NTEU WOMEN’S MAGAZINE
Www.NTEU.org.au/women
if i was vc for a day Women in higher education. Now. making dv rights a workplace issue insecure work is gendered #distractinglysexy
spin a yarn start a fire ISSN 1839-6186
Volume 23 September 2015
Women’s Action Committee (WAC) The role of the Women’s Action Committee is to: • Act as a representative of women members, at the national level. • To identify, develop and respond to matters affecting women. • To advise on recruitment policy and resources directed at women. • To advise on strategies and structures to encourage, support and facilitate the active participation of women members at all levels of the NTEU. • To recommend action, and advise on issues affecting women. • To provide editorial advice on Agenda and the women’s website. • To inform members on industrial issues and policies that impact on women. • To make recommendations and provide advice to the National Executive, National Council, and Division Executive and Council on industrial, social and political issues affecting women.
WAC Delegates 2015 Aca Academic staff representative G/P General/Professional staff representative
• Monitor and review the effectiveness of issues, policies and structures affecting women. WAC is chaired by the National President and is composed of one academic and one general/professional staff representative from each Division plus one nominee of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee.
National President Jeannie Rea, jrea@nteu.org.au
A&TSI Representative Sharlene Leroy-Dyer Newcastle
act Aca Sara Beavis ANU G/P Katie Wilson UC
NEW SOUTH WALES
www.nteu.org.au/women
Aca Sarah Kaine UTS G/P Karen Ford W’gong / Laura Wilson Syd
NORTHERN TERRITORY Aca Penny Wurm CDU / Dawn Daly BIITE G/P Janet Sincock CDU
SOUTH AUSTRALIA Aca Jennifer Fane Flinders G/P Shelley Pezy Adelaide / Kate Borrett UniSA
QUEENSLAND Aca Liz Mackinlay UQ G/P Carolyn Cope QUT
TASMANIA Aca Megan Alessandrini UTAS G/P Nell Rundle UTAS
VICTORIA Aca Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe G/P Catherine Rojas Swinburne
WESTERN AUSTRALIA Aca Wendy Giles ECU G/P Kate Makowiecka Murdoch / Claire Fletcher Murdoch
DOWNLOAD OR READ THIS MAGAZINE ONLINE @ www.nteu.org.au/agenda Agenda (formerly Frontline) Editor: Jeannie Rea
ISSN 1839-6186 (print), ISSN 1839-6194 (online)
Production: Paul Clifton
Original design: Maryann Long
All text and images © NTEU 2015 unless otherwise noted. Published annually by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia Phone: 03 9254 1910
ABN 38 579 396 344
Email: national@nteu.org.au
Fax: 03 9254 1915
In accordance with NTEU policy to reduce our impact on the natural environment, Agenda has been printed using vegetable based inks with alcohol free printing initiatives on FSC certified paper by Printgraphics under ISO 14001 Environmental Certification.
Environment ISO 14001
NTEU WOMEN’S MAGAZINE
Cover: Associate Professor Rae Cooper speaking at the 2015 NTEU Women’s Conference. Photo by Terri MacDonald.
WWW.NTEU.ORG.AU/WOMEN
Volume 23, September 2015 Editorial
MORE WOMEN AT WORK AND IN UNIONS, BUT...
WHEN WILL WOMEN STOP BEING PIONEERS? 2 NTEU National President Jeannie Rea.
The interesting and concerning results of Assoc. Prof. Rae Cooper’s research into unions’ views towards women members and leadership.
NEWS
BEING A WOMAN STUDENT ACTIVIST NOW
14
15
COUNTING DEAD WOMEN IN 2015
3
WOMEN AND A RE-DESIGNED UNISUPER DBS
Without seeing female representation at the top it is hard to imagine yourself going further or breaking into particularly male dominated areas.
4
CHALLENGING THE POWER OF ‘RICH WHITE GUYS IN SUITS’
MORE WOMEN IN UNIONS, BUT TOO MANY MEN AT THE TOP 4 THROUGH THE GENDER LENS: STATE OF THE UNI SURVEY
5
49.4%
naTural & physical sci.
15%
engineering
Bluestocking week
25-29 year olds with a baChelor degree
16.2%
INTERSECTIONALITY IN THE ACADEMY 52.5%
agriCulTure, enviro Studies
72.7%
HealTh
31% OF MEN
76%
education
australianS wItH a postgraduaTe degree
47.5%
management & Commerce
My career RACHAEL BAHL: LIBRARIAN, MOTHER, UNIONIST
29
Rachael Bahl is the new ACT Division Secretary.
42% OF WOMEN
38.3%
architecture & buildIng
NTEU is contributing to the fight against the so-called Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill.
18
australian genderuniversity & higher education statsand 2015 students what they We asked staff qualifiCations doMeSTIC enrolmentS by gender would do if they were vice-chancellor for a day. inforMaTion Technology
NTEU STILL CAMPAIGNING FOR PPL 28
16
The power pyramid of the tertiary education sector is definitely one that has ‘rich white guys in suits’ at the top.
IF I WAS VC FOR A DAY…
paid parental leave
20
Breaking up the Bromance in our universities. 64.4%
society & Culture
60%
CreaTIve arts
49.2%
ToTal
6
This year’s Bluestocking Week (10-14 August) called upon women to tell their stories to stir the pot and fan the flames.
FINDING THE STORIES OF THE WOMEN WHO MADE UQ 9
viCe-chancellorS
women in the university workforce all fte sTaFf
teaChing & researcH
researcH only
42.3%
56.4%
49.5%
gender pay gap The average gender pay gap is now an increase of 1.4% sinCe noV 2013
18.8%
teaChing only
$6,000 $4,000 $2,000
Gender stats 100,000 MALE WORKERS
100,000 FEMALE WORKERS
23% 77%
CAROLYN ALLPORT SCHOLARSHIP
29% 71%
SoCIal work earth sCIences
EQUAL
$80,001 – $180,000
engIneerIng
law
psychology, pHysical ScienCes
acCounting, art & design, dentisTry, maThemaTIcS, pHarmaCy medicine biological scIences educaTion coMpuTer scIences paramedical studies
$37,001 – $80,000
46% 54%
$18,201 – $37,000
58%
< $18,201
57%
42%
MEN EARN MORE
STATS TELL THE STORY $2,000
humanities
$4,000 $6,000
Scholarship
Male
65.6%
gender pay gap by income as percentage and actual nuMbers > $180,000
Female
general/ proFesSIonal
55%
gender pay gap by Field WOMEN EARN MORE
SPIN A YARN, START A FIRE
50% 50%
econoMics & buSiness
arChiTeCture & buIldIng, agricultural science
22
30
Olga Garcia-Caro is this year’s successful recipient of the Carolyn Allport Scholarship.
43%
Mass higher education is clearly working for women, but what lies beneath the figures? $8,000
Women’s conference WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION. NOW. 10 The 2015 NTEU Women’s Conference was themed around the issues confronting women in higher education and asked the important question – what do we want now?
WHERE ARE WOMEN NOW?
SoCIal scienCes
INSECURE WORK IN UNIS IS GENDERED
24
REFUGEE GIRLS AND EDUCATION
12
According to lawyer Liberty Sanger women are everywhere – but there are not enough of them!
MAKING DV RIGHTS A WORKPLACE ISSUE
JOB SECURITY IMPEDES WOMEN IN SCIENCE
It is easy to forget that just 5 years ago domestic violence was barely part of mainstream discourse.
Professor Sharon Bell applauded women’s growing participation and success in higher education, but warned that the semblance of parity disguises persistent patterns of inequality.
DV RIGHTS CASE STUDY
31
The desire of girls to complete school and go on to further education is lost to most girl refugees.
Domestic violence
13
International
The latest WGEA stats confirm that university insecure work has a gender bias.
26
27
The inspiring story of how Michelle Broecker worked with the NTEU and Swinburne University to get a domestic violence clause into her university’s Enterprise Agreement.
#feminism SCIENTISTS GET #DISTRACTINGLYSEXY 32 Women scientists on Twitter react to sexist remarks by Nobel Laureate Professor Tim Hunt.
Editorial
When will women stop being pioneers?
jeannie rea
NTEU National President
The opening plenary at our national Women’s Conference asked ‘Where are the women now?’ We know that women are the majority of staff and students in higher education. Walking through a university campus in 2015 would bring a smile to the faces of the Bluestockings of a century or even fifty years ago. The women they would see are representative of the diversity of the Australian population and also include many international students and some (but not enough) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. It is proof that mass higher education has worked for women. The expansion of university places and ‘second chances’ has been taken up by women coming back to study since the halcyon days of free tuition in universities and TAFE. Young and older women have stuck in there determined to get an education despite the increasing costs. As we protest the Coalition Government’s plans to cut funding to public universities and deregulate undergraduate fees, while handing over subsidies to private companies, we know this is a critical fight because postgraduate coursework and international student fees are already pricing many out of education. Contestability in TAFE, especially in Victoria, has largely wrecked public provision of quality training and further education. This falls particularly hard on women starting out and coming back to study because women generally have fewer resources than men, noting that the gender pay gap has blown out to a thirty year high at 18.8 per cent, and women also often have caring responsibilities for the young and old. Women are often less mobile and reliant on quality education available out of ordinary hours and online. The NTEU continues to argue that students must not be expected to pick up the gap as governments renege upon their responsibilities to fund public further and higher education properly. Indeed, calling for the abolition of tuition fees is not too idealistic a demand. Interestingly, in other parts of the world, despite decades of neo-liberalism, change is happening as the Germans have reversed the imposition of
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
fees and even in the USA, President Obama is trying to abolish community college fees. Clearly we must keep campaigning against the Pyne package of so-called reforms, but also keep the pressure upon the Labor Party to live up to their legacy of once abolishing fees and introducing a reasonable living allowance. So women are in universities and we want them to stay. But that is not easy. Universities may have lots of women, but most campuses are still masculinist spaces with decision making power and disciplinary dominance in the traditional male areas. Women are still reporting discrimination and harassment as they make their way around campus. Gender continues to intersect with, and compound, the issues faced if we do not conform to being pale, male, middle class and middle aged. I hope no young women have to argue with the men in their tutorials who claim they are smarter because they are men, as I did, but I do know that women are still finding themselves talked over and ignored in tutorials and meetings. Despite recognising the problems of the ongoing gendered occupational and disciplinary segregation in our universities and beyond, it is remarkably hard to shift in Australia. Graduate women start out on fairly equal salaries but find their remuneration and advancement opportunities falling away as they move through their paid working life. Women are working harder and for longer and still are more likely to be precariously employed, including in universities.
So when we ask where are the women now, the answer is everywhere, but there are still doors that are half open and there are still places that women don’t want to enter because they are so unfriendly. I started this year’s Bluestocking Week talking about breaking down barriers. By the end of the week, I was focussed on the reality that over one hundred years after women in Australia started gaining university degrees and entering the professions, and half a century since the numbers of women in university began rapidly increasing and the women’s liberation movement questioned what we are learning and who is doing the teaching and researching, women are still having to be pioneers. I look forward to the time that women no longer have to be pioneers, until a woman no longer has to be the first woman to enter a particular field or achieve a particular position. I hope you enjoy this year’s edition of Agenda, where many of the issues I have mused upon here are covered in more detail with evidence. Tell us what you think – you can always contact me via email. I have always been proud that the NTEU is a feminist union. Let’s keep up the tradition. Jeannie Rea is NTEU National President and editor of Agenda. jrea@nteu.org.au
NEWS
Counting Dead Women in 2015 If ever justification was needed for the inclusion of domestic violence clauses in the Collective Agreements of our universities and indeed all workplaces, the Counting Dead Women tally for 2015 is it. The count, which is compiled by online feminist lobby group Destroy the Joint, has shown a horrific tale unfolding this year. Thirty-four weeks into the year, the number of women who were murdered as a result of violence against women stood at 58, or approximately one every four days. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, of this list, Destroy the Joint states that in at least 75 per cent of the cases, the woman knew her killer. As it stands, Aboriginal women have made up nearly 19 per cent of the list, or more than six times what population parity rates would be. By the end of the year, should the current rate continue, we can expect that over 90 women will have been recorded with around 16 of those being Aboriginal women. The Destroy the Joint tally is based on other tallies which have been run across the world, with the aim of demonstrating to the public and politicians the very real costs of violence against women in our society. While feminist groups have continually highlighted that the most dangerous place for women is their homes, this message continues to get lost as domestic violence gets treated socially as a private issue. Yet violence committed against women is noted by Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Victoria to be the leading contributor to death, disability and illness for women aged 15 to 44 in Australia, and how this carries over to womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to contribute in the workplace is the business of us all.
have been hit hard by budget cuts introduced by the Abbott Government. There is always more that can be done, but the most important thing is to continue to ensure that this issue is no longer hidden behind closed doors. It is essential that there are mechanisms in place to ensure that women do not continue to be mere statistics in a gendered war being waged against them. Celeste Liddle, National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Organiser For further information on the work Destroy the Joint has been doing to highlight this issue, please visit their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/DestroyTheJoint. For more information on Aboriginal victims within this count, please visit: blackfeministranter.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/counting-dead-aboriginalwomen-2015.html.
