Policy & Impact
Fix the system, not the girls. Our 2023 submission to the national Diversity in STEM Review, and a call for action backed by investment. Three years on, here’s what happened next.
Girl Geek Academy surveyed over 300 women, men and non-binary folk in tech. Girl Geeks say: enough talk. Time for action.
Girls and women passionate and interested in STEM are squeezed out of learning and industry at all stages of their career.
The STEM career pipeline is designed for men, not women — with no gender lens on career advice and progression at school or in industry.
The STEM industry fails to provide effective role models for women, men or non-binary people.
Investment in talented girls and women is inadequate and discriminatory — a loss of innovation and economic benefit to Australia.
Being a gender change agent in technology is exhausting and traumatising — and the backlash is real.
Girl Geeks’ message to government: we’re sick of talking about it. We want investment to turn things around.
36%
of university STEM enrolments are women
16%
of vocational STEM enrolments are women
23%
of senior management in STEM-qualified industries are women
8%
of STEM CEOs are women
Three years on
In June 2023 we said another review would mean more waiting. Here’s what happened after we lodged our submission.
September 2022
Minister Ed Husic commissions a national Diversity in STEM Review, pitching a more diverse STEM workforce as a $60 billion boost to the economy over 20 years.
Early 2023
The government holds back new women-in-STEM funding until the review reports. We say so publicly: “We need action, not just another review or consultation.”
May–June 2023
We survey 302 women, men and non-binary people in tech and lodge Enough Talk, with 16 recommendations.
13 February 2024
The review’s final report is published with 11 recommendations. The government says it will consider them.
5 March 2025
Days before International Women’s Day and ahead of the federal election, Minister Husic tells the SouthStart conference: “The government is going to accept all the recommendations of that report and make them a reality.”
May 2025
After the election, Senator Tim Ayres replaces Ed Husic as Minister for Industry and Science.
About six months later
A spokesperson for Minister Ayres says: “The recommendations of the 2023 review are still under formal consideration by the government.”
November 2025
The government releases a Statement on the Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review. It doesn’t respond to the recommendations one by one, and it contains no national strategy and no advisory council. The review’s chair, Sally-Ann Williams, calls it comprehensive, but says it lacks “an overarching, whole-of-government long-term strategy.”
August 2026
The Department of Industry removes the target of 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030 from its performance measures, projecting Australia will fall about 71,000 jobs short.
The review made 11 recommendations. These are the ones closest to what Girl Geeks asked for.
Not delivered
Partly
Partly
Partly
The full list of recommendations and the government’s statement are linked in the sources below.
It took more than three years to go from commissioning a review to a government statement, and the statement leaves out the two structural recommendations: a national strategy and an advisory council to drive it. Those are the parts closest to the National Action Plan we asked for in 2023.
Meanwhile the problems haven’t waited. The 1.2 million tech jobs target has been dropped from the department’s performance measures. And in classrooms, technology is compulsory under the Australian Curriculum but treated as optional in many Queensland schools.
Read the full submission, explore our case studies, or partner with us to fund the solutions that already work.