Macquarie U Engineering has emerged from its “man cave,” with “an ambitious drive to seek-out and recruit talented females.”

But the school has not used women-only recruitment for positions. Instead, Dean Darren Bagnall tells the MU community, ““We’ve used our networks to identify promising candidates and then encouraged them to apply. … “We took extra special care when forming long-lists and then committed to interviewing all the women on those long-lists.”

Eschewing social engineering (sorry) generated what MU calls “remarkable” results. Next month the school will have eight women on staff, 20 per cent of the total. And it “will potentially reach” 25 per cent in January.  What’s more the dean says, all six 2018 hires are women, chosen from a field of 300.

Progress for sure. Back in 2016, adjunct and honorary appointments aside, there were only three women academics in Macquarie engineering and all eight appointments announced that October were men. (CMM December 15 2016).

But a learned reader suggests that 25 per cent is nothing to aspire to, what with the House of Reps having 28 per cent women members – a figure widely considered ludicrously low.