Breaking the bias for women and girls through our programs

[Music plays and opening image shows a text question.]

How is the Australian Government helping to move towards a more gender equal society?

[Image shows a moving pencil drawing an image of a girl, a URL appears at the top of the girl’s head: WOMENINSTEM.ORG.AU/FUTUREYou, and a text also appears next to the drawing.]

We support the Women in STEM Ambassador implement initiatives to increase women’s participation in STEM.

Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith: Our goal is to increase the participation of women and girls in STEM education and careers.

[Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith shows up on the screen continuing to talk about the Office of the Women in STEM Ambassador’s initiatives. Her title, name and position appears: ‘Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, Women in STEM Ambassador’.]

Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith: And to do so we’re focusing firmly on an evidence-based form of action.

[Image changes to women in a room talking amongst themselves in a workshop, followed by another image of girl students in a classroom in discussion, then another image of a teacher talking with her students in a classroom. Text appears with the images.]

We make more women in STEM visible by funding the Superstars of STEM initiative.

Dr Kiara Bruggeman: It’s all about moving forward and solving problems.

[Dr Kiara Bruggeman appears on the screen with moving abstract images floating in the background. Her title and name appears: ‘Dr Kiara Bruggeman, Superstar of STEM’.]

Dr Kiara Bruggeman: So we are going to keep expecting better and better lives, and science is going to deliver that.

[Image changes to animated figure of a cylindrical shape turning into a small robot. Some text appears next to the robot.]

We support women founders of startups through the Boosting Female Founders initiative.

[Image of another animated figure of a different robot appears. On the left, the text, ‘Akin NASA robot’ appears.]

Liesl Yearsley: We are a deep, deep tech artificial intelligence company. We build AI that are really able to understand humans and solve complicated problems all by themselves.

[Image of Liesl Yearsley appears with her name and title: ‘Liesl Yearsley, Akin CEO’.]

Liesl Yearsley: So Boosting Female Founders has helped us in so many ways. I’ve been able to hire top level executives. We’ve been able to develop our distribution models and commercial systems, and we are now in hypergrowth.

[Image shows aerial view of trees and bushlands, text appears with the image.]

We encourage participation of girls and women in STEM through the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WISE) grants.

[Image changes to Professor Retha Wiesner working with her computer in an office. Image changes to Professor Retha Wiesner standing with other women.]

Professor Retha Wiesner: I’ve been working in the space of advancing women through entrepreneurship for quite some time.

[Image changes to Professor Retha Wiesner talking with a prospectus about the Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Entrepreneurship (WiRE) Program in the background. Her title, name and position appears: ‘Professor Retha Wiesner, Founder and program director of the Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Entrepreneurship (WiRE) Program’.]

Professor Retha Wiesner: The impact of the WISE grant has been absolutely tremendous…

[Image changes to Professor Retha Wiesner walking towards a building, then changes again to her walking in a room where other women are seated having a discussion with her.]

Professor Retha Wiesner: … because it enabled us to establish a capacity-building program, plus research aspects around this program to advance women in their own businesses and help them actually grow their businesses.

[Image changes to Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger teaching a class in a university and some text appears.]

We recognise the achievements of women scientists in the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.

[Image changes to Emeritus Professor Praeger talking. Her title, name, prize appears: ‘Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger, Recipient of the 2019 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science’.]

Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger: Receiving the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science is a wonderful statement about the importance of mathematics.

[Image changes back to Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger teaching students in a university classroom, then walking down stairs with students.]

Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger: It also recognises the achievements of me and my colleagues, and students in the mathematics of symmetry.

[Images changes to a montage of Professor Retha Wiesner, Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger, a woman taking samples by a pond, a female teacher with students in a classroom, students in a classroom with a robot, other students in various classrooms doing different activities and discussions, a female scientist looking through a microscope and investigating a sample in a petrie dish, hands writing text and word clouds on a paper. Liesl Yearsley’s voice is heard in the background.]

Liesl Yearsley: We are the first generation of women in human history to have the power and the agency that we have to go out and change the way our world does things. So let’s go out there, let’s be powerful role models, let’s show how it ought to be done.

[Image changes to a panel with words.]

These are just some of our initiatives supporting girls and women.

[Closing panel shows Australian Government crest, Australian Government and Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources stacked logo and a call to action text.]

Find out more: industry.gov.au/initiativesforwomen