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 September, a period in which the School held 16 events featuring 81 different speakers and participants. Of those, 38 (47 per cent) were women and 43 (53 per cent) were male.

There were 10 panel events held in the month, seven of which had 50 per cent or more female participants. Only one panel was 100 per cent male.

To date this year, the school has put on 125 events featuring 564 participants. Of those, 249 (44 per cent) were female, and 315 (56 per cent) were male.

“The figures for September are pleasing, showing a marked improvement over the previous month, even if we are still some way short of our commitment,” said Professor Robert Breunig, a member of the School’s Gender Equity and Diversity Committee.

“I’d like to particularly single out for praise the work done by the organising committees of the Japan Update and the Indonesia Update. It was great to see such gender-balanced panel events at both events, and I know the organisers have been working hard to ensure opportunities for female academic and experts at both of those events.

“Overall, the school continues to need to work harder to achieve its target – we want to turn that 44 per cent overall female participation rate into 50 per cent, and we know there is an appetite around the school to ensure it happens.

“The school’s commitments are important because public policy schools have a responsibility to create spaces where a diversity of voices can be heard in discussion and analysis of important policy issues.

“We look forward to seeing further progress in October.”