Scientists Enthusiastic About New Gender, Non-Binary Quotas for Research Funding

A lab technician in Seoul on March 11, 2020. ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

The Australian Academy of Sciences has thrown its support behind a new quota system dealing with “gender inequities” in the distribution of research grants—despite repeated concerns from commentators that gender quotas do not produce meaningful outcomes.

In a “new intervention”, the country’s health and medical research funding body, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), has pledged to provide an equal number of Investigator Grants to women and men.

The NHMRC also said that non-binary researchers would be explicitly included for the first time.

The Investigator Grant scheme is the NHMRC’s largest funding scheme and annually awards around $370 million in funding.

The NHMRC also noted that between 2019 to 2021, male applicants received 35 percent more grants and 67 percent more funding (around an extra $95 million per year) compared to females. STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have traditionally been male-dominated fields.

“Despite good progress, gender inequities persist across the health and medical research sector,” said Prof. Anne Kelso, CEO of the NHMRC, in a statement.

Kelso said disparities in the funding of men and women in the Investigator Grant scheme proved there were barriers to women seeking funding.

“The changes announced today will provide more encouragement and opportunities for women and non-binary researchers to apply for, and win, these significant grants,” she said.

Meanwhile, Anna-Maria Arabia, CEO of the Academy of Sciences, called the move “game-changing,” saying gender quotas removed barriers to women entering the research workforce.

“Importantly, this intervention sends a strong message to both women and girls that they can pursue a successful and fulfilling career in research,” she said in a statement.

Gender Quotas Still a Contentious Topic

Arguments for gender quotas are criticised for not considering men’s and women’s inherent differences and life goals.

“The gender gap is especially obvious in many vocations and exists for a variety of reasons, beyond just sexism,” according to Nicole Russell, a freelance writer who has contributed across several media outlets.

“However, instead of encouraging women to exceed expectations in these fields—or to admit perhaps that men and women are innately wired differently, possess different strengths, and make different life choices regarding family—some occupations are simply lowering the bar to ensure a gender quota, regardless of merit, is met,” she wrote in The Epoch Times.

While former feminist and now men’s rights advocate, Bettina Arndt, said this problem was playing out in fields like firefighting with life-threatening results.

“A senior firefighter described the hazards for his team when they were distracted from their essential task of managing a hazard reduction to orchestrate an ambulance rescue for a young female firefighter on the point of collapse,” she wrote in The Epoch Times.

“The firefighting literature shows that retention rates are poor for female recruits, with a survey of volunteer firefighters showing reasons for dropping out, including equipment being too heavy and stowed too high on trucks and problems with their protective gear.”