The Queensland State Government has announced the continuation of the Advance Queensland Women's Academic Fund until 30 June 2017. Grants continue to be available for:
§ Maternity funding - up to $25,000 (excluding GST) to employ a researcher, or research/laboratory assistant, to assist primary researchers who have approved maternity leave.
§ Carer funding - up to $1,000 (excluding GST) to cover any relevant out-of-pocket child care or respite care expenses in excess of usual carer arrangements while presenting at a national/international conference or sitting on a professional research committee.
§ Lecture funding - up to $2,000 (excluding GST) to cover the costs of delivering lectures or presentations highlighting the work of leading Queensland-based female researchers.
Applicants interested in applying for any of the above should contact UQR&I at qldgovtschemes@research.uq.edu.au prior to lodging an application. As restrictions apply on the number of Lecture funding applications an organisation can submit, these proposals will be coordinated by the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) on UQ's behalf.
For more information on this scheme, please see the Advance Queensland webpage, or refer to UQR&I's webpage for information on how to apply, or contact qldgovtschemes@research.uq.edu.au .
2017 is to be the year advocacy. In January, millions took to the streets in the worldwide women’s marches. The new US president’s executive order which brought about a visa ban for citizens of a number of countries led to a number of airport protests. And now scientists are pushing back. Marches are being planned for 22nd April (Earth day). But, this move is not without its critics, some scientist would prefer for us all to keep our heads down in such times.
There’s no escaping that scientist are embedded into society (whether we like it or not) and I do rather feel for my climate science colleagues who are watching as we sleepwalk into future strife. This is of course is only one issue that relies heavily on scientific endeavours, and those who think science operates in a vacuum are deluding themselves.
In times such as these it can seem dangerous to put your head above the parapet, so I thought I would take a bit of a historical perspective and look for inspiration in those who have raised their voices. The two people I immediately think of, Kathleen Lonsdale and Ursula Franklin, are far from ‘rogue’ – Dame Prof Lonsdale was a fellow of the Royal Society and Prof Franklin held a prestigious chair at University of Toronto. But both did raise their voices against world and local events in their time.
‘Does the police come for one or do I just have to go to prison myself?’
In 1943 Kathleen Lonsdale, was convicted to a month in Holloway prison for her consciences objection to work supporting World War II activities. At this time she had already undertaken perhaps her most famous research, showing through the crystal structure of Hexamethylbenzene that the benzene molecule was flat, a controversial finding at the time. Understandably, she was reticent to go to prison, but to all accounts it turned out to be a pivotal event in her life.
Kathleen Lonsdale in 1968.Smithsonian Institution from United States
Senior colleagues petitioned for her to be allowed her scientific papers while interred, and she remarked it turned out to be a most productive time. She left prison writing to the governor with suggestions on improving the lighting and cleanliness, and followed up on her points by regularly returning (as a visitor). Her experiences led her to advocate for women prisoners in later years and it can’t be said that her researcher career suffered. In 1945, along with Marjory Stephenson, Kathleen Lonsdale was elected one of the first female fellows of the Royal Society.
Her seniority within the field of crystallography also meant that Kathleen Lonsdale became very well connected with international colleagues, and used those connections in her advocacy against atomic weapons and to break down cultural barriers. She strove to welcome Soviet and Chinese colleagues in a time where political distrust was at its highest, visiting Moscow in 1951 and the People’s Republic of China in 1955. One thing I find particularly inspiring was her determination that those scientists from developed countries had a duty to assist those in developing economies.
Ursula Franklin, who passed away last year, was a pioneer in archeometry and the first women to be appointed University Professor at University of Toronto. But it was her experiences of being interned in a Nazi labour camp as a young adult drove her passionately to passivism. Perhaps her biggest contribution was when she used her scientific expertise to into a strong passion for pacifism.
Ursula Franklin in 2006.Martin Franklin
It was as a member of the Voices of Women group, that she coordinated the collection of baby teeth in Canada in the 1960’s. The subsequent analysis that was undertaken of these teeth, showed that they contained radioactive Strontium 90, a result of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. This emotive piece of research was one of the key pieces of evidence that lead to the 1963 ban on atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.
Being a women researcher in the post-war period, she broke ground fighting to stay in her job after the birth of her children.
‘They had that bloody committee, and they went on deliberating. They didn’t appoint anybody, so I kept on working’
Even when retired Franklin kept on campaigning, joining a group of emeritus professors who filed a class action against the university of Toronto in 2001 citing that their female academic staff had been underpaid for years. They won.
