[david.garrett84]

Quote:

One of Australia's largest medical research institutes has introduced a scheme aimed at boosting its number of female scientists.

QIMR Berghofer, based in Brisbane, is offering female scientists with at least one child below high-school age an annual lump sum payment of $10,000.

The institute has also reserved a number of places at a nearby childcare centre for its staff, established a breastfeeding room, and dedicated carparks for women in their final term of pregnancy.

QIMR Berghofer director and CEO Professor Frank Gannon said the challenges facing women in the world of science were particularly intense.

He said the new initiative would hopefully help women rise to the top of their field and stay there.

"I think that we have to have women in the workforce to the same degree as there are men and there is real statistical evidence that shows that this is not happening at the right level worldwide," he said.

"Not just talking about it but doing things means that when somebody is wondering about what should they do next in terms of family, at least there's some support there and more than that there's a culture of support."

Women account for 36 per cent of scientific leadership roles at QIMR Berghofer.

Two of the institute's nine senior scientists are female.

QIMR Berghofer hopes the new scheme will lead to an increase in those figures.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-17/fe...ob/8061410

Where the fuck can I start with this lunacy? Bear in mind that in Australia the maternity leave on offer, government-funded, is six months of your salary if your salary is up to $75,000 per year. Something like that.

This salary data I found on a third-party website gives an indication of how these jobs at QIMR Berghofer are hardly the sort you will read about in Charles Dickens novels:

Quote:

How much does QIMR Berghofer in Australia pay?
The average QIMR Berghofer salary ranges from approximately $66,573 [US$48,618.26] per year for Interim Health and Safety Advisor to $111,762 [US$81,619.79] per year for Regulatory Affairs Manager.

https://au.indeed.com/cmp/Qimr-Berghofer/salaries

A number of positions at this place would be higher - the figures I cite are only based on recent advertisements, so not all positions are covered.

If you can't raise kids with that amount of money (one person's salary in what are usually two-parent homes or one-parent homes plus child support), you shouldn't have fucking kids.

Women already get the majority of public health expenditure, even when childbirth and related care is excluded. We've had ROK authors report on how many more women do crap all for the tax base, too.

Madness.