The Judith Whitworth Fellowship for Gender Equality in Science was launched today, designed to encourage more parents to return to careers in science after parental leave.
The fellowship, to be launched at the Australian National University, will offer scholarships to early to mid level career scientists to return to the field after ‘career disruption’ as a result of parental leave.
A merit-based scholarship, it will provide up to two years salary and research support of up to $50,000 and will allow the successful candidate to re-establish scientific projects, strengthen their track record and regain national and international competitiveness when applying for external research funding.
There are myriad of reasons to explain the gender gap in science fields, but one of the reasons often cited is that women are more likely to take time out to raise children, often dropping out at the peak of their careers.
While there are a number of science fellowships designed to encourage more women into the field, including the L’Oreal Women in Science fellowship which awards three $25,000 fellowships to early-career female scientists, this is the first national fellowship specifically designed to address the issue of parents returning to the workforce.
Research into the lack of women in science careers shows that while some fields actually contain a majority of women as undergrad and post grad students, a trend that has been increasing since the 1970s, women are dropping out by mid career. According to the CSIRO, in 2011 just 30% of people working in science were women and those figures fell down to just 5% in some areas, like engineering. Meanwhile, at the CSIRO, just 12% of senior scientists are women.
In 2012, just 22 women applied for Australian Laureate Fellowships, which supports excellence in research and helps to attract leading researches to key positions. Just two of those 22 female entrants were successful.
And of the 20 new Fellows elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2013, there was not a single woman amongst them. The lack of women in 2013 wasn’t unusual either. In the past six of 12 years, only one female member has been elected. Of the 500 living fellows of the academy, 92% are men and just 8% women.