University of the Sunshine Coast bans men from applying for $180,000 role in bid to ‘promote equal opportunity’

An Australian university has restricted applicants for an engineering associate professor role to ‘women only’ in a bid to promote equal opportunity in the field. 

The University of the Sunshine Coast, in Sippy Downs in Buderim, posted the coveted $180,000 position on the employment website Seek last week. 

‘Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering (Women Only),’ the title reads. 

The full-time role, which pays between $168,933 to $186,045 a year, aims to promote equal opportunity under Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1991. 

Under the act, discrimination is allowed if it aims to undo an existing bias to a group.

‘This position is open only to applicants who are women under section 105 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld), as it is a genuine special measure intended to promote equal opportunity for women in Engineering,’ the description states. 

‘The creation of this position forms part of a strategic effort to increase gender diversity within our engineering discipline.

‘Research shows that visible women role models can make a significant impact, building confidence and inspiring women to pursue careers in engineering.’

In this instance, offering the role to only women is a ‘special measure’ to encourage more women to work in a male-dominated profession. 

A UniSC spokesperson said 84 per cent of people working in the industry were men. 

‘There’s broad acknowledgement that gender imbalance is one of several barriers to women wanting to study engineering, and Engineers Australia has recommended universities incorporate targets to address this,’ they told Sky News.

‘We see it as our responsibility to increase the number of visible role models for women, and this role was created to promote equal opportunity for women in Mechanical Engineering.’

Women accounted for only 7.1 per cent of engineering staff at the university – which is below the national average.

Between 7.6 per cent and 22 per cent of the university’s student cohort across its undergraduate engineering programs identified as women. 

A 2024 report from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources found more needed to be done to boost the number of women enrolling in university STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses.

The data showed women accounted for 37 per cent of university STEM enrolments and only 15 per cent of all people working in those industries. 

‘Girls continue to make up only one quarter of year 12 enrolments in information technology, physics and engineering subjects,’ the report read.

‘The 2023–24 Youth in STEM survey shows no improvement in girls’ ratings of the importance of STEM knowledge for their employment in future.’ 

The study also followed the cohort of STEM university graduates from 2011, finding that by 2021 only 31 per cent of former students were working in the industry compared to 56 per cent of their male counterparts. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the University of the Sunshine Coast for comment.