tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/women-in-the-workforce-3176/articlesWomen in the workforce – The Conversation2024-02-06T21:56:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2202072024-02-06T21:56:31Z2024-02-06T21:56:31ZThe motherhood pay gap: Why women’s earnings decline after having children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572551/original/file-20240131-19-fg2aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=760%2C416%2C7407%2C5003&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The birth of children results in large earnings losses that are not equally distributed within heterosexual couples.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Inequalities between men and women persist in many areas, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/4ead40c7-en">women still earning less than men on average</a>. An even more striking difference is the “motherhood pay gap” that happens when women have children. Also known as the “family gap” or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20180010">child penalties</a>, women’s earnings plummet after the birth of a child, while men’s barely budge.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.12.1.137">Many studies</a> have investigated the causes of gender inequalities and concluded that women have been unable to catch up to the earnings level of men in part <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/684851">because of parenting responsibilities</a>. </p>
<p>Why does this happen? Children have a negative effect on women’s productivity in the labour market by substantially reducing their <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/human-capital">human capital</a>, which translates into a significant <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/260293">decrease in their earnings</a>. </p>
<p>After the birth of children, mothers tend to turn towards part-time jobs, roles with flexible working hours or positions that offer work conditions more favourable to family life — all of which tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/23.5.543">pay lower wages</a>.</p>
<p>Employers, in return, may see part-time employees as less committed and productive, especially when relying on <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/heuristics">heuristics</a> — mental shortcuts for solving problems — to judge worker quality, as opposed to actual information about their performance. This can result in <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2911397">fewer bonuses and promotions</a> for these employees. </p>
<h2>The effects of parenthood</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20180010">Evidence from Denmark</a>, one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, points to a long-term child penalty of around 20 per cent in earnings. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2023-015">Our research</a> reveals a similar situation in Canada. We used data from Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal and International Study of Adults coupled with historical administrative records from 1982 to 2018. </p>
<p>We compared what happened to men’s and women’s earnings after the birth of their first child for Canadians who had their first child between 1987 and 2009. Using an event study methodology, we followed individuals’ employment income over a period of five years before the birth of the child to 10 years after.</p>
<p>We observed large and persistent negative effects of parenthood for mothers, but not fathers. Mothers’ earnings decrease by 49 per cent the year of birth, with a penalty of 34.3 per cent 10 years after. Fathers’ earnings appear largely unaffected.</p>
<h2>Unequal effects of children</h2>
<p>The birth of children results in large earnings losses that are not equally distributed within heterosexual couples. Fathers stay on the same earnings track, while women experience penalties that persist over the years. This is especially true for <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2023-015">mothers of multiple children or those with a lower education level</a>. </p>
<p>This impoverishment triggered by the birth of a child can have significant economic impacts <a href="https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/13576">should the couple separate</a>. In Canada, nearly <a href="https://doi.org/10.25318/3910005101-eng">one-third of marriages</a> end in divorce. </p>
<p>Women are typically <a href="https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2016.35.50">financially disadvantaged</a> following a separation. This disadvantage may be attributable to pre-separation factors, such as the unequal division of labour during the marriage and lower earnings for women, but also to women’s prolonged absences from the labour force due to family responsibilities.</p>
<h2>Equal pay for equal work</h2>
<p>In this context, it’s crucial to ask ourselves if there are measures that could eliminate, or at least reduce, the economic impact associated with family responsibilities on mothers’ earnings and employment. </p>
<p>We investigated the role of family policies, since they were in part designed to encourage maternal employment and promote more equal sharing of parenting responsibilities between partners. </p>
<p>Specifically, we focused on the extension of parental leaves in Canada and the introduction of <a href="https://www.mfa.gouv.qc.ca/en/services-de-garde/programme-contribution-reduite/Pages/index.aspx">reduced contribution child-care services for families in Québec</a>. We found suggestive evidence that these policies can help reduce child penalties. </p>
<p>“Equal pay for equal work” policies, such as the federal government’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/workplace/human-rights/overview-pay-equity-act.html">Pay Equity Act</a>, also have the potential to make a substantial difference. These policies can raise the fairness and attractiveness of the labour market for women and reduce the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20160995">potentially negative impact of experience-based pay</a> for mothers. </p>
<h2>More benefits down the line</h2>
<p>In addition to having a positive effect on the economic situation of women, encouraging employment for mothers could help eliminate the stigma around the division of labour within couples by exposing children to a more symmetrical model of remunerated and unpaid work. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017018760167">recent study</a> using data from 29 countries showed that employed mothers were more likely to transmit egalitarian values to their children both at work and at home. Girls with employed mothers ended up working more themselves: they worked more hours, were better paid and held supervisory positions more often than girls with stay-at-home mothers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A toddler sits on the lap of a women, presumably her mother, in front of a desk. She is smiling and touching a laptop while her mother smiles down at her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573140/original/file-20240202-17-6ybyzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573140/original/file-20240202-17-6ybyzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573140/original/file-20240202-17-6ybyzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573140/original/file-20240202-17-6ybyzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573140/original/file-20240202-17-6ybyzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573140/original/file-20240202-17-6ybyzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573140/original/file-20240202-17-6ybyzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employed mothers are more likely to transmit egalitarian values to their children both at work and at home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The result was not observed in boys. However, boys who grew up with employed mothers were more involved in family and domestic responsibilities as adults than men whose mothers were not in the labour market. The girls also spent less time doing household chores. </p>
