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Interest in women and work issues continued throughout 2010, with attention turning to the implementation of policies and utilization of the Fair Work Act to improve the position of Australian women in the workforce. Policy development continued for paid parental leave, with the new scheme launched in October 2010 and payments commencing from 1 January 2011. Together with the Fair Work Act, a new policy base around work and family has been established. The year 2010 was also marked by a focus on matters relating to pay equity, sexual harassment and the lack of women in corporate leadership roles.

This article surveys the Australian literature on the labour market involvement of women. The increasing prominence of women in the workforce has generated a research effort designed to investigate various aspects of women's employment, unemployment, work experience and earnings. Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in women's issues which has prompted an intensification of research into the role of women in the labour market. However, there remain a number of impor tant gaps in our understanding of that role, notably with regard to the workforce behaviour of women, the factors influencing the maintenance of occupational segregation of the sexes, and the significance and nature of discrimination in depressing the relative earnings of women.

The significant gap between men's and women's wages in Australia has been reinforced by sociological, economic and judicial factors. The implementation of the principle of 'equal pay for equal work' has done little to remedy the inequity for the majority of women in the workforce, who are engaged in sex-segregated occupa tions, because they have not been considered to perform 'work of the same or a like nature'. Analysis of the Universities (Equal Pay) Case illustrates, however, that the introduction of the broader principle of 'equal pay for work of equal ualue' is under mined if applicants still endeavour to demonstrate that women are engaged in work identical in nature to a predominantly male classification. Such an approach is inappropriate in the case of women clerical workers since the number of men involved in keyboard and transcription work is minuscule. This work has become stigmatised as per se inferior and as justifying a low rate of pay regardless of other administrative duties performed. An 'equal valtre' case should be able to be framed in such a way that the work of women in female-dominated occupations can be compared systematically with that of men employed in discrete, male-dominated occupations in the community in respect of education, training and expertise required.