性别歧视发生在社会的各个角落,包括看似公平的澳洲大学校园

据澳洲9号台新闻网报道，悉尼大学（University of Sydney）兽医学院一项新的奖学金项目给予男学生优先权，这使该学院的女学生感到愤怒。

据悉，该校一项名为Professor Marsh Edwards AO的奖学金有近3万澳元，主要针对的是兽医学院的学生。获得该项奖学金的学生在4年就读期间，每年可得到6750澳元。

但校方在一份声明中表示，奖学金人选会优先考虑来自城区和偏远地区、对大型动物医疗有兴趣，以及愿意到乡村兽医诊所工作的男性申请者。

一位不愿透露姓名的兽医学院女学生向媒体表示，她对于这项规定感到很惊讶，起初还以为是校方的声明出现笔误。她认为，校方并没有思考STEM学科女性学生较少的原因，阻碍男性进入兽医科学领域学习的因素和阻碍女性进入其它学术领域的因素是不一样的。

另一名女学生则表示，她看到奖学金申请要求时很震惊。她觉得校方可能更关注钱的问题，而不是她也有平等权利争取奖学金。

但校方则反驳了奖学金措施存在性别歧视的说法，并指出，兽医学院的学生性别失衡，女性占大多数。今年毕业进入兽医学领域的学生预计超过90%为女性，过去几年均呈现这样的趋势，而且到乡村就业的人越来越少。奖学金优先考虑男生是为了解决现在男学生较少的状况。

Sydney University defends new

scholarship that favours men as

‘consistent with diversity’

The University of Sydney is standing by a new $27,000 vet science scholarship that favours men after students protested that it constitutes unacceptable sexism.

Some vet science students were infuriated when they received notification last week of the Professor Marsh Edwards AO Scholarship, offered to postgraduate veterinary medicine students for the first time in 2017.

The scholarship information says that “preference will be given to applicants who are: from rural or regional areas, male, interested in large animal practice … [and] an Australian citizen”.

The women’s officer on the Students’ Representative Council at the university, Imogen Grant, said female vet students were “horrified”.

A female Doctor of Veterinary Medicine student, who asked not to be named, said: “I was really surprised. I really thought that it was a mistake – some sort of clerical error. Sexism exists in our society but I thought the uni held itself to a higher standard.”

Gender balance in vet science as a profession has reversed in the past 20 years from male to female-dominated, but the student said this did not justify the scholarship’s terms.

“Female graduates of vet school are still paid less, from day one,” she said. “Professor Edwards was a lovely man who did a lot of fabulous work. This is not about hurting his reputation.

“I just think it shows very little thought into the causative agents of under-representation of women in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths]. The barriers that prevent men from entering vet science are not the same barriers that prevent women from entering every single other academic area.”

Ms Grant conceded there were women-only and indigenous-only scholarships offered at the university, “but what distinguishes those scholarships is they are in place to procure benefits for people who face structural barriers to receiving an education”.

“To have male-only scholarships is to continue male privilege within society,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the university said it was “confident” the scholarship complied with discrimination laws.

“The inclusion of males as one of a number of preferences by the donor is to address the current under-representation of males in the student cohort,” she said.

“As such, it is consistent with the university’s support of actions to address diversity and the under-representation of males or females in certain disciplines or professions.”

She said women were still eligible to apply, and that academic excellence would be “prioritised”.

“Of this year’s graduate entry for the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students, over 90 per cent of the intake is expected to be female. This is a trend seen over the past five years along with an increasing trend away from rural practice.”

The federal government’s latest Job Outlook data reports that of employed vets, 19 per cent are male (full time) and 3 per cent (part time) compared with females 48 per cent (full time) and 30 per cent (part time).

A 2013 report by the Australian Veterinary Association noted the dramatic gender shift in vet science professionals since the 1980s.