In 2017, as we have to stand up and make our voices heard, I find the legacies of Prof Franklin and Lonsdale incredibly inspiring. Here are two physicists who use their scientific position and research to further a cause – I’d be interested in finding others who’ve inspired you.
The women in physics group doesn’t currently have our own meeting, so the biennial AIP congress is the main time we have to get together and discuss the state of women in physics in Australia. This year however we had extra opportunity, as the congress was held jointly with the Asian Pacific Physics Conference, giving us a fantastic opportunity to connect and network with our colleagues from the Asia Pacific region. The WIP group held a number of activities during the conference, which all occurred on the 6th December. This action-packed day was kicked off by the WIP breakfast event with Prof Nalini Joshi as our guest speaker, followed by a Plenary by Prof Youngah Park and then in the afternoon we hosted two conference sessions with invited contributions by Prof Evvy Kartini and Prof Kate Joliffe. Breakfast event
This great event was sponsored by EQuS, and we were very fortunate to have Prof Nalini Joshi as our guest speaker. Prof Joshi has been an instigator of the Science in Australia Gender Equality (SAGE) pilot that has been tremendously successful with 40 institutions currently signed up and seeking a bronze award in the approach to equity. She spoke on the motivations and need for such a pilot and outlined how all in the room could get involved and assist their institutions in making SAGE a success. The breakfast event also allowed us to thank a number of members for their support of the WIP group over the years, and to form a new committee for 2017/18. Plenary by Youngah Park
After breakfast was done, we moved to the large theatre to hear Prof Youngah Park’s plenary lecture on ‘W-Leadership, Key driver of Innovative Engines’. Prof Park is currently President of Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning and has a very interesting, and almost unique perspective, as not only is she a senior scientist but she has also served as a member of the National Assembly of Republic of Korea from 2008 to 2012. So her duel perspective on the role and strengths of women in the physics workforces was particular insightful. In particular she outlined the large opportunities that gender innovation can give to a country at large, through sustaining economic growth and opening new markets.
Sessions
As part of the conference we held two sessions, the first focusing on the state of Women in Physics in the Asian region and the second looking to how we can move forward from where we are. In our first session we heard from invited speaker Prof Evvy Kartini, from Indonesia’s National Nuclear agency about Women in Physics within Indonesia, her personal perspective on this as well as lots of very positive stories about how things are improving. For the remainder of the session we heard contributions from Japan, Korea and China and it was fascinating to see how the state of things are so different in each country. Though, the sad fact remains that in all countries a number of barriers have been identified to women participating fully in the physics world. In the session looking about how we move forward, we heard from Prof Kate Joliffe about the strategic mentoring program that has been instituted at Sydney university's chemistry department. After finding a dearth of women at band E (professional level) and determining that there was a lack of people putting in for promotion to this level – the department put in place a mentoring scheme . Now successful, they are implementing the scheme to lower levels, a very interesting case example of positive action. Also in the session Jo Turner reported on statistics she had gathered both from the conference diversity survey and also presented the picture of equity in AIP awards. Both revealed quite a lot about the community, with a very definite case for action – we’ll write a separate post about this. Thanks to Sarah Maddison for the photos of the WIP events.
The deadline for applications to be the 2017 Women in
Physics lecturer has been extended to the 14th December.
The AIP women in physics lecture program will be
entering its 20th year in 2017, showing the long-standing commitment of the
AIP to inspiring future women physicists.
This year we’re seeking a lecturer from Australia (we seek international
lecturers in alternate years), to undertake a national tour speaking to school
kids and the public. This year’s lecturer,
Prof Catalina Cureanu, spoke to nearly 2000 school kids in her whirlwind three
week tour!
See below for details of an opportunity from Women and Leadership Australia:
In 2016
Women & Leadership Australia is administering a national initiative to
support the development of female leaders across the sciences.
The
initiative is providing women in sciencewith
grants for leadership development. More specifically, grant applications are
open for women at three levels. Please click on the preferred program link for details.
The deadline for expressing your interest for this funding in your sector ends
on December 15th.
Senior
management and executive level women leaders can
apply for $8,000 part-scholarships to undertake the
Advanced
Leadership Program Mid-level female managers and leaders can
apply for $4,000 part-scholarships to undertake the Executive
Ready Program Aspiring
talent andemergingwomen managers can apply for $3,000
part-scholarships to undertake the Accelerated
Leadership Performance Program.
Expressions
of Interest Register your interest by simply completing an Expression of Interest form.
Should you
wish to discuss the initiative in more detail please contact Ian Johnson at the
office of the National Industry Scholarship Program, Women and Leadership
Australia on (03) 9270 9016 or via ijohnson@wla.edu.au.
