The number of women in highly technical jobs has grown by just two per cent in five years and greater interventions are needed if Australia is to meet its artificial intelligence ambitions, a study has found.
Despite initiatives to boost female participation in advanced science, technology, engineering and mathematics roles, only one in five is held by a woman in Australia – fewer than in countries including the US, India and Sweden.
The Technology Council of Australia and Commonwealth Bank will release the findings at the National Tech Summit in Sydney on Tuesday in a report that calls for targeted programs to boost diversity in the industry.
It comes after the federal government announced a target to fill 1.2 million technology jobs in Australia by 2030, and warnings that another 600,000 workers are needed to meet that goal.
The study, called Women in Highly Technical Occupations: The Leaky Pipeline, analysed figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Engineers Australia, Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency, and government departments.
It found women fill just 20 per cent of jobs in technical fields such as software engineering, AI research, machine learning, chemistry, mathematics and physics in Australia, which is lower than the rate in other nations such as Sweden (35 per cent), Denmark (35 per cent) and India (30 per cent).
Female participation in Australia's tech industry also falls to 16 per cent after the age of 40, the study found, and had grown by only two per cent in the past five years.
In addition to identifying the gap in female participation, Tech Council research head Ilana Feain said the study probed specific points in which women or girls veered away from STEM subjects or careers.
"The goal of the research was to identify where in the pipeline we're losing girls and women," she said.
"Phase two (will be) now we know where the leaks are, let's work out how to fix them."
Three pivotal risk periods for women and girls were identified in the study, including two in high school – the first around subject selection in grade 10, and the second when choosing further study options in years 11 and 12.
A third tipping point occurred in mid-career, the study found, when women left technology roles at twice the rate of men after suffering higher rates of harassment, a lack of mentors, and difficulties returning to work after having children.
If these specific points were addressed, Tech Council diversity in tech leader Adair Robins said, Australia could significantly boost female participation from 5800 to more than 17,500 in tech jobs.
"If we're able to convert girls and women at the same rate we convert boys and men (to study STEM), we should be able to triple the number of women through each cohort of a pipeline," she told AAP.
Addressing the risk periods would require work from both the industry and governments, Ms Robins said, but would be critical if Australia planned to make AI a national priority.
"We're obviously at a very critical moment with AI so it's something that's going to take a co-ordinated effort," she said.
"If Australia wants to compete on the world stage, we really need a lot more people involved and that means re-skilling more women, bringing more women into the industry but also keeping the amazing talent that we have."