For every woman who is counted in the tally, there are several more who are victims of violence against women. Earlier this year, it was reported on the ABC that three women per week are hospitalised with brain injuries caused by family violence, with Aboriginal women being 70 times more likely to be hospitalised than other women. Domestic violence clauses in Agreements may not solve the problem but they do acknowledge that this is the lived experience of working women in this country, and that protections in the workplace are needed to ensure that women are supported and have options. During Bluestocking Week this year, some Branches and Divisions raised money for domestic violence shelters and programs around the country which
VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
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NEWS
The Impact on Women of a Re-designed UniSuper Defined Benefits Scheme
more women in unions, but too many men at the top The ACTU’s Women in Unions Report 2015 has shown that while the percentage of women and men members is now roughly equal across the union movement, women are still under-represented in leadership positions. The survey of 21 unions – including the NTEU - found that the percentage of women in national union leadership roles had increased from 28 per cent in 1999 to 40 per cent in 2015. Since the last survey in 2010, 45 per cent of unions had reported an increased focus and resources for women’s issues, with half saying they had specific recruitment measures to encourage women’s participation. The survey reported that more unions are pursuing family-friendly provisions, with an increasing number of clauses relating to part-time work, job-sharing arrangements and extended unpaid parental leave. The survey also found that 85 per cent of responding unions reported having mechanisms in place to ascertain women’s priorities in bargaining and campaigns, a dramatic increase on the 43 per cent reported in 2010.
For some time now, NTEU has been consulting with UniSuper in relation to the proposed overhaul of the design of the Defined Benefit However, given that only 21 unions responded to the ACTU’s survey and that (DB) scheme. Whereas the existing the majority of these had a high number of women members, there is still much DB is a lump sum scheme with work ahead in achieving gender equity in the union movement more broadly. accrual factors based on age and The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that 49 per cent of maximum contributions of 21 per cent union members are women, so even the 40 per cent of female leadership reported by the survey still represents a 9 per cent gender gap. of salary, the proposed new scheme will provide a pension (which may be The survey found women were also under-represented on national councils, at national conferences and at ACTU Congress. This year commuted to a lump sum or partial lump saw a 10 per cent decline in the numbers of women delegates sum) with accrual factors based on years of at Congress, with only 38 per cent of delegates being female service and maximum contributions of 24 per compared to 48 per cent in 2009. cent of salary. Responding to observations of the ‘grey beards’ at the ACTU’s leadership table, the ACTU Congress voted to pursue an The replacement of age-related accrual factors with ones based on equal representation of women and men within all elected years of service will eliminate one source of inequitable cross subsidy positions of the peak union body. However, a motion inherent in the existing scheme design which tends to disadvantage from the ACTU Women’s Committee (supported by women, younger workers and general/professional staff. It is anticipated the NTEU) which calls for unions to pursue the that the new pension scheme will become the default fund for new same objectives internally has yet to gain employees and that members of the existing lump sum DB scheme will be support from the union movement offered an opportunity to purchase service in and switch to the new pensionmore broadly. based DB scheme. Terri MacDonald, Policy & In the context of the re-design of the DB, NTEU has also been pushing to ensure Research Officer that members with service breaks are able to make additional contributions to restore their service fraction (and accrued pension) to a level that they would have obtained had there been no interruption to their service. This measure, if adopted, should be of particular assistance to women whose service is often punctuated by career breaks for child rearing purposes and for other family responsibilities and as a consequence receive lower superannuation retirement incomes compared with men.
The Union is also actively exploring with UniSuper the use of so-called stepped pension accrual factors which could provide a further practical mechanism to address the structural implications of interrupted service, which disproportionately impacts upon workers who have family responsibilities and carer roles. At the time of writing it is apparent that this proposed element of a re-designed DB scheme is meeting strong resistance from the management of UniSuper who are concerned that it may lower pension factors for all members of the new DB and would unfairly penalise men who would be providing an effective cross subsidy to female members of the fund. It is clear that while some pleasing progress has already been made, much remains to be done to ensure that advancing the position of women in relation to UniSuper is a key priority of the design of a new pension based DB scheme. Peter Summers, NTEU Executive Manager
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
NEWS
through the gender lens: State of the Uni Survey The NTEU State of the Uni survey was conducted between 13 April and 8 May 2015. It provided a sample of around 7,000 responses from university staff to questions about working conditions and attitudes in the tertiary sector. The purpose of the survey is to create a regular industry-wide profile on attitudes to employment conditions and workplace culture in Australian universities. The biennial survey serves to identify and document responses towards Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s higher education system, government policies on higher education funding and regulation, and the role of trade unions in the tertiary workplace. The sample seems to reflect closely to the official Australian Higher Education statistics 2015 (AHES 2015) from the Department of Education, as illustrated on page 22 in this edition of Agenda. There were more women responding to the survey than men: 58 per cent of respondents were female against the AHES 2015 stats reporting females comprise 56.4 per cent of workers in the sector. A further 0.74 per cent of respondents identified as other. The correlation between the survey and industry statistics appears to be close. The story is more interesting when looking at the different types of work. Amongst academic staff, women make up 53 per cent of respondents, whereas the figure for general and professional staff is 66 per cent. Again, these results are largely consistent with known sectoral data. They are also consistent with NTEU membership gender stats. 40% Males Females Interestingly, 40 per cent of respondents 35% 40% were not union members.
Are women represented in all places of work at universities? From the survey results, women are overrepresented in the lower classifications, with a greater proportion of women working at HEW/HEO levels 4 and 5 in universities than men. Similarly, with academic staff, women are concentrated at Level B. The highest concentration of university non-academic jobs for women are in general administration and finance. Information technology is poorly represented with just 3.65 per cent of respondents being women working in IT, compared to 19.5 per cent of male respondents. In academic roles, women are highly represented in medical and health sciences and in education. Unfortunately, none of these results are surprising.
30% 35% 25% 30% 20% 25% 15% 20% 10% 15% 5% 10% 0% 5% 0%
Level A (Associate Lecturer) Level A (Associate Lecturer)
Level B (Lecturer) Level B (Lecturer)
Level C (Senior Lecturer) Level C (Senior Lecturer)
Level D (Associate Professor) Level D (Associate Professor)
Level E (Professor) Level E (Professor)
None of the above None of the above
Females
Don't know Don't know
Current classification of academic respondents 25% 25% 20%
Males
Females
Males
Females
20% 15% 15% 10% 10% 5% 5% 0% Level 1 0%
Workloads management
Males
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4 Level 5
Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9
Level 1
Above Other Level 10 (please Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Level 1 Above specify) Other Level 10 (please Current classification of general/professional respondents specify)
On the question of rating your employer on workloads management, the gendered responses were close, with only 3.67 per cent of females and 3.31 per cent of males rating their employer as excellent. The majority of both females and males rated their employer as unsatisfactory, with a consistent 29.08 per cent of women and 29.76 per cent of men giving the highest negative score to the question.
Other responses Other interesting responses to the survey included that staff were extremely committed to the public character of Australian higher education, and the deregulation of the sector is strongly opposed by the vast majority of university staff, regardless of gender. A special thanks to all those who participated in the 2015 survey. Rob Binnie, National Organiser To read more about the overview of the NTEU 2015 State of Uni survey please go to www.nteu.org.au/stateoftheuni
VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
5
bluestocking week
Spin a Yarn, Start a Fire
Calling upon participants to tell their stories to stir the pot and fan the flames, this year’s Bluestocking Week (10–14 August) saw over forty events organised by NTEU and student women on campuses in Australia. This is a clear affirmation of the 2011 decision of the NTEU and the National Union of Students (NUS) to bring back Bluestocking Week. We even have university managements and politicians starting to jump on the Bluestocking Week bandwagon. MP Amanda Rishworth, acknowledging the NTEU and NUS, used Bluestocking Week as the frame to speak in Parliament about Labor’s plans to increase the numbers of girls and women studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. Back in the 1980-90s, NUS women had organised Bluestocking Weeks until the Howard Coalition Government banned funding of student unions. NUS had named the event ‘Bluestocking’ in recognition of the defiant first generations of university women who had worn the mantle proudly. Their opponents had tried to put them down using ‘bluestocking’ as a term of abuse for scholarly, clever and independent women determined to pursue higher education. In just four years we have gone past fussing about the origins of the term (and even whether we can find any blue tights), and have reclaimed some time and space
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
on university campuses to talk about women’s rights and achievements in higher education. We refuse to accept the apologists and opponents who claim there is nothing left to fight for as women are now the majority of staff and students. Universities may have lots of women, but in Bluestocking Week we are reminded that most campuses are still masculinist spaces with decision making power and disciplinary dominance in the traditional male areas. Women are still reporting discrimination and harassment as they make their way around campus. Gender continues to intersect with and compound the issues faced if we do not conform to being pale, male, middle class and middle aged. In the following pages, our Branches and Divisions report on some of this year’s Bluestocking Week events. For all listed NTEU Bluestocking Week events go to www.nteu.org.au/women/bluestockingweek/ events.
Northern Territory The NTEU NT Division celebrated Bluestocking Week with displays in the Charles Darwin University (CDU) library. A morning tea on the Casuarina Campus on 12 August drew a great crowd, with 60 staff attending. Drawing on the ‘spin a yarn’ theme, the morning tea and display saw women sharing their stories. MC Sylvia Klonaris spoke about the history and relevance of Bluestocking Week. Guest speaker Cathy Spurr from Halfpenny Lawyers, and a CDU graduate, described her experiences working in a professional environment. Stories from women in the academic and research areas of CDU, including by Dr Linda Hudson and Dr Birut Zemits, were shared. A lucky door prize was on offer and the event was a great success in promoting the NTEU and women working in universities. Below: Bluestocking Week celebrations at CDU.
bluestocking week University of NSW UNSW celebrated Bluestocking Week with a Women’s Caucus lunch. It was great to catch up and discuss what we might do to progress equity issues on campus. From our discussions at the meeting, we have agreed to collaborate on a survey to elicit information/stats about women’s experiences of employment issues such as promotion and leave taking; to do a formal application for statistics about pay equity, promotion outcomes etc.; and to press for the appointment of a UNSW gender equity officer who would be responsible for genuine improvements in gender outcomes. In the meantime, it is Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reporting time and NTEU representatives will be meeting with UNSW representatives to hear an update on their gender equity initiatives.
Tasmania Our UTAS members and students had a great Bluestocking Week. Starting with Cloaking Confucius, UTAS women got into the spirit of Bluestocking Week by decorating a male university statue in the central area of the Sandy Bay campus with a hand-knitted shawl and custom-made bluestockings. Another highlight was the ‘Beehives and Bluestockings’ movie night that also raised funds for the Malala Foundation. Held at the Stanley Burbury Theatre, movie-goers watched Made in Dagenham (from the director of Calendar Girls) and celebrated Bluestocking Week with drinks and nibbles – dressed in 1960s style and paired with blue stockings! Other Bluestocking Week events included Geek Girl coffees which celebrated women in STEM industries, a Stitch ‘n’ Bitch hand-made blanket making session (to be donated to the Hobart women’s shelter) and a high tea and comedy event on the Launceston campus featuring comedian Kerri Gay. This event, a joint effort between the NTEU and the student union (TUU), was the first northern Tassie Bluestocking Week event for a long while. Together with the Malala fundraising movie night, our fantastic UTAS members raised almost $1000.
Storylines of women in higher education and research
Authorised by G McCulloch, National Tertiary Education Union, 120 Clarendon St, South Melbourne VIC 3205
Western Australia NTEU members were tangled up in blue at Murdoch University with a Walk on Country led by local Noongar elder Marie Taylor. Other WA events included the planting of a ceremonial tree, a yarn-spinning session and a ‘knit-in’ for a banner highlighting domestic violence. As part of Bluestocking Week an appeal to support Uniting Care West, which runs shelters and provides goods and help to the homeless, brought in appreciable donations of goods such as clothing, toiletries and toys. continued overpage...
Top: The 2015 Bluestocking Week poster, designed by Maryann Long. Bottom: UTAS members showing off their bluestockings. VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
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bluestocking SECTIONweek
Adelaide Bluestocking Dinner
Monash University
support from the NTEU, the students also organised a most successful trivia night.
A full crowd attended the second South Australian Division second annual Bluestocking Week dinner on 13 August at a Thai bistro on Rundle Street. The dinner was hosted by Janet Giles, immediate past Secretary of SA Unions, and featured guest speakers NTEU National President Jeannie Rea and Mia Handshin, an Adelaide-based political activist who ran as the Labor candidate in the seat of Sturt against current Education Minister Christopher Pyne in the 2007 federal election.
