Gender balance remains elusive in Australian science but an alliance of some of the country’s largest research institutes is pushing for change.
Melbourne’s Parkville Precinct is the largest medical research cluster in Australia, and one of the largest in the world, employing 4,000 researchers.
Those institutes have combined to form an alliance to tackle a persistent problem in Australian science: the dramatic drop off of women at each stage of the science career ladder.
Women in Science Parkville Precinct (WiSPP) said this year’s fellowship applications to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) tell the story.
At early career stage, nearly two-thirds of applications are from women but by mid-career stage that figure drops to about a third.
Finally, at the top level – senior principal fellowships – only 11 per cent of the applicants are women.
It is a reality senior stroke researcher Julie Bernhardt knows well: when she sits down with her colleagues, meetings often have a familiar look.
A midday gathering is a typical example. Eleven men sit around the table; she is the only woman.
Ms Bernhardt said young female researchers could not help but notice.
“I think they feel pretty frustrated,” she said. “And also (ask): ‘Is this the career for me?'”
Ms Bernhardt said at senior levels, the “look-around” test was especially difficult for women.
There are simply not many role models at the top of research institutes for women to look up to. She believes that has to change.
“Having more women would change the conversation,” she said. “We bring something different to the table.”
Researcher warns of ‘enormous loss of intellectual capital’
Childcare issues are part of the reason so many women leave science in the early and mid-career stages.
Researchers like Christina Perry are juggling childcare and family commitments just when demands peak to publish work to move up the ladder.
She is worried her window of opportunity will not last long.
“There is a bit of a scramble at this stage to get up to the next step,” she said. “The perception is that once you’ve missed that boat, you’re sort of out.”
Some institutes have innovative programs to help mid-career women who have young children.
Epigenetic specialist Marnie Blewitt from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute has received grants to help her attend conferences vital for career development.
“You can bring your child with you and bring along a carer, and this is extremely important,” she said.
“I’ve used it to go to conferences that I otherwise wouldn’t have attended.”
The key federal funding body, NHMRC, is also moving to address the problem.
Next year, it will require institutes to have gender equity plans in place to receive grants.
“Research is an incredibly demanding career, and it’s the sort of a job where if you take a year or two off, you can come back to find your entire field has changed,” said NHMRC research grants director Saraid Billiards.
“We need to keep the best minds in research, both male and female, and there is a lot that institutions can do to help.”
The director of The Florey Institute in Melbourne, Geoffrey Donnon, said Australia could not afford to wait.
“I think it’s an enormous loss of intellectual capital, 50 per cent of our population. We’re losing the ability to harness their enormous intellect in terms of our scientific output,” he said.
Mr Donnon said the challenge now was to make sure more of the women who started out in science stayed there.