International Women’s Day – on 8 March each year – marks an important opportunity to celebrate the contribution of women to the natural hazards sector and to identify ongoing issues that women face in both academia and industry.
Natural Hazards Research Australia (the Centre) hosted a webinar, supported by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR), that brought together an all-female panel of leaders from the natural hazards sector, from both academic and industry backgrounds.
The panel included women from a range of career stages: Dr Margaret Moreton (AIDR), Prof Cheryl Desha (Griffith University), Dr Kate Brady (University of Melbourne and Australian Red Cross), Dr Phillipa McCormack (University of Adelaide) and Erin Pelly (Australian Red Cross). It was facilitated by the Centre’s Partnership Development Director Sarah Mizzi and Node Research Manager Loriana Bethune.
Introducing the panel, Sarah noted that “the theme for International Women’s Day this year is Embrace Equity, recognising that equality alone is not going to get us there.”
“We really need to be doing more to ensure that women aren’t discriminated against and, more importantly, are supported to achieve the roles that they want in this sector.”
The motivating panel discussion unpacked several important topics:
- There is ongoing discrimination against women in the sector, including explicit abuse as well as implicit structural discrimination around expected workloads and ‘getting ahead’.
- Academia places significant pressure on female academics and does not usually allow for care responsibilities that fall to women, or for safe spaces for women to be adequately supported.
- There is an urgent need to include a diverse range of people who identify as women (from cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as women with disability and people with different sexual preferences) in discussions around barriers.
- While there have been significant improvements in many gender barriers and progressive approaches being used across the sector, there is still more to do to ensure gender equity.
To close the panel, Kate shared five evidence-based improvements that research institutions across the natural hazards sector could implement to break down barriers for women:
- Include a clause in funding agreements so that, in cases where misconduct by a chief investigator results in that person being disciplined, the funding can be retained or shifted to a newly appointed person or team who are still involved with the project. This would mean that people can report misconduct without losing their job.
- Assume fractional work for milestones within research projects and auto-calculate milestone deadlines according to part-time workloads. For example, if someone works part time, their deadlines should extend accordingly to allow enough time to balance work and home responsibilities.
- Avoid putting project deadlines in school holidays or the week after, as this cuts women out of the deadline timelines and places undue pressure on people with caring responsibilities during those periods.
- When promoting fellowships such as travel fellowships, consider the true costs of out-of-pocket childcare expenses for women and people with caring responsibilities, and adjust fellowships to incorporate for these additional costs.
- For funding bodies, be transparent on funding reporting around gender and analyse the career stages at which women drop out of funding cycles. This would ensure career equity, where women are being given the same funding opportunities as men.
Discussions are underway within the Centre to continue the conversation about equity and consider the suggestions of the panel members on how organisations can improve.
You can learn more about this webinar and watch the recording (also below) at www.naturalhazards.com.au/iwd23.