It is not easy categorising the work of Kylie Walker, but her impact is clear. From tackling anti-vaccination misinformation to convincing the federal government to invest in major new science facilities, Walker has created internationally recognised programs that create real change.
As CEO of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), she has now set her sights on increasing the participation of young and Indigenous people in science policymaking.
The lack of visibility of women scientists
Back in 2016, Walker was listening to a speech by the Australian Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, when he asked the audience of several hundred people to put their hand up if they could name five Australian scientists. A third of the audience raised a hand.
He then asked how many could name five Australian women scientists. All the arms went down. Except one. It was Kylie Walker.
It was outrageous but, unfortunately, not surprising. Overwhelmingly the people Australian journalists turned to for expert opinion around science, technology and engineering were men – only one in 10 experts featured or quoted were women. And of the 50 most followed scientists on Twitter in 2017, only four were women” says Walker.
This dearth of women scientists in the media has knock-on effects, skewing the next generation’s perception of research. A decades-long Australian study has consistently shown that children, when asked to draw a picture of a scientist, were far more likely to draw a man. Just one in seven were women.
“Even in 2013, most children were drawing Einstein-like figures,” Walker says. “The under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and their invisibility to the public has existed as long as science has. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change it. And if we are to build a diverse STEM workforce, cultural and media representations of women are critical to attracting more girls.”
Creating the SuperStars of STEM program
A few months after the Australian Financial Review event, Walker took the helm of Science & Technology Australia (STA). Being Australia’s peak body in science and technology, STA represents more than 75,000 scientists and technologists working across all scientific disciplines. Walker and her team worked closely with politicians and policy-makers to raise the profile and reputation of Australian science and technology and improve conditions and support for the people who work to create and apply new knowledge.
Walker also found that women faced an uphill battle in their own workplaces in getting media coverage. “Talking anecdotally to women in the STEM sector, compared to their equivalent male colleagues, they were discouraged by supervisors and senior colleagues from speaking as experts to the media until they were at a more senior level – and even then, they were still implicitly or explicitly discouraged. And they didn’t know how to overcome that.”
To increase the visibility of women scientists and researchers and challenge and change STEM stereotypes, Walker set about creating the Superstars of STEM program. Over two-years, highly engaged and motivated women with a knack for communication were provided the formal training, opportunities, mentoring and networks to become public figures.
”The idea was to do it over time in a way that fostered long-term success rather than just a single news media or public speaking course,” Walker says. “The program has built into its fabric the requirement to apply the skills that they’re learning, so the people who sign up to it know that they’re signing up to a fairly hefty commitment.”
With initial funding from a government initiative built around women in STEM, the Superstars of STEM program has since attracted sponsorship*.
The impact of the SuperStars of STEM program
Now instead of one in 10 mentions in media, women now represent four in 10 scientific experts quoted.
Tackling vaccination skepticism
Trained as a journalist and starting her career at the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC, Walker specialised in medicine and science. “It is utterly fascinating being at the frontier of knowledge and having the opportunity as I’ve been immensely privileged to do, to meet with people who are shifting the way that we think about and understand and interact with the world.”
Walker’s own foray into changing perceptions of science and scientists started when she became inaugural Director of Communications at the Academy of Science in 2011. To take on misconceptions and fake news surrounding climate change and vaccinations, she overhauled and grew the Academy’s public education program, Nova, and the Questions and Answers publication series, where expert scientists answered seven commonly asked questions around each topic in accessible and everyday language.
Explaining the series’ genesis, “we had the sense that there was a reluctance on behalf of experts to speak broadly about these topics,” Walker says. “Scientists can tend to want to explain, in great detail, their area of expertise but are culturally disincentivised from speaking about it from a big-picture perspective.”
“At the same time, we knew there was a public hunger for this kind of information: as a parent to young children myself, I’d gone looking for good quality, easily communicated and accessed information about immunisation, and couldn’t find it.”
Walker saw a mismatch between science communication – what was being communicated, who was communicating it and how it was being communicated – and the capacity for the public to understand and make informed decisions. Importantly, how the public understands risk is different from the scientific understanding of risk.
“Putting together the series was a pretty delicate balancing act because we drew together expert panels and working groups – people who had lots of different focus areas on climate change and vaccination – and were trying to synthesise all this information and translate it into everyday language.”
“We coordinated a campaign with the Daily Telegraph and Mamamia which, at that time, was the top parenting news site and blog. We worked with them to pull small and digestible chunks from the booklet, publish them in the mainstream, and initiate campaigns encouraging parents to pledge to have their children immunised.”
Stories of affected families conveyed, in an incredibly powerful way, the potential repercussions of low vaccination rates. Walker and her team told the cautionary tale of a couple who tragically lost their baby to whooping cough because people in their community were not immunised.
“We wanted people to ask ‘what does it mean for me? I’m not going to change my behaviour if I don’t see a reason to do so for me or for the people I love’,” Walker says.
“It was important to make the issue real and personal, rather than present a technical or philosophical argument. We also strategically targeted communication to areas and audiences where immunisations were low.”
The Academy’s vaccination immunisation booklets have been read by more than a quarter a million.
And in the years since the booklet’s publication, national immunisation rates increased from around 90% to close to the national target of 95%. Between 2011 and 2017, national immunisation rates for one-year-olds rose from 91.5% to 94%, and five-year-old rates jumped from 89.5% to 94.7%.
The publication also became the springboard for the New South Wales Office of Fair Trading, when, in 2012, it took what was then called the Australian Vaccination Network – an anti-vaccination organisation – to court. Fair Trading won the case to compel the group to change its name as it was misleading.
“The general public has huge trust in science,” Walker says. “What the Questions and Answers series proves is that when you employ and trust expert science communicators and journalists, and answer the questions that the community has in language that resonates, you can influence perception.
It’s an opportunity the sector has yet to fully realise.”
An Indigenous future
Walker, who is also Chair of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, is now turning her attention to supporting greater respect for and integration of ancient Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander technology and engineering. She’s also working on connection and pathways for Indigenous people to enter and thrive in science and technology.
“In 2019 the Budj Bim site in north-western Victoria became the most ancient cultural heritage site listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage register – it features 10s of thousands years-old aquaculture infrastructure which has been continuously managed by the Gunditjmara people,” she says.
“It’s absolutely incredible and it’s just one example of enduring and ancient knowledge that we’re only just beginning to appreciate. We’re working on establishing a UNESCO co-Chair in Indigenous Environmental Management that would look at some of the exciting work being done around Australia to integrate ancient and new knowledge and create new benchmarks for outstanding sustainable practice.”
“At the Academy of Technology and Engineering we’re also looking at better ways to empower people with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage to study and pursue a successful career in applied science, technology or engineering.”
Empowering young people in technology is also on the agenda.
“ATSE’s Fellows are leaders across a whole range of sectors, they’re at the top of their game, and it’s a privilege to be able to call on their expertise and experience to advise decision-makers in politics, policy and business,” Walker says.
“It’s crucial that there’s a mechanism to hear the voice and wishes of young people as our leaders lay out plans and roadmaps for building Australia’s technological capability.
“People under 30 are digital natives, they’re living, creating, using and adapting technology. They’re building their own future and I’m keen to amplify their collective voices and marry this energy and creativity with the experience and expertise of our senior leaders.”
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*Noting the publisher of The Brilliant, STEM Matters, sponsored the SuperStars of STEM program 2018-2020.
Article by Kylie Ahern
Photo credit: Arek Rainczuk https://www.fivecastles.business/
Image was shared with permission of TEDx Melbourne