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The first recorded Aboriginal person to graduate with an undergraduate qualification from any Australian university was Aboriginal woman Margaret Williams-Weir in 1959 (Melbourne University, 2018). Williams-Weir graduated with a Diploma in Education. There have now been six decades of graduating Indigenous Australian women in the discipline of education, and many other disciplines. In this article, we explore Indigenous women's presence in higher education through the narratives of our lives as Aboriginal women within education and the lives of other Indigenous women, noting their achievements and challenges. We acknowledge that while the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women participating in university study and becoming engaged in education as a discipline at undergraduate and postgraduate levels has increased, we are still significantly underrepresented. Similarly, while we have seen increases in Indigenous university staff within the education discipline, the employment of Indigenous academics has not reached parity with non-Indigenous academics levels and too few are employed in the professoriate and in senior management positions. We will show how we would not have been able to develop our education careers within higher education without the bridges built by those like Dr Williams-Weir and others who went before us. We will share how we have worked to establish the footings for those Indigenous women who will follow us and others. In this way, we work within the context that is for the now and the future. [Author abstract]

Double degrees (also called joint or combined degrees) - programs of study combining two bachelor degrees - are increasingly popular in Australian universities, particularly among women. A case study using qualitative and quantitative surveys of current and past double degree students is presented. The study indicates that double degrees benefit students in providing a broad education and increasing skills and options. However, benefits are not fully realised because of administrative difficulties, lack of support and absence of \"learning communities\". These problems arise because double degrees sit outside the disciplinary structure of universities. As such, however, double degrees have potential to provide transdisciplinary education. We suggest initiatives that would improve the experience, performance and persistence of double degree students. They would also build the skills of integration, boundary work, communication and teamwork associated with transdisciplinarity. These skills not only equip students for a range of employment; they are sorely needed in society. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

This article presents select results from the 2014 graduate year midwifery program projects at Western Health and the significance of these findings in improving the quality and safety of pregnancy care.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted with 83 midwives working across the Western Australian (WA) maternity sector who graduated from one WA University. We explored midwives' attitudes and utilisation of research and assertive communication in addition to perceptions of their educational preparation to advocate for women. The greatest opportunity for research exposure was working on a clinical audit (25.3%). No differences were found between graduate groups using the Edmonton Research Orientation subscales, although findings suggest a positive view towards research. Midwives were more likely to be assertive with their clinical colleagues than a midwifery manager or medical colleague when: expressing their opinions (P = <0.001); saying no (P = <0.001); allowing others to express their opinions (P = <0.001); and making suggestions to others (P = 0.025). A qualitative phase with 15 midwives explored concepts around advocating for women. Four themes emerged: ‘having the confidence to question’, ‘communication skills’, work environment’ and ‘knowing the woman and what she wants’. Findings suggest strategies are needed in their entry to practice preparation and ongoing professional development to facilitate research engagement. Using assertive behaviour to provide feedback to clinical colleagues warrants attention to enhance reflective practice. Building communication skills through observing positive role models and participating in role play was highlighted. •Graduates demonstrated encouraging attitudes to research; however opportunities to engage in research were limited.•Reflection for professional development requires that midwives use assertive behaviours to provide collegial feedback.•Exposure to positive role models must be acknowledged in building communication skills needed to advocate for women.

The development of discipline-specific skills and knowledge is no longer considered sufficient in graduates of Bachelor level degrees in Business. Higher education providers are becoming increasingly responsible for the development of a generic skill set deemed essential in undergraduates. This required skill set comprises a broad range of non-technical skills encompassing analytical/reasoning skills and \"soft skills\", widely considered to be transferable across a range of scenarios including the classroom and the workplace. Yet graduate skill gaps persist in Australia; questioning the extent to which this required skill set is truly generic and thus transferable from higher education to the workplace. The process of, and ensuing problems with, transfer from the classroom to workplace contexts is discussed and future research needs identified.

This paper concerns the experiences and effects of a tertiary entrance program from two perspectives: that of a former student now engaged in her Honours program and of her enabling lecturer. The main aim of the paper is to present a literature review of published studies about mature women's engagement with tertiary study at the entry level. The authors utilise their enabling education biographies to connect the review of literature to lived experiences. The study asks: how far does the literature cover their experiences and what gaps, if any, are there? The first section briefly outlines the approach taken in the paper. In the second section the enabling experience is discussed in three parts: motivations to enter, the first assignment and course encounters. The third section examines the wider effects of participation in enabling on the self, family and friends. The paper bears out the findings of recent literature that highlighted the powerful transformative effects of such programs in all spheres of the students' lives and the importance of making connections in enabling programs. It suggests that more research needs to be carried out in a number of areas, especially gender, race and class. [Author abstract]

The specific relationship between women's studies programs and students' postgraduation career and employment aspirations is an under-researched issue. Two factors suggest the need to examine the issue in more detail. First, current shifts in educational, fiscal, and political priorities throughout the western academy arguable make it increasingly difficult for teachers and researchers to continue fostering women's studies programs without clear understandings of students' career aspirations, their postgraduate experiences and the changing environment in which important educational and employment decisions are negotiated. A second and related matter is the rapidly changing nature of the contemoprary labor market.

