Gender and the Research Workforce

Gender data was collected for the first time in the ERA 2015 evaluation round. This section is an analysis of gender data from ERA 2015 and 2018, and relates to headcount only.

In line with the Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender, institutions must provide the gender of each eligible researcher as either 'male', 'female', or 'X (indeterminate/intersex/unspecified)'. Gender data was used for aggregate reporting and analysis purposes only. This data was not made available to peer reviewers or Research Evaluation Committees (RECs) and did not form part of the evaluation process.

The total number of staff by headcount reported to ERA 2018 was 76,261 researchers. The majority of the researchers were males which made up 56 per cent (42,981 researchers) compared to females which made up 44 per cent (33,240 researchers) and the remaining reported as ‘X’ 0.05 per cent (40 researchers). The number of male researchers increased by 11 per cent from 38,598 in ERA 2015 to 42,981 in ERA 2018, while female researchers increased by 15 per cent at the same period. With this change the proportion of female researchers in the workforce increased from 43 per cent (ERA 2015) to 44 per cent (ERA 2018).

The charts below show the number and proportion of staff by headcount and gender in ERA 2015 and ERA 2018.

While the ratio of men and women in the research workforce is 56:44 in ERA 2018 as shown in the chart above, the proportion of male and female researchers varies greatly from discipline to discipline. As the next chart shows, there was a greater share of female researchers in five FoRs out of the 22—ranging from 52 per cent in Medical and Health Sciences to 65 per cent in Education. On the other hand, there were 17 FoRs with a higher proportion of male researchers.

Although only a smaller number of FoRs had more female researchers than male, the proportion of female researchers has increased in most fields since ERA 2015, as shown in the chart below. This was a result of more female researchers entering into the workforce than male. The female workforce increased by 15 per cent from 28,888 (ERA 2015) to 33,240 (ERA 2018) compared with 11 per cent for males (from 38,598 to 42,981).

Nineteen fields had a percentage increase in the female workforce, although this increase was very small in some FoRs. On the other hand, there were only three FoRs—Technology (-2.6 per cent), Biological Sciences (-0.2 per cent) and History and Archaeology (-0.1 per cent)—which saw a decrease.

The following charts show the research workforce (headcount) by gender and include the employment levels collected in ERA 2018 which include Levels A-E, Non-Academic and Other:

• Level A—Tutor/Associate Lecturer
• Level B—Lecturer
• Level C—Senior Lecturer
• Level D—Reader/Associate Professor
• Level E—Professor
• Non-Academic—senior executives and Higher Education Workers (levels 1–10)
• Other—Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

The charts show the number and proportion of researchers (headcount) in each employment level by gender. There are more female researchers in Level B (52 per cent) and those classified as Non-Academic positions (60 per cent). In all other levels, particularly at higher academic levels and in the 'other' category there is a much smaller percentage of females.

Each eligible researcher in the ERA evaluation is assigned to one of three categories for employment status: employed on a full-time or fractional full-time basis, employed on a casual basis, or other employed (e.g. unpaid, visiting, seconded, or exchange staff members).

The charts show the number and proportion of researchers (headcount) by employment status and gender in ERA 2015 and 2018. In terms of the employment status, there are more male researchers than female researchers in each of the three categories. However, compared with the ERA 2015, the percentage of female has increased in all of the three categories in ERA 2018. The largest growth in the proportion of female researchers is in the ‘other employed’ category (e.g. unpaid or visiting)—from 33 per cent to 36 per cent. In this category, the number of male researchers grew by 46 per cent (from 9,306 to 13,559) while at the same time female researchers grew by 66 per cent (from 4,533 to 7,538).

This section looks at the workforce data in terms of the employment function: 'research only', 'teaching and research', or 'other function'.

The first chart and table show the headcount of all staff submitted to ERA 2015 and 2018 by institutions with a breakdown by the employment function and gender. The second chart shows the percentage distribution for apportioned headcount of all staff by employment function and gender.

In all three categories, there are more male than female researchers. Since ERA 2015, the proportion of female researchers slightly increased in 'teaching and research', and in 'other' function categories, but decreased in the 'research only' category.

This gender chart identifies the Fields of Research codes that have more female than male researchers. Out of possible 157 codes there are 35 FoRs where more than half of the researchers are female. The total number of researchers included in these FoR codes is 23,223.8, with 14,310.8 female researchers and 8,903.3 male researchers. Of these 35, the FoR codes with largest number of female researchers are 1117 Public Health and Health Services with 2,981.1 or 61 per cent female researchers from the total of 4,847.9 researchers followed by 1701 Psychology with 1,307.4 or 59 per cent female researchers from the total of 2,228.5 researchers. (Note: there are also 9.7 researchers in these FoR groups who identified their gender as 'X' that are excluded from the following three charts).

The data for the same group of researchers can also be examined by their Employment Status. The chart shows that there are more female researchers in the full-time or fractional full-time group than the number of researchers employed in a casual capacity. The 'other employed' status includes visiting fellows, exchange, seconded and unpaid staff.