Not all of us were able to make Women in STEMM Australia's inaugural meeting this month, luckily though, Samantha Hood and Sarah Lau have written a fantastic report of the symposium - do have a read!
There are many problems the next generation
faces, such as climate change, rapidly growing energy, water and food demands,
and increasing demand for healthcare with ageing populations. To solve these
problems we need all hands on deck - we should all do our best to work to
ensure that everyone who wants to be working in STEMM* can become the problem
solvers the future needs. Fundamentally, the lack of women working in STEMM
fields is a failure to harness all of the available talent.
Recently in Melbourne, we attended the inaugural
Connecting Women in STEMM Symposium, hosted at RMIT. The first meeting of its
kind in Australia, the Symposium supported networking for women in STEMM - and
sought to address the lack of women in leadership roles in these fields. The
Symposium’s attendees included people from both industry and academia who are
working towards gender equity.
We are currently a PhD students studying physics
at the University of Queensland, working within the ARC Centre of Excellence
for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS). EQuS sent 7 members of the Centre to
attend the Symposium and we are delighted that EQuS is being refunded by the ARC
- their commitment to diversity and professional development is invaluable in
creating wonderful physicists that keep Australia competitive in quantum
science.
One of the best things to come out of this
Symposium was the emphasis on developing professional networks so that we can
learn from one another to implement best-practices. Retention of women in STEMM
is complicated, and often over simplified. It’s not just childcare, unconscious
bias, or a lack of confidence that holds women back, but a combination of these
factors and so many more. Improvements in gender equity in STEMM fields is slow
going, and the slow pace can be frustrating. So when we can find working
examples of successful policies and practices we should learn from them.
The focus of the Symposium’s first session was
the the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) program. SAGE seeks to
address gender inequality on a University wide level, by setting realistic
goals and requiring institutions to critically assess their commitment to
improving equity. SAGE recognises institutions improving their gender diversity
with awards - the original program in the UK (Athena Swan) saw medical bodies
requiring a certain level of diversity as a funding requirement. On a
School/Faculty level, it’s really hard to make changes to the workplace to
accommodate more flexibility due to bureaucracy and limited funds. This is one
reason why this program is so promising. It was even more encouraging to hear
about how the pilot is being implemented and accepted around Australia - the
awards are currently unrelated to funding outcomes so that the problem of
underrepresentation of women can be acknowledged and addressed for the right
reasons without becoming a box-ticking exercise.
Best practices in the workplace was the focus of
the Symposium’s second session. Panelists included Associate Professor MarnieBlewitt from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) of Medical Research and
Professor John Carroll from Monash’s Biomedical School, discussing family
practices and unconscious bias training respectively. WEHI has introduced
parenting rooms for their employees who might need to bring in a sick child to
work, and plan to improve their maternal and paternal leave, as well as have
on-site childcare**. Prof. Carroll discussed increasing awareness of
unconscious bias in his School by hiring a team to survey the staff, many of
whom agreed that as a result of the training, they were more aware of
inequality in the workplace. On a smaller scale, implementing harassment
policies and codes of conduct for workplace meetings was a suggestion from the
crowd that can be easily implemented, and shows that the employer cares about
equity and supports their staff.
Another great thing about the Symposium was
getting to see all of the amazing work happening across Australia (and
internationally) to encourage high school girls in STEMM. These include
mentoring, and passionate and inspiring outreach programs such as RoboGals and
TechGirls. While the solution to the lack of women in STEMM is unknown, a good
starting place is addressing attitudes and improving engagement at an early
age, which is exactly what these programs aim to do.
At the other end of the spectrum, we found it
really helpful as young scientists to have role models to look up to who have
managed to navigate the system. In particular, there was one session dedicated
to sharing the career journeys of various women in science. ‘Inspiring’ was the
word heard all around the room at the end of the session, not only because of
their perseverance in the face of many obstacles, but also how they demonstrate
the possibility and value of women in leadership in STEMM.
There’s never been a better time to be a woman
working in physics. Raised awareness of the challenges unique to women in STEMM
fields has inspired international efforts to ensure that women are reaching
their career potential more than ever before. Meetings like this Symposium are
a great way to accelerate progress in equality by sharing ideas, and I am
looking forward to seeing many more sessions in the future!
Samantha Hood and Sarah Lau
*Science, technology, engineering, maths and
medicine
** While the support of flexible work
environments was wonderful for many, it’s important to remember that not
everyone wants children. Emphasising the importance of role models and support
for the LGBTIQ community would be a wonderful idea for future meetings.
