Saturday 11 February 2023 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This year the UN has earmarked this as a day to focus on women, girls and science as they relate to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The SDGs are a set of 17 strategic objectives to end poverty, improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, alongside tackling climate change and working to preserve our natural environment. This year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science will highlight the goals relating to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9), and sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11).
The UN’s resources include a feature on women scientists on the forefront of climate action, including experts on water security, marine biology, species loss, and indigenous knowledge as it relates to the natural environment. The campaign recognises that “gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will make a crucial contribution not only to economic development of the world, but to progress across all the goals”.
In this sense it’s a positive, forward-looking campaign. At the same time, it recognises there is much work to be done to achieve gender equality in STEM industries, along with the greater global good that such equality would help achieve.
We’ve previously explored greater participation of women as a strategy for addressing skills shortages in Australian engineering. In fact, women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in general. For example, according to the UN, women represent only 33.3 per cent of researchers, 12 per cent of members of national science academies, and 22 per cent of professionals working in cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence.
In light of this international campaign, it’s a good time to ask: How is Australia faring when it comes to women’s participation in science and other STEM fields? And what can be done to ensure we as a nation are playing our part in achieving these global equity goals?
How does Australia compare with the rest of the world?
The global gender lag in STEM is as evident in Australia as anywhere else. This is despite the fact that increasing the participation of women in STEM industries has been a government priority for years.
The STEM Equity Monitor, last updated in September 2022, tracks national data across the STEM pathway, from primary and secondary school, to higher education (including graduation outcomes), to the workforce. The federal government has invested some $100 million over the past decade in programs designed to encourage women into science and technologies.
Just how effective have those efforts been? The evidence would suggest not very.
Admittedly there have been minor gains, such as a slight reduction in the gender pay gap for full-time workers in STEM industries (from $28,994 in 2020 to $26,784 in 2021). The overall proportion of women in STEM-qualified occupations has also grown slightly, albeit from a very low baseline: it stood at 15 per cent in 2021, compared with 13 per cent the previous year.
At the same time, women make up only about a third (36 per cent) of university enrolments in STEM – despite a 24 per cent increase from 2015 and 2020. It’s worse for vocational STEM courses, where only 16 per cent of enrolments are women. Women make up only about a quarter of the STEM workforce – at 27 per cent, which is actually a 1 per cent decrease on 2020. And, notwithstanding any pay gap gains, women working in STEM still earn 18 per cent less than men in these industries.
Drill down to some of the science specific fields within STEM, and the outlook is a little more mixed. A third (33 per cent) of chemists and food and wine scientists, and a quarter (25 per cent) of agricultural and forestry scientists, are women. In the life sciences however women actually outnumber men, at 58 per cent. Women also make up 61 per cent of medical laboratory scientists, though this is down from 70 per cent in 2018. Around 40 per cent of science technicians are women.
“This is more than just about representation,” Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley told the Australian Financial Review in response to the latest STEM Equity Monitor results. “Getting the settings right for women and for other groups in our community is about equity. It will also ensure we can fill the skills gaps in industries set to shape Australia over the next two decades, by making use of our full human potential.”
Removing barriers, developing pathways
In September, Science Minister Ed Husic announced a review of the federally funded programs that aim to encourage women into STEM. It’s a welcome announcement, but the challenge is significant. The structural and cultural barriers to increasing women’s participation in these industries are longstanding and well entrenched. According to those who work in the industry, they include things like the pay gap and low levels of seniority, but extend also to sexism and low workplace morale.
Engineers Australia’s (EA) August 2022 report, Strengthening the engineering workforce in Australia, maps out a number of government and industry initiatives to both remove barriers and build better pathways to increase participation of women in engineering. Many of its recommendations can be broadened out to include all STEM industries, including science.
For example, recommendations focused on girls and women during early, primary and secondary education seem relevant across the board for STEM. These include exposing girls to STEM subjects to a greater extent, and earlier on, in their education journey; building good foundations by contextualising these subjects within standard learning areas and real-world relevance; and increasing visibility by promoting the achievements of women in STEM industries.
Proposals also include things like government incentives and greater support to attract women to first enrol in, and then complete, tertiary STEM education. Internships and other programs to bring women into the STEM workforce also have a role to play, as do more concrete career pathways and leadership tracks to increase the proportion of women in management and executive positions.
“We need the modern workforce to reflect modern Australia,” Husic said when announcing the review, echoing the sentiment of Dr Foley. “It is vital we broaden participation from under-represented groups. This isn’t just a fair idea, it’s a clever idea. Diverse research teams and diverse companies are high achieving.”
“This is a collective obligation, and we need to be strategic in our actions to advance equity,” added Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, Australia’s Women in STEM Ambassador. “This means investing in the proper tools and infrastructure required to drive cultural and structural change and to make organisations accountable.”
Australia’s STEM Equity Monitor is set to publish new data every year until 2030, with the next update due in September this year. Hopefully any actions that come out of the review, alongside international campaigns like the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, can get the statistics tracking the right direction.
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