What is Australia doing towards achieving gender equality in STEM fields?
The Australian Federal Government recognised achieving gender equality in STEM as a key component of its 2016 National Innovation and Science Agenda. This was seen in the support and implementation of two national programmes looking to tackle the issue of gender equality.
The first of these is the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) programme. SAGE is a partnership between the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, which aims to improve gender equity in Australian higher education and research institutes. In particular, its goals are to not only attract more women, transgender and gender diverse individuals into STEM fields, but also improve the retention and success of these individuals once involved.
Currently, 83% of Australian universities, and multiple other publicly funded institutes are actively involved in the SAGE programme. The overall aim of SAGE is to collect and analyse data regarding gender equity from these institutions and use this to develop comprehensive plans for improvement of gender equity. Participating universities and institutes use the Athena SWAN Accreditation Framework as a means of assessing their gender equity status, and in turn working towards creating a more gender inclusive workplace. SAGE also provides resources and facilitates workshops and forums for participating members, and collaborates with other national and international bodies with a like-minded goal of improving gender equity in STEM. The programme is still in its preliminary stages, and thus its success is yet to be determined. However, hopefully the implementation of such a programme in itself is recognition enough that change needs to occur to improve inclusivity in the STEM fields.
Whilst there is the active involvement of women working towards gender equality in STEM, there is a notable absence of men, especially influential men who have the power to create significant change within the area. Thus, the second programme introduced is the Male Champions of Change (MCC) in STEM. This programme aims to bring together senior male leaders from business, government, university and research sectors and encourages them to listen directly to the insights of their employees, especially those employees from female or gender diverse backgrounds. Through doing this, the MCC programme hopes to get male leaders to learn and reflect on the experiences of different employees within their sector, and use this to implement practical and accountable change.
The MCC programme, by specifically targeting men, aims to create a more disruptive approach to challenging gender inequality. Many of the systems and structures in STEM, as well as many of the senior leadership positions in STEM fields are generally occupied by men. Thus, it is crucial to engage men in being the driving forces behind the change to the already established systems, structures and overall culture in STEM, which is currently reinforcing gender biases and inequalities.
Both of these programmes aim to implement change at the level of the overall ‘system’ rather than just ‘individuals’- with SAGE aiming for a more long-term analytical approach, whereas MCC provides a more short-term and disruptive programme intending to make practical action quickly. In 2018, the two programmes joined together in collaboration to ask male leaders from SAGE-associated institutions to reflect and share their own leadership and practical actions which they can put into place to improved gender inclusivity in the workplace. The success of this collaboration is currently being evaluated, but should it prove successful, it shows potential to be expanded and continued at a larger scale.
The implementation of these two national programmes shows recognition by the Australian Federal Government and national higher education and research institutes of there being a problem of gender inequality in STEM. Although these programmes are still largely in their preliminary stages, evaluation of their success over the next few years will help clarify the progress being made in Australia in achieving STEM gender equality, and more importantly, what still remains to be done.
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