ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1368-9049
Current Organisation
University of Sydney Business School
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Social Change | Industrial Relations | Business and Management | Social Policy | Policy and Administration
Industrial Relations | Gender and Sexualities | Social Class and Inequalities | Employment Patterns and Change | Work and Family Responsibilities |
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-04-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GWAO.12443
Abstract: Significant research has examined sexual harassment in male‐dominated occupations, but gender harassment — harassment that is not necessarily sexual in nature but is targeted at in iduals, or a group of in iduals, because of their sex or gender — has received relatively less attention. Drawing on in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, we analyse the lived experience of gender harassment among women working as pilots and automotive tradespeople in Australia. We find that women in these occupations face a daily barrage of belittling jokes and demeaning comments from colleagues, managers and customers, and such behaviours are retribution for encroaching on traditionally male occupational domains. Although women found these behaviours humiliating, intimidating, and offensive, they lacked a comprehensive vocabulary to define or condemn them. This article contributes to an emerging literature arguing that gender harassment needs to be more clearly problematized, organizationally and legally, as a form of sex‐based harassment constituting unlawful sex discrimination.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-06-2018
DOI: 10.1111/PUAR.12955
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 10-08-2021
Abstract: Women are chronically under-represented in investment management, an industry that wields substantial global economic power. This article examines the sources of women’s under-representation, marginalization, and lack of progression within this crucial industry. We demonstrate that norms and practices generated within the industry ecosystem – comprised of industry-specific structures, actors, and interactions – collude to restrict women’s ability to engage with and progress through investment management careers, a process we label normative collusion. Where existing theories have focused on the institutional, organizational, and in idual factors that influence women’s career choices and trajectories, our findings demonstrate how industry-level norms and practices can bind organizations to particular modes of operating. To fully understand women’s career pathways and outcomes, particularly at key stages of the life course, we assert that industry-level influences should be incorporated into theoretical models. Foregrounding how normative collusion occurs in the industry ecosystem is an important step, we argue, in understanding women’s career disadvantage, and in designing strategies for change.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 18-03-2020
Abstract: 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.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 23-12-2019
Abstract: Governments have demonstrated a renewed interest in progressing gender equality for their workforces, including in Australia. This refocusing has resulted in a tranche of new gender equality policies being introduced into the Australian Public Service (APS). The purpose of this paper is to examine how New Public Management (NPM) is reflected in these gender equality policies and consider whether NPM may assist or hinder gender being “undone” or “redone” in APS organisations. A content analysis was conducted to assess the strategies contained within the gender equality policies of all 18 Australian government departments. The content analysis reveals that the policies strongly reflect an NPM framing, except in one important area – that of monitoring and evaluation. The lack of attention to this crucial element of NPM may hinder effective implementation of many of the policies. The authors also conclude that while good intent is evident in the policies, they may “redo” rather than “undo” gender in organisations. The paper will assist organisations which are developing and implementing gender equality policies. Even though NPM is specific to the public sector, the research highlights the potential and pitfalls when developing such policies in an environment focused on increasing efficiencies and reducing costs. While gender equality and public sector reforms occurred simultaneously in Australia, few researchers have examined the interactions between the two.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-08-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GWAO.12742
Abstract: Senior leaders are usually understood to be ideally positioned to drive the organizational changes needed to promote workplace gender equality. Yet seniority also influences leaders' values and attitudes, and how they interpret evidence of inequalities, determine organizational priorities, and design and implement remedies. This article examines leaders' perceptions of workplace gender equality using system justification theory to explain survey data from Australia's public sector ( n = 2292). Multivariate analysis indicates that male and female leaders more positively rate the gender equality climate in their agencies, compared with lower‐level staff, and that male leaders show most propensity to defend the status quo. Findings call into question the effectiveness of change strategies that rely on leadership and buy‐in of those whose privilege is embedded in existing arrangements, and problematize dominant organizational approaches casting senior leaders as effective change agents for gender equality. The article helps to explain gendered power dynamics, which produce and sustain organizational inequalities and make workplace equality so hard to achieve, and points to ways to strengthen practical approaches to promote equality in organizations.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 06-11-2018
Abstract: Anonymous recruitment seeks to limit managers’ reliance on stereotypes in employment decisions, thereby reducing discrimination. This paper aims to explore how managers interpret the information embedded in anonymised job applications and how they interpret the organisational priorities driving the adoption of anonymous recruitment. Semi-structured interviews with 30 managers in two Australian public sector organisations were analysed. The results showed that managers used implicit signals and cues to infer the gender identities of applicants in anonymised applications, reintroducing the possibility of bias. Managers perceived that anonymous recruitment sent positive external signals to prospective employees but were sceptical about its effectiveness. The results showed that removing applicants’ names and identifying information from applications may not be sufficient to reduce bias. In organisations where managers are sympathetic to equity and ersity issues, use of anonymous recruitment may provoke resentment if managers perceive organisational distrust or inconsistent objectives. Limitations regarding the size and nature of the s le are acknowledged. Organisations seeking to reduce gender discrimination in recruitment may consider adopting standardised application procedures or training managers to understand how stereotypes affect evaluations. Organisations should also assess managerial support for, and understanding of, anonymous recruitment prior to implementation. The findings add to existing knowledge regarding the effects of implicit gender signals in managers’ assessments and the effectiveness of anonymous recruitment in reducing gender bias. It also contributes to signalling theory by examining how managers interpret the signals conveyed in organisational policies.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2018
