Gender disparities in STEM research: A case study of cardiovascular researchers in Australia

The Federal government wants to see more women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) careers; a strategy for encouraging women to remain in STEM careers was a key component of the 2020 budget. While there is plenty of interest from girls and women, the well-known ‘leaky pipeline’ means women drop out of a promising STEM career trajectory at critical junctures, and those who remain are often less satisfied than their male counterparts. In today’s important analysis, Rachel Climie (@RachelClimie), Anna Calkin (@Anna_Calkin) and Niamh Chapman (@Dr_NChapman) share their research into the gender disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD), along with important insights into what would make it easier for women to thrive.

There has long been evidence of gender disparity in STEM and with women disproportionately affected by the increased demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaningful strategies tailored at the retention of women in the broader research sector are urgently needed. Here we share findings from a survey we conducted with cardiovascular researchers across Australia, which provides insights into the differing experiences and priorities of women and men.

Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. In Australia, CVD accounts for 30% of all deaths, causing one death every 12 minutes and is Australia’s second largest direct health care cost, amounting to $10.4 billion annually. In 2014/15, CVD research received $16.8 million in research funding from non-government agencies and charities in Australia, while cancer, which is responsible for a similar number of deaths annually, received nearly 10-fold more ($160.5 million). This disparity in funding not only means that CVD remains a significant and unresolved societal, health and economical problem, which will only worsen with the ageing population, but also carries significant challenges for CVD researchers.

The Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA) is a not-for-profit entity established in 2015. The ACvA aims to increase the visibility of CVD as a national health priority area with the general public and to advocate for the importance of an integrated cardiovascular research sector. A critical step to increasing the impact and sustainability of CVD research in Australia is to understand the perceived challenges faced by the workforce. As such, in 2019 the ACvA conducted an online survey of 548 Australian cardiovascular researchers, which aimed to quantify the effect of the current research funding climate on CVD researchers in Australia.

Gender Disparities in the Cardiovascular Research Workforce

The mean age of survey respondents was 42±13 years, 47% were male, 85% had a full-time position and 40% were a group leader or laboratory head. Twenty-three per cent (23%) had permanent employment, 68% said they had previously considered leaving the cardiovascular research sector and a staggering 91% of respondents would leave the sector if their position could not be funded in the next few years.

Significant gender specific issues emerged in our survey, with limited research funding having a greater impact on female CVD researchers. In general, women were less likely than men to be in leadership positions but more likely to be unsure about future employment and to consider leaving the sector. Women were more likely than men to have had a career interruption, work part-time, have considered leaving CVD research, and feel they did not have a long-term career path as a CVD researcher in Australia. While women were more likely to have applied for fellowship funding in the last three years, there was no significant difference in the self-reported success rates of securing funding. Major reasons for leaving CVD research, such as lack of job security and limited funding, were similar between men and women, but women reported higher levels of poor working conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to accentuate these issues for women, especially those with caregiver responsibilities. In early 2020, the Australian Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, provided a report that gathered evidence regarding the impact of the pandemic on women in the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) workforce. Early evidence demonstrated that women faced disproportionate increases in caring responsibilities, disruptions to working hours and paid work capacity. Job insecurity emerged as an even more troubling issue for women with a high proportion of women employed in short-term and casual jobs. Thus, the pandemic has amplified many of the reasons thought to drive the gender disparities in the STEM workforce, which is likely to have long term impact on the research sector as a whole.

Identifying Strategies for the retention of cardiovascular researchers

Our survey also explored reasons that would change an individuals’ intention to leave the sector. Overall, the top initiatives to retain cardiovascular researchers were greater job security and increased investment in CVD research. Further gender disparities were identified, with women more likely to change their intention to leave than men if more professional development, leadership and mentoring opportunities were available, a healthier workplace culture was in place, there was an improved work/life balance and if onsite childcare was available. More women perceived that addressing gender equity, greater job security and promotion would increase retention in the sector, while men valued increased job mobility.

Implementing Actions to improve the cardiovascular research sector

Recent recommendations to improve the research sector in Australia include improving research capacity by increasing funding availability and distribution through smaller, more consistent grants. In 2019, the New South Wales (NSW) government committed $150 million to building capacity in cardiovascular research in partnership with the NSW Cardiovascular Research Network. More recently, the Australian government invested $220 million in the 10-year Mission for Cardiovascular Health, recognising the potential of Australian cardiovascular researchers to have a transformative impact on cardiovascular health. These investments and the leadership shown by both governments have the potential to help reduce the challenges faced by CVD researchers and support capacity in a much needed area. Furthermore, our survey findings highlighted issues beyond the need for additional funding per se, that require systemic changes to the current funding structure, such as diversification of research income, longer-term contracts, more permanent positions, longer funding cycles, the development of long-term national collaborations and enabling platforms to improve the translation and impact of research.