The women’s and education officers from Monash Student Association organised a well-attended two hour forum debating whether women’s and gender studies should be mainstreamed or also available separately. Speaking of their experiences, weighing in on the debate and fielding questions from the audience were Dean of Arts and labour historian Professor Rae Frances, International Relations lecturer Dr Swati Parashar, NTEU National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Organiser Celeste Liddle, and Jeannie Rea. With
www.nteu.org.au/bluestockingweek
Following on from Janet’s lively introductions and Jeannie’s passionate words about the current climate for women in higher education, Mia spun her own ‘yarn’ with us, sharing both the joyous and difficult situations she has faced in her own education and career path as she reached her current position as the Presiding Member of the board of the South Australian Environment Protection Authority. The dinner was also a fundraiser for the SA Working Women’s Centre where a portion of every ticket sold and the $250 in raffle ticket sales will help to support the important work they do locally and in East Timor. Great food and lively conversation capped off a fantastic evening enjoyed by all.
QUT At the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), women celebrated Bluestocking Week by spinning yarns over drinks and finger food during an evening with guests including Jeannie Rea, QCU Assistant General Secretary Ros McLennan, A&TSI staff representative Mandanarra Bayles, and QUT student Asher Dixon, who expressed her experience through modern dance. The Union Choir joined in the fun, all assisted by the QUT Women’s Collective who ensured a good time was had by all.
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
Contributors: Jeannie Rea, Terri MacDonald, Sylvia Klonaris (CDU), Kiraz Janicke (UNSW), Miranda Jamieson (UTAS), Marty Braithwaite (WA), Jennifer Fane (Flinders) and Carolyn Cope (QUT) Top: Jeannie Rea addresses the Adelaide Bluestocking Week dinner. Below: Artwork for Monash Student Association’s History Herstory, designed by Kate Pullen; Carolyn Cope, Kate Derrington and Isabella Derrington at the QUT Bluestocking event.
Bluestocking week
Finding the stories of the women who made UQ As Vice President (Gender and Sexuality) of the University of Queensland (UQ) student union, I spearheaded a project to uncover some of the forgotten women of UQ’s past and honour their lives and work, especially their invaluable contributions to my university’s rich history. I made use of myriad resources including books, UQ’s online archives, the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and more to discover details about UQ’s past and present and the women who have played a role in shaping it. In many ways, this was a journey through ‘firsts’: UQ’s first woman professor, first woman lecturer, first woman tutor, and many others, including Thelma Atkin, ‘typiste and confidential secretary’ for 44 years, all of them chipping away at the glass ceiling that still hangs over universities today. Reading about the experiences of the women who have come before me in the world of academia truly highlighted how women necessarily and endlessly serve as the trailblazers in so many fields, right up until the present day. A woman who would prefer a quiet life in academia may find herself thrust into the spotlight simply by being the first woman to hold a particular position in her field, as I found with many of the women academics I researched. Some were not moved to comment on gender issues at all, while others become persistent voices for women in academia, and yet others were passionate and vocal feminist activists. Regardless of their political and social activities, each of these women
was an asset to UQ and deserves to be read about and remembered. Notably, UQ is where Australia’s first woman professor, Dorothy Hill, served. She was an outstanding student in geology, graduating with first class honours and completing a PhD at Cambridge University before returning to Australia and continuing her academic career here. Hill was committed to building up the quality of tertiary education available in this country, especially for women, and forfeited many potentially lucrative opportunities overseas to contribute to academia in Australia. She was a Professor of Geology at UQ from 1959 until 1972, and her contributions to UQ’s rich academic fabric are many. After researching the lives and work of seven UQ women for this project and collating the information, I created a series of posters. During Bluestocking Week, these were displayed in the foyer of the various sandstone buildings around UQ’s Great Court; one poster was displayed in each building, and for the duration of the week that building was ‘re-named’ after a UQ Bluestocking woman. Students and staff
came together for a tour of the buildings during which we heard historical facts and anecdotes about UQ women from the past and present, and were prompted to re-think UQ’s history and the vital role that women played in it. As we look towards a brighter future for Australian women in higher education, it is vital to remember and honour the women whose shoulders we stand on. Amy Jelacic, Vice President (Gender and Sexuality), UQU Above: Amy with one of her posters.
Below: NTEU members at Murdoch University on a Walk on Country led by local Noongar elder Marie Taylor.
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Women in Higher Education. Now.
Jeannie rea jrea@nteu.org.au
When the NTEU Women’s Action Committee (WAC) was considering a theme for our biennial National Women’s Conference (7-8 August 2015), we kept coming back to our collective frustration that even though women are now the majority of staff and students in universities, it still feels as though women are a minority with limited voice and agency. Therefore the 2015 conference was themed around the issues confronting women in higher education and asked the important question – what do we want now? The conference sought to reframe the narrative and encourage women to reclaim and enact their own agency. Women want to address the expectations that are made of them, both within our universities and more broadly, and question whether these are realistic or even what we want. The view that women must work twice as hard to do half as well as their male counterparts only excuses a system where inequity remains stubbornly ingrained.
Where are the women now? We asked the opening panel to consider ‘Where are the women now?’, with particular reference to their own experience and areas of expertise. Professor Sharon Bell, DVC at Charles Darwin University who is currently completing an ARC Linkage Project on women in the science research workforce, set the scene recalling the 1990 report Fair Chance for All, which tackled the dilemma that women comprised 51 per cent of students but only 34 per cent of higher degree students. In 2015, women are well over half the undergraduates and approaching half of higher degree candidates. The issue identified back in 1990 was that women continued to enrol in traditionally female courses and disciplines. Fair Chance for All had noted that population parity participation was not sufficient in itself and recommended addressing gender equity by setting (modest) targets to increase the proportion of women in non-traditional courses. However, while enrolments have increased there is still a long way to go (see report, p. 13).
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Rose Steele, President of the National Union of Students (NUS), then told her story of coming to university and being transformed by what she was studying, only to find that the university was planning to close down her areas of study in art history and gender studies. Rose also spoke of young women students today not being heard, of not being safe on campus and still hearing too much from pale male points of view. Delegates from NTEU Branches across Australia, women of different generations nodded along, recognised what Rose was talking about, but were dismayed that things had not changed as much as they had hoped (see report, p. 15). Liberty Sanger, a principal lawyer with Maurice Blackburn just back from parental leave wryly noted that while she had achieved much in her career to date, realised that things were going to be quite different now she had a child. Liberty though was upbeat about the breakthroughs feminists have made in legal and legislative reform, noting too the NTEU achievements
on the industrial front including pioneering paid parental leave (see report, p. 12).
Breaking down the bromance Later in the day delegates looked at the problem of how we can recognise and usurp the culture of ‘blokes looking after blokes’, and other annoying phenomena like ‘mansplaining’, where men tell us what we need to know, ignoring what we say. Celeste Liddle, NTEU National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Organiser focused upon the intersections of race and gender and the problem of the ‘old white dudes’, who still dominate our universities and public life (see report, p. 20). Retired NTEU Queensland Division Secretary, Margaret Lee took us back to her days with the miners’ union, but also looked at organising strategies we could take on today. Michelle Broecker from Swinburne University told us the fascinating and highly instructive story of getting domestic
women’s conference violence support clauses into the Swinburne Collective Agreement. Michelle had approached the vice-chancellor before bargaining commenced and worked thoroughly and tirelessly to keep it on the Union and University bargaining agenda (see report, p. 27).
Workshops Day 1 also featured workshops focussed upon career issues: superannuation with Katie Frazer and Danielle Clarke from UniSuper; a very popular session on change management and impact on women with NTEU Industrial Coordinator Sarah Roberts; advice for those in and organising on insecure work with Dr Robyn May who wrote her PhD thesis on academic casualisation; and paid parental leave and return to work with National Industrial Officer Susan Kenna. Delegates chose amongst some practical workshops on mentoring with Sally Thompson, Women’s Officer with the Australian Education Union; ‘writing your own story’ with NTEU Education Officer Helena Spyrou; and tips for public speaking with NTEU Industrial Officer Linda Gale. (Notes from these and all sessions are available on the conference website.) The day finished with a presentation from NTEU General Secretary, Grahame McCulloch on what is happening with changes to UniSuper. The conference dinner that evening also served as the national launch of 2015 Bluestocking Week by the National President. Delegates and guests were entertained by popular feminist comedian, Monica Dullard.
Intersectionality Bright and early on Saturday morning, delegates focused upon challenging the patriarchal westernised canon. This plenary considered how far have women got and what role universities are playing in challenging and reinforcing the status quo.
The particular focus was upon intersectionality and this was vigorously taken up all speakers, Dr Sandra Grey, President, NZ Tertiary Education Union (see report, p. 16); Virginia Mansel Lees, convenor NTEU Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education (QUTE) caucus and National Executive member; and Dr Carolyn D’Cruz, Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics and Philosophy, La Trobe University. The session was chaired by Associate Professor Alison Bartlett (UWA).
Women in Unions Women now join unions at a greater rate than men, and we have many more women activists and leaders at all levels. However, gender equity within unions continues to be an issue as Associate Professor Rae Cooper from the University of Sydney explained. Rae has researched on women and unions for years, but recently interviewed national secretaries about their views towards women members and leadership. She spoke about her findings and the implications (see report, p. 14). Jennifer O’Donnell-Pirisi, who recently finished working as the Victorian Trades Hall Women’s Officer, spoke of the important role dedicated women’s officers play in organising for and about women.
Q&A: If we ran the university A panel representing women in different positions in universities was asked the question, ‘What would you do if you were VC for a day?’ This was the opening question in a Q&A session which could have gone on for hours! Participating were Professor Margaret Sims, NTEU UNE Branch President; Jennifer Fane, Flinders University academic and WAC member; Joanne Ruksenas, CAPA Women’s Officer; Gabe Gooding, NTEU WA Division Secretary; and Mali Rea, Monash Student Association Education Officer and undergraduate student (see report, p. 18). The conference finished with workshops and a plenary identifying issues and a focus on ongoing NTEU work for and with women. Delegates identified job insecurity and workloads (noting connections to the campaign against the Coalition Government’s funding cuts and deregulation agenda), career progression, safety on campus and the need to make women more visible on campus as the key issues. Jeannie Rea, National President For details of final outcomes as well as presentations, notes and readings go to www. nteu.org.au/women/conference/2015.
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Where are women now?
Rachael Bahl
ACT Division Secretary
According to Liberty Sanger, Principal, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, women are everywhere – but there are not enough of them! Speaking to the 2015 NTEU Women’s Conference, Liberty informed us only 10 per cent of senior managers are women, 26 per cent of vice-chancellors, and in union leadership 40 per cent are women. Liberty noted that if you looked at the recent Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting and leaders’ retreat photo, you’d be forgiven for thinking there were very few women in politics; Annastacia Palaszczuk was the sole woman leader amongst nine male leaders. What can we do? It’s important to acknowledge how far we’ve come. In 1999 only 28 per cent of union leaders were women. Unions continue to introduce policies that support women. Some may seem strange at first, but soon become ‘normal’. Paid parental leave is a recent example. Domestic violence leave may soon be another. Women need to lead. Liberty encouraged us to embrace quotas and affirmative action because they work to get women into leadership positions. The ALP’s affirmative action policy is one example. The work of Martin Parkinson in the Federal Treasury Department is another. Quotas worked to get more women on boards in Norway. We need to engage with our ‘brothers’. We do not need to be ‘rescued’, but groups like Male Champions of Change work to change perspectives. As their website says: ‘…Male Champions of Change (MCC) use their individual and collective leadership to elevate gender equality as an issue of national and international social and economic importance. We listen, learn and lead with action to achieve significant and sustainable change…’ MCC is about men and how they can contribute to this debate. As former Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison said, ‘The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.’ This is not a ‘women’s issue’, it is a sustainable leadership issue. Organisations that are strong on diversity make better decisions and have better financial
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outcomes. We need to change the way we work. Liberty acknowledged that before she had her baby, she worked like a man. Liberty referred to the work of Annabel Crabb in her recent book The Wife Drought. How can men embrace more flexible work patterns and more care-giving roles? What’s the impact of the gender pay gap in the roles men and women choose? We need to work to address the pay equity gap. The recent initiative by ANZ to ‘top up’ super contributions for eligible female staff is a start, but more needs to be done. Women do seem to approach things with a sense of humour. Liberty confessed: ‘… after thirteen weeks of parenthood I still don’t have all the answers. Can you believe it?!’. NTEU women laughed along with Liberty. Those of us who are parents know how it is. Where are women now? In the NTEU, supporting each other. Rachael Bahl, NTEU ACT Division Secretary
Liberty Sanger is a Principal, Board member and Practice Group Leader at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers. Liberty is a ‘self-confessed committed unionist and opinionated chatterbox’. Liberty regularly voices her views on The Friday Wrap with Jon Faine on 774 Melbourne radio and by reviewing newspapers on ABC News Breakfast with Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland. Related links: Dr Martin Parkinson PSM, Treasury’s Progressing Women Initiative: Fostering Cultural Change Over The Long Term, www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/ Speeches/2012/Fostering-cultural-change. Male Champions of Change, malechampionsofchange. com. Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison, Message about unacceptable behaviour, youtu.be/ QaqpoeVgr8U. ‘Firms face calls to improve gender pay gap’, www. news.com.au/finance/business/gender-the-main-reasonfor-pay-gap-report/story-e6frfkur-1227461000729.
