Gender Balance and Inclusion Within The Australian Space Community: An Overview Of Delegates At The 2018 Australian Space Research Conference

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gender representation at the 2018 Australian Space Research Conference, revealing low female participation and discussing barriers and strategies to improve gender diversity in the space community.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed gender demographic analysis of the conference and compares it to other national space research events, highlighting trends and disparities.

Findings

Female representation was 23% among delegates.

Gender parity achieved in plenary sessions.

Female participation decreased to lowest levels since 2015.

Abstract

A significant gender disparity is widely known to occur within the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Women are both under-represented in their participation in Australian STEM education (compared to their fraction within the population at large), and face a much higher attrition rate from STEM subjects throughout secondary and tertiary education. Even within STEM careers the proportion of women frequently generally decreases with increasing position of seniority. In 2015 organisers and members of the Australian Space Research Community began to analyse the data from participants of the Australian Space Research Conference, in order to derive statistics relating to the gender balance of the conference. In this paper, the data from the most recent conference (held on the Gold Coast, in September 2018) is analysed, considering the gender demographics of delegates, presenters (within numerous categories), and awards. This year, we also present the dimensions of career type and academic level of conference attendees. The resulting trends are compared to those of other national space research conferences - the Scientific Meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia. The results show that the representation of females dropped to the lowest levels since formal data collection began in 2015, with females comprising 23% of conference attendees, and 21% of all session presentations (posters and talks combined). Gender parity was achieved however amongst the invited Plenary presentations. Recommendations for removing some of the barriers to female participation in the conference and encouraging greater gender balance and diversity in future are discussed.