Easier, cheaper and safer green wall maintenance Women in Engineering and IT

Project summary

Women are underrepresented in the workforce in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), making up only around 28% of the sector in Australia.

This means girls and women’s voices are not being heard in the development of new technologies, they are missing out on career opportunities in fast-growing sectors, and Australia is deprived of a huge potential source of talent and human capital.

Encouraging girls and young women’s interest and confidence in STEM subjects, and enabling environments around them to achieve their full potential is a long-standing and significant issue in Australia.

Founded in 1981, the UTS Women in Engineering and IT program (WiEIT) is the longest running program of its type in Australia. WiEIT aims to:

• Challenge the persistent gender gap in opportunities and outcomes  
• Build evidence-based, innovative programs that inspire and engage  
• Create and sustain educational pathways from primary school to careers  
• Develop leadership through mentoring, ambassadorship and community  
• Share new knowledge through impactful research that informs education and career paths 
• Connect an inclusive and intersectional community that celebrates diversity and achievements. 

With these aims, we address core barriers to women and girls’ participation in engineering and IT studies and careers through the following research-informed and impact-focused programs:   

• ‘STEM X’ primary and high school outreach: Addressing early barriers to STEM participation through in-classroom gender-inclusive STEM learning involving students, teachers, and families. (see separate case study under SDG 4)
• Scholarships: Celebrating high-achieving young women commencing engineering and IT university studies with industry co-operative scholarships and internships.
• Mentoring: Long-running student-industry mentoring program since 2010, pairing students with industry mentors for 6 months to build confidence and awareness. The program sees over 100 mentee-mentor pairs annually. In 2021, the program featured 115 mentoring pairs, with 38 industry organisations involved. The program’s impact increased mentees’ confidence by 55.6%, industry awareness by 71%, networks and access to women role models by 52%.  
• Gender Equity Ambassador program: Initiated in 2020, equips our community to be gender equity social change makers. To date we have welcomed a total of 97 Gender Equity Ambassadors into our community, including undergraduate students, postgraduate students, and staff - contributing over 800 hours across all WiEIT programs in 2021.
• Community: Building and inclusive community for students, staff and industry through regular social events and celebrations. Over 1200 students and staff are part of WiEIT community mailing list– in 2021, contributing over 200 hours across all WiEIT programs. We hosted 36 community events in 2021, including 6 cultural celebrations (e.g., Lunar New Year, Nowruz, Eid, and Diwali), and 6 awareness days (e.g., Wear it Purple Day, Reconciliation Week), and 16 fortnightly social coffee hours.

For more information see the Women in Engineering and IT website.

Project timeframe

Ongoing

SDG targets addressed by this project

Gender equality:

5.1 - End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.

5.5 - Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.

Back to SDG 5 Gender equality