women’s conference
job security impedes women in science
wendy giles ECU
Speaking to the NTEU Women’s Conference, Professor Sharon Bell, Deputy-Vice Chancellor at Charles Darwin University, applauded women’s growing participation and success in higher education, but warned that the semblance of parity disguises persistent patterns of inequality. Women remain concentrated in the traditional female areas of study and the limits to our success in gaining and progressing through academic careers unfortunately shows that women have not taken over the academy. Professor Bell’s own career is indicative of the more circuitous paths that even women who gain senior positions have travelled. She calls herself a ‘second wave feminist’, and is very proud that she gained her first ARC grant at the age of 60. Originally an anthropologist and film maker, she is particularly known for her research on women in science. Unfortunately, even in science where there is a semblance of equal participation at undergraduate levels, the figures are misleading, as most women are in the traditional so-called ‘soft’ areas of science such as biology. Affirmative action targets appear to have fallen off the equity agenda, and there have only been small incremental increases in the number of women in non-traditional areas, and in senior positions of influence and esteem. The nature of employment practices has increased the numbers of women employed in precarious academic positions (casual and fixed term). There are income gaps between men and women who are employed full-time, especially pronounced in the higher income categories. Males reach higher income categories at a younger age and a small but stable proportion of females remain in the lower income categories for all ages, whereas for males this group diminishes steadily. In the marathon which is a research career, extended leave (such as parental leave) and domestic duties hold women back. Current research by Professor Bell and others on an ARC Linkage Grant, ‘Women in science research workforce’ looked at
institutes do not change, this disjunction will increase.’
what opportunities exist, for whom and in what professional contexts. Their findings are that ‘there is a pressing need for a more nuanced understanding of critical decisionmaking processes including: • The rapidly changing nature of employment practices. • The demand for flexible and less linear career options. • The diversity of career destinations and evidence as to whether skills and knowledge gained in advanced education and training are utilised. • The push-pull factors of organisational cultures. • Career mobility between the academy, government and industry. ‘The research tells us that there are significant generational differences emerging with regards to changing patterns of employment by sector. There is currently a significant disjunction between postgraduate aspirations and the reality of employment opportunities that differentially impacts on women as education and training has historically been the primary industry of employment for women with advanced qualifications in these fields. If the rate of growth in the postgraduate qualified population continues and employment practices in universities and research
She emphasised, ‘improved job security was identified by project survey respondents as the single factor that that would make a difference to achieve greater job satisfaction. Less than half the respondents to the project survey were employed in fulltime, continuing positions, with males constituting the majority in this employment category. Women outnumbered men in the employment category full-time, fixed-term contracts and in the part-time and casual categories. ‘Patterns of women’s and men’s participation are differentiated by industry, with women predominantly employed in the education and health sectors, and men in scientific and technical industries and manufacturing.’ Women are employed in a wider range of roles than men, indicative of adaptive strategies to fit life circumstances, especially in the mid-career phase. The professional contexts of the biological and biomedical sciences are very different to those of the chemistry related industries indicating that ‘whole of science’ strategies may need to be nuanced to ensure the most effective approach to change.’ Professor Bell’s presentation was given via Skype as her flight from Darwin had been cancelled at late notice, but it was inspiring nonetheless. Her many publications are well worth reading to gain an understanding of the current situation for women. The new research report will be out next month. Wendy Giles, WAC member, ECU Further reading: www.nteu.org.au/women/ conference/2015 VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
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More women at work & in unions, but...
carolyn cope QUT
The typical Australian unionist today is a middle aged women with tertiary qualifications, yet unions are still associated with men in hard hats wielding tools. At the 2015 NTEU Women’s Conference Associate Professor Rae Cooper, Associate Dean, University of Sydney Business School and Deputy Director of the Women and Work Research Group, gave an interesting and in some ways concerning presentation on the results of some of her research and her recent interviews with union national secretaries regarding their views towards women members and leadership. Rae began by stating that there is still work for women to do. She suggested that we imagine the labour market as a house, with the floors dominated by women at lower level jobs, the walls containing the more feminised areas and the ceiling containing a smattering of women in senior and strategic positions. This is occurring even in the context of significant increases in women’s labour force participation. Associate Professor Cooper’s presentation showed that despite the closing gap in density, women are still more likely to be found in honorary positions rather than as full-time paid officials. Women are more likely to be employed in specialist positions, to take up appointed rather than elected positions and her overall conclusion was that the less power a position has the more likely it will be filled by a woman. The ACTU report of union actions towards equality indicates that there have been some improvements in the policies and structures, with 85 per cent of unions considering women’s priorities in bargaining
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and campaigns, and 50 per cent reporting that they are dedicating more resources to women’s organising, but there are still considerable gaps. Only one third of unions have a women’s officer and although two thirds have women’s committees few have women’s membership development activities such as training and conferences. It appears that most women officials believe their jobs are good, with purpose and can often be transformative . However many report they are still marginalised and experience both overt and covert sexism or ‘invisibility’ as a result of working in male dominated institutions. As part of the research, National Secretaries were questioned about the issues for women members of their unions and the experiences of women within their union. Issues were raised concerning women’s career paths and equality structures and suggestions made regarding cross union facilitated work including networking, mentoring support and sharing practice. Women Secretaries considered all these to
be essential issues while others, usually from the more male dominated industry unions saw no necessity to address them. Rae’s presentation clearly showed that gender remains a key issue and advanced a compelling argument for synergies for union campaigns and the reality of careers of union members. Her presentation made the women at the conference aware that as women in the NTEU we need to consider the position of women in our own union and to encourage them to stand for elected positions in Branches and Divisions. She showed that the danger is clear, lack of union density may result in problems with being seen as representative of the workers and that perhaps increased women’s membership could be the key to survival. We need to consider that while women’s participation and success in higher education has achieved an all-time high, the same could not be said of our participation and success in the work place. Carolyn Cope, WAC member, QUT
women’s conference
Being a woman student activist now Rose Steele NUS
Women know that they account for 60 per cent of students but when they look to academics and other staff further up the ladder this is not mirrored and there are less and less women as we go up. Without seeing that kind of representation it is hard to imagine yourself going further or breaking into particularly male dominated areas. I was not really aware of this until three years ago when I was invited to come to a campus Bluestocking Week event. It was my first introduction to Bluestocking Week and the women’s collective. The women leading the student union were the organisers. Utopia Girls was screened with an introduction by the writer and La Trobe University academic Claire Wright. Women’s achievements in higher education are so important to celebrate because they aren’t readily recognised and they do inspire, educate and unite us. My parents didn’t go to university but I was encouraged to do whatever I wanted. At high school I was interested in illustration and design although after burning out at VCE exams I decided to defer and instead travel and work. The full time work I did I truly hated and I found myself back at CAE doing short courses pretty soon. By the end of the year I was ready to enrol and at the last minute decided to study Arts at La Trobe University. I’d missed the challenge of essay writing and arguing. When on campus I wanted to do my classes and get out. Getting involved on campus (joining a club or whatever) wasn’t really something I was interested in. In my first semester I was amazed by Gender Studies and the women around me. I found more women spoke up in these classes than in politics or international relations, and even philosophy. Gender and Diversity Studies (GDS) was so important to my critical thinking and opened up a way of looking at history with a new lens. I changed my major to GDS and Art History as soon as I could. Before the end of semester however, the University announced huge cuts to the Arts faculty which would see the end of
of women university students in Australia. It will look at accommodation, safety, services, sexual assault, harassment and economic difficulties that women enrolled in tertiary education institutions face. The survey will be open from 3 August until 6 September 2015 and will be run online at www.nus. org.au/talk_about_it2015. The statistics from the last Talk About It survey should be of concern to all universities. Over two-thirds of respondents said that they had an unwanted sexual experience. Only 3 per cent of respondents who had experienced assault or harassment had reported it to their university and only 2 per cent reported it to the police. Religious Studies, Indonesian Studies as well as Art History and GDS. None of this was communicated to me as a student in these courses. The La Trobe Student Union called a meeting which was full – fuller than any lecture theatre I had seen and was the first time I had heard the full extent of the cuts. It was infuriating. But we were all angry and we had direction. We waged a massive campaign and with the NTEU, reduced the extent of the cuts.
Talk About It survey As women students on campus it is not only our areas of study that we have to protect. Women’s safety on campus is still a huge issue from lighting to college culture to reporting. The National Union of Students (NUS) is running the Talk About It survey again in 2015. The Talk About It survey aims to gather information about the experiences
Safety on campus is a worldwide issue for women students. In the US, for example, a new documentary by Amy Ziering called The Hunting Ground illuminates the experiences of women on university campuses in a way that is disturbingly similar to the trends in Australia. Despite assurances from universities after the last survey that they would be addressing the issues of women’s safety, unfortunately little seems to have changed. We are encouraging as many students as possible to complete the survey. And we look forward to talking about the outcomes with the NTEU. Rose Steele is National Union of Students President. Rose spoke in the first session of the NTEU Women’s Conference where we asked ‘where are the women now? She spoke of her experience of becoming involved in student politics through organising with and for women.
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Challenging the power of ‘rich white guys in suits’
Sandra Grey TEU President
A few months ago the New Zealand Tertiary Education Union (TEU) found itself having to campaign for staff to have seats on university councils because the Keys Government removed our legislated right to places on those seats. Very quickly we were holding meetings with Sir Jim, Sir Robin, Sir Neville, and, well you get the picture. The power pyramid of the tertiary education sector is definitely one that has ‘rich white guys in suits’ at the top. All eight university chancellors are men. The dominance of men in tertiary education councils looks set to continue, with the Minister of Tertiary Education, Steven Joyce (yes, a rich white guy in a suit) this month reappointing 15 council members to tertiary education councils, 12 of them men. What the recent meetings with the Sir Jims and Sir Nevilles demonstrated (yet again) was that race, class, gender, and sexuality matter in New Zealand. The bottom of tertiary education’s power pyramid is dominated by women (around 60 per cent of undergraduates are women) and the top by men (with 75.6 per cent of professors and associate professors are men) (Census of Women’s Participation 2012). Even in the New Zealand union movement, a place where feminist critiques of patriarchal power should have had some influence, most union members are women but 60 per cent of the top jobs are held by men. These power pyramids would look worse if we took into account race, class, and sexuality. There are no easily accessible statistics in New Zealand; something that our universities and government need to fix. But even on this one structural inequality – gender – there is an urgent need for public critique and ongoing action. It is sad is that the voices critiquing the power pyramids in tertiary education seem to have been dulled. Despite the legislated
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‘critic and conscience’ function for New Zealand universities, despite academic freedom, despite the existence of unions in the tertiary education sector, there seems to a paucity of public critiques of the gendered hierarchies continuing to dominate our world. Why? There are three main reasons: • The economic focus foisted upon the tertiary education sector. • A climate of fear. • Notions that New Zealand is a meritocracy where individuals are responsible for their own achievements and, of course, failings.
POWER structures There is no doubt that mechanical efficiency – the drive to get more bang for the buck – and the ‘economic efficiency and labour market productivity’ goals set out by the Government for tertiary education are impacting on the critic and conscience function of universities. This has seen smaller classes, including many gender and women’s studies courses, cut from universities. So we have lost the very spaces where we examined gendered hierarchies on a daily basis; spaces set up to in-and-of themselves challenge the patriarchy which dominates education.
women’s conference The economic focus leads us to reject non-core business (research published in peer-reviewed journals), leading academics to abandon working with communities. Again critics of existing power structures have gone silent. No more working with the local feminist collective writing reports or doing action research.
climate of fear As I noted above, a climate of fear is also present in New Zealand. Research shows scientists feel gagged, and community and voluntary sector organisations that have always spoken for marginalised New Zealanders fear speaking out. Anyone who has criticised the Government or power holders in New Zealand in recent years has found herself publicly attacked or disparaged. Advocacy and critique it seems are not a welcome part of the New Zealand democracy. In fact, even the Prime Minister’s chief scientist, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, has taken issue with advocacy work by scientists. Gluckman last year argued New Zealand needs a new code of ethics because too many scientists are doing advocacy on issues, not ‘objective’ science.
meritocracy? Finally the individual responsibility and meritocracy ideologies that are dominant in New Zealand affect how we view people’s individual successes and failures. The ‘ideal academic’ is a male construction. In academic institutions women find themselves being advised to take ‘voice training’ and ‘stop doing pastoral care work’ if they want to be successful. But rather than tackling the gendered power structures, it is up to individual women to mend their ways if they wish to succeed.
