Statement made on 12 March 2009 by Senator Mobina Jaffer
Hon. Mobina S.B. Jaffer:
Honourable senators, yesterday the Leader of the Government in the Senate said that women at the graduate studies level have received equality and there was equal funding for women at the graduate level. She further stated that there was no imbalance and it is not an issue anymore. I would say this is not the case. This is not the story the statistics tell us. Only 40 per cent of women are in business fields. Women have not reached equality in business fields of study and the government has targeted the bulk of new graduate funding to male-dominated business fields ensuring that female students do not receive their share.
I ask the Leader of the Government in the Senate personally, as someone who I know has promoted women all her life, will she be instrumental in fixing this imbalance by targeting a percentage of this new funding specifically to women who dominate in humanities and science so they can get better access to funding to promote their careers?
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