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EA Gender Equality Article

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21 views2 pages

EA Gender Equality Article

Uploaded by

chim460
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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New engineering program strives for gender equityMonday, 02 July 2018

When the students at Swinburne University of Technology’s


revolutionary new Engineering Practice Academy launch into a new
project, their first step is to fill out an inclusion plan.

It’s part of a greater strategy to ensure that from day one the budding
engineers are well versed in the need for diversity within a group,
including the need for a critical mass of women.

Leading the Academy’s approach to diversity and inclusion is Engineer


in Residence, Dr Francesca Maclean. She says the industry needs to
do more to be inclusive of all genders.

“You need to make time for gender equity,” says Dr Maclean.

“If you don’t, it will be 2050 and we will still be struggling with the
same problem – if not worse.”

With a recent Engineers Australia report showing that 85 per cent of


completing undergrad engineering students and 88 per cent of industry
professionals are men, Dr Maclean is passionate about making sure
the Academy proactively addresses gender inequity.
“At the Academy we consciously – deliberately – made it our business
priority, and we recommend other institutions do this too.”

Dr Maclean is making sure that gender equity is everyone’s concern,


creating a culture where all can learn about the complex, nuanced
system of gender inequity.

“Most importantly, we are creating a system in which we work


together to take tangible, impactful action,” she says.

The Academy’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy features non-


negotiable values that make all staff and students, or as they’re known
in the Academy ‘associates’, responsible for gender equity and
inclusion.

 Staff and associates are individually responsible for fostering


diversity and inclusion;
 Industry Partners genuinely align with the Academy’s diversity
and inclusion values; and
 The Academy must proactively assess performance with
diversity and inclusion.

The Academy is working towards having at least 40 percent female


associates by 2020.

Instead of having a Diversity and Inclusion team that sits only within
HR, the Academy has Diversity and Inclusion sit across the business.

According to another of the Academy’s Engineers in Residence, Jenny


Turner, gender equity is central to the four-year undergraduate degree
and is the first step in helping to break down the profession’s male-
dominated environment.

“Something that we are focusing on strongly in the Academy is how


we can help people appreciate difference,” says Ms Turner, a
humanitarian engineer.

“We are doing it deliberately; changing how engineers learn, how we


talk about engineering and we are shifting the conversation around
engineering to make it more appealing, especially to women.”

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