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A scientist works in a medical lab at St Vincent’s Institute in Melbourne
A scientist works in a medical lab at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. A new report has found there are almost equal numbers of male and female scientists, but just 7% of engineers are women. Photograph: David Crosling/AAP
A scientist works in a medical lab at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. A new report has found there are almost equal numbers of male and female scientists, but just 7% of engineers are women. Photograph: David Crosling/AAP

Only 16% of Australians in Stem professions are women, and pay gap is ‘unacceptable’

This article is more than 7 years old

Chief scientist says ‘no clever country underserves half its people’ as report reveals fewer than one in five Australians qualified in science, technology, engineering and maths are female

Women make up less than one-fifth of Australians qualified in science, technology, engineering and maths and continue to be paid less than their male colleagues.

It is a finding of a new report by the Office of the Chief Scientist, which shows 16% of the 2.3 million Stem-qualified Australians are female, with engineering showing the largest gender gap.

When it comes to pay, 32% of men hit the highest income bracket ($104,000), compared with 12% of women in the latest census.

The chief scientist, Alan Finkel, said that could not be explained by women having children or working part-time.

“The pay gap between men and women revealed in this report is significant, it is long-standing and it is unacceptable,” he said. “No clever country underserves half its people.”

The report, released on Thursday, found just 7% of engineers were women. However, there were almost the same number of male and female scientists.

Based on the most recent figures from the 2011 census, the report also found two-thirds of the Stem workforce earned qualifications through vocational education, with one-third university qualified.

It shows Stem-qualified Australians work across a diverse range of industries.

“We have people with physics doctorates working as financial analysts,” Finkel said. “We have chemistry graduates running farms and making wines. There are no limits on what a Stem graduate can do, and we shouldn’t impose them.”

The federal government has earmarked almost $20m to encourage primary and high school students to focus on Stem subjects.

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