The University of Melbourne has nominated five School of Engineering lectureships to be filled by women. It is part of a plan to lift the number of women on the school’s academic strength from 22 per cent to 30 per cent over the next four years. The posts are in engineering and computer science disciplines. Dean Graham Schaffer says engineering is male-dominated and needs to be more balanced.

Back in 2016 UniMelb also allocated three continuing teaching and research positions in maths for women, (CMM May 19 2016).

UniMelb’s engineering announcement follows the National Health and Medical Research Council creating 34 grants which must have women as chief investigators.

Not many but it matters: Programmes to encourage young women to study engineering don’t address one big problem with the profession – men. A survey for the Institute of Engineers last year found 47 per cent of women working in the profession reported gender-based discrimination and 60 per cent of them said “workplace culture” was an issue (CMM September 6 2017).  This has to change and the more blokes who see women teaching engineering the quicker men in the industry will get the idea that it isn’t a boys’ club.