SYDNEY, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Many young Australian women in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields are leaving their professions because of gender pay gaps, lack of career prospects and other differences, according to the latest findings from a major industry report.
One-third of female engineers aged between 25 and 35 alone intend to leave their jobs in the next five years, according to the 2018 STEM Professions Survey Report released on Sunday.
Lower salaries for women were still considerable at companies that had gender equality policies in place while female employees took up significantly less senior and management positions compared to their male counterparts, the survey of nearly 2,000 workers in the STEM fields found.
Sexual harassment, stereotyping of STEM roles being better suited for men and career disruption in the form of maternity leave were also cited as challenges.
"Outdated attitudes to women taking maternity leave and working part time, often to juggle caring responsibilities, is still stopping us from getting a more equal representation of women in those senior jobs," local media cited employees association Professionals Australia CEO Chris Walton as saying.
Recommendations in the report to plug the gaps included better strategic and management accountability for diversity and anti-discrimination policies, greater supervision of gender equality data and part-time options for senior management.
