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In this article we analyze images of sportswomen from four media outlets over the course of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia. Through visual discourse analysis we find that despite structural changes to increase gender equality at the Commonwealth Games—which for the first time ensured equal opportunities for men and women to win medals—sportswomen were still depicted in a very narrow way, and intersectional representations were mainly excluded. Though the quantity of images of women had increased, the 'quality' of these images was poor in terms of representing sportswomen in their diversity. We still have far to go if we are to embrace women in their multiplicity—and to recognize that women can be strong, capable, butch, femme, and varied in their range of expressions of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Australian Government workplace domestic violence policy as a workplace equality and gender equality policy. Drawing on Baird's typology of policy orientations and systematic process analysis of documents and elite interviews with 43 key informants, this article contributes a process theory of how and why workplace domestic violence policy developed in Australia. It finds non-traditional actors (anti-domestic violence advocates, trade union members and researchers) led traditional actors (components of the state, trade unions and employer parties) towards orientations and mechanisms on this policy post-2010 likely to enhance the social equity of employees experiencing domestic violence. Significant to non-traditional actor effectiveness on this was their lived expertise and experience on domestic violence, and trade union support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entitlement persists on the basis of race, gender, age, sexuality, language and able-bodiedness, despite all efforts to eradicate it - and abetted by some efforts to preserve it. Compounding this, as teachers, it is easy for us to become habituated to possessing the only knowledge of value in the room. This chapter takes place against a backdrop of movements such as Black Lives Matter, and its Australian manifestation, Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the Me Too movement, on women's workplace rights and freedoms, movements against homophobia and transphobia, and quests for equality of accessibility. In particular, we explore the notion that Australia is a haunted nation - one that has not confronted its colonial past or properly reconciled with its first peoples and their descendants. Just as the nation needs to come to terms with its past, our conversations for this chapter will confront us with our own pasts and differing subjectivities. We make use here of our own stories in challenging entitlement, in ourselves and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paid maternity leave policy attracts considerable attention in Australia and internationally, not least because taking a maternity break and employment re-entry benefits economies, businesses and well-being. The literature on factors contributing to a positive relationship between paid employment, reproduction and caring is fragmented and continues to highlight the complexity of the matter. Drawing on qualitative interviews, and Williams' theory of domesticity ideology and Pocock's work/care regimes, I examine women's paid employment re-entry experiences and management strategies following maternity leave in higher education in Australia. This analysis develops a critical conceptualisation of women making 'constrained choices' and 'forced decisions' to manage work/care, and relates to gender inequality in the workplace–household intersection; taking a step back in paid employment; outsourcing housework; and the complexity of childcare. Findings highlight the need for support models to promote work/life balance in the context of debates about gender equality and flexibility, and the workplace–household intersection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and accelerated many gendered labour market inequalities in Australia and around the world. In this introduction to our special issue, 'Workplace Gender Equality: Where are we now and where to next?', we examine the impact of the pandemic on women's employment, labour force participation, earnings, unpaid care work and experience of gendered violence. We identify five key areas where action is urgently required to create a more equitable post-pandemic recovery: addressing gender-based labour market segregations and discrimination; building access to mutually beneficial flexibility; ensuring a more gender-equitable distribution of unpaid care; confronting gender-based violence at work and beyond; and mobilising union action through gender equality bargaining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Australian Paid Parental Leave Act 2010. Using Baird's orientations typology and Brighouse and Wright's equality framework, with evidence from the Workplace Agreements Database and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, this article assesses changes in policy, bargaining and company provisions over the decade. We find that policy changes may enable more fathers and partners to take leave, although the period is short and barriers to uptake exist. In bargaining and company policy, we find modest growth in the proportion of agreements with paid primary and paid secondary carer leave provisions, but no movement in the duration of the leaves, with secondary carer leave much shorter. We conclude that although these changes suggest growing attention to improving women's working conditions and fathers' access to parental leave, short secondary carer leaves set normative standards of fathers as 'supporters' rather than recognising substantive involvement in care. Consequently, the changes do not promote gender-egalitarian sharing of parental leave. While the introduction of the government scheme was a 'giant leap', the 10 years since have seen modest 'baby steps' towards greater gender equality in the availability and potential use of paid parental leave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the reasons that Australian corporations are not doing more to progress gender balance in senior leadership, given the wealth of evidence about the economic benefits. It draws