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Historical Records of Australian Science Historical Records of Australian Science Society
The history of science, pure and applied, in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific
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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
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Gender diversity in Australian astronomy: the Astronomical Society of Australia 1966–2023

Toner Stevenson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6219-802X A * and Nick Lomb https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4518-7599 B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

B Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.

* Correspondence to: toner.stevenson@sydney.edu.au

Historical Records of Australian Science https://doi.org/10.1071/HR24022
Published online: 18 November 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

In this paper we examine the changes in the diversity of astronomers working in Australia, particularly the ratio of women compared to men, from 1966, when the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) was formed, to 2023. This was a pivotal time, as there was a significant change to workplace law that enabled women who worked for Commonwealth departments to retain their permanent position once they married. We consider the impact on gender diversity and other marginalised groups in astronomy due to this and other changes in the law, through the membership records of the ASA. We focus on the experiences of female astronomers who have been at the leading edge of change, and women and men who have instigated strategies to increase the percentage of women employed in astronomy. The successes of two Australian Research Council (ARC) centres of excellence in achieving gender balance are considered as providing best practice models.

Keywords: History of Australian astronomy, The Astronomical Society of Australia, Women in astronomy, Gender equity in science, Pleiades awards, Post-war Australian astronomers, Beverley Wills (née Harris), Betty Louise Turtle (née Webster), Priscilla Bok (née Fairfield).

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