Morley Muse
Morley Muse is an Australian renewable energy engineer, and co-founder of iSTEM, a social enterprise supporting women in STEM into STEM education, employment, leadership and entrepreneurship.
Quotes
[edit]A Voice for Women in STEM
[edit]A Voice for Women in STEM, Morley Muse
- As a woman from a minority background working in STEM, I have faced personal and professional challenges, whilst in pursuit of my career aspirations.
- As a scientist, engineer and passionate advocate for women in the field, I have advocated and worked across various STEM/NFP organisations to create change.
- My leadership journey in advocating for the diversity of women in the industry began during my PhD, when I realised the difficulties of being a woman in a male dominated field.
- The underrepresentation of female engineering students led me to co-found the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Club at Victoria University.
- To empower and support female STEM students and encourage girls to pursue STEM careers.
- I began engagements with Women in STEMM Australia (WISA), in 2018.
- I was appointed to the board as a director in 2019 which I still serve to date.
- WISA has created a diverse, inclusive network of STEMM professionals at all levels of academia, industry, education, business and government and includes all women in STEMM regardless of their discipline and profession.
- Through my work with WISE and WISA, I gained a deeper understanding of the barriers women in STEM face.
- I also realised that the conversations about gender equity often exclude the intersections of gender like race, ethnicity, and disability.
- That showed only 29 percent of the STEM workforce identifies as women and 56 percent of university educated women in STEM were born overseas.
- I partnered with Dr Ruwangi Fernando to co-found iSTEM Co, which aims to promote employment and retention for women in STEM, including women of colour and women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
- Conversations about gender equity often exclude the intersections of gender like race, ethnicity, and disability.
- The discussion around diversity and inclusion has increased in recent times yet the dial has barely shifted for women in STEM.
- In Australia, it’s been identified that there are more than 200,000 vacant STEM jobs, which has continued to grow by more than 2.5 percent annually since 2019 and the demand for STEM workers will increase to 1.9 million by 2024.
- This shows how critical the sector is for our economic growth and global competition.
Smashing barriers and opening doors: Dr. Morley Muse on reshaping STEM
[edit]Dr. Morley Muse on breaking limits and driving change in STEM
- I am absolutely thrilled to share some exciting updates on my journey since receiving the award.
- We’ve launched the DEIR platform, a game-changer in eliminating recruitment bias using specific elements.
- It’s incredible to see companies like Arup, Westpac, Telstra, and Worley already embracing this platform to recruit diverse talents.
- It’s currently free for both women and employers, using our trial packages.
- Changing with the initiatives we have launched at iSTEM Co., as well as other initiatives like STEM sisters, DCA CARM program.
- The awareness we are generating in the STEM community, but we still have a long way to go.
- In 2023, my main concerns revolve around the lack of retention of women with STEM skills in the industry and insufficient funding for startups.
- When it comes to leadership, the best advice I’ve embraced is to be visible and use your privilege to advocate for positive change.
- There are no real failures only opportunities to learn, grow and improve.
This engineer created energy from wastewater
[edit]An engineer turned wastewater into a power source
- I’ve seen first hand the adverse effects of oil spillage.
- That’s really what worried me, and that led me to start looking into alternative forms of energy.
- I’m one of those people that if there’s a problem, I try to fix it.
- If I can’t fix it, I don’t talk about it.
- We are a very strong economy in the Asia region, so we can quickly become the alternative energy giant if we embrace this.
- When I saw those statistics, I thought that it would have been a state of emergency.
- Considering the current STEM skills shortage.
- What was more interesting was that 56 per cent of university qualified females in STEM in Australia are Australian women born overseas.
- They experienced over four times higher unemployment.
- I thought that was a fundamental problem.”
External links
[edit]VU hosts career fair to champion women of colour in STEM
