Women academics highlight inequality

By Shelly Simonds

Budget cuts to education could destroy attempts to narrow the gender gap in academia, an ANU conference was told last month.

"Many women in academia are hanging onto short-term contracts and I assume that with the current cuts, a majority of these young women will fall off the edge," said Dr Gill Burke, a visiting Fellow at RSPAS and the first woman to be appointed Warden of Bruce Hall.

If universities place hiring freezes on untenured, entry-level positions, many women breaking into academia will be pushed out as temporary appointments go unrenewed and as new positions become scarce.

Dr Burke was a speaker at the conference "Advancing our Careers" held on April 29-30, convened by the Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods (CEDAM) with funding from the Commonwealth Staff Development Fund. Dr Burke joined Dr Susanne von Caemmerer, a Fellow in Molecular Plant Physiology, RSBS; Dr Helen Ross, a Fellow at CRES; and Dr Christina Li Lin Chai, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and a fellow at RSC, in a session about strategic career positioning and balancing on the academic ladder.

Approximately, 19 per cent of ANU academic staff members are women, about the same percentage as 20 years ago, according to ANU planning officer Rae Wells. In 1996, 26 per cent of all new academic hires were women.

Conference chair, Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki, said that although a reasonable number of women joined the ANU staff, not enough moved up the academic ladder.

The organisers aimed to bring junior academic women together to discuss the challenges they face in advancing their careers and to develop strategies for advancement. Mentoring and networking were specifically addressed as important career issues.

"It is absolutely essential that women get the right patrons and this can be difficult," said Dr Ross.

Good mentors served as referees, collaborators, and shared fundamental knowledge on how to write successful grant applications, she said. They also introduced junior academics to senior people in their field, helping establish professional networks.

Several speakers at the conference noted two different career cultures evident in academia. There were the traditional careers for men which were, in effect, subsidised by women who take prime responsibility for raising children. A more typical model for junior academics involves both partners having careers with both taking responsibility for raising children.

The consequence of this difference in career cultures is that many women end up with "wandering" career paths rather than linear progressions, said Dr Kathleen Quinlan of CEDAM, one of the conference organisers.

"The traditional male career development model is that of a linear

progression of promotion up the career ladder supported by a wife whose career, if it exists at all, is secondary," said Dr Quinlan.

Women often do not fit this model since they frequently follow their husband's career and must create positions for themselves or take what they can get in a new location. Women, therefore, are more likely to have interrupted, stuck or laterally moving careers due to children or geographic constraints of partners and family.

"So, it becomes not just a matter of balancing career and family but a larger matter of different patterns and job histories, which can drastically affect the way merit is judged."

Women like Dr Ross, whose children are one and five, say they are fortunate to have supportive partners who share domestic duties. Although she took just three months off work to have each child, she fears her publications list has suffered through raising a family.

"Taking time off to have children is a really dangerous thing to do if you're on contract," she said. "It's not that skills fall off. It's that selection panels are looking for the latest thing you've published. To them seriousness means staying in there."