Events - Women & Work Research Group - The University of Sydney School of Business

Governing Work in the New Economy: Addressing Key Dimensions of Employment in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US.

A Conversation with Professor Judy Fudge

This half day workshop will focus on a new project by Professor Judy Fudge looking at the development of a new employment model across Australia, Canada, the UK and the US as a result of the decline of the Post World War Two model of standard employment. In particular, Professor Fudge is interested in how these countries are addressing key dimensions of employment, such as the scope of labour law (especially with respect to atypical employment relationships), attributing employment-related responsibilities in triangular employment relationships, working time and work-life balance, and collective representation at work.

Professor Judy Fudge is Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria, Canada. Professor Fudge is a leading Canadian feminist labour law historian, having co-authored three books, co-edited three collections on feminism and labour law, and written innumerable articles and chapters covering labour law, labour history, pay equity and human rights at work.

Colloquium

The day involved presentations on the latest research, debates, interactions with policy makers as well as participant projections of the future for women, work and life in Australia.

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, the Minister for the Status of Women, Commonwealth Government of Australia opened the colloquium. Opening Address

The Hon Verity Firth MP, Minister for Women, New South Wales closed the colloquium. Closing Address

The speakers and topics included:

Dr Brigid van Wanrooy, University of Sydney: Women at Work : Women's current status in the Australian labour market.
Meg Smith, University of Western Sydney: Gender Pay Equity Reform in Australia: What is the Way Forward?
Associate Professor Marian Baird, University of Sydney: Long Time Coming - Paid Maternity Leave in Australia, 2008
Dr Rae Cooper, University of Sydney: Women Union Leaders .
Associate Professor Bradon Ellem, University of Sydney: Women's Union History: Revisiting a Century of Gender Struggle .
Dr Suzanne Jamieson, University of Sydney: The institutions of equality for Australian working women.
Dr Suzanne Ainsworth and Dr Leanne Cutcher, University of Sydney: Consuming to work: gendered ageism in the Australian labour market.
For further information about this research project, or if you would like to participate in a focus group, please contact Leanne Cutcher
Professor Gabrielle Meagher and Natasha Cortis, University of Sydney: Australian women and welfare to work: Lessons from international experience .

Going beyond the male norm in management

This paper reflects on the continuous comparison of male and female leadership and seeks to explore whether there are alternatives to such gender dualisms. On the basis of interviews with managers in Scandinavia (primarily women), I argue that we need to develop more sophisticated ways of capturing women's experiences. This would require moving beyond simplistic concepts of 'the male norm' and 'organizations are inherently gendered'.

Yvonne Billing is a leading European scholar in the study of gender and organizations. She has co-authored (with Mats Alvesson) influential and much-cited titles such as Gender, Managers and Organizations (1994, de Gruyter) and Understanding Gender and Organizations (1997, Sage). Her current research program focuses on the critical evaluation of gender, management and leadership. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen.

Generation F: Attract, Engage, Retain

The Women+Work Research Group and the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency hosted a seminar and panel discussion on EOWA's recent research report on "Generation F" into what women want from work. Covering issues such as women's ambition, pay equity and women and men's views of the 'boys club' and bullying and harassment, this research debunks many myths about women in the workplace.

For further information - View Report

Panelists

Dr Sara Charlesworth, RMIT - Presentation ( 140Kb)

Dr Lyn Craig, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW - Presentation ( 436Kb)

Assoc Prof Marian Baird, University of Sydney - Presentation ( 310Kb)

John Murray, University of Sydney - Presentation ( 43Kb)

WWRG Consultation with the National Foundation for Australian Women and Security for Women

Paid Parental Leave Consultation Morning *

On 29 September 2008, Australia moved a step closer to a mandatory paid parental leave scheme with the release of the Productivity Commission's draft report entitled 'Paid Parental Leave: Support for Parents with Newborn Children'.

The Commission recommended 18 weeks' paid leave at the adult minimum wage that can be shared by eligible parents, with an additional two weeks of paternity leave reserved for the father (or same sex partner).

The Commission is currently seeking responses on the draft report which are due by 14 November 2008.

The purpose of this consultation is to discuss issues arising from the Productivity Commission's draft report in order to assist responses.

Program:

9:45am	Registration and coffee
PART ONE
10:00am	Welcome: Associate Professor Marian Baird (USyd)
10:05am	Overview: MarieColeman NFAW
10:15am	Productivity Commission's Recommendations: Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald
10:40am	Questions to Commissioner Fitzgerald
PART TWO
11:00am	(Commissioner Fitzgerald departs) Small group discussions
11:20am	Group feedback
11:40am	Summary and conclusions
11:55am	Closing words: Marie Coleman NFAW

* This consultation was part of a national series coordinated by the National Foundation For Australian Women and Security For Women with funding from the Federal Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon. Tanya Plibersek.

