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This NCSEHE briefing note reports on domestic undergraduate equity student participation in Australian higher education from 2013 to 2018. It focuses on trends among domestic undergraduate enrolments in Table A Provider institutions in identified equity groups: low socioeconomic status (Low SES) students; students with disability; Indigenous students; women in non-traditional areas (WINTA) students; regional students; remote students; non-English speaking background (NESB) students, also referred to as 'culturally and linguistically diverse' (CALD) students. All student data reported or derived for the purposes of this document are sourced from the Australian Government Department of Education (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019).

In 2018, there were 764,652 domestic undergraduate students enrolled in Australia. This represents an increase in enrolments of 12.6 per cent since 2013, with growth in 2018 being the lowest seen over this period, at 0.72 per cent compared to average growth of two per cent over the six years. Numbers of low SES students, students with disability and Indigenous students increased at a rate greater than that seen overall, while other equity groups saw lower growth rates. As a consequence, the change in share of student population - percentage point change (PPC) - was negative for the WINTA (-0.1 PPC), Regional (-0.9 PPC) and Remote (-0.04 PPC) student groups, and static in the case of NESB students (0.0 PPC).

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This paper presents the experiences and views of women involved in the mining industry as determined from a questionnaire that was circulated across the Canadian mining industry. This paper will provide some insight into the reasons why women join and stay in the mining industry and shed some light onto the reasons for the overall low representation in this sector. The women who responded to the questionnaire represent many different areas within the mining industry, including a broad range of roles in industry, government, academia and in the supplies and services sector. The paper is intended to raise awareness about issues that women encounter that contribute or detract from career satisfaction in the mining industry.

The survey provides an overall understanding of why women pursue or work in mining, and why women either remain or choose to leave it. The advantages and disadvantages experienced by women are highlighted, along with a summary of the possible initiatives that could be undertaken by employers as opportunities to improve the attraction of the mining industry for career-minded women. As well, the survey provides a summary of the top 10 features that are already in place at various organisations and community groups that have been identified as key for supporting and encouraging women to join and remain in the industry. Not surprisingly, the survey identifies that one of the key ingredients for retention of women in mining is the provision of mentors and sponsors. Another key aspect for retention is the provision of progressive employment policies that address the need for a degree of flexibility in work hours and a culture of balance between work and personal life demands.

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A range of reasons is cited to explain gender differences in business performance in Africa. Within those, the sector of operations is consistently identified as a major issue. This paper uses a mixed methods approach to assess how women entrepreneurs in Uganda start (and strive) operating firms in male-dominated sectors, and what hinders other women from doing so. The study finds that women who cross over into male-dominated sectors make as much as men, and three times more than women who stay in female-dominated sectors. The paper examines a set of factors to explain the differences in sector choices, and finds that there is a problem of information about opportunities in male-dominated industries. The analysis also concludes that psychosocial factors, particularly the influence of male role models and exposure to the sector from family and friends, are critical in helping women circumvent or overcome the norms that undergird occupational segregation.

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Work-integrated learning (WIL) affords students opportunities to apply skills and knowledge to practical work placements. Students potentially learn professional behaviours appropriate to their chosen industry sector. However, students may also face challenges they may not be prepared to navigate. One of these is gender bias due to assumptions about women and work, particularly within [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] STEM sectors. This article presents findings from a pilot study that explores WIL students' perspectives on gender bias related to experiences at their internship placements or other jobs. The findings suggest that the potential lack of gender neutrality within organizations such as WIL placements, is nuanced through an underlying bias around thinking about gender, women and work, and demonstrated through institutional structures such as branded recruitment campaigns or the individual micro aggressions of co-workers and supervisors. Further research needs to focus on the impact of gender bias on students' sense of value within different organizations, and the strategies they employ to navigate bias. In the short-term, all students need tools to help them understand how gender is constructed within organizational processes and how to develop strategies to help them confront gender bias within the organizations in which they work.

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Developed in partnership with the Transportation Learning Center, this comprehensive toolkit is designed to support rail and transit leadership, [human resource] HR departments and front line supervisors in developing and implementing effective plans for building women's participation in occupations that are nontraditional for women. The resources in this toolkit will support the recruitment, training, and retention of women in nontraditional apprenticeship and jobs in the rail and transit sector. The toolkit can be used by program planners, managers, and frontline staff conducting outreach and assessment and training, to ensure that each stage of the employment process - from recruitment through retention - looks at how the workplace environment can be responsive to women of many backgrounds and how systems can be created or improved to address the barriers women face.