To this end, in addition to advocating for the cardiovascular research sector to both the Australian public and government, the ACvA has implemented organisational strategies to build sector capacity by bringing together leading cardiovascular researchers from across the country to create a thriving cardiovascular research ecosystem, spanning the translational research pipeline from discovery to implementation. Such an approach offers greater mentoring and leadership opportunities, which were identified as key initiatives to retain women in cardiovascular research. The ACvA has recently launched a ‘Cross Industry Mentoring Program’ which provides professional development, career guidance and the development of skills across cardiovascular sectors (academics, medical practitioners, industry professionals). Currently almost 60 researchers across Australia are involved in this program (21 of the 27 mentees are female), including many of Australia’s cardiovascular research leaders.

Professional development opportunities, which were also identified in the survey as an initiative to retain women in cardiovascular research, have also been implemented by the ACvA. These include workshops and peer review opportunities aimed at enhancing research funding success rate within the CVD sector. The ACvA also recently launched the ‘Cardiovascular Champions’ program targeted at early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs), to enhance communication and networking skills and equip cardiovascular researchers with the tools to effectively engage with policy makers, the scientific community and the general public. Initiatives specifically targeted at women include the ‘Women in Cardiovascular Research Spotlight’ as well as the development of and advocacy for support packages for women in cardiovascular research, providing opportunities to assist in overcoming some of the challenges associated with primary caregiver responsibilities. These include workshops, travel and research support and coaching opportunities that work towards building capacity among EMCRs at a pivotal stage of their career. Lastly, the ACvA is about to embark on further research to develop a strategic plan to set priorities for EMCR support informed by the cardiovascular research sector. Cardiovascular researchers will be invited to take part in focus group discussions that are based on the findings of our survey. The group discussions will be split by gender and those with caregiver responsibilities to focus on identifying strategies to support women’s/caregiver’s career progression and retention in the sector. The findings will be used to develop an action plan and engage stakeholders to implement solutions to meet the needs and priorities of our sector.

Another strategy to address gender disparities in the STEM workforce is the Science and Gender Equity (SAGE) Athena Swan Charter. This program aims to create inclusive workplaces where all individuals thrive, irrespective of gender or race. Applicants critically evaluate their workplace culture and systems and put in place actions to address identified barriers and bias’, committing to adopt key principles in their policies, practices and culture. This program has been taken up broadly across the country, with 43 University and Medical Research Institutes in Australia having secured Bronze Award accreditation at the time of this article. Although too early to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the program on Australian Universities and research institutes with the first cohort only receiving accreditation in late 2018, evaluation of the Athena Swan UK Program, upon which the SAGE Athena Swan program is based, demonstrated that the program was perceived to have positive effects on equity, diversity and career progression of women.

Our survey highlighted that more needs to be done to fix the leaky pipeline in CVD research, and there are many practical steps that could be taken. Engagement with women in the cardiovascular research sector to develop initiatives that meet their needs is required to identify solutions over the short, medium and long term. This now places additional importance on each organisation, institute and university to proactively address gender disparities through programs such as SAGE Athena Swan to address the barriers and bias’ faced by women in the STEM workforce.

If you are an EMCR and would like to participant in the upcoming ACvA focus groups, please contact Dr Niamh Chapman (Niamh.Chapman@utas.edu.au).

This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.

Posted by @SusanMaury

References.

1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Disease expenditure in Australia. Canberra: AIHW; 2019.

2. Figtree GA, Jennings G, Nicholls S, Graham RM. The Australian Cardiovascular Alliance–Towards an Integrated Whole-of-Nation Strategy to Address Our Major Health Burden. Heart, Lung and Circulation. 2019;28(2):198-203.

3. Climie RE, Wu JH, Calkin AC, Chapman N, Inglis SC, Colafella KMM, et al. Lack of strategic funding and long-term job security threaten to have profound effects on cardiovascular researcher retention in Australia. Heart, Lung and Circulation. 2020;29(11):1588-95.

4. Australian Academy of Science. The impact of COVID-19 on women in the STEM workforce. Canberra, Australia; 2020.

5. Christian K, Johnstone C, Larkins J-a, Wright W, Doran MR. Research Culture: A survey of early-career researchers in Australia. Elife. 2021;10:e60613.

6. Ovseiko PV, Taylor M, Gilligan RE, Birks J, Elhussein L, Rogers M, et al. Effect of Athena SWAN funding incentives on women’s research leadership. bmj. 2020;371.

Affiliations for Dr Rachel Climie(1-4), A/Prof Anna Calkin(3,5,6) and Dr Niamh Chapman(1)

(1)Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

(2)Sports Cardiology Laboratory, Clinical Research Domain, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia

(3)Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

(4)Université de Paris, INSERM, U970, Paris Cardiovascular Research Center (PARCC); Paris, France

(5)Lipid Metabolism and Cardiometabolic Disease Laboratory, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia

(6)Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Womens Policy Action TankWomen's Policy Action Tank30 March 2021Gender Inequity, research