International research and comparative methodologies

Peter Berg is an Associate Professor at the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Michigan State University. His research interests include work-life flexibility policies and practices, high performance work systems, and international comparisons of flexible work arrangements. Dr. Berg has conducted research focusing on employees in a number industries, including the steel, apparel, medical electronics, and hospital industries. He has served as an executive board member of the Labor and Employment Relations Association USA and authored numerous publications in a variety of academic journals. In 2006, Dr. Berg received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to the University of Sydney to study work-life flexibility in Australian organizations. His current research examines the role of labor unions in shaping organizational work-life flexibility policies and practices in the U.S. and Australia.

View Peter Berg's Presentation

Women and Work: Questions About the Past, Present and Future

Ruth Milkman is Professor of Sociology at UCLA, where from 2001 through 2008 she also served as Director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. She did her undergraduate work at Brown University and received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Before moving to UCLA in 1988, she taught for several years at the City University of New York, and she plans to return to the faculty at CUNY in 2010. She has also been a visiting professor at the University of Warwick (England), the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Macquarie University (Australia). In 2004-05 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York. Her research and writing has ranged over a variety of issues surrounding work and labor organization in the U.S. She has written many articles published three edited volumes: Women, Work and Protest: A Century Of Women's Labor History (1985); Organizing Immigrants: The Challenge for Unions In Contemporary California (2000); and Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers In The New Union Movement (With Kim Voss, 2004). She Has Written Four Books: Gender At Work: The Dynamics Of Job Segregation During World War II, which won the 1987 Joan Kelly Prize from the American Historical Association; Japan's California Factories: Labor Relations And Economic Globalization (1991); Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the Late 20th Century (1997), and most recently, L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and The Future of The U.S. Labor Movement (2006).

Women doing their own thing: Our picture of modern women at work?

Doris Ruth Eikhof, Lecturer in Organization Studies at the Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, UK, and Research Associate at the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Austria. Her research interests include creative industries, changing forms of work and organisation, women and work, work-life boundaries and social theories in organisation studies. She has published in international academic journals and books and is co-editor of Work Less, Live more? Critical Analysis of Analysis of the Work-life Boundary (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

View Doris Ruth Eikhof's Seminar

Rights, requests and great expectations: the right to request flexible work in the UK

Alexandra Heron is a lawyer and has worked in various capacities in the NGO, public and private sectors in Australia, the UK and France, with an emphasis on gender and employment issues. Her interests include women's entry into, return to and progression within the workforce and the barriers they face. She is the co-author of the 2006 edition of 'Maternity and Parental Rights' (UK) and other publications include an EU/OECD research paper 'Migrant women, what is working', which examined some initiatives in 6 OECD countries which have fostered the labour market participation of migrant women with less than a tertiary education.

Download Presentation

Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act and Agency Review - Roundtable Discussion

Mairi Steele - Acting Director of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency
Overview of the Agency

Sue Williamson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney. Sue has also worked on women and workplace relations issues for many years in both state and federal public services.
History and policy context of the Act

Dr. Sara Charlesworth is a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT, one of her research areas being EEO. She has been a member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board
Getting the framework right? The role of regulation in promoting EEO

Prof Glenda Strachan is at Griffith Business School, Griffith University. Her research includes managing diversity and equal opportunity
Are we getting there? Measuring change at work

Over ten years on from the 1998 review of the Affirmative Action Act 1986 which resulted in the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999, the Minister for the Status for Women has announced a review of the 1999 Act and the Agency. The Roundtable is intended to generate ideas for those making submissions to the review. Its terms of reference include examining the role of the EOWW Act and Agency in gathering and reporting on workplace data, considering how effective the Act has been in delivering EEO in the workplace and advising on how to improve the equal opportunity for women framework: see full Terms of Reference

The speakers will provide an overview of aspects of the Act and offer personal perspectives on the review.

Program

8.45am	Registration and coffee
9.00am	Welcome: Associate Professor Marian Baird (USyd)
9.10am	The Review's Objectives: Sally Moyle, Office for Women
9.20am	Overview of the Agency: Mairi Steele, Acting Director of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency
9.30am	Sue Williamson: History and policy context of the Act. Sue Williamson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney. Sue has also worked on women and workplace relations issues for many years in both state and federal public services.
9.45am	Dr. Sara Charlesworth: Getting the framework right? The role of regulation in promoting EEO. Dr Charlesworth is a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT, one of her research areas being EEO. She has been a member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board
10.00am	Prof Glenda Strachan: Are we getting there? Measuring change at work Professor Strachan is at Griffith Business School, Griffith University. Her research includes managing diversity and equal opportunity
10.20am	Small group discussions
10.50am	Group feedback
11.15am	Summary and conclusions: Alex Heron (Research Associate, WWRG)
11.30am	Closing words: Associate Professor Marian Baird