Illawarra school girls urged to consider STEM career at BlueScope forum

Four panelists led the discussion on March 12, recounting personal anecdotes and hardships for the student audience to draw inspiration from.

Lauren Blasi, an automation engineer at BlueScope and ex-student of St Mary Star of the Sea College, works in the male-dominated field "on the tools, in the heat and the dirt".

She spoke about her experience building a career in engineering.

"I'm the only female in my immediate team but there are other females across different areas," Ms Blasi said.

According to the government's Workplace Gender Equality Agency, BlueScope has gender pay gap of 19.4 per cent in favour of men, and overall, only 24 per cent of its workforce are women.

There are slightly more women in the company's lower paid roles (34 per cent) and less in the highest paid roles (17 per cent).

When the pay gap data was released last month, BlueScope said accelerating the representation of women across all levels of the business was a top priority.

"As a manufacturer with a historically male dominated workforce, increasing the representation of women in our workforce has been a focus for many years," the company said.

"Representation of women in our Australian business has grown from 13.5 per cent in 2017 to 24 per cent in 2023. In our operational sites, 1 in 5 operator roles are now held by women, a remarkable shift from 3 per cent in 2017."

Even with this progress, the company acknowledged it had "more work to do to" to address the gender pay gap.

Ms Blasi credited her all-girl high school environment for showing it was possible to have a physics class full of girls and was eager to encourage girls and young women with an interest in STEM.

"It's important for there to be opportunities [like this seminar] where there are examples of inspiring people," Ms Blasi said.

Year 12 students from Corpus Christi Catholic High School, Olivia Douglas and Ava Gorman said the seminar had helped them feel supported by their community take on male-dominated careers.

"I'm interested in chemistry and research," Ms Douglas said. "So, a lot of males."

Both students highlighted the importance of women in the workforce, and said they thought that believing in themselves and women peers would change the future of STEM industries.

"It's inspiring to see male-dominated industries progress," Ms Gorman said.

BlueScope has been recognised as an Inclusive Employer by the Diversity Council of Australia (DCA) and holds the International Women's Day student seminar each year.