<p>Working mothers appear to have an intergenerational impact favouring gender equality, both within the family and in the labour market.</p>
<p>We all know raising children is time-consuming. Children, of course, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/675070">benefit from this parental time investment</a>. But bringing up children is also costly. Our research quantified one kind of cost: the lower earnings trajectory. Knowing how these costs are shared among the two parents is key to enable better decision making, for policymakers, but ultimately, for parents, future parents and their children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Connolly received funding from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture and CIRANO. The analysis in this article was conducted at the Quebec Inter-university Centre for Social Statistics, which is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Statistics Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture, the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé and Québec universities.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Haeck received funding from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture and CIRANO. The analysis in this article was conducted at the Quebec Inter-university Centre for Social Statistics, which is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Statistics Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture, the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé and Québec universities.</span></em></p>New research shows that women’s earnings are negatively impacted by having children, while men’s aren’t. The effects can be long-lasting and contribute to the gender pay gap.Marie Connolly, Professor of Economics, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Catherine Haeck, Full Professor, Economics Department, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1611482021-05-19T12:26:33Z2021-05-19T12:26:33ZRoe v. Wade gave American women a choice about having children – here’s how that changed their lives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401419/original/file-20210518-19-1ppz6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C37%2C8328%2C5523&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a Mississippi abortion case that challenges Roe v. Wade. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/clouds-are-seen-above-the-u-s-supreme-court-building-on-may-news-photo/1232955621?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/us/politics/supreme-court-abortion.html">challenging a Mississippi state law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy</a>, much earlier than the 24-week threshold generally established by the pivotal abortion rights case <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade</a> in 1973.</p>
<p>Roe v. Wade granted women the right to terminate a pregnancy under specific conditions, and subsequent court rulings have strengthened that precedent. Analysts on both sides of the abortion debate will be watching closely this fall to see whether the court’s new six-justice conservative majority – cemented last year in the waning days of the Trump administration – will <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/17/997478374/supreme-court-to-review-mississippi-abortion-ban">weaken Roe v. Wade</a> to restrict the abortion rights of Americans.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wnvQrzwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">a sociologist who studies women, work and families</a>, I’ve closely examined how the landmark ruling affected women’s educational and occupational opportunities over the past half-century. </p>
<h2>Then and now</h2>
<p>Let’s go back to 1970, three years before the Roe decision. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/marital.html">In that year</a>, the average age at first marriage for women in the U.S. was just under 21. Twenty-five percent of women high school graduates ages 18 to 24 <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/education-pays/figures-tables/enrollment-rates-gender-1970-2008">were enrolled in college</a> and about 8% of adult women <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/">had completed four years of college</a>. </p>
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<p>Childbearing was still closely tied to marriage. Those who conceived before marriage <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-mothers-not-married-technology-shock-the-demise-of-shotgun-marriage-and-the-increase-in-out-of-wedlock-births/">were likely to marry before the birth occurred</a>. It wasn’t yet common for married women with young children under age 6 to be employed; about 37% of that group was in the labor force. Then, as now, finding satisfactory child care <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/01/03/506448993/child-care-scarcity-has-very-real-consequences-for-working-families">was a challenge for employed mothers</a>.</p>
<p>By 1980, the average age at marriage <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/marital.html">had increased to 22</a>. Thirty percent of American women ages 18 to 24 who had graduated from high school were enrolled in college, and 13.6% had completed <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/">a four-year college degree</a>. Forty-five percent of married mothers with young children <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2010/ted_20100507_data.htm">were in the labor force</a>.</p>
<p>While these changes may not be directly attributable to Roe v. Wade, they occurred shortly after its passage – and they’ve continued unabated since then. </p>
<p><iframe id="OFirJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/OFirJ/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>By 2020, roughly two generations after Roe v. Wade, women were further postponing marriage, marrying for the first time <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/families-and-households/ms-2.pdf">at age 28</a>, according to the census. About 46% of all men and 41% of all women had <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/242030/marital-status-of-the-us-population-by-sex/">never been married</a>. Some estimates suggest a quarter of today’s young adults <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/09/24/record-share-of-americans-have-never-married/">may never marry</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, the <a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/school-enrollment.html">majority of college students are now women</a>, and <a href="https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/FMUP1378869">participation in the paid labor force</a> has become an expected part of many women’s lives.</p>
<p><iframe id="5z3St" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5z3St/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Control over choices</h2>
