AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING (ATSE) NUMBER 171 APRIL 2012 WOMEN DRIVING FOR THE TOP IMPEDIMENTS IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES Contributors discuss the need for Australia to attract and optimise the skills of women in finding and applying the technologies to build a better Australia Arup, engineering firm of the year 2012 (revenue over $200m) “Thank you to all our clients, past and present, for helping us achieve this outstanding award.” Peter Bailey, CEO of Arup in Australasia We shape a better world | www.arup.com CONTENTS 1 APR 12 FOCUS 3 Leading the campaign to use our full human potential By Cathy Foley 5 Anything’s possible – expect the unexpected By Helen Garnett Taking up the academic challenge (page 27). 13 Women need to understand the corporate ‘game’ 9 16 The view through ATSE’s looking glass Breaking boundaries and 19 Can we be ourselves and be engineers? defying expectations 22 Dish it out and take it too By Tanya Monro 23 An energy-filled job 24 ‘Male’ career trajectories and academic AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING (ATSE) NUMBER 171 APRIL 2012 outputs more valued 28 Energy future needs a portfolio approach 29 Alan Finkel is next Academy President 53 ATSE in Focus WOMEN DRIVING FOR THE TOP Front cover: Women face a tough climb to the top – and for recognition and acceptance. Contributors discuss the need for Australia to attract and optimise the skills of women in finding Photo: iStockphoto and applying the technologies to build a better Australia – and the impediments women face in the technological sciences. COPYRIGHT This publication contains copyright material. Some of the material is owned by Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Ltd ACN 008 520 394 (ATSE) and some material is owned by others. All copyright and other intellectual property rights in the materials remain with the owner. No material in this publication may be copied (except as legally allowed) or further disseminated without the express and written permission of the holder of that copyright. ATSE Focus is produced to stimulate discussion and public policy initiatives on key topics of Copyright © ATSE 2012 interest to the Academy and the nation. Many PUBLISHER articles are contributed by ATSE Fellows with expertise in these areas. 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Telephone: 03 9864 0900 Facsimile: 03 9864 0930 Email: [email protected] UWA Professor Carolyn Oldham School of Environmental Systems Engineering WOMEN: DRIVING 3 FOR THE TOP APR 12 WWW.ATSE.ORG.AU FOCUS Leading the campaign to use our full human potential Social change takes time and cultural change is incremental and messy. Revolution is unlikely to achieve sustained and effective change. By Cathy Foley [email protected] “The most important thing about a political party is ethos, or ues and principles-driven; is inclusive; and encouraged the culture. It’s far more important than ideology or rules. The way organisation to learn to ‘lean into the discomfort’ when we treat each other, the way we handle differences, the way we facing the hard issues. I wanted the science sector to make process change.” – Senator Bob Carr, March 2012 a difference in society. To do this we scientists need to walk in others’ shoes to ’ve just finished writing a report on the status of wom- fully understand the issues at hand. To achieve anything we en in physics in Australia. Too often I have been the need representative organisations that are financially sus- lone and/or first female in various roles during my ca- tainable by a range of funding sources and use technology reer in physics. As a result, it has been my passion to see to maximise time, impact and communication. Ithis change. I had to pick my fights as I couldn’t do everything – rath- After some improvement in the early 2000s, my report er I wanted to do a few things really well and leave a legacy. showed that the number of girls and women in physics is It worries me that we pay a $20 entrance fee for Questa- beginning to slip again in recent years. con exhibitions but admission to the permanent collection As the Australian Institute of Physics President (AIP) at the National Gallery of Australia next door is free; that in 2007 and 2008, I led the campaign for physics. And as the majority of Australians have not done any science and the President of Science and Technology Australia (STA, maths formal learning since they were 15 or 16 years old; formerly FASTS) from 2009 until late last year, I champi- that in a growing diverse society the majority of decision oned the message to the broader science community. makers are Anglo males; that in a society that is looking Looking at what impact I have had, it is hard to see if to science to address the major challenges facing us, we al- I had any – depressing! But then I remind myself to think low pseudo science to have equal airspace; that our science again. Maybe there are impacts other than just numbers ... I have often wondered why I joined organisations and then ended up, in time, leading them – P&Cs, professional societies and a CSIRO division. I am not driven by the need for power or recognition. My early school days at St Anthony’s Primary School in Sydney’s suburban Marsfield had me raising money for the starving Ethiopians by making and selling toffees. This need for action combined with a strong dose of ‘Catholic guilt‘ – as my children call it – has meant that when I see something is not working or not right, I put my hand up to fix it. So what was my platform for election to lead the phys- ics and broader science community? It was not just a desire to right the wrongs of women in science. In both cases it was to shift the science sector towards greater impact and effectiveness. ‘Women in science’ is just a subsection of this. I saw a need for change. I wanted to create a culture that was val- Cathy Foley addresses the WISE summit. 4 WOMEN: DRIVING FOR THE TOP APR 12 FOCUS WWW.ATSE.ORG.AU sector is not able to have well-defined career paths in order We need some major structural change to break down to be attractive to future generations; that our absolutely the industry, government laboratory and university silos. Just world-class discoveries are not translating from the labora- as we see the benefit of inter- and multi-disciplinary research, tories to create industries and economic prosperity that is we need to work out how to break down the barriers that there for the taking. make it so difficult for career mobility between these sectors. As President of the AIP, I wanted the discipline of We need to have accountability and measures of re- physics to be recognised as a critical ingredient for a suc- search quality that create a system that understands the cessful modern society. The number of teachers with phys- esteems of each sector. For example, the ERA process has ics majors is minimal (less than 40 per cent); the number created a focus on publications and citations, while gov- of children, especially girls, choosing physics is dropping ernment laboratories are mission-driven and need to have (about six per cent of girls do physics in their final year broader measure of impact. Government laboratory re- at school); the number of women who are working and searchers usually have fewer publications and are not com- studying university physics is a small minority, in some ar- petitive in the university system. Industry is measured by eas a single digit percentage (nine per cent of physicists in the return on investment and the success of the business, some government laboratories are women). so publications are of little interest. Breaking down the And then as the President of STA I wanted Australians barriers between universities, government laboratories and who are absolutely dependent on science to recognise the industry is our most urgent agenda for science in Australia. need to be literate, to respect the difference between good As a woman leading the campaign, I have learnt from science – science that is peer reviewed – and bad science. many other women and one significant male mentor. I wanted scientists and technologists to have a career path These include: Suzanne Cory on the importance of that allowed them to participate and have a sustainable life- world’s best scholarship; Margaret Shields on letting go of style – at least to be able to own a home and pay their bills. past responsibilities as you take on new roles; Megan Clark on always seeing the glass half full and every situation as Missing out an opportunity; my siblings on various aspects of business; I wanted Australia to realise that it was missing out on its my step-mother on being organised and disciplined; An- full human potential by not using all its talent, with too na-Maria Arabia on the political process; Hilary Clinton few women and ethnic minorities participating at all lev- on the idea that you never, ever give up; and Calum Drum- els.