Young researchers praise new initiatives to close science gender gap

June 18, 2014

The Academy’s Early- to Mid- Career (EMCR) Forum has responded to new evidence of the gender imbalance in the health and medical research sector.

The National Health and Medical Research Council earlier this week released the results of a survey which asked 82 institutions to outline their gender equity policies. Of the 46 institutions who responded, over 70% were rated unsatisfactory or poor.

The Forum position statement says the results reveal the disparity of working conditions faced by women employed in the health and medical research sector.

The Forum’s chair, Dr Krystal Evans welcomed the intiative, saying the report “will bring a greater transparency to the efforts being made to level the playing field for women in science”.

The EMCR forum released a gender equity document earlier last year which urged both the NHMRC and the Australian Research Council to mandate that all research institutions have an effective gender equity program.

Read the full EMCR position statement here.

Photo credit: CSIRO Science Image

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