FIGHT the power Given that the problem for feminist, socialist, indigenous, queer voices – the problem for anyone wanting to publicly challenge the power of the ‘rich white men in suits’ – is that we are constrained by the environment; by fear; and by narratives about individual responsibility and merit, where do we turn?
down oppression. This includes ensuring that in department meetings we don’t leave our colleagues hanging. I am sure there are a number of you reading this article who remember that meeting where you critiqued the actions of your university and watched as your colleagues suddenly found the ceiling tiles immensely fascinating. This cannot continue, we must all take collective responsibility for quality public tertiary education. Secondly, we need to make sure there are safe collective spaces in which women and other marginalised groups can work free from the gaze of ‘the rich white guys in suits’. At Education International’s 7th World Congress recently I was irritated by the fact that men not only attended the women’s caucus, but dominated the speaking times. It is important that when the power pyramids have the ‘rich white guys in suits’ at the top, we protect women only, indigenous only, and queer only spaces.
What challenges are open to us?
Third, while having our own safe spaces is crucial to fight against power and privilege, so too is infiltrating their space. We need to ensure women are elected onto decisionmaking bodies, onto university councils and academic boards and so on.
Firstly, if their world is one dominated by individualism, a clear challenge to those in power is for the rest of us to ‘run in pack’. We need to reclaim collective spaces large and small. We need to join with students, communities, and other unions, to break
Fourth, if we are to find the spaces to use feminist ideals, queer theorising, indigenous knowledge, and anti-capitalist frames to challenge the world then we will have to claim back our autonomy as a profession to decide the boundaries of ‘what is good
work’. This means reclaiming the critic and conscience function legislated for university staff and students. If our analysis shows harm to a group, then advocacy is not only acceptable, it is demanded of us. We need to reassert the value of academics working with communities, and reclaim their speaking to and working with those communities as a legitimate form of knowledge dissemination. These important spaces which link marginalised communities with those of us privileged enough to work in universities are essential for challenging power. Fifth, we must also make sure so-called ‘women’s work’ is valued. Pastoral care is essential to education. While women should not be compelled to take on pastoral care, we need to make sure that the work is seen as valuable as peer-reviewed journal articles and keynote addresses. Sandra Grey, National President, New Zealand Tertiary Education Union Above: Old white guys in suits. Source: Wikipedia. Opposite: Sandra Grey at 2015 NTEU Women’s Conference. Photo by Terri MacDonald.
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If I was VC for a day… A Q&A session at the 2015 Women’s Conference was devoted to the question ‘What would you do if you were vice-chancellor for the day?’ The panel included Gabe Gooding NTEU WA Division Secretary and Mali Rea, Monash Student Association Education Officer.
VC Gabe Gooding
from now on there are only two allowable categories of fixed term employment; those replacing another worker on leave, and those who are genuinely externally funded. For research staff I can see no reason why you can’t be employed on a contract that is as long as the life of your grant. In addition, if you’ve had research grant money funding you for five years, that’s also grounds for conversion to an ongoing role. For everybody else, if you have had two consecutive contracts and been employed doing the same work for two years or more, in my world, you’re an on-going employee.
If I was VC for a day I would probably need to get a hair-cut and spruce up my wardrobe as I would know as a female Vice Chancellor that there would be as much commentary on my personal appearance as on my contribution. As a woman VC I am also conscious of the way in which men dominate my leadership team, so a quick early executive team meeting is on my agenda. I’ll line them up, get every second male to step forward and I will accept their resignation. I will then immediately appoint their long serving senior assistant who is almost certainly a woman who is under recognised and knows as much, if not more, about the job than their boss did. So now I have an executive team dominated by women and the way in which we approach decisions will change as a result. The thing that would make absolutely the biggest change to the universities in the long term could probably not be accomplished in a day, but I would make a start – and that’s the governance structures. I’d write to the Government and the Governor and request that they replace their big business mining company reps on university senates and councils with women from higher education and the community sector. If we can dominate the decision making bodies we can make a long term change. I would reduce the power of the deans by re-empowering faculty and school committees, and I would ensure genuine general and professional staff participation. As VC I’m also conscious of the important role that the Union plays in providing a representative voice, and I have never relinquished my union membership as I rose through the ranks, so I will issue an all-staff email explaining how useful my union membership has been to me during my working life, how the university understands and values the role that the Union plays, and that I believe that the Union is central to university life. I’d also mandate that the Union attends all new-staff inductions.
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My next big meeting is with all the deans and heads of units, and it’s a pretty simple request I have for them. I want all workload allocations for both academic and general staff to be demonstrably able to be performed in a standard working week. It’s quite a simple message for them, but I’ll have allowed a bit of time for it as I’m fairly sure many will not understand the concept: if the work can’t be done in a standard working week, the work can’t be done. If you don’t have the staff to do the job, then you need to rethink what is important and choose what you want done. As a woman who has managed to get to the top of my university I have almost certainly had breaks in my employment and periods of extended job insecurity, and I understand the impact that this has personally and on the family lives of those affected. So it’s a simple solution again, I can immediately convert all my long standing casual and sessional employees to on-going status - if you’ve been engaged in regular employment as a casual for two years or more, guess what ‘you’re not really casual’. I’m also concerned about the toll that repeated fixed term contracts take on the employees, so I am going to mandate that
At a stroke of my pen I have protected a great swathe of the employees at my institution from the perils of insecure employment, and yes there may be some costs, but in the long run the huge improvements in morale, dedication and commitment will more than offset the marginal costs to my bottom line. While I’m on the subject of costs, as my day is drawing to a close, so I’m going to make an immediate budgetary saving. I am going to eliminate all those expensive external consultants. Also we will have no more trivialising marketing slogans, nor will students be referred to as clients or customers. My day as VC is almost done, and I’ve managed to: reshape the executive leadership team; embed women and the community sector in governance structures and reduce the impact of big business; place the Union back on a strong footing; ensure participatory decision making; put a brake on the greedy organisational culture by limiting workloads to that which is not only reasonable but doable; return the commitment of the staff by virtually eliminating insecure work; sack the marketers; and turned students back into students. Gabe Gooding is NTEU WA Division Secretary and a former senior scientific officer at UWA. There was broad consensus that the sooner Gabe Gooding is a VC the better for staff, students and the university!
women’s conference
VC Mali Rea Firstly I would give 100 per cent of the SSAF to the student unions, because students know what ‘services and amenities’ students need. This would also stop student unions from having to wonder whether it is worth fighting the university when it means getting their funding cut. I would give more central space to the unions on campus, because space is important and it’s political. I would also stop any building facelift plans and instead re-direct the funds into employing staff and necessary maintenance like fixing the emergency phones and lighting. I would stop all investments in fossil fuels, private military companies and private security companies, because universities should know better than anyone how bad fossil fuels are and how morally bankrupt private military and security companies are. Then, I would cut my own salary. Mali Rea, Monash University student
Agenda also asked some of the conference delegates what they would do if they were VC for a day.
get any contractual work or not, making it difficult for them to plan financially or to know if they should be applying for jobs elsewhere. They like the work they do and they do it really well. They get awards for it but they are an insecure workforce at the mercy of university policy.
VC jo-ann whalley
At Monash Law our sessional budget is very large and we continue to employ so many people because of the mantra of flexibility. So flexibility needs to be balanced with fairness for staff and we need to start valuing staff adequately.
I think that I would try very hard to make Murdoch stand out from the crowd. Rather than following the same old path ‘We’re a research-active institution, blah, blah, blah,’ I’d actually say we’re a university that is going to embrace new technology, new ways of doing things, new ways of work, and we’re going to put forward an exemplary people-focused culture. We’re going to live it, breath it, and we’re going to stand out from the crowd.
Karen Wheelwright, Monash University
Jo-Ann Whalley, Murdoch University
VC wendy giles
VC jenny johnston
The first thing I would do is put solar panels on every roof, and wind turbines on the campus. I’d also look at the gendered disciplines such as nursing and education and make sure they were the focus of research, and also more permanent work, because they are becoming much more sessionalised now.
If I could give one message to the vicechancellor that I was assured he would get and understand, it would be this idea that the staff in his university are its biggest asset, and he needs to treat the staff with due care and respect, and this is not happening at the moment.
Wendy Giles, Edith Cowan University
VC karen wheelwright
VC MIRANDA MORTLOCK
I would ask the Deans of every faculty to examine their sessional workforces and every sessional who had been working for three years and who were achieving the goals of sessional teaching would be given ongoing employment with proper conditions, with paid sick leave and annual leave, and be properly valued. In the Law Faculty many excellent staff who have been teaching continuously between five and ten years. They are undervalued and totally insecure: they do not know until the end of each year whether they are going to
There are too many eligibility restrictions on the grants process for researchers and for teaching research academics. We need research grants to be more flexible, because there are people who are much older. Their PhDs were long ago. They have been in a different sector and they are just ineligible for a lot of grants. We need to be much more flexible about what is available for people. They’re coming into the university, they bring with them a lot of experience. This impacts upon women more than men. Miranda Mortlock, University of Queensland
Jenny Johnston, Southern Cross University
VC Sophie Vassalo Stop casualising staff would be the first one. Come out against fee deregulation. Bring back gender studies would be my third act for the day. Then ensure democratic representation of students and students on university council. And then get rid of SSAF, and bring back compulsory student unionism. Sophie Vassalo, Monash University Student Association Women’s Officer Above: UNE Branch President Margaret Sims at Women’s Conference. Opposite: Gabe Gooding. Photos by Terri MacDonald.
VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
19
interSECTIONality SECTION
Intersectionality in the academy
Celeste Liddle
NTEU A&TSI Organiser
At the recent NTEU Women’s Conference, the continual tendency of universities to be bastions of elite white male supremacy took up much of the discussion. During the panel on ‘Breaking up the Bromance’, the idea that men look after men within the sector leading to a power dynamic which reflects neither the staff nor the student body was explored in depth. Likewise, a panel on the second day entitled ‘Challenging the patriarchal westernised canon through our universities now’ made it only too clear who it is felt is running the academic agenda through our universities at this point in time. The idea that universities would benefit greatly from the injection of some more equitable ideals is nothing new. Yet despite years of policy, the A Fair Go For All paper, the Behrendt Review, governmental equity measures and the like, these ideas remain very much a ‘work in progress’. Women have been entering university as students at a higher rate than men for a while now, and work within the sector at higher rates too. Our membership reflects this trend. Yet despite this fact, white males dominating the top positions appear to be a foregone conclusion.
Gender and race in the academy It becomes even more pronounced when looking at the intersection of gender and race in the academy. While female academics tend to get stuck at Level C, when examining the membership statistics of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women working as academics, 25 per cent of them are stuck on level B step 6. By comparison, Aboriginal male academics are more likely to be on level C and hold higher levels at a much higher rate. This disparity becomes even more pronounced when you consider that Aboriginal women have been entering the sector, both as students and staff, at double the rate that men have. How do these intersections affect employment levels then extrapolate to other racially marginalised women? Or women who are not heterosexual? Or women with disabilities?
