people are doing and what solutions people are finding. Don’t accept the menial tasks, you want to be doing meaningful work. Menial tasks suck the passion out of you. If you get given a menial task, do it once and ask who is going to do it next.
Find good mentors and join Engineers Australia. Become involved, meet other engineers. Become part of the community. Go to things. Get out of your office!
Prioritise. Engineering is more important than taekwondo. Balance is important. I used to turn up late to labs and lectures because of taekwondo, infuriating my friends and lab partners.
7. You have won Canberra University’s award for teaching excellence as a seasonal tutor and the Vice Chancellors Award for Excellence as an Early Career Educator. What is your tip for students to get more out of their tutorials and lectures?
Learn how to do mind maps and how to revise. There is an excellent graph called “The most important graph in the world” which shows you how to retain information. If you want to remember something, review it within 24 hours, then review it in a couple of days, and then review it in a week. Find fun ways of learning. I generally use hooks, real life examples of content. These will help me remember content. Make sure you understand the base knowledge before going into theoretical and conceptual content.
Be organised and prioritise. You need to balance your time as engineering is full on. I find it helpful to account for every hour of my day as there are so many things pulling me in different directions. Work for a set amount of time, then take a break.
