Women@CA Breakfast

Women@CA Breakfast

On the Sunday morning of the Chiropractic Australia annual conference, Dr Katie de Luca opened the inaugural Women@CA – supporting women in chiropractic research networking breakfast. Katie’s purpose is to bring a together a community of like-minded researchers in a vision to decrease gender inequity in academia. She reported that whilst more than half of PhDs are awarded to females, there are fewer women holding senior scientific academic positions than men. When this happens, not only is trained scientific expertise lost but also female leaders, representation on boards, positions on organising committees, and women available for HDR supervision. Acknowledging the work of Male Champions of Change, Katie emphasized that we need men in powerful positions to step up beside women in building a gender equal academic world. After this thought-provoking opening, Katie then invited two keynote speakers to give their perspectives of the current landscape for women in academia.

Women@CA Convenor Dr Katie de Luca

Dr Carolyn Ee is a strong and inspirational woman with an incredible story. In her presentation “If not me then who?” she discussed her journey as a clinician, researcher, mother, and reluctant leader. She made an important point when she said, “Maybe there isn’t going to be a right time.” In other words, sometimes you just have to give a career in research a shot. For her there were struggles in balancing the raising of her children with her research commitments. She pointed out the importance of supportive supervisors and flexible working arrangements. She reiterated that to succeed, you should keep true to your values and define your academic mission. Reflectively, she assessed life’s seasons, and to take the time you need when you need, take time with your family and take time with your research.

Carolyn also shared her experience on setting boundaries as a woman in academia and emphasised that it was important that researchers “don’t forget who you are”. In excellent advice to many people in the crowd, she shared her strategies of academic survival that included banishing unhealthy perfectionism, leaning in to new and exciting opportunities, and that sometimes you need to step up and take leadership on professional matters particularly when colleagues see you as the expert. Carolyn intimately shared her ways to keep sane, including teamwork and collaboration, humour, taking breaks, outsourcing, psychological wellbeing, and physical exercise. “Some of these may work for you and some may not, but you need to find what works for you.” Overall it was a fabulous story from Carolyn, a GP, PhD and leader of the Jacka Foundation Integrative Medicine program at NICM Health Research Institute.

Special guest speaker Dr Carolyn Ee from NICM Health Research Institute

Dr Ee was followed by Amber Beynon, a PhD student at Murdoch University and recipient of a CA Research Foundation PhD Scholarship. Amber was candid in sharing that whilst she is supported by a team of supervisors and colleagues at work, the vast majority are men. She bravely discussed her experiences as an isolated, young female researcher, but one with strong female role models including one of her supervisors, female researchers, and other PhD students.

Murdoch University PhD student Dr Amber Beynon

Currently more than half of the chiropractic profession are women so it is appropriate that representation in both academia and leadership positions should reflect this change in the demographics within our profession and one of the aims of Women@CA is to raise awareness of the imbalance that exists. In order to stay relevant, professional organisations are urged to consider gender balance across a range of positions.

The event also provided a networking opportunity for the more than 40 people who attended. The organisers would like to thank Chiropractic Australia for their support and also Foot Levelers for their generous sponsorship and also to Maria Bernard-Giglio who made a personal donation in support of the event. We look forward to building strong supportive relationships to support women in chiropractic research into the future. For more information, please contact Dr. Katie de Luca at katie. deluca@mq.edu.au