Bulletin

Issue: April 2005

News

Number of Women Academics Above Average

The number of women in senior academic positions at La Trobe University is 29%, greater than the Australian average of 19.2%. The 2008 target of 35% is commendable and attainable.

This was one of the major points made by Susan Biggs, Deputy Director, Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWWA), during a speech to an International Women’s Day luncheon at La Trobe’s Melbourne (Bundoora) campus on 8 March.

The University’s Equity and Access Unit and the La Trobe University Women’s Network organised the luncheon.

In a speech entitled ‘Where are we at and what is the future: Women in higher education’, she told her audience that Australia was moving at glacial rates, some research indicating there would not be women in positions of power across the employment spectrum in the same numbers as men for 117 years.

But despite this there are reasons for hope.

The average age of women holding professorial positions at La Trobe University is 51. Most of these women would have graduated from their undergraduate degree 30 years ago. Social conditions then were vastly different from now – little child care, EEO legislation non-existent and no paid maternity leave.

Thirty years ago the largest majority of women who were enrolled in tertiary study were enrolled in teaching and nursing.

In the past 15-20 years there has been an equalisation of enrolments by men and women in all areas of study—except some engineering fields—including Law, Medicine and Science. Therefore, we now have greater numbers of women from which to recruit our senior people.

They are entering the universities now at the same rates as men. Our challenge is to assist them to move through the ranks.

Speaking about women in the workforce in general, Ms Biggs said that, because of a lack of skilled workers, Australian business will find it difficult to pick and choose their employees. In some areas they will not be able to find anyone at all.

‘The good news, apart from the fact that women are now more able to bargain about wages and flexibility than anytime since the 1960s, Australia has a huge hitherto untapped labour source – women.

Ms Biggs said that Australia has one of the most segregated labour forces in the world with 89% of all advanced clerical and service workers being women and more than half the female workforce being employed as clerical/service workers in generally low paid/low-status jobs, compared to only 15.3% of male employees.

The majority of female professionals are employed in the health, education, information, social and arts fields.

Only 43% of women work in this country and most work part time. This is very low in comparison with other OECD countries. Despite this women in Australia constitute over 50% of HSC leavers, 58% of all university graduates, 49% professionals, 49% property investors, 47% shareholders, 35% small business owners and control more than of 90% household spending.

Yet women are significantly under represented in leadership roles in public, private, education and community sectors.

Ms Biggs concluded: ‘Let us start making an effort now to attract, develop and retain that proportion of the population that is currently very under-employed, under-utilised and under-appreciated – WOMEN.’

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