By Jeannie Rea (Women). Mass higher education is clearly working for women. Women are now nearly 60 per cent of undergraduate students and almost half of postgraduates. Over the whole working age population (15-64 year olds), 54.8 per cent of those with bachelor degrees are women. Women also hold half the postgraduate qualifications. More...

By Terri Macdonald (Women). Universities love to promote themselves as ‘Employers of Choice’. They cite their excellent paid parental leave, policies around ‘return to work’, gender equity initiatives and even domestic violence leave. It would appear that our universities are leading the way for other employers. However, we know that the majority of these industrial rights and policies only exist as they were hard fought for and won by the union members – sometimes needing industrial action to force university managements to seriously negotiate. More...

By Ian Dobson (NTEU National Office). Women continue to be outnumbered by men in science leadership in most OECD countries. While they are over-represented as PhD students in some science disciplines, there are few senior women scientists. In 2014 women accounted for 63 per cent of applications for the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC’s) early-career fellowships, but just 11 per cent of its most senior and experienced fellowships. More...