In an era of strategic competition, why do women continue to be under-represented in tech sectors? How can countries at the cutting edge of technology benefit from an enhanced female workforce and what are some of the region’s best practices to include women in STEM?

Considering the current global tech race, where nations compete for investment, knowledge and innovation, technological skills are both a competitive advantage and a strong geopolitical asset. Often, supply can’t meet demand, as is the case with semiconductor chips and healthcare workforce shortage crisis. Addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM education and career and increasing the talent pool is therefore crucial to Asia’s ability to reach its full economic potential.

Join Liyana Fauzi, Lead Product Manager of GovTech, Jung Sun Kim, President of the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (INWES) and Professor at Dongseo University, and Kylie Walker, CEO of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, for a discussion on the educational, organisational, and cultural inequalities of women in STEM and how to address them.

Date: Tuesday 30 November 2021
Time: 3 – 4 p.m. AEDT

Venue: Zoom Webinar

Please note this event will run as a webcast only. Registration is essential. For any enquiries, please contact [email protected]

Asia Society Australia is proud to support inTouch's inSpire initiative with our Disruptive Asia Women and Girls events. Established in 2018, inTouch’s inSpire initiative is a critical and unique program that provides support to women from migrant and refugee backgrounds who are recovering from family violence. The team at inSpire focuses on what happens next - how we can support a woman to build a life she chooses, to connect with others safely and meaningfully - to take her future into her own hands.

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About our Speakers 

Liyana Fauzi, Lead Product Manager, GovTech

Liyana is currently a Lead Product Manager at GovTech overseeing products as part of the Singapore Government Tech Stack and Government on Commercial Cloud. She is on a mission to help public agencies build a collaborative engineering culture and unlock the benefits of commercial cloud.

Liyana received a GovTech post-graduate scholarship to pursue a Technology MBA from NYU Stern, specialising in product management, strategy and operations, and graduated in May 2020. This adds to her rich experience covering government tech initiatives such as data.gov.sg and Singapore’s Digital Government Blueprint.

Liyana is an active champion for diversity & inclusion (D&I) at the workplace and in her personal capacity. She’s recently assumed the role of Vice-Chairperson of GovTech’s first employee resource group, Women in (Gov)Tech, which seeks to drive greater understanding of D&I and how to be an ally to drive for greater inclusivity in tech, so that more women can achieve greater success in their tech careers while balancing all other aspects of their lives.

Liyana also volunteers with The Codette Project, an initiative to enable more minority/Muslim women gain success in technology. One of her proudest moments in The Codette Project was carrying out Singapore’s first women-only hackathon, which brought together various women from all walks of life to solve common problems with technology. Today, she is the lead for a mentoring and funding programme called Codette Cares, to support women affected by the pandemic.

Liyana firmly believes that women should not be afraid to ask for help or opportunities that will enable them to move ahead. Through her experience and observations, the strength of a supportive community knows no bounds.

Jung Sun Kim, Executive Vice President; Professor, Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Dongseo University; President, International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (INWES)

Jung Sun Kim is currently the Executive Vice President of Dongseo University and full Professor at the Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science. She has served as Dean of the Office of Human Resources and Evaluation Office (2015-2016), Dean of Minseok College of Liberal Education (2017-2018), Dean of Graduate School (2021), and Chair of the Division of Health Sciences (2008-2013). She has been a member of the Association of Korean Woman Scientists and Engineers (KWSE) since 2003, serving as Board member (2014-2017), Vice President in charge of International Cooperation (2018-2019), and Branch President of the Busan, Ulsan, Gyeongnam branch (2014-2015).

She has served as member of various national and regional committees which include the Committee for Advancement of Science and Technology of the Busan Metropolitan City Government (2015-2019) and the National Science and Technology Council Expert Committee on Life Science and Welfare (2015-2016). She has been elected to the board of the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (INWES) three times (2011, 2017, 2020) and has served as Secretary General (2011-2014) and Vice President Conferences (2017-2020). She is the current President (2021-2023) of INWES.

Kylie Walker, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering

Kylie is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, where she works with expert Fellows to lead crucial national conversations and strategy towards a thriving, healthy and connected Australia supported by technology. She specialises in connecting technologists, engineers and scientists with governments, business, media and society – skills built over many years in senior federal communication and advocacy roles in the science, technology and health sectors.

As the immediate past CEO of Science & Technology Australia, Kylie led campaigns to increase investment in Australian research and development, and created the acclaimed Superstars of STEM program, championing Australian women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Kylie is also a visiting Fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. She was Chair of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO and in 2019, she was named in the 100 Women of Influence list by the Australian Financial Review, for her work on improving equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM.

Lena Duchene, Program Manager, Asia Society Australia (Moderator)

Lena Duchene joined Asia Society Australia in January 2020. As program manager, she drives Executive Briefings, the organisation’s curated events presented by diplomats and business leaders from the region, and supports the work of the Asia Society Policy Institute in Australia. Since 2021, Lena also leads the annual Asia Briefing LIVE Forum and this year’s edition of Disruptive Asia, focused on women and girls.

Disruptive Asia is a thought-leadership project by Asia Society Australia launched in 2017. It presents – through long-form essays – new perspectives and policy recommendations on how Asia’s rise is impacting Australia’s foreign policy, economy and society and how Australia should respond. Disruptive Asia deliberately looks at both external aspects of Australia’s relationship with Asia (foreign policy, business connectivity, international education) and their domestic implications and manifestations (community relations, leadership diversity, education settings and capabilities). This year’s edition, Disruptive Asia Volume 5 – Women and Girls Special Edition sets out to examine how women and girls are changing the economic, social, political and business dynamics across Asia, and how they are being impacted by these changes.

 Asia Society Australia acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government.