<p>If the Roe v. Wade decision were overturned, women’s control over the timing and number of children they have would be reduced or even eradicated. Would the average age at first marriage, the educational attainment level and the labor force participation of women – and thus women’s overall socioeconomic status – decrease again? </p>
<p>These questions are difficult to answer. But we can see the effect that teen pregnancy, for example, has on <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/teen-pregnancy-affects-graduation-rates-postcard.aspx">a woman’s education</a>. Thirty percent of all teenage girls who drop out of school cite pregnancy and parenthood as key reasons. Only 40% of teen mothers finish high school. Fewer than 2% finish college by age 30. </p>
<p>Educational achievement, in turn, affects the lifetime income of teen mothers. Two-thirds of families started by teens are poor, and nearly 1 in 4 will depend on welfare within three years of a child’s birth. Many children will not escape this cycle of poverty. Only about two-thirds of children born to teen mothers earn a high school diploma, compared with 81% of their peers with older parents.</p>
<h2>New battles</h2>
<p>Ongoing opposition to the legalization of abortion has succeeded in incrementally restricting U.S. women’s access to it. </p>
<p>Mississippi’s stringent abortion law, passed in 2018 but <a href="https://apnews.com/article/phil-bryant-us-news-courts-mississippi-ms-state-wire-e246c143498d4faa3226c250eb50b8fa">blocked by state courts</a>, is one of <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2017/07/laws-affecting-reproductive-health-and-rights-state-policy-trends-midyear-2017">several hundred laws enacted since 2011 by state legislatures</a> that <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/health/kentucky-abortion-20-week-ban/index.html">make abortions illegal</a> after a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/arkansas-abortion-law.html">certain point in early pregnancy</a>.</p>
<p>Medical abortion isn’t the only way women can exert control over reproduction. Even before 1973 and Roe v. Wade, American women in some states had legal access to medical abortion, or pills that terminate a pregnancy, and to a wide range of contraceptives, including diaphragms and condoms – both longstanding devices – and the birth control pill, which came on the market in 1960. </p>
<p>However, some states restricted access to contraceptives. Five years after the pill was introduced, the Supreme Court ruled, in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1964/496">Griswold v. Connecticut</a>, that married couples could not be denied access to contraceptives. In 1972, in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-17">Eisenstadt v. Baird</a>, the court extended this right to unmarried persons.</p>
<p>After the Roe decision, annual abortions increased from <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2019/09/us-abortion-rate-continues-drop-once-again-state-abortion-restrictions-are-not-main">616,000 in 1973 to 1.4 million in 1990</a>. But the number has been declining since then, reaching its lowest point in 2017 with 862,000 abortions. This is due in large part to an overall decline in pregnancies and births. </p>
<p>During the Trump administration, <a href="https://www.nirhealth.org/blog/2018/01/02/new-report-finds-nearly-every-state-moved-proactive-policies-advance-reproductive-freedom-2017-serving-counterweight-harmful-federal-action/">a record number of states acted to advance</a> reproductive health rights by introducing legislation to protect abortion access. Several states, <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-signs-legislation-protecting-womens-reproductive-rights">including New York</a>, now guarantee a woman’s right to have an abortion within their borders.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202637/original/file-20180119-110103-wsbd14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An ultrasound exam room at a Planned Parenthood in Boston.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Abortion-Clinic-Buffer-Zone/8cb84da5ee264c6c8ea3233dc8a48e6a/37/0">AP Photo/Steven Senne</a></span>
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<p>Today, with the availability of a greater range of contraception, abortion drugs and state laws that protect abortion access, it seems unlikely that women’s status will ever go back to where it was before 1973, even if Roe v. Wade is struck down. For one, new state laws protecting abortion would stand. And the U.S. economy’s strong demand for women’s labor all but ensures women can’t be reconsigned into working primarily or exclusively in unpaid domestic roles.</p>
<p>But Roe v. Wade greatly improved the lives of generations of women across the U.S. in the last decades of the 20th century and early in the 21st, giving them previously unknown levels of freedom, autonomy and control over their lives.</p>
<p><em>This story is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-roe-v-wade-changed-the-lives-of-american-women-99130">article</a> originally published on July 5, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161148/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Constance Shehan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over the past 48 years, women in the US have married later, attained higher education and joined the workforce in record numbers. Could a conservative Supreme Court turn it all back?Constance Shehan, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1304602020-02-11T13:54:30Z2020-02-11T13:54:30ZWomen in Arab countries find themselves torn between opportunity and tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314580/original/file-20200210-109916-1bwnb7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4928%2C3275&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In an effort to increase tourism, Saudi Arabia recently eased its strict dress code for foreign women, allowing them to go without the body-shrouding abaya robe still mandatory for Saudi women. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participants-attend-the-launch-of-the-new-tourism-visa-in-news-photo/1171500442?adppopup=true">FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arab women, long relegated to the private sphere by law and social custom, are gaining new access to public life. </p>
<p>All countries of the Arab Gulf now have <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2825910">workforce “nationalization policies”</a> that aim to reduce dependency on migrant labor by getting more women into the workforce. <a href="https://vision2030.gov.sa/en">Saudi Arabia set a goal</a> of 30% female labor participation by 2030. In <a href="https://lmis.csb.gov.kw/En/default.aspx">Kuwait</a>, female citizens outnumber male citizens in the workforce. And across the <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/16121/degrees-of-difficulty-women-and-higher-education-in-the-persian-gulf">Gulf</a>, women outnumber men in higher education enrollment. </p>
<p>Women are making political inroads in the region, too. In <a href="https://mofa.gov.qa/en/qatar/history-of-qatar/qatari-women">Qatar</a>, four women have been <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/231456">appointed</a> to ministerial positions since 2003. Eleven women have held cabinet positions in <a href="https://www.albawaba.com/news/kuwaits-new-cabinet-has-three-women-ministers-1327658">Kuwait</a> since 2005, including health minister, transportation minister and <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/gcc/gulf-s-first-female-finance-minister-named-in-new-kuwait-government-1.952640">finance minister</a>. </p>
<p>Even Saudi Arabia, which notoriously restricts women’s rights, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/8/3/20752864/saudi-arabia-guardianship-laws-women-travel-employment-mbs">reformed the guardianship system</a> that grants authority over women to their male relatives. Since August 2019, women may obtain passports, travel abroad and register marriages and births on their own. </p>
<p>These changes have real world benefits for Arab women, giving them greater economic independence and a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/04/lolwah-al-khater-qatar-foreign-policy-interview-074959">voice in domestic and international affairs</a>.</p>
<p>But Arab Muslim women in the Middle East still face substantial <a href="https://agsiw.org/the-personal-is-political-gender-identity-in-the-personal-status-laws-of-the-gulf-arab-states/">social and legal inequalities</a>. Even as governments in the region tout female advancement abroad, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7dMcuN0AAAAJ&hl=en">my research on women in the Arab Gulf</a> finds, at home they still enforce traditional gender roles. </p>
<h2>Women as symbols of Islam</h2>
<p>The discovery of oil in the Arab Gulf in the 1930s <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2018/06/21/how-oil-transformed-the-gulf">turned these Islamic monarchies into global players</a>. One result of this globalization was that Western leaders put <a href="https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/91831/CME-pub-PoliticalEconomy-050815.pdf?sequence=1">pressure on the region</a> to “modernize” their laws and customs. </p>
<p>Championing <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/gulf-women-long-190308131344342.html">women’s advancement</a> is one way Gulf rulers can present a positive international image. This helps maintain good political, military and trade relationships with Europe and the United States and allays <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/human-rights-in-the-gulf-under-renewed-scrutiny-ahead-of-gcc-summit/">criticisms</a> of human rights violations.</p>
<p>In recent years, Arab Gulf women have also <a href="https://theconversation.com/saudi-women-are-going-to-college-running-for-office-and-changing-the-conservative-country-109938">fought hard for their rights</a>. Saudi women successfully campaigned for the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/world/middleeast/saudi-driving-ban-anniversary.html">right to drive</a>, which was granted in 2018. In Kuwait, activists are now pushing for <a href="http://abolish153.org/">better protections</a> against domestic violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314584/original/file-20200210-109935-1fgjarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314584/original/file-20200210-109935-1fgjarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314584/original/file-20200210-109935-1fgjarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314584/original/file-20200210-109935-1fgjarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314584/original/file-20200210-109935-1fgjarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314584/original/file-20200210-109935-1fgjarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314584/original/file-20200210-109935-1fgjarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater, of the Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry, is one of several Qatari women in high-profile political posts, Sept. 24, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lolwah-rashid-al-khater-spokesperson-of-the-ministry-of-news-photo/1176806473?adppopup=true">Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Summit</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Gulf rulers still need the support of conservative citizens and influential religious leaders, too. And these sectors of the population have repeatedly raised <a href="https://mepc.org/political-costs-qatars-western-orientation">fears of Westernization</a> threatening local language, dress styles, food and cultural traditions.</p>
<p>One way Gulf rulers manage this tension, I’ve found, is by promoting <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Most_Masculine_State/JmafWmVNJAAC?hl=en&gbpv=0">Quranic interpretations</a> that relegate women to traditional roles like <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6040123">bearing and raising children and caring for their families</a>. Celebrating women’s domesticity is an easy way to signal their government’s commitment to what they consider Islamic values.</p>
<p>In Qatar, for example, the <a href="https://www.gco.gov.qa/en/about-qatar/national-vision2030/">National Vision 2030</a> – an economic and social development blueprint – states that “Qatar has maintained its cultural and traditional values as an Arab and Islamic nation that considers the family to be the main pillar of society.” </p>
<p>And the Qataris propping up this pillar are women. </p>
<p>“Through their nurturing of language, codes of ethics, behavioural patterns, value systems and religious beliefs, women play an indispensable role in upholding traditional familial and cultural values,” reads a <a href="https://www.psa.gov.qa/en/nds1/pages/default.aspx">government document building on the proposals laid out in the National Vision 2030</a>.</p>
<h2>Religion and gender</h2>
<p>There are, of course, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/rise-islamic-feminists/">more gender-equal interpretations of the Quran</a>. Islam itself does not require repressing women. </p>
<p>But throughout history <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Women_and_Gender_in_Islam.html?id=U0Grq2BzaUgC&source=kp_book_description">male leaders in the Gulf</a> have associated patriarchal gender roles with religious purity. And clerics, who have significant <a href="https://www.bakerinstitute.org/media/files/files/516a1378/bi-report-092319-cme-mbs-saudi.pdf">social and political influence</a> in the region, enforce <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mwz6.5?refreqid=excelsior%3A73695d320b89c549f2d264978e14cf5b&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">conservative readings of Islamic law</a> that subordinate women. </p>
<p>For example, women in all of the <a href="https://agsiw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aldosari_ONLINE_updated.pdf">Gulf states</a> must receive the approval of a male guardian to marry. In <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2019/08/04/Qatar-remains-only-GCC-country-restricting-travel-for-women.html">Qatar</a>, single women under 25 require permission to travel abroad, and Qatari men can argue in court to stop their wives from traveling. In Saudi Arabia, men can file a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/loopholes-riddle-saudi-reforms-guardianship-women-report-191023062306285.html">“disobedience” complaint</a> against female relatives for leaving the house without permission. </p>
<p>In Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, a man can <a href="https://agsiw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aldosari_ONLINE_updated.pdf">stop his wife from working</a> if he feels her employment interferes with her domestic responsibilities or religious conduct.</p>
<p>As a result, women in Gulf countries find themselves <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/02/saudi-arabia-women-travel-consent-rights-feminist-movement">caught between two contradictory agendas</a> for the 21st century.</p>
<h2>What women want</h2>
<p>Many Qatari women I’ve interviewed say they struggle to balance the <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/jmews/article/15/3/344/140633/Gender-and-Nation-Building-in-QatarQatari-Women?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Gender%20and%20Nation%20Building%20in%20Qatar%3A%20Qatari%20Women%20Negotiate%20Modernity&utm_campaign=j-MEW_Top5of2019_Jan2020">conflicting expectations between domestic responsibilities and emerging professional opportunities</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4087%2C2990&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4087%2C2990&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314574/original/file-20200210-109887-x1p1vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ice cream selfies in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 19, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/local-women-take-pictures-of-their-ice-creams-in-doha-qatar-news-photo/1189635066?adppopup=true">Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sheikha, an unmarried Qatari in her late 20s who works as an academic adviser, told me she often wonders: “I have a job and future plans. Why should I marry?”</p>
<p>“I don’t want to say that marriage erases the dreams,” she said, “but sometimes with the family commitment you can’t do it.”</p>
<p>Qatari women like Sheikha tend to face significant <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/06_bdc_essay_winner.pdf">social pressure</a> to settle down and have children by a certain age and to make sure their education and career goals do not get in the way of domestic responsibilities. </p>
<p>Not all the pressure is external. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11199-016-0708-9">Many women</a> I met hold conservative views on marriage and the family, too.</p>
<p>“I started work when my last daughter got married,” Amina Al-Ansari, an associate professor at Qatar University, told me. “Before that, I took care of the house and kids.” </p>
<p>Al-Ansari, like all 15 Qatari women I interviewed, believes caring for the family is a woman’s religious duty.</p>
<h2>Still can’t have it all</h2>
<p>Conservative Qataris also view women working or <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780333638125">studying in a gender-mixed</a> environment as a violation of Islamic values and a sign of <a href="https://mepc.org/political-costs-qatars-western-orientation">Westernization</a>.</p>
<p>That’s why Amal Al-Shammari, a 32-year-old Qatari who now runs a cultural association for expatriates and tourists called <a href="http://www.embracedoha.net/">Embrace Doha</a>, attended Qatar University – the country’s only gender-segregated university. </p>
<p>“My parents wanted me to go there to keep a good reputation. Guys assume you have lots of relationships if you go to gender-mixed universities,” she told me. “My parents wanted me to stay with the conservative way.”</p>
<p>As political and religious leaders in the Gulf push their national agendas, women must find their own ways to balance newfound freedoms with existing social and religious pressures. </p>
<p>“There is always development, improvement, but always tradition, religion, and culture,” the professor, Al-Ansari, told me, summing up these tensions. </p>
<p>“We are living under the umbrella of religion.” </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alainna Liloia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, it’s now official policy that women should go to college and work outside the home. But cultural pressure to marry and have kids remains strong.Alainna Liloia, Ph.D. Student, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1051042018-11-26T22:42:25Z2018-11-26T22:42:25ZWomen feel better when they work with other women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247895/original/file-20181129-170247-1iz02uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research indicates women are much happier when they work with other women, as opposed to men. Here a scene from the set of 'Ocean's Eight' with Cate Blanchett and Rihanna looking happy working together.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The #metoo movement has brought the widespread <a href="http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/08/07/women-report-sexual-harassment-men-even-male-dominated-workplaces/">sexual harassment experienced by women in the workplace to the fore</a>. <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/07/women-in-majority-male-workplaces-report-higher-rates-of-gender-discrimination/">Women in traditionally male jobs and workplaces are even more likely to experience gender discrimination and sexual harassment</a>. This has been described as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/sunday-review/sexual-harassment-masculine-jobs.html">the ‘manly’ jobs problem</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10902-018-0039-3">A recent study</a> I worked on with my colleague <a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/sociology/people/faculty-directory/wen-fan.html">Wen Fan</a> from Boston College looks closely at this question of how gender equality is unfolding in the labour force. Most adults spend almost half their waking hours at work, so it is a hugely important part of our lives. </p>
<p>One of the issues we explored was: how are women doing at work? We discovered that women are much happier when they work with other women, as opposed to men.</p>
<p>Women now make up <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/31/women-may-never-make-up-half-of-the-u-s-workforce/">almost half of the workforce in the United States</a> but occupations continue to be <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-012-0151-7">segregated along gender lines</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246557/original/file-20181120-161633-dkk7fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246557/original/file-20181120-161633-dkk7fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246557/original/file-20181120-161633-dkk7fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246557/original/file-20181120-161633-dkk7fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246557/original/file-20181120-161633-dkk7fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246557/original/file-20181120-161633-dkk7fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246557/original/file-20181120-161633-dkk7fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Here a scene from the set of ‘Ocean’s Eight’ with Cate Blanchett and Rihanna looking happy working together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, some progress was made and gender segregation declined, but progress toward more integrated workplaces has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243210361475">stalled since the mid-1990s</a>. </p>
<p>As of 2016, about half of women or half of men would have to move into a new occupation to <a href="https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways_SOTU_2018_occupational-segregation.pdf">eliminate the gender segregation of occupations</a>. Jobs that are dominated by either sex are often viewed as <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520087873/still-a-mans-world">“manly” or “womanly”</a> and form core definitions of masculinity or femininity.</p>
<h2>Scorn and ridicule</h2>
<p>Throughout <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483326559">American history</a>, men have defended gender segregation by treating women who enter into male-dominated occupations with scorn and ridicule. Women who cross over into predominantly male jobs are seen as “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243213510781">role deviates</a>;” they report feeling <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243209359912">lower levels of workplace support</a> and experiencing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412451728">hostile work environments</a>.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520087873/still-a-mans-world">the few men who enter female-dominated occupations have been generally accepted by their female co-workers</a>.</p>
<p>Women’s presence in male-dominated occupations seems to threaten prevailing ideas of masculinity. Men have been observed trying to neutralize this threat by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243298012003004">sexually harassing</a> their female co-workers or <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243213510781">labeling them as lesbians</a> — not fully women. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246520/original/file-20181120-161633-qt09gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246520/original/file-20181120-161633-qt09gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246520/original/file-20181120-161633-qt09gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246520/original/file-20181120-161633-qt09gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246520/original/file-20181120-161633-qt09gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246520/original/file-20181120-161633-qt09gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246520/original/file-20181120-161633-qt09gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women report feeling harassed, marginalized and unsupported in their untraditional job roles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arthur Lambillotte / Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/226425">due to their high visibility</a>, women in male-dominated occupations often hear doubts from their male co-workers about their competence to perform “men’s jobs.” They encounter negative stereotypes, are subject to higher performance standards and face <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1991.14.3.279">various forms of marginalization</a>. </p>
<p>To add to this, these women are deeply <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520087873/still-a-mans-world">constrained in how they can respond to gender prejudices</a> and unfair treatment. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10902-018-0039-3">Our study</a> found that when women are the minority in the workplace, they experience higher levels of unpleasant feelings at work. To put it into perspective, our statistics indicate that working in occupations with over 90 per cent male workers is associated with a 52 per cent increase in unpleasant feelings for women, compared to working in occupations with less than 10 per cent male workers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246602/original/file-20181121-161612-nxuglw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U-index is a measure of unpleasantness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Provided by the author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The men are generally fine</h2>
<p>How about men? Does the the gender ratio at work effect their affective well-being? </p>
<p>The answer is no. As indicated in the chart above, men’s feelings of unpleasantness at work barely change with the gender composition of their occupation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246554/original/file-20181120-161618-1gzbssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246554/original/file-20181120-161618-1gzbssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246554/original/file-20181120-161618-1gzbssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246554/original/file-20181120-161618-1gzbssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246554/original/file-20181120-161618-1gzbssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246554/original/file-20181120-161618-1gzbssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246554/original/file-20181120-161618-1gzbssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some trailblazers enter into nontraditional roles like politics. Here Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American Congresswoman announces her candidacy for the U.S. presidency in 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blackwomeninpolitics.com">Black Women in Politics</a></span>
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<p>Although men in female-dominated occupations may be subject to suspicions that they are not “real men,” their masculinity and male privilege are maintained through various ways, such as being channeled into male-identified — and typically higher-status — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2008.55.2.271">specialties</a>, job tasks or <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520087873/still-a-mans-world">leadership positions</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-is-metoo-coming-to-my-workplace-eight-things-you-can-do-now-99661">When is #MeToo coming to my workplace? Eight things you can do now</a>
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<p>In addition, men in female-dominated occupations do not necessarily experience marginalization, because they tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243209359912">receive support</a> from their supervisors who are typically men and they are generally <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520087873/still-a-mans-world">welcomed by their female coworkers</a> who often view male colleagues as bringing status to female-dominated occupations.</p>
<p>Our results clearly show that the unpleasant feelings during work are not merely a by-product of being a numerical minority. Because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002">work organizations</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243208330313">the wider society</a> value men and qualities associated with masculinity more than they value women and femininity, women’s affective well-being suffers from being a minority, whereas men’s affective well-being is not affected. </p>
<p>The segregation of men and women in the labour market thus perpetuates gender inequality partly through its impact on the quality of one’s daily working life.</p>
<h2>Unpleasant feelings lead to bad health</h2>
<p>Although unpleasant feelings seem subjective, they are found to <a href="http://chicago.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7208/chicago/9780226454573.001.0001/upso-9780226454566-chapter-2">predict health, longevity, immune function and “stress hormone” levels such as cortisol</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246555/original/file-20181120-161624-14myvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246555/original/file-20181120-161624-14myvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246555/original/file-20181120-161624-14myvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246555/original/file-20181120-161624-14myvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246555/original/file-20181120-161624-14myvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246555/original/file-20181120-161624-14myvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246555/original/file-20181120-161624-14myvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Unpleasant feelings are subjective but yield negative physical results such as higher levels of stress and lower well-being.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jose Martin Ramirez /Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>In fact, workers’ unpleasant feelings at work are a key <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135156">predictor of their withdrawal behaviours</a> such as absenteeism and turnover. Therefore, the negative feelings that are experienced by women working in male-dominated occupations may discourage many of these women from retaining their jobs.</p>
<p>Thus, by linking women’s affective well-being with occupational gender composition, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10902-018-0039-3">our study</a> provides important clues as to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243210361475">stalling of the progress towards gender equality</a> at work.</p>
<h2>Education and policies needed</h2>
<p>In order to revitalize the stalled progress towards gender integration in the workforce, policies need to be developed to improve the experience of female workers in gender-atypical occupations. </p>
<p>For example, organizations and workplaces could implement effective programs that monitor and prevent sexual harassment and bullying at work. There is also a need to promote an organizational culture that ensures people are evaluated based on their performance rather than any gender-related stereotype. </p>
<p>As well, efforts could be devoted to education — reducing the cultural devaluation of women and femininity and, at the same time, promoting a redefinition of masculinity and femininity that breaks the link between gender and innate interests or abilities. </p>
<p>New equity initiatives would continue to positively increase female workers’ affective well-being and, in the long run, would serve to build a solid foundation to create gender-friendly work environments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yue Qian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Men have defended gender segregation by treating women who cross over into male-dominated occupations with scorn and ridicule.Yue Qian, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1009572018-08-14T20:27:07Z2018-08-14T20:27:07ZHow women led the rise of professional work in the Australian economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231240/original/file-20180809-30476-11sy9pj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The number of women dentists collapsed after new regulations in the 1930s.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the late 19th century, a very small percentage of Australians in the workforce – around 3% – worked in professional occupations like law, medicine, engineering, accounting and teaching. By the end of the 20th century about 40% were professionals. </p>
<p>We are often told that women were excluded from this process. This leads to the impression that women lawyers, doctors and engineers are an artefact of progressive reform. But the story is more complicated than that. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/aehr.12147">My research</a> shows that women were actually central to the growth of professional work. While professionals made up 2% of the male workforce in 1881, professionals were 5% of the female workforce. And while male professionals grew to 10% of the male labour force in the first half of the 20th century, professionals grew to 25% of women in the workforce.</p>
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<p>In the first half of the 20th century all of the professions increased at a greater rate than the rest of the labour force. The economy was changing in ways that demanded more accountants, engineers and journalists. Scientific advances encouraged increased health care. And education of the whole population was increasingly necessary, requiring more teachers. </p>
<p>Not all the professions increased at the same rate, however. And the professions that grew the fastest were arguably those that contributed the most to the professionalisation of the economy.</p>
<p>These were not the traditional professions, like law and medicine. Rather, as a result of increased expectations for scientific health care and the growth of compulsory schooling, nursing and teaching grew far more rapidly than all the others.</p>
<h2>The rise of women professionals</h2>
<p>There were women professionals in almost all fields, though women dominated in areas that drew on women’s traditional authority over what an older middle class defined as the “domestic sphere”. </p>
<p>Women had always worked. Work performed by both men and women once took place at or near the family home. Gradually, as work industrialised, it moved away from the home and into spaces dedicated to work. This occurred earlier for men than for women, which is the process that created a <em>separate</em> sphere, and left women in it. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-are-dominating-employment-growth-but-what-sort-of-jobs-are-we-talking-about-98698">Women are dominating employment growth, but what sort of jobs are we talking about?</a>
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<p>But as the economy professionalised, middle-class women saw opportunities to build a professional sphere for themselves. Nursing and teaching drew on the work that women had always done – caring for the sick and teaching children.</p>
<p>For some women, this also gave them the authority to become medical practitioners. Women, not men, had traditional responsibility for health care, the earliest women doctors argued. </p>
<p>Social work emerged from 19th-century charity work performed by middle-class women determined to work also outside the home. </p>
<h2>Does this mean women were not disadvantaged after all?</h2>
<p>Even though they had a significant place in building professional work, women were nevertheless disadvantaged. The new middle class that emerged with the growth of the professions was based on a hierarchy. Women always clustered at the bottom of that hierarchy. </p>
<p>When they carved out professional spaces for themselves, those professions were often the first – like nursing and teaching – to suffer cuts in pay and conditions.</p>
<p>Women medical practitioners often started their own hospitals, just so that they had opportunity to practise.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/HER-09-2015-0016">new regulations</a> clamped down on dentistry, the number of dentists reported in the census fell by 44% – but the decline in women dentists was 90%. </p>
<p>By 1947, only 77 women were dentists, down from 1,403 in 1921. </p>
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<p>A similar thing happened later on to women accountants. During the Great Depression, women were also less likely to be granted opportunity to work in professional occupations. Some professions, like teaching, instituted explicit “marriage bars”, which kept the number of women down.</p>
<h2>How this helps us understand class</h2>
<p>British historian E.P. Thompson once <a href="http://libcom.org/library/preface-making-english-working-class">famously said</a> that “class is a relationship, not a thing”. And like all relationships, this one’s complicated. </p>
<p>The hierarchy of the professional middle class is based at least nominally on merit. This helped middle-class people believe that they earned their status.</p>
