Draft:WISENET

WISENET (Women in Science Enquiry Network), was a volunteer network for women scientists in Australia established in 1984. It was created from the Women's Studies forum at the 1984 conference of the Australian & New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) in Canberra. The network was formed with the goal of giving women a fairer share in the responsibilities and benefits of science and technological change. Member concerns included discrimination in academic and scientific employment.

From their inception, the network included an education group which hosted talks in Canberra. They established a science shop to link scientific expertise with community groups, with projects on recycling polystyrene and collating information on repetitive strain injury.

In 1989, WISENET ran a program of speakers about careers for women in science and technology. It toured in Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and Canberra (possibly South Australia).

In 1992, activities included:

In 1997, WISENET received a project grant to interest secondary school students in science and technology careers. This included publication of the Science Futures magazine, distributed to schools during Science Week in 1998. The magazine featured career profiles of young people in the science and technology space.
 * lobbying regarding budget cuts and advocating for increased funding to medical research as an area of employment for women,
 * joining two coalitions of women's groups sponsored by the National Foundation for Australian Women. These were Women into Politics and CAPOW (Coalition of Australian Participating Organisations of Women), and
 * updating the display about women in science and technology and Australia, shown at the Australian Festival of Science.