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
The demise of women’s studies In the past few years, we have seen many of the women’s and gender studies departments, which were hard fought for in the 70s and created a body of knowledge never seen before both with the universities and more broadly in society, be slowly eroded and shut down. Women’s studies discipline groups now only exist in a couple of universities, and even then, many have had their course loads and majors whittled down. Of course, there is the argument that the inclusion of knowledges specific to women’s experiences and understandings is a task that sits across all disciplines rather than in a specific department. There is some truth to this: women’s experiences are not
Above: Alma Mater statue by sculptor Lorado Taft, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Photo by Prof. Jefferson S Rogers, used with permission.
marginal due to the simple fact that we make up over 50 per cent of society and should be recognised as such. That we are continually, regardless of the subject area, understood through a white masculine lens though is wrong. Yet simply dissolving women’s and gender studies areas will not achieve this diversification of knowledges across the entire university. Rather it simply reinforces the idea that there is no longer a need to cast a gendered lens over knowledge and power and therefore be more inclusive. Women’s and gender studies units not only
interSECTIONality
produce knowledge and research in their own right, but they also act as a checkand-balance in other areas of the university helping to hold it accountable. It is hard not to see the loss of many of these areas cynically; they are gone because the sheer existence of them challenged the preferred dynamics of the universities. The loss of such areas only serves to reinforce the idea that the white male on campus is the social default and anything else is an aberration. The continual threats by the current government to cut funding and deregulate the industry are going to harm people who are already the most excluded. Minister Pyne’s answer to the idea that women would be more disadvantaged by the deregulation of fees due to the fact that they earn less on graduation and were more likely to have broken careers due to child rearing was to state that women are more likely to do cheaper courses like teaching and nursing whereas men do law and medicine. Whilst it is completely fair to mock this ridiculous statement made by our current Minister for higher education, his statement was, unfortunately, a reasonable
assessment of where a woman’s place within the academy is perceived to be. And this place is of course limited to white women, for within these same feminised discipline areas, the politics of race and class still operate. To speak of Intersectionality nowadays can lead to being met with derision. It doesn’t seem to take very long after introducing concepts of equity to the table before these concepts are met with discussions of ‘merit’, as if the idea of merit is a completely neutral one not based on the current power stratifications. Yet as far as unions go, the NTEU has led the way in many areas. The NTEU was one of the first unions to include domestic violence leave as part of the log of claims, the paid parental leave provisions are the best in the country and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation is included at every level of the Union.
men. The sheer physicality of this speaks volumes, not just to women on campus, but particularly to women of colour who have even less of a place. We are a long way off being able to do away with celebrations that highlight these gendered disparities on campus such as Bluestocking Week. Yet while we highlight the issues of women on campus, we must ensure that we are taking an intersectional approach. Engaging in the politics of Intersectionality ensures that there is a real opportunity to start dismantling the white privileged male dynamic currently in place in the sector. By doing this, everyone who has traditionally been excluded stands to benefit. Celeste Liddle, NTEU Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Organiser
Yet it speaks volumes when, as part of Bluestocking Week, the student union of the University of Queensland is able to go around the campus renaming buildings because despite the number of prominent women who have been in that place, the buildings are named after privileged white
THEIR FIGHT IS OUR FIGHT.
Dignified and decent work, hard won and defended by Australian workers and their unions, is still being fought for by our partners in developing countries around the world.
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA needs more new monthly donors in our Global Justice Partner program, to enable people, like the Cambodian beer workers in this image, to lift themselves out of poverty by organising for and achieving decent work.
Become a Global Justice Partner today. Union Aid Abroad APHEDA Call 1800 888 674 or visit www.apheda.org.au The overseas humanitarian aid agency of the ACTU Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA was established in 1984 to express the Australian union movement’s commitment to social justice and international solidarity for human rights and development.
We do this through support for adult-focused education, training and development projects overseas, working in partnership with those whose rights to development are restricted or denied. You can show your solidarity by becoming a Global Justice Partner and making a tax deductible monthly contribution to our work.
30 years
of solidarity
Since 1984
VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
21
gender pay gap
stats tell the story
Mass higher education is clearly working for women. Women are now nearly 60 per cent of undergraduate students and almost half of postgraduates. Over the whole working age population (15-64 year olds), 54.8 per cent of those with bachelor degrees are women. Women also hold half the postgraduate qualifications.
The other factor that contributes to numbers of women with degrees is that for the past few decades entry to the profession of nursing has required a university degree. Whilst this has increased male participation, nursing remains highly feminised. Early childhood and school teaching continue to become more feminised. Women with degrees are better off than their sisters (and brothers) without them. For men there are still skilled, well paid jobs not requiring a university degree. However, these jobs are rapidly contracting. When the news came out last November that the gender pay gap (GPG) had blown out to a 30 year high at 18.8 per cent, there was some surprise from commentators. The education sector was not exempt from the blow out with a GPG at 12.8 per cent, a 1.3 per cent rise on 2013.
Females
Males
80% 60% 40% 20% 0%
ch elo r Ho no ur s Do cto ra te Le ve lA Le ve lB Le ve lC Le ve lD Le ve lE
The gradual increase in women’s participation in higher education over the past century jumps each time government policy is implemented to expand university places and campuses. These policy initiatives are rarely specifically directed towards increasing women’s involvement, but they work because making higher education more readily available does shift attitudes and behaviours in favour of extending girls’ and women’s education within a family and across a community.
Obviously the commentators had not noticed that the patterns of women’s life time earnings and retirement income security remain different to men’s despite supposed equal pay for half a century. Women still have babies and are primary carers. Even when women do not ‘interrupt’ their careers for such reasons, they still face discrimination because they are women and we still have a highly sexist society.
Ba
In the key 25-29 years age group, 42 per cent of women and 31 per cent men have bachelor degrees or above. This is indicative of the big increases in university access and success in first decade of this century, but this is now slowing down amongst men – but not amongst women.
Nowhere is this more obvious Participation rates for women in academia than in the persistence of the (adapted from presentation by CDU DVC Dr Sharon Bell at gendered occupational division NTEU Women’s Conference, see p.13) of labour in Australia. This is consolidated by choice of out well in gaining doctorates, but their university courses and then impacts upon academic careers are jeopardised from graduation salaries and careers. Domestic the start as their numbers drop away (see enrolments by gender clearly demonstrate graph). that women are still not feeling welcome in traditional male areas of study and work, There has been a big rise in teachingdespite the success of many who take the only positions in the last twelve months; plunge and enjoy higher salaries and career 80 per cent of teaching-only positions opportunities. Women still comprise only are casual and the fields where women 15 per cent of engineering undergraduates academics predominate are also more likely and less than half of management and to be casualised. This is a prime example commerce students, while IT is still for the of how the perfect storm of women’s boys. Women need to get into these fields, disadvantage in the workforce continues but hurry because as more women enter despite much greater life-long participation. a field the ‘pioneer’ advantage recedes and Men’s workforce participation is declining, salaries drop. due to disappearing work and precarious employment. This is major problem for Women are still not getting through to the men and for society – but it is particular top positions in numbers that match their problem for women, many more of whom level of participation. Women may be 56.4 are already the main income earner in a per cent of the university workforce but (traditional heterosexual) household, but are less than one third of vice-chancellors. are still doing the bulk of caring and the Women in senior general and professional housework, according to the time use data jobs are often in traditional female areas. trends. Are there any women running IT or facilities at an Australian university yet? Women start
Jeannnie Rea, National President
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2015). 4125.0 Gender Indicators, Australia. February. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4125.0~Feb%20 2015~Main%20Features~Education~100). Graduate Careers Australia. (2014). Postgraduate Destinations Report 2013, http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/Research/ResearchReports/PostgraduateDestinations. Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (2015). Gradstats – starting salaries, January. https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/GradStats-factsheet-2014.pdf. Department of Education. (2014). Higher Education statistics data cube; Selected Higher Education Statistics. Etax. (2015). Gender Inequality Growing: What’s Happening with Women’s Salaries in Australia? https://www.etax.com.au/gender-inequality-womens-salaries-australia.
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
gender pay gap
australian gender & higher education stats 2015 qualifiCations
doMeSTIC enrolmentS by gender
49.4%
naTural & physical sci.
25-29 year olds with a baChelor degree
16.2%
inforMaTion Technology
15%
engineering
42% OF WOMEN
38.3%
architecture & buildIng
52.5%
agriCulTure, enviro Studies
72.7%
HealTh
76%
education
australianS wItH a postgraduaTe degree
47.5%
management & Commerce
64.4%
society & Culture
60%
CreaTIve arts
50% 50% 49.2%
ToTal
viCe-chancellorS
women in the university workforce all fte sTaFf
teaChing & researcH
researcH only
42.3%
56.4%
49.5%
gender pay gap The average gender pay gap is now an increase of 1.4% sinCe noV 2013
18.8%
teaChing only
WOMEN EARN MORE
$6,000
$2,000
law
acCounting, art & design, dentisTry, maThemaTIcS, pHarmaCy
MEN EARN MORE
biological scIences educaTion coMpuTer scIences paramedical studies humanities
$4,000 $6,000 $8,000
100,000 FEMALE WORKERS
23% 77%
29% 71%
psychology, pHysical ScienCes
medicine $2,000
100,000 MALE WORKERS
SoCIal work earth sCIences
EQUAL
$80,001 – $180,000
engIneerIng
Male
65.6%
gender pay gap by income as percentage and actual nuMbers > $180,000
Female
general/ proFesSIonal
55%
gender pay gap by Field $4,000
31% OF MEN
$37,001 – $80,000
46% 54%
$18,201 – $37,000
58%
< $18,201
57%
42%
econoMics & buSiness
arChiTeCture & buIldIng, agricultural science
43%
SoCIal scienCes VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
23
insecure work SECTION
Insecure work in unis is gendered
terri macdonald
NTEU Policy & Research Unit
Universities love to promote themselves as ‘Employers of Choice’. They cite their excellent paid parental leave, policies around ‘return to work’, gender equity initiatives and even domestic violence leave. It would appear that our universities are leading the way for other employers. However, we know that the majority of these industrial rights and policies only exist as they were hard fought for and won by the union members – sometimes needing industrial action to force university managements to seriously negotiate. So, the question is, what are our universities really doing in terms of improving gender equity? The degree to which our universities are engaged with improving gender equality in the workplace can be seen in the 2015 Workplace Gender Equity Agency (WGEA) Employer Reports, which are now being released. These public reports require universities to report on a broad variety of gender equality indicators. Importantly, the reports also require universities to record the actual numbers of their total workforce – including casual and sessional staff – by gender and broad categories (e.g. manager level, professional, clerical and administrative, technical etc). This is the fourth consecutive year of reporting, the data now being produced is invaluable in terms of tracking the equity policies of the institutions, the gender breakdown of different areas and, most vitally, the levels of insecure employment. What these reports reveal is that while our universities do better than many employers in terms of gender equity policy and initiatives, they are undermining themselves by increasingly relying on insecure forms of employment, which is also highly gendered.
What do universities report on? The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 requires non-public sector employers with 100 or more staff to submit a report to the WGEA, between 1 April and 31 May each year, for the preceding 12 month period. Universities are included in this cohort of employers, and as such must provide information, in actual numbers (headcount) on their total workforce – this includes their full-time, part-time, casual and temporary staff.
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
These annual public reports require employers to report against a set of standardised gender equality indicators which include: • Gender composition of the workforce.
employees in some of their reporting (such as the percentage of the workforce with access to employer paid parental leave), or they overstate the degree of gender equity related policy in place.
• Gender composition of governing bodies of relevant employers.
What are the reports revealing?
• Remuneration compared between women and men.
While a number of universities are still incorrectly reporting on their gender equity policies and, in particular, the numbers of staff with access to employer paid parental leave, this is improving over time as we continue to monitor and highlight these inaccuracies.
• Availability and utility of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible working arrangements for employees and to working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities. • Consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workplace. • Additional policies determined by the Minister, such as sex-based harassment and discrimination.
What happens if the reports are Inaccurate? Universities are required by law to forward to the NTEU a copy of their public report. We review these reports and if we discover any inaccuracies we can submit formal comment to the Agency, who can then choose to follow matters up with the institution. We can also contact the universities directly and query their reports. The NTEU has taken both of these actions, as it has taken time for university managements to fully meet the requirements for reporting. In particular they have been reluctant to include casual
What is being revealed are the creeping levels of insecure work in our universities. To illustrate, we analysed the workforce profile for the University of Melbourne (below). It should be noted that this was certainly not the most extreme of the institutions in terms of casual employment, but given it is comparatively well resourced, it is certainly worth noting that even here there are significant issues.
Univ of Melbourne – case study As one of our most prestigious and wellresourced universities, the University of Melbourne is well placed to have policies that would attract and keep high quality staff. However, based on their workforce profile, only 58 per cent of the total reported workforce have access to employer paid parental leave. This would be those in full and part time ongoing and contract positions, although there are probably contract positions that are not eligible.
insecure work Full time permanent
Part time permanent
Full time contract
Part time contract
Female
Male
21.4% 38%
At the University of Sydney, there are 2,672 casual professional staff, and another 1,524 contract staff. This represents 74.5 per cent of the total professional workforce. In clerical and administrative, the levels of insecure work are also high – there are 2,098 casual staff, and 768 contract staff. Together, these staff form 65 per cent of the total clerical and administrative workforce. In both the professional and administrative categories, it is women who are the majority in insecure employment. University of Sydney’s high levels of casualisation are reflected in their self reported figure on staff with access to primary carer’s leave – at 33 per cent of the workforce, the vast majority of staff do not have access to this basic entitlement.
30.3%
36.6%
Professionals
out of 10,016) are casuals and the majority of these are women (that is not counting part-time and full-time contract staff, the majority of whom are also women). Even adding RMIT’s 493 managers, it’s still more than half the workforce that don’t have access to employer paid parental leave.
