If we are serious about productivity, innovation and long-term economic resilience, we cannot afford to keep losing women from STEM occupations and leadership pipelines. We cannot afford to overlook experience. And we cannot afford decision-making structures that draw from only part of the population.

Australia doesn’t have a pipeline problem when it comes to girls in STEM. It has a retention problem for women.

At school, the story is encouraging. Girls are engaged, capable and increasingly well represented in science subjects. But by the time careers take shape, that momentum has collapsed.

According to the Federal Government’s STEM Equity Monitor, women make up just 27 per cent of Australia’s STEM workforce. Among those with STEM qualifications, only 15 per cent are working in STEM roles. At the most senior levels, the gap widens further, with women holding just 12 per cent of CEO roles across STEM industries.

This is not a question of capability. It is a system that steadily filters women out.

We invest heavily in educating women – through schools, universities and publicly funded research institutions – only to lose them at the point where their experience becomes most valuable. It is not just inequitable. It is economically irrational.

The reasons are not new, but they remain unresolved. Women in STEM face persistent pay gaps, limited career progression and workplace cultures that make long-term participation difficult. Structural........

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