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For the first time, the University's celebration of International Women's Day had a man as guest speaker.The Vice-Chancellor, Paul Johnson , was introduced by Chief Operating Officer Gaye McMath at the University Club as "our champion of change".

The theme of this year's IWD was Inspiring Change and Professor Johnson announced a decision he had made that would go a little way towards implementing change at UWA to address the perennial issue of under-representation of women, especially in senior academic roles.

"In my position, I have a lot of responsibilities but I don't get to make a lot of decisions," Professor Johnson said during his address.

"But we all know the problem of under-representation of women. We now need to do something about it. And one small decision I have made is that, from the beginning of next semester, every academic selection panel must have at least 40 per cent female members and 40 per cent male members.

"And every short list for an academic position must have at least one female and one male on it.

"If these conditions are not met, the process will not proceed.

"They are two small decision but they send the message that we must act and not just talk," he said.

Professor Johnson also recommended that research career development after a break should not be solely the responsibility of the academic.

He was referring to female academics who so often break their careers to care for family.

"There is much we can do to support re-entry, including group research projects, a commitment by the working group and support from research team leaders.  We have to address the issue of group culture."

He welcomed suggestions from anybody at UWA on making systemic change.

The Vice-Chancellor said that, as an economist, he could see the economic value of retaining female academics and developing their careers, as much as the moral values associated with gender equity.

"We recruit about the same number of men and women to junior positions.  They are equally competent and capable," he said.

"But when we lose women (to caring roles), it is a huge loss of talent, and particularly damaging for UWA.  We are a huge powerful research institute in a city with a tiny population and a very long way (geographically) from any other similar institution. So we have to work so much harder and we can't afford to waste our talent."

He finished in economist mode: "I want maximum return from all employees and we are not getting it when women's careers don't progress."

About 200 women and a handful of men listened to the Vice-Chancellor address, then shared afternoon tea.

Men are always in the minority at IWD events, so perhaps it was not surprising that three Deans, Winthrop Professors Phil Dolan (Business School), Ian Puddey (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences) and Tony O'Donnell (Science) all sat together ... seeking safety in numbers?

If you missed the event, you can watch it here .