Casual
17.9% 15.4% 7.3%
22.5%
7.7% 2.9%
5% 16.7%
14.1% 4.2%
Technicians & trade
9.5% 67.2%
58.8%
19.6% 1% 3.9%
16%
18.5%
7.5%
Clerical & administrative
56.5%
11% 7.7%
71.9%
2.8%
1.8%
6.3%
Employment status of males and females in non-manager occupational categories Of the professional staff (mostly academic and research) 37 per cent are reported as casuals. If we add the numbers of full time contract or part time contract the number of professional staff in non secure employment is actually 69 per cent. Of the technical and trades workforce, 64 per cent are casual. Although the actual numbers are smaller overall, in adding the full time contract and part time contract numbers, the percentage of insecure workers are actually 88.5 per cent. However, it is in administration and clerical that the University has the highest levels of insecure employment. According to the workplace profile, there are 2778 clerical and admin staff at Melbourne. Of these, 61 per cent are casuals. Adding the non secure contract categories, and a whopping 76 per cent are insecurely employed (that’s 2120 staff, out of 2778).
In the three pages of management categories there is not one casual recorded. In all the non management areas of casual employment, the significant majority are women (see graph). We can draw from this that the genderfication of casual employment (as we have known for many years) is continuing unabated, and what’s more, that insecure employment is now the norm in all non management areas at Melbourne Uni, noting that this Go8 does not have the same funding constraints as smaller or regional institutions.
Other institutions As noted, other institutions reports are showing even greater levels of insecure employment. For example, at RMIT, over half of their non management staff (6,326
A final example from the University of Queensland (also in the Go8 category) shows that these figures are not isolated. There are 1,919 professional casual staff (1,033 women), with a further 2,940 contract professional staff (and 1563 of these women as well). When combined, these staff are 73 per cent of the professional staff at the university. Looking at clerical and administrative staff, there are 833 casual and contract staff (633 of these women), which is 53 per cent of the total administrative and clerical workforce.
Conclusion These few examples, from relatively better resourced institutions, show the levels of insecure employment, and how this impacts on access to those entitlements that many university managements use when promoting their gender equity credentials. It remains that while insecure work continues to flourish unabated in our universities – and noting that the majority of staff employed in this manner are women – declarations of employer of choice are hollow at best. The work for the Union is certainly clear cut. In addition to continuing to gather and publish the data provided in the WGEA Employer Reports, we need to work to reduce to levels of insecure employment while at the same time campaign to have existing gender equality initiatives, policy and industrial rights apply to all staff working in our universities. Terri MacDonald, Policy and Research Officer
VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
25
domestic violence
Making dv rights a workplace issue
susan kenna NTEU Industrial Unit
In 2015, Rosie Batty is a prominent Australian of the Year and inquiries into family and domestic violence are either underway or recently completed via a Victorian Royal Commission and a Senate Committee Inquiry. Nevertheless, it is easy to forget that just five years ago the issue of domestic violence (DV) was barely part of ‘mainstream’ discourse. It was not until 2010 that the first workplace rights were developed and it has been unions leading the way on improving safety for women experiencing domestic violence via workplace support and entitlements ever since. Initiated by Women’s Action Committee (WAC) in 2012 in higher education, the NTEU determined that domestic violence rights would be a mandatory claim for Round 6 Enterprise Bargaining. By 2013, the WAC sought to speed up our agenda by recommending to National Executive that additional paid leave become a priority in negotiations. With the Round all but complete, NTEU achieved a form of domestic violence leave in all but three universities. Here’s a brief timeline on the growth of DV as a workplace issue: • July 2010: the Commonwealth Government Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations award a grant to appoint project officers to promote domestic violence clauses in workplace agreements. The Domestic Violence Clearing House is established at UNSW for this purpose. • September 2010: world’s best practice is established via a clause negotiated by the Australian Services Union (ASU) at Surf Coast Council in Victoria. The clause establishes 20 days additional paid leave for DV purposes. • December 2010: Ludo McFerran of the DV Clearing House addresses the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council on the issue. The UNSW (Professional Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2010 includes a DV clause. • February 2011: the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) releases its
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VOLUME 23 SEPTEMBER 2015
first Issues Paper on Family Violence. • March 2011: ACTU Women’s Committee encourages affiliate unions to start negotiating domestic violence clauses and begin using the Clearinghouse as an important resource. • May 2011: Minister for Women, Kate Ellis responds to questions around the ALRC Inquiry and notes that it would be appropriate to consider amendments to legislation, ‘including the Fair Work Act’ in light of Clearinghouse project findings. • May 2012: NTEU resolves to make DV clauses a mandatory claim in Round 6 bargaining.
• 2012–2015: DV clauses negotiated across most Australian universities. • 2015: ACTU makes a claim to improve the Award ‘safety net’ by varying all industry awards to include DV provisions. Assessing the impact of workplace provisions will be difficult in the short term, and curtailed by the obvious need to respect confidentiality. Nonetheless, the rate of progress achieved in making DV a legitimate workplace issue, is nothing short of revolutionary. Susan Kenna, National Industrial Officer
FWC finds domestic violence led to unfair dismissal In July 2015, Commissioner Roe of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) made a decision around an unfair dismissal in a case where both partners worked for the same construction company. The decision reflects how far we have come in considering domestic violence as a workplace issue. The applicant had moved to Australia from Iran with her partner in 2013. She was a victim of domestic violence in January 2015 and her partner was excluded from their home after action by police, and an intervention order was subsequently secured in court. The order took into account the fact that both the applicant and her partner were working in the same office. After understanding the seriousness of the issue, the employer made it clear to the applicant that she and her partner could not continue to work in the same office, but the employer was not prepared to dismiss the partner. Commissioner Roe found that the dismissal was in no way related to the applicant’s capacity or conduct and ‘everything to do with the conduct of another employee, (the applicant’s) partner’. He noted that the dismissal was all the more harsh due to the vulnerable position faced by the applicant and her status as a recent migrant. The applicant was not reinstated as she had obtained new employment but she was compensated for the unfair dismissal. [2015] FWC 4864.
domestic violence
DV rights case study
‘Intimate partner domestic or family violence can be debilitating,’ says Michelle Broecker, Research Training Coordinator at Swinburne University, ‘it affects people physically, psychologically and, more often than not, financially’. Unfortunately, Michelle knows this from personal experience and it is dispiriting to hear this obviously strong woman note that ‘the fear that comes from the possibility of continued violence can be all consuming’. This is why Michelle has responded to the obvious gap in Australia’s approach to domestic violence (DV) – until 5 years ago the workplace was not seen as a sphere for confronting its effects. Many women are experiencing this fear and uncertainty about the future as they are working, and it is vital that they receive support from friends, family, law enforcement, legal and medical professionals and their employer. The ‘Safe at Work, Safe at Home’ conference in 2011 was the catalyst for Michelle to become active around this issue on behalf of other women. The conference brought together advocates from the fields of domestic violence and workplace relations, employers, unions, academics and policymakers to discuss domestic/ family violence prevention in the workplace, including through enterprise bargaining and law reform. A primary focus was on the concept of the inclusion of a clause in workplace agreements supporting those experiencing intimate partner, domestic and family violence. For Michelle Broecker, this made sense. Workplaces must be involved in a ‘whole of community’ response to tackling DV. Most women work and women who are experiencing domestic violence should be able to rely on their workplace – as a safe haven and means of financial and personal support. Around the time of the conference, Swinburne University appointed a new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Linda Kristjanson. Michelle notes that ‘the catalyst in feeling game enough to approach the VC on this issue was the support of my strong feminist colleagues, whom, since I disclosed my personal situation had been actively working with me to help improve my safety at work. I realised that not all women are lucky enough to have the support of people at work so these provisions needed to be
embedded in the workplace culture via Enterprise Agreements.’ After a positive discussion with Professor Kristjanson, Michelle was encouraged to work with key staff from Swinburne Human Resources. This was prior to and during the early stages of enterprise bargaining at Swinburne. Michelle describes progress as very slow over the next 12 months as the standard ‘cost to the University’ argument was deployed by HR. Then in 2012 when the NTEU Women’s Action Committee announced that it would be mandatory to try and achieve a DV clause in all Enterprise Agreements, Michelle contacted NTEU National President Jeannie Rea to explore what to do next. From there, Michelle teamed up with NTEU Senior Industrial Officer Josh Cullinan, Swinburne Branch President Ryan Hsu and Branch Organiser Linda Cargill to develop a strong clause for incorporation in the forthcoming Agreement. Michelle notes that ‘as a team we worked hard to make it clear to the University that this was an important issue to be taken seriously and not an afterthought’. The Swinburne team utilised the expertise of Ludo McFerran from the University of NSW Domestic Violence Clearing House. Ludo and Michelle addressed an enterprise bargaining negotiation meeting with Senior Management and the NTEU. They stressed the key messages that: • Domestic violence is a problem that needs a united effort from everyone in society, including employers. • What affects employees affects employers. • The high cost of DV for employers including lost productivity, absenteeism, staff turnover and the costs associated with recruitment and retraining. • DV entitlements will complement and strengthen Swinburne’s position as an Employer of Choice for Women. • The media coverage from being the first Australian university to implement a clause with specified leave entitlements
would be highly valuable to the University’s reputation. • Swinburne had an opportunity to join the ‘community of leaders’ supporting the cultural change. Initial proposals from the University did not commit to real support or important criteria such as confidentiality. NTEU negotiators worked to convince the University that staff required additional paid leave and not a clause which merely aspired to offering ‘broad support’. Through talks with the University, these aspects of the clause were amended to better meet the needs of those experiencing DV. An agreement was made on a final clause in July 2013 and promoted through a joint Swinburne/NTEU media release and a prominent article in The Australian. Unfortunately, when the Swinburne Agreement went to a non-union ballot in 2014 all casuals – almost half of all staff – were excluded from the hard won rights for those experiencing domestic and family violence. This exclusion was one of the reasons NTEU took its case to the Federal Court to overturn the unfair Agreement. After winning in July 2015, NTEU convinced Swinburne to return to the bargaining table and in late August 2015 agreed the provisions would apply to all staff, including over 1500 casual staff. The Swinburne University clause was the first DV clause in the Victorian higher education sector and the first clause to include specific, dedicated leave. By clarifying in August 2015 that these rights will now apply to all staff – including all casual staff – the clause sets a new high water mark for a heavily casualised sector. Michelle Broecker was there from the beginning and has been encouraged as she watched the campaign for domestic violence entitlements gain more momentum in the sector, and more broadly to where it now covers over 1.5 million Australian workers. Susan Kenna, National Industrial Officer
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paid parental SECTION leave
NTEU still campaigning for PPL
The NTEU is contributing to the fight against the Abbott Government’s so-called Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill which is currently before a Senate Committee of Inquiry. In May this year, the Government announced changes to the Commonwealth’s Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme. However, instead of the ‘rolled gold’ PPL changes that the Coalition took to the last election, the proposed revision would see 80,000 women lose access to the Government scheme, significantly reducing the time the majority of women can take to care and bond with their newborn baby. The proposed new scheme also re-positions parental leave from being a hard-fought for workplace entitlement to a welfare payment. No other form of leave is treated in this way. While the Government has tried to vilify new mothers for combining the Government PPL with (where available) employer supported PPL, its important to know that women are not double dipping, committing fraud or rorting. They are, in fact, using the PPL framework as it was originally intended. The Government scheme provides 18 weeks’ leave at the minimum wage, with payments currently totaling $11,500. There is no superannuation attached and it essentially replaces the (Howard Government’s) Baby Bonus for ‘working mums’.
While the NTEU would like to see improvements to the Government PPL framework (such as including Superannuation and changes to the work test for casual, sessional and seasonal workers), a recent Government supported review of the PPL system found that overall it was working as intended, with more women accessing better parental leave provisions and returning to work when ready, instead of dropping out of the workforce altogether. For the Coalition Government to suddenly turn the tables on women and effectively deny almost half of eligible women access to some, or all, of the Government’s PPL - when many have bargained around PPL with the 18 weeks as a base - is both reducing their conditions and downgrading parental leave as an entitlement. For other women who are yet to win employer sponsored PPL this change is a disincentive for their employers to negotiate, potentially leaving these women stranded with what is a substandard scheme. Worst of all, however, is that this change is likely to result in many employers abandoning their current
PPL provisions, forcing more women to rely on 18 weeks leave at minimum wage. It is, indeed, a step backwards for all women. NTEU has made a submission the Senate Inquiry opposing the proposed Fairer Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill 2015. We are also supporting the ACTU’s campaign to Save Paid Parental Leave. To find out more head to the campaign page on the NTEU Women’s website, download the fact sheet and sign the ACTU’s Save Paid Parental Leave petition. Terri MacDonald, Policy & Research Officer www.nteu.org.au/paidparentalleave
The reason that the ALP Government PPL scheme was set so low was that it was always intended to be a base for unions and employees to negotiate for better employer supported PPL, with the goal being to reach 26 weeks (approximately 6 months) as advocated by health professionals and experts, as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This system was designed to provide a minimal safety net (the Government’s PPL) whilst ensuring that parental leave was seen as an industrial right and that unions and employers could negotiate around this, ensuring that the integrity of current employer PPL Our arrangements are maintained.