This paper explores the way women perceive and talk about the nature of their work, in the context of the declining participation of women in the Information Technology (IT) industry. The study is part of an ongoing project (WinIT), commenced in 1995, that has examined the attitudes of high school and university students and IT personnel towards IT education and careers. The research so far has shown that most students have a poor understanding of IT education and work and perceive IT as a difficult, boring and masculinised domain. IT education is not attracting high achieving students in general and female students in particular. Interviews of women working in IT reinforce widely held impressions of the IT industry. This paper discusses a recent study (1999-2000) in which 32 female and 2 male IT professionals were interviewed. The data were initially sorted and analysed by the third author, using NUD*IST, an Australian qualitative analysis software tool. Giddens' Structuration Theory (1984) was used to interpret the discourse, revealing that the professional women's discourse is characterised by dualisms that are not always consistent with the women's lived experiences. The dualisms discussed in this paper are those relating to skills and attributes, such as technical and people skills, as well as gender specific dualisms, such as attention to detail and assertiveness. The dualisms in the interview discourse represent skills and attributes as either/or propositions associated with gender. The interview data, however, also reveals contradictions in these dualisms, indicating that these polarised views of women and IT work are being undermined by women in the IT industry. The perceptions of the interviewees are discussed as structures of signification that need to be altered in order to successfully challenge these dualisms. For example, the gendering of IT work is being undermined by men as well as women who are discouraged by the need to adapt to the \"masculinised\" domain of much IT work. The structuration of IT work is discussed particularly in relation to routinisation--the taken for granted nature of everyday work activities, and interpretive schemes--the use of dualisms by the interviewees as a way of making sense of their actions and aspirations. These concepts reveal how the IT industry is configured by routine activities as well as by discourse. Mentoring is suggested in this paper as a way to challenge these dualisms and structures of signification, through interactions between students, IT organisations, professional IT women and women in IT education. To explore this idea, the research team collaborated with Information and Processing Technology (IPT) teachers to establish a mentoring program for 110 IPT students in Year 11 (the penultimate year of secondary school in Australia). A total of 28 mentors were recruited, comprising IT professionals, academics and recent IT graduates. The role of the mentors was to assist small groups of students with the analysis and design stages of a programming assignment, as well as provide realistic advice about the nature of IT education and work, the skills needed to succeed and the wide range of options available in the industry. Surveys and interviews with students were conducted to determine whether the mentoring program has been successful in influencing students' perceptions of IT education and work. Feedback was also sought from teachers and mentors. Although we found problems associated with differing levels of expectation between students, teachers and mentors, and a lack of specific tasks within the assignment description to assist students to make full use of their mentor resource, the program provided more accessible role models for female students and provided a strong positive image to female students and corrected the widely held view that IT industry is intrinsically a male domain. Experience from this programme helped Queensland Government's Office for Women and Griffith University establish an IT mentoring program for several high schools in 2004. The paper concludes firstly that mentoring could be a viable way to challenge female students' perceptions of IT education, and to make IT a more attractive career option. Interaction with women who are challenging the dualisms of IT work is necessary to transform the structures of signification. Secondly, qualitative and longitudinal studies of women at work in IT as well as women talking about IT are needed, in order to have a better understanding of the way women help configure the institutional realm of IT work. (Contains 2 tables.)

A major Australian report recently criticised the relationship between the gendered culture of management education and business management practices, in an effort to reduce impediments to equal representation of women in management. It is recommended a major overhaul of university management education, whereby institutions would review their own role in shaping corporate management cultures and practices, and raise awareness of gender issues in the classroom. This article reports on a subsequent survey that explored postgraduate business students' perceptions of gender issues in the management curriculum, and their effects on learning experiences. It suggests that a masculine ethos is perceptible in management education, which can disadvantage female and male students in different ways. The study suggests that greater awareness of gender issues should be a major consideration for management educators, to enable future managers to recognise and harness gender diversity in the workplace. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Studies that consider the position of women in the Australian labour market have consistently demonstrated evidence of unequal outcomes between men and women. A number of structural and behavioural explanations have been advanced for the continued existence of this gender inequality. This article contributes to the supply-side debate with a study of the labour market expectations of women. Questions about labour market expectations are pursued through the in-depth analysis of 29 interviews with women drawn from three purposively identified life situations: single undergraduates, single graduates and coupled parents. The findings demonstrate that undergraduate and graduate women in the sample expect to build and pursue successful careers, while also demonstrating an awareness of potential demand-side constraints to their participation in the labour market. The expectations of the undergraduate and graduate women accord with the lived experience of the mothers in the sample.