QUT has received a citation as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality from the Federal Government's Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
This follows QUT's success this year in exceeding its long-standing target of 40 per cent women in senior staff - almost 42 per cent of senior positions are now held by women.
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake said efforts to bring about equal opportunity had been a long-term priority.
"We are particularly pleased that the number and proportion of female professors and associate professors has grown so substantially, now at 36.5 per cent and 43 per cent respectively," he said.
"Diversity is good for business, and we are in the knowledge business. So we want to ensure our teaching, research and community service is informed and enriched by a diversity of perspectives."
Professor Coaldrake said there was no quick fix, and it was only sustained attention to multiple dimensions of the organisation's practices and culture which had produced change over time.
"We take a multi-pronged approach, working on recruitment practices, promotion and career planning, as well as selection practices to try and eliminate any bias, including unconscious bias," he said.
"We are also working to ensure career breaks for caring and rearing children do not become a career-long disadvantage."
QUT medical scientist and cancer genetics researcher Dr Jyotsna Batra said that, before deciding where to apply for a post doctorate research position, she looked globally for universities which had a strong record of employing and supporting women in STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers.
"When I started looking at the cancer research program at QUT, I was quite impressed at how many research groups were led by women," Dr Batra, who is based in the Translation Research Institute in Brisbane, said.
"I felt so confident that I was going to the right place and that's what happened. It has been really great being mentored by Professor Judith Clements, who leads the Cancer Program at QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI).
"I absolutely feel that QUT nurtures the careers of women in STEM - in my research group we have a number of women - and that's in an area which typically doesn't retain women.
"My QUT role models include Professor Judith Clements AC, Professor Colleen Nelson, who heads the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre-Queensland, and Professor Lyn Griffiths, who is the executive director of IHBI."
Professor Coaldrake said that the area of women in STEM needed focussed attention before gender equity became a reality.
"QUT has embarked on a wave of new reforms to assist the progression and retention of women in the STEM areas," he said.
"The inclusion of QUT in the first tranche of the Athena SWAN process, a national pilot to improve gender equity in STEM, will add to this momentum and help us make some much-needed gains."
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Women's employer of choice for 10th year
QUT the employer of choice for Women in Technology
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT Media, 07 3138 2999
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901.