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r or wo f e m e h t PPL) scnal sstasnidb rdlseon star a ( e v a Le atiopo e r 80,000 ental ardsethethh igheestbinetesrnt w baP utftho r B . L y a b P P d et towav Pai ith acnu wo sg h et ott enbmioevin t dntim bea n y e il b p d s a a 15, Mr. Abb o e e t 0 t s 2 w e r v s y a a a u t h D le s a n ’s id li r n a e e ra p sm st e thn Atuo Moth on onr me : 6v veo rogress. On en backflip leag p l d a d is t u t h n s t t a re g , ’ a in o II p bou n rk aidbb pA signeda nt is threate s .is dew e policy ‘Ma ernme Abbott Gov
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my career
Rachael Bahl Librarian, mother, unionist
In April this year, Rachael Bahl won a contested election for the position of Secretary of the ACT Division. Prior to this, Rachael worked in libraries for over 25 years. On Twitter she describes herself as a ‘librarian, mother and unionist’. Here Rachael reflects on a change of career. Can you imagine, as a small child, thinking ‘I want to be a union official when I grow up’? No, me neither. And yet, here I am. I confess I didn’t set out in life to be a union official. When I was six, ballerina was my profession of choice. Later, more realistic options included law, teaching, or social work. But none of these ‘stuck’. Eventually, I came to work in libraries. A lot of this was down to chance. I grew up in a country town and jobs in the country are scarce at the best of times. At the ripeold-age of eighteen I was getting passed over for shifts at the local supermarket so I took a gamble and applied for a Junior Library Assistant position at the University of Melbourne. I wasn’t hopeful (being so old!), but little did I know that in those days the university’s ‘junior’ classification applied to workers aged up to 21. I got the job. My first boss encouraged all of her young charges to study. She didn’t really care what we studied, but she felt it was important that we all got a qualification. I enrolled in librarianship at RMIT. I worked full time and studied part-time. It felt like forever, but I finally achieved my degree. Having a degree meant I could apply for other jobs – ones that listed a professional qualification as ‘essential’ in selection criteria. OxfordDictionaries.com defines ‘career’ as: ‘… An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress …’. I thought this was a particularly interesting definition. In Australian universities, library staff are typically classified as general/professional
staff. ‘Opportunities for progress’ do present themselves, but unlike academic staff, general staff are not ‘promoted’ per se. To progress, general staff have to apply for a new job at a higher level. Throughout my ‘career’ I have done this. As time has passed, I think ‘career paths’ have become harder to find. With technological change, library roles have become more complex and less skilled roles (library assistant) have declined. I’ve never thought of myself as having a ‘career’. I never set out to have one. But library work has certainly occupied a ‘significant period’ of my life. When I first set up my Twitter profile, I described myself as a ‘librarian, mother and unionist’. There’s a futuristic crime series I enjoy reading where people can claim ‘professional mother status’. I love this idea of caring for children being supported financially by society. In this futuristic universe, ‘professional mothers’ are paid a wage recognising that choosing to care in the mother role is a ‘real’ job. Many women in our society continue to perform two jobs, as mothers and as [insert-your-paid-jobhere]. We continue to wrestle with career and carer responsibilities. For me, it’s being a parent. For others, it’s caring for aging parents too. So why the career change? I’ve always been a unionist. As per that Twitter profile, it’s part of who I am. In recent times I’ve been an activist too. I was heavily involved in my branch at Australian Catholic University. When the opportunity to stand for Division
Secretary came up, I thought ‘why not’? The timing was right. In many ways, my union work at ACU felt like an ‘apprenticeship’ for this role. As a librarian I’m uniquely placed to understand the demands on both academic and general staff in teaching, research and administration. Where to from here? Next year is an election year and I’ll stand again. I urge you to stand too. We need more women in leadership in the Union. Union leadership is challenging. Is it worth it? I think so. I’m incredibly proud of the provisions NTEU has achieved with regard to paid parental leave and domestic violence leave. There’s more work to do in securing sectoral funding, in superannuation, in encouraging a more inclusive workplace culture. I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead. Rachael Bahl, ACT Division Secretary Above: Rachael campaigning for election at ANU.
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scholarship
Carolyn Allport Scholarship
Olga Garcia-Caro
Olga Garcia-Caro is this year’s successful recipient of the Carolyn Allport Scholarship, a postgraduate scholarship in feminist studies. Olga is a PhD student at RMIT undertaking a study focusing on the experiences of women, service providers and interpreters in domestic violence service settings in Australia. NTEU established the scholarship in 2014 in recognition of Dr Carolyn Allport’s contribution to the leadership and development of the NTEU in her 16 years as National President. The scholarship is available to a woman undertaking postgraduate feminist studies, by research, in any discipline who is currently enrolled in an academic award of an Australian public university. It pays $5000 per year for a maximum of three years. Applications are assessed by prominent feminist research scholars. The assessors concluded that Olga’s PhD research will make an important contribution in identifying what specialisation is needed in the interpreting field in Australia to better meet the needs of women, service providers and interpreters working in the area of domestic violence and this in turn will make an important contribution to knowledge about gender and work. Coincidently, last year’s recipient was also a PhD student studying at RMIT undertaking research in the interpreting field. However, the assessors agreed that on merit, Olga be recommended for the 2015 scholarship. Olga identifies that ‘current research continuously demonstrates how language barriers exacerbate women’s experiences of violence and deters them from disclosure and fully accessing response services’. She goes on to say that ‘community interpreters in Australia generally have no specific training in domestic violence and its dynamics and they are also bound by a code of ethics, which requires them to be impartial, neutral and their role is strictly of language transfer’. Olga contests this neutrality and invisibility of the interpreter. She sites research in other fields that shows that service providers responding to domestic violence in Australia encounter problems of communication, accessibility and the unethical behaviour of interpreters. Undertaking qualitative research, Olga aims to understand the experiences of women, service providers and interpreters in domestic violence service settings in Victoria. Her
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project is based on a feminist and critical interpreting theoretical framework, which aims for new research that prompts analysis of current society and transformation and stresses the impossibility of neutrality on the part of any interpreter. It also focuses on listening to women’s voices, empowering and validating their experiences aiming to achieve social change for women through its research. To date, Olga has published in a number of journals and is currently undertaking pro-bono work for CELAS (Spanish Latin American Welfare Centre) and previously for Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria, translating material and publications and revising their translated material for distribution to the Spanish speaking community Receiving this scholarship will enable Olga to complete this very important research. As a single mother of a young child, she currently works (almost full time) as an interpreter. A scholarship for the remaining years of her candidature would make it possible for Olga to complete her project. Helena Spyrou, Union Education Officer nteu.org.au/myunion/scholarships/carolyn_allport
Dr Carolyn Allport was NTEU National President from 1994 to 2010, becoming a prominent lobbyist at both the national and international levels including as a consultant for UNESCO, through Education International. Described as a ‘warrior for women’, Carolyn is tenacious in advocating for women’s rights to employment equity. Particularly influential in the struggle for paid parental leave, Carolyn established the NTEU as the leader in setting high benchmarks for other unions and employers to match. Carolyn is also recognised as a leading advocate for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander education, employment and social justice. Within the NTEU structure, she was a driving force to ensure that A&TSI business is core NTEU business. Prior to becoming NTEU National President, Carolyn worked as an academic for over 20 years at Macquarie University. Her teaching and research publications were in the areas of economic history, urban politics, public housing and women’s history.
international
Refugee girls & education
The humanitarian crisis for refugees is well known, with more people fleeing political conflict, racial, ethnic and religious persecution and environmental collapse than since the Second World War. Despite growing popular opposition, Australian governments persist with one of the meanest and most utterly inhumane responses to this crisis, particularly when viewed through the eyes of refugees and of poor people in poor countries who are looking after people fleeing across borders. Being a refugee is catastrophic for safety, health, for livelihood and for hope. But to further humanise the plight of refugees and also our obligations to assist, it is worthwhile to focus upon characteristics of refugees that we understand, know well and indeed advocate for within Australia. The desire of girls to complete school and go on to further and higher education to become qualified teachers, doctors or engineers is an aspiration admired the world over, yet it is lost to most girl refugees. According to the United Nation there are now 51.2 million forcibly displaced people across the globe, six million up on the year before and many more now. Half of all refugees are children. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees on average, a refugee spends 17 years of his or her life in exile. For a child, that’s their entire primary and secondary education. Grace, who was forced to flee her home in South Sudan to escape the fighting in 2013 was quoted in The Guardian saying, ‘To educate a girl is to educate a nation. The more I am educated the more I will be able to do for my family and my community’. Grace’s story is told in a new film about refugee children in conflict zones, Kids in Camps, by the director Jezza Neumann and sponsored by Britain’s Comic Relief. ‘When she ran for her life, Grace took her schoolbooks with her. It was December 2013, in the town of Bor in South Sudan, and Grace, 17, knew that she had to go. She ran fast, with hundreds of others including her 14-year-old sister, Anna, and their father, down to the river. Crossing it
was their only means of escape from the anti-government rebels who were attacking their home. Small children were running too, clutching their parents’ hands, slipping in the dark, in desperate flight from the slaughter unfolding around them. ‘You see someone killed in front of you, and then someone is killed behind you, and you and the others are still running,’ Grace recalls, ‘People just run into the water … most of the children who don’t know how to swim just drowned because the river was very long. It can take 30 minutes, and if you don’t know how to swim you will not be able to cross.’ Grace was determined to continue her education, but there were no secondary schools at the refugee camp, although there were some valiant attempts to provide primary schooling. She travelled on her own through Kenya looking for a school. With money from her father and despite being attacked and robbed, she finally managed to get into a fee paying private school for one term, but the film left her wondering what to do next. The point being made in this film and in other initiatives is that the education of these millions of displaced children is being largely neglected. Basic education is available in some places, but secondary and further education cannot be picked up when basic needs of food and shelter are not even available. Yet education is the way out of poverty and a better life for each individual and her family – and is critical to break the cycle of poverty and oppression of women.
It was strategically very wise that education activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai marked her 18th birthday by inaugurating a school for more than 200 Syrian girls living in refugee camps in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Opening The Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School she said: ‘I am here on behalf of the 28 million children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict. Their courage and dedication to continue their schooling in difficult conditions inspires people around the world and it is our duty to stand by them.’ The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres welcomed the initiative. ‘We are really heartened by Malala’s ardent support for the education of refugee girls whose aspirations have already been so cruelly cut short by war. These children are the future of Syria; we must not jeopardise that by denying them the basic right to education while they are in exile,’ he said. Lebanon is hosting nearly 1.2 million registered Syrian refugees, though the total number in the country may be even higher (UNHCR News Stories). Jeannie Rea, National President Image: Malala Yousafzai inaugurating a school in her name at a refugee camp in Lebanon. Image: Govt of Lebanon, nna-leb.gov.lb Sources: The Guardian, 6 March 2015, http://www.theguardian. com/global-development/2015/mar/06/if-i-am-alive-ineed-education-war-zones-need-school. UNHCR news stories, 13 July 2015, http://www.unhcr. org/55a3dc935.html.
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#FEMINISM SECTION
scientists get #distractinglysexy In June, Nobel Laureate Professor Tim Hunt got up at the world conference of science journalists and spoke in favour of single sex labs because ‘… three things happen when they [women] are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry.’ Although Hunt has since half-apologised and resigned from his job, female scientists promptly took to Twitter to make a stand against his sexist spiel by posting poignant and hilarious photos demonstrating just how #distractinglysexy they can be.
justmeness @VanessaAdams6 - Jun12 The #distractinglysexy trend is phenomenal. Here I am shoulder-deep in cow rectum, so seductive!
Van Q. Truong @vanqtruong - Jun11 How do my male colleagues publish anything when I show up dressed so revealing? #distractinglysexy
Lucy de Beauchamp @lu_beauchamp - Jun11 Still #distractinglysexy after a full day of cell culture. Didn’t even cry this time, so proud! #HeyaTimHunt
Becca @BeccaPritchy - Jun11 Later that day, I filled this Bronze Age ditch with my womanly archaeology tears #distractinglysexy
ash @ashcl0ud - Jun11 Hearts in the palm of our hands #distractinglysexy
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Geeky Girl Engineer @gkygirlengineer - Jun11 Yes I know I am #distractinglysexy in my Level A PPE. The suit totally flatters my curves.
Amelia Cervera @ameliacervera Filter mask protects me from hazardous chemicals and muffles my woman cries. Double win! #distractinglysexy
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