on the findings of a qualitative study of the perceptions of 15 women in key senior positions, which highlight that despite Australian Workplace Gender Equality legislation, unconscious bias remains a significant obstacle to women reaching top leadership positions. The findings provide insight into the regimes that support the enduring gender order in contemporary Australian business and reinforce men's continued dominance in its organisational hierarchies. Building on the successes of the Australian public sector, the researchers propose a National Strategic Action Plan for Gender Equality to address the current inequities in four key policy areas with the most compelling economic case: women in politics, women's leadership in organisations, reducing the gender pay gap, and labour market participation. Key points: This paper examines the barriers to senior leadership in Australian companies.Knowledge of the benefits of gender balance in leadership conflicts with business policy and practice.The biggest obstacle is unconscious bias due to role incongruity, maternal wall and boys' club.Intervention will be necessary to achieve satisfactory and widespread change for Australia's economic success.Implementing a National Strategic Action Plan for Gender Equality is key to transforming Australia's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how gender interacts with race, ethnicity, and/or culture to structure the microaggressions experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women in Australian science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) organisations. Our aim is to disrupt the normative erasure of race from the workplace diversity context by focusing on these women’s experiences. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with women in academia, industry, and government who self-identify as women of colour or as culturally diverse. We use an intersectional lens to show that the challenges experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women cannot simply be subsumed under gender. Rather, race and gender intersect to create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage. These issues are largely unintelligible in STEMM fields as science is positioned as gender- and race-neutral. Consequently, despite their devastating impact, racial microaggressions may be invisible to members of the dominant racial group—those most likely to be the peers and managers of visibly and culturally diverse women. White managers and peers can act as allies to women of colour in STEMM by respecting and amplifying their concerns. Learning to recognise and confront racial microaggressions can help make science workplaces more inclusive of all scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in women's labour force participation, economic security and pay equity received substantial media and public policy attention throughout 2019, largely attributable to the federal election and the Australian Labor Party platform, which included a comprehensive suite of policies aimed at advancing workplace gender equality. Following the Australian Labor Party's unexpected loss at the polls, however, workplace gender equality largely faded from the political agenda. In this annual review, we cover key gender equality indicators in Australia, examine key election promises made by both major parties, discuss the implications of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety for the female-dominated aged care workforce, and provide a gendered analysis on recent debates and developments surrounding the 'future of work' in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing recognition that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other minority (LGBTQ+) employees have lower levels of workplace wellbeing than cis-gender heterosexual employees, few studies have examined how different workplace interventions may mitigate these disparities. This study provides first-time evidence of associations between LGBTQ+ employee wellbeing and two types of initiatives that have received substantial public attention and employer uptake: workplace gender and sexuality diversity training and ally (or employee) networks. To accomplish this, the analyses leverage Australian data from a unique, national employer-employee survey of workplace inclusion (2020 Australian Workplace Equality Index Employee Survey; n = 31,277). These data were used to derive individual- as well as organizational-level measures of diversity training and ally behaviors, and to estimate their associations with a multidimensional index of LGBTQ+ employee wellbeing using fully adjusted random-intercept multilevel regression models. The results indicated that all individual- and organizational-level measures of workplace diversity training and ally behaviors exhibited positive, large, and statistically significant associations with the LGBTQ+ employee wellbeing index, controlling for an extensive set of confounds and organization-specific random effects. These findings have significant implications for health policy and practice. Specifically, they indicate that diversity training and ally networks may improve wellbeing amongst LGBTQ+ employees. This suggests that employer investments in diversity training and ally networks are effective interventions to enhance workplace culture, employee productivity and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief assessment of progress against key gender equality benchmarks sets the context for this review of women, work and industrial relations in 2013. Given the persistent and growing gender pay gap, we focus in particular on recent equal pay legislative and industrial developments. We also draw attention to some underused industrial provisions that might progress pay equity and note the recent unravelling of important 2012 policy initiatives. We then review developments and debate around key gender equality infrastructure that shapes the day-to-day experiences of almost 5 million Australian female employees. This infrastructure includes working time regulation, paid parental leave, protection of pregnant workers, child care services and the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. Despite some progress, particularly around equal pay, we conclude that Australia’s policy and regulatory framework for gender equality remains patchy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much of the discussion in the public domain about Australian industrial relations has been concentrated quite narrowly on the legislative environment in which it is occurring, partly due to the Fair Work Act Review that took place in 2012. Given that the major parties are pursuing legislative changes that favour their interests, the discussion has been quite divisive, which has diminished the quality of public debate over industrial relations. The political context has also contributed to this outcome. The articles included in this review edition provide an opportunity for discussion to expand beyond this narrow base. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents insights on the Fair Work system in Australia and representative role of labor unions in the system. It notes on the complaint of an executive from an employer association that the Fair Work Act forcer employers to bargain with a union even if the union have only have one member. It explains the minimum employment standards that apply to all workers regardless of their union membership.

Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we find evidence that unobserved heterogeneity substantially biases cross-sectional estimates of union wage effects upward for both male and female workers. The estimate of the union wage premium for male workers falls from 8.7 per cent to 5.2 per cent after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. For females the estimated 4.0 per cent cross-sectional union wage premium falls to 2.0 per cent once unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for. Among males, the results suggest negative sorting into union status at high levels of observed skill, while the sorting is positive at the lower end of the skill hierarchy. There is not sufficient evidence to support a similar pattern of sorting among female workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study regarding the employment of indigenous Australians. It says that many employers want to expand their indigenous workplace but they are having difficulty connecting to those jobseekers because some of the Australians lack the basic skills. It mentions that GenerationOne in partnership with Australian Employment Covenant (AEC) are working together to end the disparity between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians through employment.

This paper examines the impact of equity measures in Australian and New Zealand policing, involving nine police departments, from 2003/4 to 2007/8. The findings were mixed. Overall, the number of sworn female officers in both countries continued to trend slowly upwards, with an average of 26.6 per cent in Australia and 17.1 per cent in New Zealand in 2007/8. However, recruit numbers appeared to have peaked around 33 per cent and were in decline in most departments where data were available. Women continued to move up the ranks in all departments, but there were still very few women in senior ranks. Although women were not separating at a higher rate than men, they were more likely than men to resign. While more positive than earlier appraisals of equity in Australia, the findings continue to reflect inadequate data collection that would address long-term inequity issues. The labour force participation rate of women in Australia has increased significantly over the last few decades. However, women are not necessarily focusing on traditional career paths but rather see employment opportunities as one of many options that include family and lifestyle balance. Nevertheless, it is argued here that police organisations should remain committed to gender equity. Affirmative action and other gender equity strategies are considered necessary to encourage greater participation by women, for the benefits to women of a policing career and for the wider good of the community and police organisations themselves. Better diagnostic data and visible commitment are required to support this objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores gendered observations and experiences of executive women on the basis of common world views or lenses through which gender differences are interpreted and understood. Three types of lenses are identified from both the literature and the data: monocultural, statistical and structural. The discussion explores the relationships and ties between each lens noting the overlapping characteristics. A qualitative study is used to index the various themes and the coping strategies employed by executive women in Australia based on specific work experiences in leadership and gender relations. The study adds to existing gender theory by highlighting how gendered lenses can be used to explore gender hierarchies and inequality regimes which lie at the centre of executive women's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review of industrial relations reform in Australia will highlight the changes and challenges since the introduction of the Rudd Labor government's Forward with fairness agenda. In particular, it examines the major issues and areas of change under the new Fair Work Act 2009 and highlights the challenges and opportunities that these might present in the near future given the current economic climate. This review attempts to examine these major themes in industrial relations reform through a 'business lens' - an employer perspective. However, it will also assess the potential impact of the Act within an economic, political and industrial relations context. The reforms are likely to create an environment for greater fairness at workplace level by an increased focus on collective bargaining. However, whether the Act will encourage enterprise bargaining remains and provide a platform for achieving greater productivity and fairness is to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of dismissal law and unlawful termination law to prevent the unlawful dismissal in workplace under the new Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) in Australia. Accordingly, unlawful termination of employment must have appropriate minimum notice periods that are not based on discriminatory ground like race or sex. In this regard, Workplace Relations Act (WR Act) provides set of protections in relevance to the terminations of employees for the reasons of economic, technological and structural nature.

