TASMANIAN Australian of the Year Jess Melbourne-Thomas will feature at a panel event at State Cinema on Wednesday exploring the challenges facing female scientists.
The event, which will be broadcast via Facebook, follows the Tasmanian debut screening of The Leadership, an acclaimed documentary based on the Homeward Bound Antarctic expedition project, which Dr Melbourne-Thomas co-founded.
In 2016 Homeward Bound saw 76 female scientists journey to Antarctica on the Aurora Australis and the documentary by Ili Baré follows the women’s experiences and unveils the challenges of workplace gender bias.
The film screening and Q&A at the State is fully booked, but the panel discussion will be streamed live via the Inspiring Tasmania Facebook page from 7.30pm on Wednesday.
The Leadership will screen at the State from Thursday, October 15.
Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Tasmania Meredith Nash, who features in the documentary, will also be on the panel.
She said barriers still persisted for women working in STEM fields, who represented less than 30 per cent of the academic science workforce in Australia.
“Women are still being held back from leadership due to structural barriers like male-dominated workplaces, gender bias and discrimination, gendered pay gap, gender and sexual harassment, caring responsibilities, and lack of recognition/access to opportunities,” Dr Nash said.
“COVID-19 has magnified these issues as women in STEM are disproportionately affected by caring responsibilities, school closures, and job insecurity, and closure of scientific facilities/labs.”
Dr Nash said the film highlighted those issues through the personal career experiences of the women, as shared by them during the voyage.
“The film asks the viewer to grapple with these often shocking examples, but because the film tracks women over time, we also get to see women’s big wins in their careers and personal lives. It’s not all gloom and doom,” she said.
The film screening and Q&A at the State is fully booked, but the panel discussion, which also features Aboriginal scientist Mibu Fischer, will be streamed live via the Inspiring Tasmania Facebook page from 7.30pm on Wednesday.
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