WOMEN’S CONFERENCE
Addressing gender and pay inequity in our universities Tina Jones Charles Darwin University
G
riffith University lecturer, Professor Glenda Strachan addressed the 2010 Women’s Conference, with the subject matter ‘Gender and Employment Equity: Strategies for Advancement in Australian Universities’.
Professor Strachan addressed five key points: • Feminisation of universities. • Explaining the gender gap, • Policies. • Changes in universities and implications for gender equality. • What her study seeks to examine. In 1990, casual full time employees comprised 11% of university academic staff in Australia. By comparison, in 2009, casual staff increased to 19% which equates to 160% increase in casual staff from the year 1990. This shift to an increased casual staff in academia is known as ‘casualisation’.
Professor Glenda Strachan addressing the NTEU Women’s Conference 2010. Photo by Terri MacDonald
In 2008, casual male staff represented 15% whereas female staff represented 26% of academic staff, many of whom are long-term casuals with fewer entitlements than full time staff which also raises the matter of gender equity. In 2005 a far greater number of women were employed in low-level positions compared to women employed in positions at the higher end where males dominate the gender scale. The majority of women employed in universities also reveal that a gender pay gap of 10-12% was evident for both academic and general staff. Consequent to gender employment and scale of pay inequal-
ARC Linkage Grant NTEU is one of three industry partners on an ARC linkage grant awarded to a research team from Griffith University (GU) and University of Queensland (UQ). The project, led by Professor Glenda Strachan is entitled ‘Gender and Employment Equity: Strategies for Advancement in Australian Universities’, and will run over three years. The broad goals of the research are to understand the ongoing impediments to gender equity in employment in the university sector, focussing in particular on the emergence of the entrepreneurial university and related changes over the past decade. The work will be used to propose ways to advance gender equity and thus to ensure Australia’s future university workforce is based on sustainable equitable practises. The research will centre on three key areas for women: senior women, classifications and career paths for general/professional staff, and casual teaching and research only staff. The research team are: Professor Glenda Strachan (GU), Associate Professor Gillian Whitehouse (UQ), Professor David Peetz, Dr Janis Bailey and Dr Kaye Broadbent (GU).
ity, Australian universities are progressively developing policies to counteract and/or resolve these issues to enable an equitable future providing pathways and opportunities for all employees. One strategy is to separate teaching staff from research staff thus enabling staff whose career choice is to dedicate their efforts to research only would be encouraged to follow that path whereas persons, many of whom are women and who may only be interested in teaching, are provided an opportunity to concentrate their focus on teaching. These changes, according to Professor Strachan, may present a bias to research outcomes as the majority of researchers are male – ‘feminisation of teaching universities and male domination of research universities’. Whether research intensive or teaching intensive the future of academic positions and pathways for both men and women in the world of academia is changing. It was a privilege to participate in the conference and meet Glenda Strachan. vol.18, September 2010
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