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Jenny Davis was among the first small, but significant tranche of women field biologists in the Pacific Region. She was born in Tasmania and developed a fascination with freshwater systems at an early age. Despite the paucity of female role models, freshwater ecology evolved into her research career track at the University of Tasmania where she completed her Honours degree (Zoology; 1976) and PhD (Freshwater Ecology; 1981). Jenny started her first academic position as a Tutor at Murdoch University in 1985. She successfully moved through the academic hierarchy where women continue to be under-represented in the senior ranks. She recently (2021) retired from her administrative and teaching responsibilities at Charles Darwin University (CDU) and approaching 70, is currently a Professor of Freshwater Ecology at CDU. An over-arching theme of her research is to understand the factors influencing the persistence of groundwater and surface water ecosystems. She has worked on the impacts of multiple stressors on springs, wetlands and arid zone waterbodies. She serves as a compelling role model for young scientists struggling to have a satisfying work-life balance. Jenny single-parented a son while conducting field work, teaching, publishing, serving as an academic administrator and being a prolific and successful grant writer. Jenny was also an exceptional mentor to a diverse group of students and post-docs, many of whom have thriving careers in academia, government and industry across Australia. This paper is a biography of a woman who with talent and persistence successfully broke gender barriers in Australian freshwater ecology and academia. Jenny Davis was among the first small, but significant tranche of female field biologists in the Pacific Region. Jenny is one of the few women to be promoted to the academic rank of Professor in Australian sciences. Her current research involves answering two questions: (1) how much water does the environment need; and (2) how important are isolated aquatic waterbodies for the conservation of Australia's freshwater biota? This paper is a brief biography of Jenny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visibility of female role models in science is vital for engaging and retaining women in scientific fields. In this study, we analyse four senior secondary science courses delivered across the states and territories in Australia: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Physics. We compared male and female representation within the science courses by examining the mentions of male and female scientists along with the context of their inclusions in the syllabuses. We find a clear gender bias with only one unique mention of a female scientist. We also find a clear Eurocentric focus and narrow representation of scientists. This bias will contribute to the continuing low engagement of women in scientific fields. We outline possible solutions to address this issue, including the accreditation of scientific discoveries to include female scientists and explicit discussion of structural barriers preventing the participation and progression of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women experience numerous forms of discrimination in the workplace, both direct and indirect. Historically, bias against women was institutionalised by organisations and governments to keep women from pursuing long-term careers in science and remain in the home. Although changes to policy have occurred within Australia, societal perceptions around women in science have proven resistant to change, with discrimination continuing even today. Despite the barriers facing them, some women were able to break through and achieve impactful science, proving themselves vital members of the workforce and paving the way for future generations. Herein, we describe four such female chemist trailblazers, Isabel Joy Bear, Enid Plante, Catherine Anne Money and Annabelle Duncan, who each worked at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) or the subsequent Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and helped to shape the face of chemistry in Australia in a male dominated environment. The stories of four trailblazing Australian female chemists, Isabel Joy Bear, Enid Plante, Catherine Anne Money and Annabelle Duncan, who broke barriers and paved the way for future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the range of initiatives offered across Australia to support the attraction, retention and progression of girls and women to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies and careers. A mapping exercise, conducted by the author as part of the development of the Decadal Plan for Women in STEM for the Australian Academy of Science, provided an overview of 337 programmes and initiatives offered nationally, the majority of which were university scholarships. Academia, industry and government are the main providers of these initiatives, with collaborations common between all the different stakeholder groups identified. Of all the initiatives mapped, only seven had publicly facing evaluation data, of which one went beyond self‐reports of satisfaction and enjoyment. The myriad initiatives show a concerted effort to engage girls and women in STEM, but the absence of any meaningful evidence of impact means we simply do not know whether these initiatives are benefiting girls and women and achieving the desired policy outcomes or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how gender interacts with race, ethnicity, and/or culture to structure the microaggressions experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women in Australian science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) organisations. Our aim is to disrupt the normative erasure of race from the workplace diversity context by focusing on these women’s experiences. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with women in academia, industry, and government who self-identify as women of colour or as culturally diverse. We use an intersectional lens to show that the challenges experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women cannot simply be subsumed under gender. Rather, race and gender intersect to create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage. These issues are largely unintelligible in STEMM fields as science is positioned as gender- and race-neutral. Consequently, despite their devastating impact, racial microaggressions may be invisible to members of the dominant racial group—those most likely to be the peers and managers of visibly and culturally diverse women. White managers and peers can act as allies to women of colour in STEMM by respecting and amplifying their concerns. Learning to recognise and confront racial microaggressions can help make science workplaces more inclusive of all scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Museum hosted a weekly program of public lantern lectures for over two decades at the beginning of the twentieth century. The slides from these lectures were based on photographs and illustrations made during the empirical pursuit of fieldwork and professional scientific enquiry, and remain intact and catalogue as a complete set in the Museum to this day. This Archive Feature examines women's work in applying colour, to exacting standards, on a selection of the lecturing slides. It interrogates how colour was used to both enliven the scenes shown to non-specialist audiences and to bolster the authority of fieldwork expeditions and museum collecting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the Aspiring Women in Science Conference in Australia in 2014 is presented. Topics include the success of girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), gender imbalance in the scientific world and involvement in the Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ). The conference featured associate professor Kristen Radforth, Dr. Ruth Mackinnon and student Josephine Burton.

The article explores Eleanor Dark's biocultural fiction "Prelude to Christopher" and the literary snapshot it provides about the opposing political and cultural assumptions generated by the interplay of culture and biological research in inter-war Australia. It describes the racialized environment under which Dark started writing the fiction in 1930. Women's critical role in the practices of eugenics and the response of Australian women writers to the eugenics controversies are also discussed.

Making my career in Australia exposed me to the tyranny of distance, but it gave me opportunities to study our unique native fauna. Distantly related animal species present genetic variation that we can use to explore the most fundamental biological structures and processes. I have compared chromosomes and genomes of kangaroos and platypus, tiger snakes and emus, devils (Tasmanian) and dragons (lizards). I particularly love the challenges posed by sex chromosomes, which, apart from determining sex, provide stunning examples of epigenetic control and break all the evolutionary rules that we currently understand. Here I describe some of those amazing animals and the insights on genome structure, function, and evolution they have afforded us. I also describe my sometimes-random walk in science and the factors and people who influenced my direction. Being a woman in science is still not easy, and I hope others will find encouragement and empathy in my story.