Establishing whether legislation promotes better equity outcomes than non-mandated, voluntaristic instruments such as self-regulation or peer regulation has been difficult. Findings of an Australian survey comparing equity policies and outcomes in those workplaces that are regulated by employment equity legislation with those that are not subject to legislative provisions are presented. Research findings showed equity indicators were strongest in those workplaces covered by the legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable research that focuses on the impact of immigration on destination countries, there is little research specifically that focused on Australia. Certain categories of asylum seekers who enter Australia are disallowed the right to work during the application process (primarily those on Bridging Visa E), before they are either ultimately granted asylum or forced to leave the country. Many of these asylum seekers possess considerable skills and experience. The current skills shortage in Australia begs the question of whether there are valuable skills being wasted. This paper will examine the potential economic impact of granting all asylum seekers the right to work in a prosperous economy such as Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores whether bureaucracy creates alienation, through a case study of the Australian Public Service. By examining the structural determinants of seven job characteristics, it shows that alienation is generated by six features of bureaucracy: its clerical work, control imperative, organizational structures, impersonality, instrumental rationality, and language. The author argues that by de-bureaucratizing and closely aligning individual and organizational goals we can reduce alienation and increase worker productivity. The author concludes that by enabling civil servants to be efficient, equitable, nonpartisan, and accountable, bureaucracy does safeguard liberal democracy, but that in so doing it also generates alienation or "psychic entropy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the impact of the Australian Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity) legislation (1986), on women’s employment in the higher education sector. This Act aimed to address the disadvantage faced by women in the workplace. In the academy, this meant that some of the difficulties encountered by women who aspired to careers and senior positions were to be documented and addressed. Fourteen years after its implementation, while there has been a general growth in women’s employment in the sector, there still exists a glass ceiling preventing women in both academic and administrative positions moving into management structures. This article examines some of the issues that have emerged in attempting to create a “level playing field” for women in the academy with regard to supporting promotional opportunities and encouraging a positive and supportive workplace. Strategies for overcoming existing barriers and the importance of future research are emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research undertaken in the USA in the 1970s discovered that many women who were successful in business denied the difficulties faced by women in management and were reluctant to assist other women. Researchers labelled this phenomenon the “queen bee” syndrome. This paper investigates the views of senior management women in Australia on the barriers women face in management and their willingness to assist other women into senior management positions. Forty-one senior management women were interviewed in Sydney. Content analysis was conducted on the responses and four broad categories were developed: “conservatives”, “moderates”, “reluctant feminists” and “definite feminists”. Two-thirds of respondents fell into categories representing women who did not hold views resembling those of “queen bees”. The remaining one-third of the women interviewed fell into the two categories that most closely resembled “queen bees”. The fact that a minority of senior management women resembled “queen bees” challenges the myth that senior management women are reluctant to assist other women in the workplace. On the other hand, the results show that not all senior management women will support other women in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than a decade after Australian universities first responded to the requirements of the EEO/AA legislative framework, women remain marginalised and seriously under- represented in Australian universities. This paper provides a snapshot of the current status of women’s participation in the senior levels of universities and examines some of the reasons why universities are still providing a “chilly climate” for women and other minority actors. It is argued that Australian universities can no longer afford to frustrate, alienate and marginalise some of their most creative organisational actors when they are facing a new era of rapid change and competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]