Nalini Joshi at Sydney University on Tuesday. Credit:Nic Walker She will call for drastic change to a sector that she believes has not made improvements to its gender relations since the 1950s, when women were expected to resign as soon as they got married. "Research in modern science is still conducted within organisational cultures that resemble a feudal monastery," she says. While more than 56 per cent of undergraduate degrees and 50 per cent of doctorates in the natural and physical sciences are awarded to females, only 14 per cent of professors are women. The improvement in female participation at the top end of the academic scale has been glacial. The rate of promotion for female deans and department chairs has increased at about 1 per cent each year over the past two decades, according to Professor Joshi.

Sydney University students Emma Watson and Vicki Stanojevic. Watson says female researchers are all too aware of the future hurdles they would face in their careers. Credit:Steven Siewert "Why? How did we, as a modern, progressive society, let this happen?" she asked. "No matter how well-meaning the government or institutional gender equity or human resources policies are, they do not ask for reflection and change from individuals embedded in this culture, unless appalling behaviour comes to light." According to the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) initiative, women comprise just 17 per cent of senior academics in Australian universities. For most junior researchers, often in their early 30s, success depends on their ability to move flexibly from one short-term contract to the next, without the security of maternity leave.

"Survival rests on competition, to achieve status or be noticed by a 'nobility'," Professor Joshi says. University of Sydney PhD student Emma Watson told Fairfax Media last year that female researchers were all too aware of the future hurdles they would face in their careers. "If you really want to make a go of being a career scientist it's really demanding in the years where you are thinking about having a family," Ms Watson said. Former Bellingen local turned Cambridge PhD student, Amelia Thompson, said the problem was a global one. "Scientific research has a long way to go before it can be called a family-friendly field," she said. "The problem becomes when you want to establish yourself as an independent researcher."

Ms Thompson said the Athena SWAN program in the UK has markedly improved gender equity across Britain's universities. The program asks institutions to undertake a comprehensive data analysis of female advancement in their institutions and commit to a charter of 10 principles. On Wednesday, Professor Joshi will announce that 25 universities have signed up for the first Australian trial of the program. "I am incredibly pleased to see this happen in Australia. Not just because I am a woman, but because I am fond of this country," Professor Joshi said. "We produce so many talented people that we lose and so many great ideas that go elsewhere – imagine if we could encourage and keep these talented people. Imagine the great ideas doubling our Nobel Prize winners. Imagine being in a room full of female mathematics professors.

"This to me would be the start of a real 'fair chance for all'."