One third of women in science, technology, engineering and maths professions say lack of career opportunities mean they are considering leaving

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Almost one third of women in Australia employed in science, technology, engineering and maths – known as Stem fields – expect to leave their job within the next five years, a survey has found.

The finding comes from a Professionals Australia survey of 432 women working in Stem professions which asked them about their pay, career opportunities, work-life balance and retirement savings.



Women responded that a lack of career advancement and professional development opportunities meant they were considering leaving their job; 26% said their employer rarely or never proactively ensured men and women had equal opportunity to progress.

Just over 50% of respondents said they had been directly discriminated against in their job, 78% of whom were discriminated against because of their gender.

Women with children were more likely to be employed part time, the survey found, with 61.5% reporting this had negatively affected their career, and 51.2% saying they were unnecessarily prevented from undertaking certain types of work because of their part-time status. One quarter said they had been sidelined for working part time.

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When it came to retirement savings, 49% said working part time had seriously reduced their superannuation. And 70.3% of respondents said taking maternity leave had been detrimental to their career.

Scientia professor Michelle Simmons, who is the director of the Australian research council centre for quantum computation and communication technology at the University of New South Wales, said she took just six weeks off work after the birth of her first child and about two and three weeks after the birth of her second and third.

“Taking a year off is often tantamount to finishing your career,” Simmons said.

“If you have children it is a challenge: you need good support structures, a fantastic husband, which I have, and access to childcare. Keeping ahead of a competitive field is all-consuming, so if you have children it is a real challenge. without the right mix of support in place.”

Simmons, who leads a team of about 180 researchers, said it was important for women to have mentors in leadership roles.

“The more other women see it can be done, the more that happens, the easier it will be,” she said.

Professionals Australia’s chief executive, Chris Walton, believes addressing the gender pay gap would be key to keeping women in Stem fields. With women comprising 28% of Australia’s Stem professionals, employers and government needed to take steps to keep women in the fields.

“Women in male-dominated professions generally earn less than their male counterparts with equivalent experience,” he said.

Workplace culture was another area which needed significant improvement.

“Sixty per cent of women in engineering professions, for example, say women are required to prove themselves, whereas men are automatically assumed to be capable,” he said.

“Forty one per cent agreed that in their workplace, advice of a technical nature was less likely to be listened to when provided by a woman.”



The minister for women and employment, Senator Michaelia Cash, said the survey findings reinforced the government’s view that career prospects for women working in Stem industries needed to be improved.

“For this reason, the government’s recently announced national innovation and science agenda includes $13 million over five years to encourage more women to start, and stay in, careers in STEM research and jobs, startups and entrepreneurial firms,” she said.

Prof Sandra Kentish, the head of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Melbourne, has seen no increase in the number of women coming through her department over more than a decade.

“It’s really disappointing,” she said. “We peaked at 50% women in the late 1990s, but we’ve been going backwards ever since, with about 35% of our department female students at the moment. And we’re one of the fields perceived as being female-friendly.”

Kentish said she left the private sector 15 years ago because of a lack of career opportunities for women, and had managed to thrive within the academic environment at the University of Melbourne. Having a supportive employer had been key to her success.

“It’s important to recognise those employers that are keen to have a gender balance and promote women, and that’s something that, for example, the oil and gas industry puts a lot of effort into,” Kentish said.