HOW TO CREATE A CULTURE OF BELONGING — AND WHY IT MATTERS by David Braue
Pervasive ‘micro-aggressions’ feed a toxic culture that can stymie equality efforts
A
ustralia’s federal government wasted no time highlighting the positive findings of its second STEM Equity Monitor upon its release in May,
continue, STEM industries won’t reach gender parity until the middle of the 2040s – by which time many of the women in this year’s study will be ready to retire.
suggesting that women were slowly
To compensate for that natural attrition, the skills-
but steadily increasing their presence
development pipeline needs to grow at a much
in STEM-industry jobs and management positions. The proportion of “key management personnel and senior managers who are women”, the report noted,
healthier rate – but there are few encouraging signs that Australia’s pipeline of incoming female talent is anywhere near mature enough to compensate.
has increased steadily from 18% in 2016, to 23% last
The proportion of women in university STEM degrees
year. And, overall, 28% of women in STEM-qualified
increased by just 2% between 2015 and 2019, for
industries are women – up from 24% in 2016.
example, with women comprising just 22% of VET
While the current workforce figures suggest that
18
lies an uncomfortable truth: if current growth trends
and university enrolments.
slow and steady change in workforce culture is
Furthermore, many of those students won’t persist
providing new opportunities for women in STEM
long enough to secure the management positions
industries, behind the numbers’ plodding growth
they would need to keep the STEM Equity Monitor
WOMEN IN SECURITY MAGAZINE
