The Victoria University professor watched on as the only woman on a panel of four men was ignored.

No one asked her questions. And when she opened her mouth to speak, she was drowned out by male voices.

"There is a boys' club, and a boys' network, and the women are never privileged to that," Professor Blaise said.

The scene sparked a discussion between Professor Blaise, RMIT academic Dr Emily Gray and the QUT's Dr Linda Knight and Feminist Educators Against Sexism was born.

Armed with plastic whistles "for when no one is paying attention", the group has been staging interventions at blokey university events since 2015.

It sends women into panel events to ask female academics questions about their research.

It has also handed out perfume to "cover the stench of sexism" and fishing nets with tags that read "for catching those elusive opportunities".

The group is responding to what it describes as "endemic sexism" in higher education.

Only 25 per cent of professors and one third of vice-chancellor in Australian universities are women.

This is despite women making up almost 60 per cent of domestic enrolments.

Dr Gray said male colleagues have commented on her appearance, particularly her weight.

"You shouldn't be commenting on women's bodies at work," she said.

She's also fallen victim to "mansplaining", with male colleagues telling her what to read (it's often his work) and explaining her research topic.

Sexism also rears its ugly head in citations, according to Dr Gray.

In an effort to stop citations being dominated by men, the group has set up a "cite club" where women share references and cite each other.

"One of the reason women get stuck is because they are not getting cited enough; they are not showing the impact that they make," Professor Blaise said.

The group has received funding from the Australian Association for Research in Education. In June the Gender and Education Association will fund its performance art interventions at a conference in London.

It has also devised a game of 'bingo' where conference attendees mark off squares if a senior scholar has flirted with them or a man has commented on their hair or clothes. They cross out squares if they've had more positive experiences, including being asked for a copy of their paper, or hear a female philosopher being cited.

"This isn't about shaming and blaming," Professor Blaise said. "We use humour to make people pause, think about sexism, and do things differently."

National Tertiary Education Union national president Jeannie Rea said the rise of casual contracts at universities had eroded career opportunities.

She said women were still being discriminated against because they had children, or were of child-bearing age.

"If the woman has been off having kids, and there is a bloke who is the same age but has done more stuff, they will go with him [because] when they look at someone's career they can see there are years where there wasn't much research produced." she said.

"That is a sexist attitude."

Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said "significant inroads" had been made towards gender equality but there was more to do. She said the Universities Australia Executive Women group, which supports and mentors executive women in universities, and the Science in Australia Gender Equity initiative were working to increase women in senior roles.

"Women now make up a majority of university students, almost one third of university Vice-Chancellors and a majority of chairs on university academic boards," she said.

"But as you go up the ranks of academic staff, fewer women than men are in senior roles."