For STEM journalist and broadcaster Rae Johnston, creating truly inclusive spaces for underrepresented groups is an ongoing battle – and one that requires all hands on deck. 

Rae Johnston’s pathway into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) was an unconventional one. Her career as a multi-award-winning STEM journalist began when she was working as an actor and was offered the chance to present a TV show about gaming.

“I’d been playing video games since I could sit on my Mum’s knee,” she said. “But I just didn’t consider that there would be any kind of career in that field.”

Since then, Johnston has become a leading commentator on gaming, technology, science and pop culture, making regular appearances across SBS, ABC and Network Ten. She has also been the editor of multiple publications including Junkee and Gizmodo Australia, and currently serves as Governor in Council for Swinburne University of Technology.

When she became the first female editor of Gizmodo, Johnston was empowered to use the platform to give a voice to underrepresented groups in the industry.

“I had the opportunity to make decisions about who was being highlighted, and I was able to find diverse voices within the groups I wanted to interview and help create visible role models,” she says.

“I did a whole series on women working in the games industry, which later expanded to other underrepresented people in the industry. I was also involved in a mentorship program that was aimed at elevating entry-level people from diverse [backgrounds] by showing them ways into the industry – because often those pathways aren’t obvious.”

As part of her work for NITV at SBS, Johnston has also seized opportunities to amplify Indigenous voices in STEM and advocate for the application of traditional knowledge to western systems of science and technology. As a proud Wiradjuri woman born and raised on Dharug and Gundungurra country in Western Sydney, Johnston has long been a champion of Indigenous inclusion initiatives and inclusive knowledge-sharing at work.

Throughout her decade-long career in STEM journalism, Johnston has observed a good deal of progress when it comes to advancing diversity and inclusion in the industry. D&I training for leaders has become commonplace, and creating inclusive work environments is higher on HR’s agenda than ever before. However, she anticipates that it will be some time before these relatively new initiatives enact real and lasting change.

“When you’re talking about changing the culture of entire industries, it is always going to be slow-moving,” she says. “And individually, we can only really focus on making sure that we’re all doing our bit to make sure that people are feeling supported, welcomed and encouraged within their workplaces.”

Ahead of hosting AHRI’s Canberra and Queensland International Women’s Day breakfasts, Johnston spoke with HRM about how leaders can create these safe, inclusive spaces for vulnerable groups while still striving for long-term change.

Overcoming obstacles to gender equity in STEM

When it comes to making progress with gender diversity and pay equity, the STEM field is somewhat lagging behind.

According to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’s State of STEM Gender Equity in 2022, women earned 18 per cent less than men across all STEM industries last year. The same report showed that women made up just 27 per cent of the workforce across all STEM industries in 2022, a one percentage point drop from 2020.

According to Johnston, part of the reason why women are so underrepresented in the STEM workforce, particularly in senior roles, is the fact that many women are driven to leave the industry before they can progress to leadership.

“There have been focused, sustained and horrific harassment campaigns aimed towards women, particularly in the games industry, but in all areas of STEM online, which is where a lot of people need to promote their work or network or be discovered,” she says.

“It’s not as simple as just closing your Twitter account or turning the computer off. These are places that we need to exist in order to further our careers, and those pathways are being shut off.”

Research shows that attrition for women in STEM is a pressing issue; a study conducted by Professionals Australia found that 34 per cent of nearly 1000 female STEM professionals surveyed said they expected to leave their profession within five years. 

One respondent said: “I have given up fighting the good fight and as a result in the next three years I will be leaving the engineering profession permanently.”

“If [D&I] is established as a guiding star of your organisation, then it will feel a lot more authentic. And people will feel better about joining the organisation and being advocates for it as well.” – Rae Johnston

Johnston points out that women entering STEM are generally offered a lot of support as they prepare to take on their role, but that these programs might not be giving them an accurate picture of what life on the job will look like.

“When we’re mentoring young people who want to get into these industries, it’s all focused on encouragement and providing those safe places, which is fantastic and necessary, but then they’re being put into positions in workplaces where they might not have that support or those spaces,” she says.

What’s more, says Johnston, if people from diverse backgrounds speak up about a D&I issue, they are often lumped with being the person who has to address it.

“As an underrepresented person, they’re already at higher risk of harassment, and they’re dealing with issues outside of the workplace as well,” she says.

“And then they’re coming into organisations and having to lead the diversity initiatives on top of the work that they’re already doing. That’s [a lot of] pressure.”

Read HRM’s article on addressing cultural load.

She says that while inclusive workplace initiatives should always consult the people they are working to include, employees should not be pressured into being the face of the operation. Collaboration on these initiatives from HR, leadership and underrepresented people is crucial to driving progress.

Holding leaders accountable

Johnson explains a number of misconceptions about working in STEM that can discourage women from entering the field in the first place. One example is the widespread perception that STEM is a ‘boys’ club’, or that in order to succeed you need to be an academic genius in one specific field.

Johnston points to her own career as an example of how a pathway into STEM does not need to be linear, and that STEM professionals do not need to lock themselves into one area of specialisation. Since entering the industry via gaming, she has branched out to coverage of all things technology, science and pop culture, and has embraced every chance to diversify her career.

In order to demonstrate to underrepresented groups that these pathways are inclusive and accessible to them, HR should take responsibility for the way the company communicates its values via mediums such as job listings.

“HR is often one of the first ways that you’re introduced to a company. And often the wording used in job listings or places where the company has been promoted is full of jargon. It’s really important to make sure what you’re saying is inclusive and that it is accessible to a lot of people,” she says.

According to Johnson, one way organisations can incentivise leaders and managers to take action to address underlying issues of inequity is by tying executive bonuses to the retention of diverse staff. While measuring recruitment of diverse staff is valuable, these metrics have no regard to whether the staff are able to thrive and stay in their roles.

“Having bonuses tied to retention of diverse staff would probably take away some of the grunt work of those diversity programs. Let underrepresented people dictate what needs to happen within them because, obviously, we’re best-placed to know what we need, but [motivating] everyone to pitch in and help would be really beneficial,” she says.

For these strategies to achieve their full potential, Johnston says that the values behind them need to be supported and embodied by the entire organisation – and that must start with leaders.

“When it comes from the top, it means so much more. It reflects a core value of the organisation as opposed to something that they’ve had to retrofit to keep people happy, or to appear to be ticking boxes. 

“If [D&I] is established as a guiding star of your organisation, then it will feel a lot more authentic. And people will feel better about joining the organisation and being advocates for it as well.”

Want to hear more from Rae? Secure your spot at AHRI’s Canberra and Queensland IWD breakfast event today.