Image: Nicole Livingstone OAM addressing the Engineers Australia International Women's Day Lunch at Crown Palladium, 9 March 2016.
Engineers Australia hosted the leading Victorian engineering industry International Women's Day celebration with new National Partner Deakin University.
Deakin University is committed to encouraging female students into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Deakin offers a number of attractive scholarships to entice female students into their undergraduate engineering courses, often in partnership with industry.
The conversation, with nearly 600 industry representatives present, focused on the key drivers of tangible change to achieve gender parity.
Keynote speaker, Australian Olympian and swimmer no. 331, Nicole Livingstone OAM, spoke of the persevering spirit of the first Australian female Olympic swimmers; Sarah Durack and Mina Wylie. Nicole drew from her experiences in the pool to highlight the importance of role models and influencers over her swimming career. She spoke of the need for girls to have role models to look up to and be influenced to dream big. Finally, Nicole encouraged the audience to embrace change and 'always be ready to re-invent yourself' as she described her journey through many different careers.
Nicole was followed by a discussion from industry leaders:
- Lisa Annese, CEO, Diversity Council Australia
- Professor Carol Boyle, Professor of Infrastructure Engineering Design, School of Engineering, Deakin University
- Pete Gleeson, Director, Projects & Planning, Metro Trains Melbourne
- Keri Le Page, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, John Holland Group
The panelists focused on three key drivers of tangible change; helping women and girls achieve their career potential and opportunities, the role of women and men in bringing about gender equality, and creating inclusive and flexible workplace cultures. The conversation also involved an interactive survey with the audience to understand their views on the issues being discussed.
As the panel discussed how the participation rate of girls studying STEM subjects could be increased, the recommendations included focusing on the education system, the need for role models, and being aware of the language used, for example 'run like a girl' or 'man up', and how this could affect the mindset of the next generation and their perceived abilities.
The panel agreed that there needs to be a broader understanding of what a career in STEM is, and also discussed the role of mentors in the gender equality debate.
In 2016, Engineering at Deakin University integrated a new curriculum model framework around ‘design-based learning’ into their suite of Engineering (Honours) degrees; in an aim to attract more females into a STEM field and open their mind to the varying career opportunities that STEM areas can provide. Integrating design into the core of engineering also helps to breaks down the perceived ideas of a traditional engineer career.
Finally, the members of the panel all believed a fundamental driver of change is ensuring employees can access and continue to maintain a flexible work environment for not only family or domestic duties, but their mental health and other non-work related activities. It was thought that flexible workplaces are the way of the future and management teams would need to support this vision to continue the progress of this culture.
At the conclusion of the lunch, the audience was asked to commit to one of the International Women's Day Pledges for Parity, with a majority pledging to challenge conscious and unconscious bias.
Audience Interactive Survey Results
During the panel discussion on driving tangible change to achieve gender parity, the audience were asked to respond to a series of questions on the topic via a mobile polling system. The questions and results are listed below:
