Women, class and oppression (original) (raw)

She works hard for the money: Australian women and the gender divide

2009

Abstract The report focuses on women today and how their social and economic status has changed and evolved over time, and what differences can be seen between them and their male counterparts. The gender divide in Australia has narrowed over the past 20 years but ...

Gender, employment benefits and industrial relations in Australia

While much of the discussion of gender inequality in the labour market has centred on pay equity there has been extensive gender inequality in terms of the construction of and access to non wage benefits through employment. Typically non-wage benefit access in Australia has been associated with the full-time employed male breadwinner model of employment. In itself this has resulted in the exclusion of many women workers from non wage benefits but it has also meant that benefits are aligned to a particular family structure and assigned gender roles within this family structure. While there has been a sustained campaign for achieving gender pay equity in Australia for more than 30 years, in contrast non wage benefit access and equality for women workers remains relatively neglected by trade unions and in public policy discussion. The decentralisation of the industrial relations system from the late 1980s was supposed to deliver "family friendly" employment arrangements, including non wage benefits. We argue that such an agenda is partial, inequitable and flawed. Throughout 2002 there has been a public debate over access to and funding of paid maternity leave in Australia and this in itself has raised the issue of gender equity in the construction of and access to non wage benefits of employment. In this paper we demonstrate the gender inequality of access and the gender bias in the construction of the non wage benefits system in Australia. The paper considers how a trade union campaign and a public policy agenda can be developed that promotes gender equity in benefit access and in the construction of benefits that better meets the aspirations and the needs of women workers.

Kaine and Boersma - Women, work and industrial relations in Australia

2018

Throughout 2017, public interest, parliamentary debate and academic research about women, work and industrial relations centred around a few key themes: pay and income inequality, health and well-being at work and the intersection of paid and unpaid work. These themes were identified in three related yet distinct mediums: the media, parliamentary debate and academic literature. Automated content analysis software was used to assist in the thematic analysis of media articles and the House of Representatives Hansard, supplemented by a manual analysis of relevant academic publications. A thematic overlap was evident across the three datasets, despite the time lag associated with academic research and publication. This is a significant finding, emphasising that the inequalities experienced by women in the labour market are long term and entrenched.

Are we there yet? Advancing women in Canada and Australia: Similar goals, different policies

2015

Differences in opportunities and outcomes in the workplace are inherent in a free and competitive market. However when differences between individuals and groups are identified as resulting from particular policies, behaviours or attitudes, any resulting inequality may be identified as unfair. Increasingly, unfair disparities in societies and their workplaces are regularly challenged. Many of the unfair disparities are recognised as caused through unfair discrimination (Anker 1997). When defining discrimination, the International Labour Organization Convention (ILO) No. 111 defines it as “any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction, or social origin, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation” (ILO, 1958). Yet, the argument for addressing this ideal of ‘equality of opportunity’ is complex. Ekmekci (2013) identifies the difficulti...

Low-paid women: the impact of regulatory change in Australia

Industrial Relations Journal, 2009

How is low-paid work experienced and understood by women at a time of marked regulatory change? Using a qualitative methodology, we examine women's experiences under Work Choices to assess the impact of the new laws. As in other neoliberal environments, we find that labour standards can have marked effects on low-paid workers; that heightened managerial prerogative leads to fear and insecurity; and that, in spite of all this, low-paid women have significant pride in their work. Furthermore, the results of regulatory change go beyond the workplace to affect women as carers, citizens and community members.

From equal pay to overcoming undervaluation: The Australian National Pay Equity Coalition 1988–2011

Journal of Industrial Relations, 2020

Australian feminists have struggled to define the International Labour Organisation’s Equal Remuneration Convention’ goal of gender pay equity and find a platform for achieving it. Approaches based on discrimination, or a male comparator, have proved unworkable. Networking nationally and internationally, the National Pay Equity Coalition (1988–2011) formulated many submissions to industrial tribunals and parliamentary inquiries. Early interventions argued the disadvantages to women of the decentralisation of bargaining in the 1990s, but following the failure of discrimination-based cases, this focus shifted. National Pay Equity Coalition submissions came to define the gender gap, not as one between women and male comparators, but as a recognition gap. They argued that indicators of a history of gender-based undervaluation should lead to a bias-free work value assessment. Bias lay in the distance between actual job demands and their characterisation in classification descriptions. It...