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Much attention is focused on finding ways to encourage females to study STEM in school and college but what actually happens once women complete a STEM degree? We use the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey to trace out gender differences in STEM persistence over the career. We find a continuous process whereby women are more likely to exit STEM than men. Among holders of STEM undergraduate degrees, women are more likely to obtain a non-STEM master's degree. Then, after entering the labour market, there is a gradual outflow of females during the first 15 years post-graduation so that females are about 20 percentage points less likely to work in STEM compared to their male counterparts. Conditional on leaving STEM, we find that females are more likely to enter the education and health sectors while males are more likely to enter the more lucrative business sector and that this can partly explain the gender pay gap for STEM graduates.

Overall, our results suggest that policies that aim to increase the proportion of females studying STEM in school and college may have less effect than expected due to the lower attachment of females to STEM after graduation. Such policies may need to be augmented with efforts to tackle the greater propensity of females to exit STEM throughout the career.

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In 2004, the Women and Work Commission in the UK was asked by the Prime Minister to undertake an independent review to examine the causes of gender pay and opportunities gap and to recommend ways to close it within a generation. This document is the report from that review. Causes of gender gap identified by the review include: 'women's jobs' are undervalued; length of work experience; number of interruptions to work experience; part-time employment experience; and qualifications and skills. Recommendations made include: the Sector Skills Councils should work with employers to provide and promote apprenticeships for women in industries where there are skill shortages; a more local approach should be taken to match jobs and skills; and a UKP 20 million package should be provided to pilot measures designed to enable women to change direction and progress in their jobs and careers by raising their skill levels. The contents are: Executive summary and recommendations; Introduction; Changing our culture - maximising potential; Combining work and family; Lifelong opportunities for women in training and work; Improving workplace practice; The way forward - making change happen. Included as appendices are: Women and Work Commissioners; Written evidence to the Women and Work Commission; Visits by Women and Work Commissioners; Presentations to the Women and Work Commission; Terms of Reference. Show less

There is a workforce shortage in middle-skill occupations requiring some educational training but not a 4-year college degree, such as skilled trades (e.g., construction), transportation (e.g., drivers), and manufacturing. Identifying factors that promote adolescent interest in middle-skill occupations is crucial in combating this shortage. This study examined whether variables contributing to adolescent interest in STEM occupations, such as gender, occupation goal affordances, and occupational knowledge, extend to middle-skill occupations.

Results from hierarchical linear models revealed that adolescents (N = 502) were interested in middle-skill occupations for which they felt knowledgeable and perceived to afford agentic and communal goals. The effect of perceived knowledge on interest in construction and manufacturing occupations was stronger for boys than girls. Efforts to increase interest in middle-skill occupations should address the gender gap in perceived knowledge and highlight how these occupations fulfill agentic and communal goals.

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We analyze the relationship between occupational gender composition and gender discrimination in recruitment and investigate whether there is hiring discrimination against men in female-dominated occupations. We do this with a large-scale field experiment where we submitted more than 12,000 job applications for 12 occupations in Australia, varying the gender of the applicants. Men received around 50 per cent more callbacks than women in male-dominated occupations, while they received over 40 per cent fewer callbacks in female-dominated occupations.

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'Adults learning' is published 10 times a year and provides a forum for debate on all issues affecting adult learning in the UK. This issue includes the following articles: 'Further education 2000: a message to policy-makers and college managers' by Amanda Hayes (p. 10-12) which presents the worrying situation faced by many women in further education and calls for a policy reform to ensure that positive changes are made in this area; 'Women and HE - the good news and the bad news' by Patricia Whaley (p. 13-15) which finds that, despite the fact that numbers of women in higher education (HE) are now equalling those of men, women still face a number of problems in entering, staying in, and achieving in HE; 'Barriers or building blocks' by Maggie Coates (p. 16-18) which asks whether accreditation helps or hinders learning; 'Women and non-traditional training' by Jane Butcher, Rose Ardron and Annette Williams (p. 19-21) which describes the current situation faced by women involved in training, and provides some tips to help institute positive action. Show less