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I was honoured recently to be the first male guest speaker at the University's annual celebration of International Women's Day. The perennial issue for women in universities such as ours is the imbalance in senior staff, particularly among the academic staff.

Women make up 44 per cent of academic staff in Australian universities and just 41 per cent at UWA. But the number drops dramatically as seniority is achieved. Just 28 per cent of senior academics in the country's higher education institutions are women and at UWA, it is only 26 per cent.

We all know the problem. We've all talked about the problem. We need to act to solve the problem.

I have set in place some new rules that, from the beginning of next  semester, every academic selection committee must be at least 40 per cent female and 40 per cent male. Every short list for an academic position must have at least one female and one male on it.

They are just two small decisions, but I hope they will get the ball rolling. I welcome any suggestions you may have to help change the systemic culture that sees such inequity among academic staff.

You can see my full speech here .