Women of the Reef

Women of the Reef : A new network to support gender equity for scientists, managers, and industry.

By Maxine Newlands (JCU) and Alana Grech (JCU)

Women make up less than a quarter of senior management roles in marine science and conservation organisations. Data shows that women hold between 13% and 24% of senior roles. Reaching parity often requires networking, sharing opportunities, ideas, mentoring and career advice. We started the Women of the Reef (WotR) network to support professional women working in marine science, management and industry.

What is the WotR?

Women of the Reef is a professional network that supports information brokering and builds long-term professional relationships. Networking during COVID19 is particularly important for women as it shapes resilience through the identification of opportunities for employment, funding and professional development.

“We knew at the first event, there was a need for a Women of the Reef network, and it grew from there. We hope over time the network will be a long-term project that helps bring equity” Maxine

Newlands (co-cordinator) of WotR

Members have reported the following benefits of Women of the Reef, including:

• A functioning network you can rely on for potential influence • Increased capacity and empowering women working in the reef space • New contacts to share information with and learn about others work

Their experience tells us these benefits and other actions are currently missing from their support networks.

As well as network events, the womenofthereef website provides a shared space for members to post other networking events, jobs, workshops, talks, or other relevant information. Joining the network is easy and free- members can then access the shared information space, contact each other via a Slack group.

Who is in the network?

The network has rapidly developed since the inaugural event, in December 2020. In the past 14 months Women of the Reef has grown from 24 people to now more than 100 members. Today, the network includes marine scientists, social scientists, economists, reef managers, members of industry, the conservation sectors and others from Townsville, Cairns, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Wollongong, Sydney and Hobart.

Members work at James Cook University, Australian Institute of Marine Science; CSIRO; GBRMPA; University of Wollongong; Queensland Government, Queensland Museum network; as independent consultants, Great Barrier Reef Foundation and other organisations.

What does the next 12 months look like?

The Women of the Reef network hosted three events in 2021. We began in March with a speed-networking event to facilitate introductions, conversations and partnerships between members of the network. By July, we launched the website womenofthereef.org with a social event to provide an opportunity for women to reconnect. We ended the year in November with a series of icebreaker activities to facilitate introductions and get people interacting.

Knowing that women carry a lot of other responsibilities outside of their careers, 2021 events were held during work hours, making childcare and family commitments more manageable for those attending. There are plans for some evening events in 2022.

“The WotR network allows me to connect with other women working in or around my field that I would perhaps never meet. It’s a supportive network that allows me to make connections and move forward with projects that I would have never pursued.”

The next 12 -18 months we’ll be hosting (for dates and tickets please go to the website womenofthereef.org)

• The State Library of Queensland, 2020 John Oxley Library fellows, Dr Deb Anderson and Associate Professor Kerrie

Foxwell-Norton. Deb and Kerrie will be talking about their joint project The Women of the Great Barrier Reef: The

Untold Stories of Environmental Conservation in

Queensland. The project highlights the significant role women have played in the conservation of the Great

Barrier Reef in Queensland

• Mentoring sessions, ECR/ career advice and knowledge brokering

• Celebrating Women of the Reef-a panel discussion and

Q&A, with distinguished female leaders.

What can you do for the network?

All of our events so far have been in the Townsville region. In 2022 we will be making some events available online.

We are keen to spread our impact, so please get in touch if you’d like to host your own Women of the Reef event. We’ll provide support and advice. If you’d like to support an event through sponsorship, please contact us.

To find out more information and join our network, please visit womenofthereef.org and join our Facebook page for event updates.

“WotR network for me represents our best attempt at collective grassroots action to actively address the stark gender inequity we see within our industry. More broadly it can only mean better science and better outcomes for the Reef - which I suppose for most of us is our higher purpose”

Science in Action Image credit Paige Strudwick 2021 ACRS photo competition. Image top of p. 64: Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. Image credit Matt Curnock. Ocean Image Bank.