Jobs for the girls

Naturally, the NHMRC decided to keep the existing discriminatory system for early career researchers and introduce option 3 for senior researchers. By October this year, it was announced that this had become policy.

Now, here’s the twist. On very same day the new policy was announced, the NHMRC released data showing that it actually wasn’t true that men received most of the Investigator Grants – women already received 52.9%. Existing discriminatory measures are biting hard, more women are being pushed through from lower research levels and they already comprise the bulk of the people receiving these valuable grants.

In an interview in November, Anne Kelso evaded a question about the current gender balance of grant recipients and said of the discrimination “as soon as it’s achieved its goal, we’ll stop”. It’s hard to believe this gender warrior was unaware of the most recent statistics which means she must have known the ostensible goal was in the rear-view mirror.

It’s worth considering some of the other factual flaws in the feminist argument:

• Applications from women are already more likely to be receive funding. In 2022, 13.9% of applications from men were funded versus 17.9% for women. For the most sought-after senior level grants, 42% of women were funded versus only 23% of men. And this isn’t new - even in the 1990s women’s applications were looked upon more favourably.
• The greater success rate for applications from women is not due to their superiority. On the contrary, NHMRC admits that “scores are more likely to be lower for women than for men”. The greater funding rate for women is due to the very effective discriminatory process being used to award grants.  
• At the most senior level there are roughly four times more male than female applicants simply because there are so many more men than women in the senior ranks of health and medical researchers – it wasn’t long ago that science fields were almost entirely dominated by men. But that’s shifting rapidly as more women are pushed through the ranks. Now that senior women are to be given equal numbers of grants, it will mean a submission with a woman’s name attached will be twice as likely to be successful.

Male academics normally have the good sense to keep quiet about the discrimination taking place in their ranks. Yet this latest outrage saw many come out of the woodwork, like emeritus professor Anthony Jorm who argued that “Australia’s unnecessary new NHMRC policy will lead to a decline in scientific quality.” The famous American scientist Lawrence Kraus wrote that the NHMRC “breaks new ground for anti-male bias.”

Only a few current academics took the risk of speaking out, like Melbourne University professor of statistics Chris Lloyd and neurobiologist Thomas Burne. A few brave senior women also stuck their necks out - Professor Georgia Trench on Sky News stated that “Australia should be funding female scientists on merit not gender quotas.” There’s also a group of academics planning to write to the main professional bodies demanding they come to a coherent position on affirmative action in science.

Most scientists are too nervous to give voice but a number were prepared to speak to me anonymously about the brave new world of Australian science, where many job selection panels now require a 50-50 shortlist, even in areas where male applicants outnumber females 4 or 5 to 1.

This is a world where there’s a steady stream of female-only positions, and female-only awards including the "Superstars of STEM". This federal Government initiative is a neat little boondoggle which works very effectively to get more women into top science jobs. A senior scientist explained: “It's a ruse to justify subsequent preferential appointments (especially to tenured positions), by padding the CV of female applicants.”

As an example, he reports a typical conversation at a job selection panel. “Yes, Mr XY has published twice as many refereed papers as Ms XX... BUT... she is a Superstar of STEM and she is regularly interviewed by the ABC. Hiring an SoS would enhance the reputation of our department, her research will get much more coverage on The Conversation, she will be a better role model, and above all, the appointment of an SoS would give our university additional points next year to earn an Athena-Swan silver medal! So, she gets the job.”

What is this mysterious Athena Swan medal? “It’s a mafia system,” he explains, describing how it works very effectively to push universities to compete using women-only jobs and perks, increasing the number of female scientists in order to gain the prestigious Athena Swan medals for their institution: “Such-and-such university already has an Athena Silver, and we are only Athena Bronze... You don't want our university to lag behind them, Comrade, do you?”

And the payoff for the key players? “Every STEM institute has an Athena committee of a few female research fellows who producer reports stating that their institute must hire more tenured women or else they cannot get recommended for an award. So, guess what? At the next hiring round, University A will offer a tenured job to the Athena coordinator of University B, University B will offer a tenured job to the Athena coordinator of University C, and University C will offer a tenured job to the Athena coordinator of University A.” Neat, eh?

The NHMRC really didn’t need to impose this latest outrage. The system is already sewn up - a very good reason for all competent male scientists to pack their bags and head overseas. Asia, here they come….