Goal 5: Gender Equality

UOW is a proud recipient of the prestigious Athena SWAN Bronze Institution Award from Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE), which recognises our commitment to advancing women’s careers in the traditionally male-dominated STEMM disciplines. The Athena SWAN Bronze Institution Award also recognises UOW’s commitment to advancing the careers of women, trans and gender-diverse individuals.

UOW has been recognised as one of the prominent organisations in Australia focused on gender equality in the workplace and providing meaningful support for men and women to achieve their career goals. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) citation is designed to encourage, recognise and promote active commitment to achieving gender equality in Australian workplaces. The citation is a public recognition of an organisation’s commitment to gender equality. UOW is among only 119 recipients of the 2019-20 citation compared to 141 the previous year, and only 13 Australian universities now hold the revised citation, compared to 17 universities previously. 

The Safe and Respectful Communities (SARC) team has created training for staff at licensed premises in our local community, on how to address and respond to sexual harassment and sexual assaults in their venues. The Set The Bar initiative aims to educate learners on the underlying issues of sexual assault and sexual harassment. Set The Bar explores how gender inequality among other forms of oppression contribute to sexual violence in our community. Learners are asked to think about how they can respond to situations of gender inequality or disrespect of women in the future. 

Lucy is a leadership program for female students at UOW. The aim of Lucy is to motivate and educate women about the career opportunities in law by establishing relationships between students and mentors who have achieved success in their professional career. Mentors are drawn from the corporate, public and not-for-profit sectors.

"The Lucy program gave me unique access to some incredible and inspiring people in the legal industry. I gained not only a mentor, but a friend and a sounding board to chat about all those burning questions final year law students have about their career options. Lucy empowered me to build lifelong connections, be inquisitive, and value every conversation, and it opened the doors to exciting opportunities I never thought I'd have."

Alex Doust, Bachelor of Journalism/Laws  

Women in MBA is an initiative aimed at improving the participation of women in Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. UOW’s Sydney Business School provides financial support, guidance and advice and access to events. An MBA has a significant impact on career pathways and is particularly powerful in enabling middle-managers to progress to executive and board room roles.

Distinguished Professor Sharon Robinson is a co-leader of Homeward Bound’s Science Stream, a mentoring program supporting women in science from across the globe to strengthen their confidence to lead, build networks with other science leaders and gain support professionally and personally.

Established in 2013, the UOW Global Challenges Program aims to cultivate research excellence while improving equality & diversity, and supporting the next generation of research leaders. In 2019, 54 per cent of Project grants were led by women researchers & 50 per cent of Seed projects were led by Early Career Researchers. The Global Challenges model provides non-financial as well as financial support, including media and marketing, support writing award and grant applications, mentoring and relationship building and research development and advice from leaders.