Elizabeth Hill

Young women and men: Imagined futures of work and family formation in Australia

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 10-10-2019

DOI: 10.1177/1440783319877001

Abstract: In the debates about the future of work there is a lack of analysis on how young women and men are approaching their future work and family lives. In this article we use data collected in the Australian Women’s Working Future (AWWF) Project 2017 to analyse what young workers imagine will be important to their future success in work and family. We find that formal workplace supports for care, such as paid parental leave and childcare, and workplace flexibility are identified as very important. Shared domestic labour is also desired. Parents have the strongest expectations for care policy supports. Young men without children are least likely to factor these into future work trajectories, while young women do. However, data on women’s plans for family formation, compared with men’s, suggests that difficulties accessing vital care supports pose a risk to young women’s ability to work, form families and care.

Between Frustration and Invigoration: Women Talking about Digital Technology at Work

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 09-06-2023

DOI: 10.1177/09500170221091680

Abstract: This study addresses the dearth of gender analysis within debates about technological innovation and workplace change. Qualitative analysis of 12 focus groups conducted with women in ‘frontline’ and ‘professional’ roles discussing their use and engagement with digital technologies at work reveals contrasting narratives of ‘digital frustration’ and ‘digital invigoration’. To explain these distinct narratives, we synthesise insights from science and technology studies with findings from scholarship on gendered work and labour market inequality to show that these differences are not driven solely by a technology’s form or the degree of automation it ostensibly represents. Instead, women’s narratives reflect an interplay between technological design, employment context and workers’ own voice and agency. These findings challenge assumptions about the totalising and transformative power of work-related technologies, redirecting attention to how social and political contestations over digital technologies inform worker experiences and shape the future of work.

Migration and development, without care? Locating transnational care practices in the migration‐development debate

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 30-01-2023

DOI: 10.1002/PSP.2648

Abstract: Highly‐restrictive temporary labour migration schemes are commonplace throughout the Indo‐Pacific region and continue to expand amid sustained policy enthusiasm for ‘migration‐development’. Yet, the developmental benefits of guestworker schemes are routinely evaluated according to narrow economic criteria, with little consideration given to transnational family separation and the displacement of socially reproductive labour that sustains everyday life. ‘Migration’, ‘development’ and ‘care’ are deeply interlinked political economic processes, yet they have been theorised in partial isolation. We challenge this analytical disconnect, situating the developmental implications of guestworker migration in relation to the total social organisation of labour, and argue for a more holistic ‘migration‐care‐development' nexus that foregrounds unsustainable disruptions to care economies. We ground our framework in the context of Australia's Pacific Labour Scheme to illustrate the developmental consequences for Pasifika households and communities, highlighting the need for ‘decent care’ policies to address care deficits in support of sustainable and gender‐equitable development.

India: The self employed women's association and autonomous organizing

Publisher: Routledge

Date: 21-12-2007

DOI: 10.4324/9780203938225

Moral Geographies of Care across Borders: The Experience of Migrant Grandparents in Australia

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

Date: 27-08-2022

DOI: 10.1093/SP/JXAB024

Abstract: Literature on transnational grandparenting rarely focuses on how migrant grandparents contribute to the work/care reconciliation of their adult children, how they provide and receive care in contexts of mobility and precariousness, and the ways in which this is shaped by migration and social policy regimes. Drawing on the concept of moral geographies of care, this study reveals how idealized norms of care interact with Australian migration and work/care regimes in complex and contradictory ways to produce configurations of care in migrant families. We conclude that migration and work/care regimes are poorly aligned, compromising migrant families’ well-being and economic security.

Gender Matters: A Multilevel Analysis of Gender and Voice at Work

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 23-03-2021

DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12487

Abstract: The role of gender in shaping a range of work experiences and outcomes is well documented, yet there remains limited knowledge of the gendered dimensions of voice. In addressing the understudied topic of gender and voice, we propose a multilevel framework for analysing the relationship, which goes beyond thinking of gender only in terms of in idual‐level gender identities. We conceptualize gender at three levels – as embedded in in idual identities, in organizational policies and practices and in labour market segmentations – and show that gender, at each level, is associated with variations in worker voice opportunities and practices. We test our model using data from a mixed‐methods Australian study that consisted of a national survey with young working women and men and a series of targeted focus groups with young working women. We find no in idual‐level differences in women's and men's reported voice, measured as managerial consultation and as perceived influence over workplace matters. However, we do find a diminished voice among both women and men employed within specific gendered work environments, namely in organizations where workers perceive high levels of gender inequality and in women‐dominated industries. Qualitative findings provide additional detail on how women's voice materializes and is constrained within gendered work settings.

University Of Sydney

Location: Australia

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Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP220100657

Start Date: 04-2022

End Date: 03-2025

Amount: $281,227.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP160100175

Start Date: 04-2016

End Date: 12-2019

Amount: $369,110.00

Funder: Australian Research Council