Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Perspective
  • Published:

Diversity and inclusion in Australian astronomy

Abstract

Australian astronomy is undergoing a great change in culture, diversity and inclusion through major nationwide and university-scale initiatives. These initiatives include prestigious women-only faculty hires, broad diversity targets, concrete activities to overcome implicit bias, and innovative initiatives to change the academic culture and environment. Many of these activities were precipitated by the Pleiades Awards programme run by the Astronomical Society of Australia and by initiatives developed within the Australia-wide Centres of Excellence in astrophysics. I provide an overview of the nationwide programmes that are making an important impact on diversity, culture and climate, and describe the most promising and innovative initiatives in Australian universities and institutions. The striking changes seen in Australian astronomy can be triggered in other countries by similar awards programmes initiated by national astronomical societies or Academies of Science.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Gender fractions at university levels in science in Australia.
Fig. 2: Pleiades Awards by year.
Fig. 3: Percentage of Australian astronomer departments with diversity initiatives.
Fig. 4: Percentage of female award and nominations for ASA awards.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Figure 1 was created with publicly available data from the Higher Education Staff Database: https://www.education.gov.au/staff-data. Figures 2 and 4 were created with publicly available data from the ASA: http://asa.astronomy.org.au/awards.html and https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/asa/Week-of-Mon-20190114/005234.html. Information on diversity initiatives at astronomer departments and organizations in Australia (including Fig. 3) was provided solely for the purpose of this publication by the heads of department, directors and diversity committee chairs from the ARC ASTRO 3D and OzGrav, ANU, CASS, Curtin University, Macquarie University, Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland, University of Sydney, University of Tasmania, University of Western Australia and Western Sydney University. The survey data and derived statistics can be provided by the author upon reasonable request, if agreement from the individual institution heads of department, directors and diversity chairs is obtained.

References

  1. Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J. & Handelsman, J. Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 16474–16479 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Helmer, M., Schottdorf, M., Neef, A. & Battaglia, A. Gender bias in scholarly peer review. eLife 6, e21718 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Caplar, N., Tacchella, S. & Birrer, S. Quantitative evaluation of gender bias in astronomical publications from citation counts. Nat. Astron. 1, 0141 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Viner, N., Powell, P. & Green, R. Institutionalized biases in the award of research grants: a preliminary analysis revisiting the principle of accumulative advantage. Res. Policy 33, 443–454 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Reid, N. I. Gender-correlated systematics in HST proposal selection. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacif. 126, 923–934 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Patat, F. Gender systematics in telescope time allocation at ESO. Messenger 165, 2–9 (2016).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Whitelegg, E., Hodgson, B. K., Scanlon, E. & Donovan, C. Young women’s perceptions and experiences of becoming a research physicist. Proc. 12th Int. Conf. Women Engineers and Scientists Paper no. 167 (Open Research Online, 2002).

  8. Nittrouera, C. L. et al. Gender disparities in colloquium speakers at top universities. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 104–108 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Jones, E. G., Horner, J., Cairns, A. & Short, W. Gender balance and inclusion within the Australian space community: an overview of delegates at the 2018 Australian Space Research Conference. Proc. 18th Australian Space Research Conf. https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.12358 (2019).

  10. Lunnemann, P., Jensen, M. H. & Jauffred, L. Gender bias in Nobel prizes. Palgrave Commun. 5, 46 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Yifang, M., Oliveira, D. F. M., Woodruff, T. K. & Uzzi, B. Women who win prizes get less money and prestige. Nature 565, 287–288 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Winchester, H., Shard, L., Browning, L. & Chesterman, C. Academic women’s promotions in Australian universities. Empl. Relat. 28, 505–522 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Winchester, H. & Browning, L. Gender equality in academia: a critical reflection. J. High. Educ. Policy Manag. 37, 269–281 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Challice, G., Compton, S., Phillips, B. & Vickers, N. 2018 Graduate Outcomes Survey—Longitudinal (GOS-L). https://www.qilt.edu.au/about-this-site/graduate-employment (2018).

  15. Ivie, R., White, S. & Chu, R. Y. Women’s and men’s career choices in astronomy and astrophysics. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 12, 020109 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Aloisi, A. & Reid, N. (Un)conscious bias in the astronomical profession: universal recommendations to improve fairness, inclusiveness, and representation. State of the Profession White Paper, Astro 2020 Decadal Survey (2019); https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.05261.pdf

  17. Martell, R. F., Lane, D. M. & Emrich, C. Male–female differences: a computer simulation. Am. Psychol. 51, 157–158 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Bezrukova, K., Spell, C. S., Perry, J. L. & Jehn, K. A. A meta-analytical integration of over 40 years of research on diversity training evaluation. Psychol. Bull. 142, 1227–1274 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Clancy, K. B. H., Lee, K. M. N., Rodgers, E. M. & Richey, C. Double jeopardy in astronomy and planetary science: women of color face greater risks of gendered and racial harassment. JGR Planets 122, 1610–1623 (2017).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Brannon, T. N. & Walton, G. M. Enacting cultural interests: how intergroup contact reduces prejudice by sparking interest in an out-group’s culture. Psychol. Sci. 10, 1947–1957 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Shih, M., Wang, E., Trahan Bucher, A. & Stotzer, R. Perspective taking: reducing prejudice towards general outgroups and specific individuals. Group Process. Intergr. Relat. 12, 565–577 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Shih, M. J., Stotzer, R. & Gutiérrez, A. S. Perspective-taking and empathy: generalizing the reduction of group bias towards Asian Americans to general outgroups. Asian Am. J. Psychol. 4, 79–83 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Mekawi, Y., Bresin, K. & Hunter, C. D. White fear, dehumanization, and low empathy: lethal combinations for shooting biases. Cultur. Divers. Ethn. Minor. Psychol. 22, 322–332 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Teding van Berkhout, E. & Malouff, J. M. The efficacy of empathy training: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J. Couns. Psychol. 63, 32–41 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Hall, N. R., Crisp, R. J. & Suen, M.-W. Reducing implicit prejudice by blurring intergroup boundaries. Basic Appl. Soc. Psychol. 31, 244–254 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Candey, R. M. et al. xSonify: sonification software. Astrophysics Source Code Library Record ascl:1207.008 (2012).

  27. Garcia, B., Diaz-Merced, W., Casado, J. & Cancio, A. Evolving from xSonify: a new digital platform for sonorization. EPJ Web Conf. 200, 01013 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Delivering Through Diversity (McKinsey & Company, 2018); go.nature.com/32XV1VR

Download references

Acknowledgements

L.J.K. is supported by the Australian Research Council ASTRO 3D through project no. CE170100013. I thank the ASA president, astronomer department and organization chairs and directors, and their diversity committee chairs for information on programmes operating at each institution and organization.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa J. Kewley.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Astronomy thanks Alessandra Aloisi and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kewley, L.J. Diversity and inclusion in Australian astronomy. Nat Astron 3, 1067–1074 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0954-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0954-1

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing