When Professor Veena Sahajwalla was a university student in Mumbai she was the only woman in her engineering class and was automatically directed towards the office when she tried to apply for a part-time job at a factory.
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Years later she has carved out a successful career as a researcher, academic and inventor of "green steel", reusing rubber tyres.
But as a woman in the science field, the Australian Research Council laureate fellow still remains in the minority and it's something she wants to change with the launch of Science 50:50, a campaign to inspire more women to pursue careers in science.
"No one would openly say you can't do this or do that, but in a way those little stereotypes would always come into play," she said.
"There was always some degree of annoyance, but you push on and you find a way to get into the factory floor and ask a million questions."
The campaign's launch in Canberra, at the National Youth Science Forum women in science dinner on Wednesday, coincided with an overhaul to the ARC's eligibility requirements for early career researcher grants to help carers of children.
Previously candidates had to be within five years of receiving their PhD, but researchers can apply to have the window extended for up to four years if they have two dependent child, or two years for one child.
ARC chief executive officer Aidan Byrne said the same challenge was being faced across the world and the new requirements recognised the extra challenges carers faced in their academic careers, levelling the playing field.
"There are usually equal numbers in the undergraduate space and even the PHD space … but data shows that beyond that the numbers [of women] at a more senior academic level falls off," he said.
"It should be 50:50 but it's more like 75 per cent men 25 per cent women."
While having equal numbers of men and women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields is the ultimate aim of Science 50:50, Professor Sahajwalla said she wanted the campaign, as part of her laureate fellowship, to expose more girls and women to the opportunities the fields offered.
"People already in the space can play an important role by talking about our own life experiences," she said.
"If there are research organisations and industries willing to take girls on board for internships or other work experiences that's a real positive.
"Once you open up the doors, girls can see for themselves what they like doing.
"There are no limits to our imagination, you can effectively shape the future and do what you want to do and not put barriers in your own mind."
Professor Byrne said the ARC sought to assess the opportunities and evaluate the performance of each researcher for all its grants, taking into account each individual's challenges and career interruptions.
"It's about not just having a blanket assessment based on the numbers of things you've published," he said.
