Giving women in stem a fair go

Dear friends,As one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world, Australia is known as the land of “a fair go.” This reflects the egalitarianism of Australian society, where everyone has the opportunity to improve their lot in life. At the heart of the belief in a fair go is equality of opportunity. Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, captured a fair go as “regarding everyone, every human being, with respect.” As we commemorate National Women’s Month, this is an opportune time to push for a fair go for all, including women.

The UN theme for this year’s Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.” The global focus on women’s role in driving innovation and technology could not have come at a better time. In particular, shining a spotlight on the critical role of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) where women are grossly underrepresented merits attention. The United Nations predicts that by 2050, 75 percent of jobs will be related to STEM areas. However, women represent only 24 percent of positions in the tech sector.

Australia’s 77 years of bilateral partnership with the Philippines is anchored on strong foundations, and I am proud to say that gender equality is one of them. Australia has been partnering with the Philippine government for gender-transformative programs that bring technology and innovation closer to women and girls.

Over the past four weeks, I have been privileged to meet a lot of inspiring Filipino women trailblazers of STEM here in the Philippines. Let me cite for example 2022 Australia Alumnus of the year, Dr. Maria Soledad Antonio, who led the Department of Health’s Bureau of International Health Cooperation during the pandemic. Her efforts at the height of the pandemic helped address vaccine shortage in the country by mobilizing resources from international health partners.

I have also recently met Grace David from Edukasyon.ph. Through their Yaring Pinay campaign supported by Australia’s Investing in Women program, Edukasyon.ph has promoted women’s participation in non-traditional and traditionally male-dominated technical-vocational education training (TVET) sector.

Australia is committed to support efforts that empower women and girls in the Philippines. Through our Investing in Women program, we have supported four national campaigns to address gender norms on unpaid care work and sex-based job segregation, reaching 70 million individuals through traditional and social media.

Through our A Future that Works program, Australia has partnered with Philippine Business for Education to provide opportunities for key Philippine industries to upskill and reskill their workforce on sectors such as information technology, data analytics, semiconductor, food processing and health care. This could help unlock equal opportunities for thousands of young Filipino men and women to participate in new collar jobs.

Australia supports women-focused initiatives on economic empowerment, encouraging participation of women in peace processes and governance and contributing to improved outcomes for women and girls in the most vulnerable areas. During the pandemic, Australia provided seed funding of A$4.8 million to Philippine impact investors which resulted in the expansion of 28 Filipino women led/owned MSMEs during 2020-22. These companies employed 2,128 individuals, half of whom were women.

Meanwhile, our Australia Awards scholarships have provided postgraduate scholarships to 255 Filipino women who studied courses on STEM and TVET in Australia. They are now occupying management positions in the government, private sector and academia. Some have gone to break barriers for women in technology and STEM, where it has been historically dominated by men. To illustrate, our 2022 Alumni Excellence for Innovation awardee, Dr. Doralyn Dalisay, led research on antibiotics and anti-cancer drug discovery in the Philippines.

And just this month, Australia supported the launch of the new Oky Philippines Period Tracker App in the BARMM. Oky is the world’s first period tracker app that features a girl-led design and gamified approach to learning about menstrual and reproductive health. A central feature of Oky is its digital inclusion, as the app is compatible with simple mobile devices and can fully function offline to reach communities where internet connectivity can be a challenge.

Gender equality embodies the spirit of Australia’s a fair go. This is reflected not only in the work that we do here in the Philippines, but also internationally. This year, the Australian government announced that 80 percent of our development program investments worldwide must effectively address gender equality in implementation. By the end of the year, we are also looking at the launch of Australia’s new international gender equality strategy.

Quoting Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, gender equality is a constant project. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of STEM. Giving women and girls in STEM a fair go is a positive start in solving the gender equality equation.

Yours truly,

HK

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?HK Yu is the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines.? You can follow Ambassador Yu on Twitter @AusAmbPH.