1. SPEAKER: Dr Jenn de Vries
TOPIC: ‘Some things change, some stay the same’ Gender change processes in a STEM Faculty
TIME: :00pm-5:30pm, Wednesday 14 August 2013
VENUE: WF Light refreshments will be served following the seminar in the level 8 lounge area Please RSVP to Serena Gent by Monday 12 August.
In this presentation Jen uses Joan Acker’s four gendering processes (personal, interpersonal, cultural and structural) to re-examine recently completed research exploring the position of academic women, in a STEM Faculty (science, technology, engineering, maths) within a research-intensive university. Using Acker’s framework throws new light on the multiplicity of processes contributing to gender equality inertia. Rather than examine women’s careers as processes of cumulative disadvantage, this approach provides a more systemic overview and prompts different insights into potential interventions to create change. The role of local research and what it can contribute more broadly to understanding gendering practices in the workplace is examined. Jen’s research report Optimising Faculty Performance: Maximising the potential of academic women is available at
SPEAKER: Dr Jenn de Vries
Dr Jennifer de Vries is an independent researcher and development consultant, based in Perth, Western Australia. She is a gender and organisational change scholar, with a passionate commitment to contributing to both scholarship and practice. She has recently completed two research commissions; firstly, the publication Mentoring for Change which is designed as a scholarly resource to help build sector wide capacity in the delivery of mentoring programs, and secondly, the research she will be discussing in this seminar. Jen primarily works with universities and research institutes. In addition to her work in Australia she has been enthusiastically received in Europe where she continues to contribute to academic conferences, and has delivered keynote addresses, master-classes and workshops in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Jen recently completed a GEXcel (Centre of Gender Excellence) Postdoctoral Fellowship with the University of Orebro, Sweden. Further details of Jen’s work and publications are available at