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-2019
Abstract: This year's annual review of women, work and industrial relations marks an important milestone. Nearly 10 years have elapsed since the introduction of the Fair Work Act 2009, which enshrined important new rights for the progression of gender equality. It is also 10 years since the Journal of Industrial Relations commenced this annual review. In addition to focusing on developments affecting women and work in 2018, this review provides a broad summary of key events over the past decade. We explore trends in women's workforce participation, union membership, economic security and pay equity, as well as major changes pertaining to work–family policy settings, workplace sexual harassment, and family and domestic violence leave. We conclude that although policy and employment frameworks have created a foundation on which to build gender equality, policy development has been sporadic and the context for women in Australian workplaces remains far from equal.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-03-2021
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic drove significant changes affecting women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2020. This annual review explores the economic and social impact of the pandemic on women workers, and examines the gendered impact of key policy responses, including: the introduction of an historic temporary wage subsidy programme the early release of superannuation funds multiple economic stimulus measures, targeted mostly at male-dominated industries and the provision of paid pandemic leave. This review also analyses major developments in early childhood care and education and aged care, and the longer-term implications of the massive natural experiment in working from home that occurred in 2020. Developments in paid parental leave and sexual harassment are also briefly discussed. We find that, although women workers were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, policy responses to date have largely failed to acknowledge or repair the gendered impacts of the crisis.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-08-2020
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 31-07-2019
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore how human resource (HR) managers in garment factories in a Sri Lankan export processing zone (EPZ) navigated the tension between their role as stewards of employee welfare and their role to maximise firm productivity in response to time and production pressures imposed by international buyers. Relatively little attention has been paid to the role of HR managers as liaisons between firms and labour. This omission is significant, given the importance of human resource management in the recruitment and retention of labour and the role of HR managers in organisational performance and regulatory compliance. A qualitative approach was used based on interviews with 18 HR managers, factory managers and other key informants, and 63 factory workers from 12 firms in the Katunayake EPZ. The interviews and focus groups in English were transcribed and coded into themes arising from the literature and further developed from the transcripts. Initial codes were analysed to identify common themes across the data set. HR managers were acutely aware of the competitive pressures facing the EPZ garment factories. While ex les of company welfarism were evident, HR practices such as incentive payment systems and the management of employee absences reinforced a workplace environment of long hours, work intensification and occupational injury. This paper goes some way towards filling the gap in our understanding of the roles played by HR managers in garment factories in the Global South, raising theoretical debates regarding the potential for HR managers in developing countries to distance themselves from the negative consequences of HR practices such as in idual and team reward systems.
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 29-04-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2022
Abstract: As public sector organisations around the world enact strategies to progress gender equality, managers are forced to navigate the apparent conflict between making employment decisions on in idual‐level ‘merit’ and considering the collective constraints and disadvantage that occur along gender lines. In this paper, we investigate how managers’ understandings of merit contribute to this tension. Analysing data collected in focus groups with 273 mid‐level public sector managers in four Australian jurisdictions where efforts to promote gender equality were actively under way, we found that many managers adhered to a highly in idualised understanding of merit which precluded them from considering gender or addressing gendered inequality in their employment decisions. Only a small proportion of managers who believed that creating a more representative bureaucracy was a legitimate public sector objective were able to justify considering a candidate's gender as a source of merit. We argue that public sector organisations seeking to promote gender equality should focus managers’ attention on the benefits of achieving a more representative bureaucracy and give managers greater normative and regulatory certainty about how to assess and apply merit in that context.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-03-2018
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 22-02-2018
DOI: 10.1108/JSBED-10-2017-0306
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore how entrepreneur-mothers experience independence in the transition to entrepreneurship, and whether they perceive independence as an agentic, opportunity-maximisation motive or a constrained, necessity-driven response. Adopting a qualitative and interpretive approach, the authors analysed interviews with 60 entrepreneur-mothers to refine conceptual understanding of independence. The authors find that entrepreneur-mothers experience independence not as an opportunity, but as a functional necessity in managing the temporal and perceived moral demands of motherhood. The authors assert that there is a fundamental difference between wanting independence to pursue a more autonomous lifestyle, and needing independence to attend to family obligations, a difference that is not adequately captured in the existing conceptualisation of independence. Consequently, the authors propose the classification of “family-driven entrepreneurship” to capture the social and institutional factors that may disproportionately push women with caregiving responsibilities towards self-employment. This paper proposes that a new category of entrepreneurial motivation be recognised to better account for the social and institutional factors affecting women’s entrepreneurship, enabling policymakers to more accurately position and support entrepreneur-mothers. The authors challenge the existing framing of independence as an agentic opportunity-seeking motive, and seek to incorporate family dynamics into existing entrepreneurial models. This paper delivers much-needed conceptual refinement of independence as a motivator to entrepreneurship by examining the experiences of entrepreneur-mothers, and proposes a new motivational classification, that of family-driven entrepreneurship to capture the elements of agency and constraint embedded in this transition.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-08-2021
DOI: 10.1177/00221856211035173
Abstract: 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.
Start Date: 07-2020
End Date: 12-2023
Amount: $470,501.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 04-2022
End Date: 03-2025
Amount: $281,227.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity