Crawford School of Public Policy

In December 2017 Crawford School Director Professor Helen Sullivan committed the school to a gender balance in its public events program.

The target looked at two simple measures – the gender balance on individual panel events held at the school, and the overall balance of male to female participation across all of Crawford’s public events.

In the latest of our regular updates, we take a look at the progress so far. This report covers the month of June, a period in which the School held 13 events featuring 16 different speakers and participants. Of those, 7 (44 per cent) were women and 9 (56 per cent) were male. There were no panel events in June.

To date this year, the school has put on 80 events featuring 397 participants. Of those, 187 (47 per cent) were female, and 210 (53 per cent) were male.

“These figures show that the school is making great strides towards achieving its target, particularly in the commitment to an overall gender balance across the year’s events,” said Professor Robert Breunig, a member of the School’s Gender Equity and Diversity Committee.

“In 2017, only 35 per cent of event participants were female, so it’s clear to see that strong progress is being made at the school, and I thank everyone who is working hard to make sure that we meet this commitment.

“These commitments aren’t about ticking a box or making us look better. The School announced them because we genuinely believe that public policy schools have a responsibility to create spaces where a greater diversity of voices can be heard in the discussion of public policy.

“Meeting the commitment is not always easy, for a variety of reasons. But just because something is hard to do, it shouldn’t stop us from doing it. I’m proud of the way people from all around the school have risen to the challenge, even while I recognise there’s still more to be done.

“While this month’s figures look better than last year’s, the balance of female participants in our events is lower than last month’s cumulative total of 48 per cent. We want to see those figures going the other way, so I look forward to seeing progress towards our goals in the months ahead.”