From Problem to Impact

• In 2018, women comprised 18% of undergraduate students and 32% of higher degree by research students in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, showing difficulty attracting women into undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
• Women made up 25% of academic staff in 2018; their representation was as low as 8% at Academic Level E, and they held 20% of university leadership positions.
• The 2018 workforce data also showed that 54% of women academics in the Faculty held fixed-term contracts compared with 39% of men, while women’s retention across academic levels ranged from 60% to 80%.

What actions did Curtin deliver?

• Curtin expanded student recruitment through Girls+ Engineering Tomorrow, Women in STEM Peer Assistance, camps for school students, profiles of women in STEM and gender-balanced marketing.
• The Faculty adopted gender-balanced shortlisting, revised recruitment materials, promotion workshops, Peer Networking for Promotion, the SAE Women Professoriate and improved workload allocation to support women’s retention and promotion.
• Diversity Inclusion and Belonging Committees were established at Faculty and School levels, School-level directors received 0.2–0.4 FTE workload allocation, a Diversity Awareness Program was introduced, and gender-representation targets were set for leadership.