<p>As the professions emerged, middle-class women objected that they did not have the same opportunities to earn a place in the hierarchies as middle-class men. There are many examples from the 1850s to the present. In 1911 for instance, a group of women <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12171">published</a> information about women professionals in order to complain about lack of opportunity for married women.</p>
<p>They were right, though women activists rarely pointed out that while most women were excluded from elite professions, so were most men. Middle-class women believed they deserved access to the professions because, like the men in those positions, they were middle class.</p>
<p>This helps us to see that gender equity was not just about opening up the professions to women on the basis of merit. Access to professional employment has always been about class background, as well as gender.</p>
<p>When we are planning education and other programs, we need to remember that while merit supposedly regulates professional hierarchies, it is not the only thing at work. Making access to professional employment fair for everyone means we need to take class into account, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Forsyth receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>As Australia started to professionalise the change was led by industries dominated by women.Hannah Forsyth, Lecturer in History, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/988602018-07-12T20:07:56Z2018-07-12T20:07:56ZA silent career killer – here’s what workplaces can do about menopause<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226861/original/file-20180710-122250-cepbcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In one study, only a quarter of respondents felt able to discuss their menopausal symptoms with their manager.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-mature-female-manager-wearing-eyeglasses-406004056?src=KbB_G--7rSPjHAKIXIFwtA-2-77">stockfour/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More and more Australian women are facing a silent career killer. It can increase their dissatisfaction with work, their absenteeism and their intention to quit their jobs. Menopause is one of the last great taboo subjects in the workplace but its impacts are great – and it’s time we talked about it. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.menopause.org.au/hp/information-sheets/185-what-is-menopause">Menopause typically occurs in women around 51 years of age</a>. Prior to this women also pass through a period of peri-menopause where symptoms are apparent. These include fatigue, hot flushes, sleep disruption, irregular and unpredictable bleeding, urinary issues and mood swings. In all, menopausal symptoms generally last from four to eight years.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chemical-messengers-how-hormones-change-through-menopause-56921">Chemical messengers: how hormones change through menopause</a>
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<p>This directly relates to the workforce in Australia because the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4125.0%7ESep%202017%7EMain%20Features%7EEconomic%20Security%7E4">participation of women over 45 years of age is steadily increasing</a>, particularly in the 55-64 age group. Between 1999 and 2012, this group’s workforce participation rate <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4102.0">grew by a staggering 23%</a>.</p>
<p>While workplaces in Australia have slowly incorporated the needs of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers into their cultures, those at the other end of the journey are neither acknowledged nor understood.</p>
<h2>What do we know about menopause and work?</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://womenworkandthemenopause.com/menopause-and-the-workplace">large study</a> of women over 40 working at Australian universities was conducted in 2013-14. It’s one of the few to examine this issue locally.</p>
<p>This research showed that menopause did not necessarily affect job performance. But there was a strong link between the severity of symptoms and reduced engagement and satisfaction with work – as well as a higher intention to quit work. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, these reactions can have negative impacts on career aspirations. A 2013 report, <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/research/project/older-women-matter">Older Women Matter: Harnessing the talents of Australia’s older female workforce</a>, examined the issue of attracting and retaining older women in Australian workplaces. While not directly about menopause, this report argued that employers could reap significant benefits by examining their strategies and policies for employees in this demographic.</p>
<p>Studies overseas, particularly in the UK, have more comprehensively explored the link between workplace performance and menopause. It is generally agreed that women are often able to conceal their symptoms and manage their workloads. Yet they often do so at their own personal expense. </p>
<p><a href="http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2899/1/Talbert_Dissertation-Complete.pdf">One study</a> found that only a quarter of respondents felt comfortable enough to discuss their menopausal symptoms with their line managers. Most believed it was a personal and private matter. Other reasons for non-disclosure included the belief that it had no impact on their work, and their manager being male and being embarrassed.</p>
<p>The consensus then is that this important group of employees need support so that menopausal symptoms can be discussed and managed. That in turn means employees can be retained and developed. But how do employers make this happen?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-menopause-dreaded-derided-and-seldom-discussed-85281">The menopause: dreaded, derided and seldom discussed</a>
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<h2>A case study – Nottinghamshire Police</h2>
<p>When Detective Constable Keely Mansell was faced with <a href="https://jeanhailes.org.au/health-a-z/menopause/premature-early-menopause">early onset menopause</a> at the age of 38, she was at a loss about how to manage her symptoms in her male-dominated workplace. She left the UK police force for a short time. After finding a treatment that worked for her, she returned to work and developed Nottinghamshire Police’s <a href="https://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/document/menopause-managers-guide-pg50">Menopause Managers Guide</a>, which was introduced in 2017. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Breaking the workplace taboo on talking about and managing menopause symptoms will improve employee satisfaction and retention, to the benefit of all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/smiling-female-aged-company-executive-team-1032686050?src=KbB_G--7rSPjHAKIXIFwtA-1-2">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The aim of the policy is to “create an environment where women feel confident enough to raise issues about their symptoms and ask for adjustments at work”. The guide explains menopause in simple language and includes information about diagnosis and treatment options.</p>
<p>The policy suggests a range of practical steps to support women going through menopause. These including: increased frequency of breaks; access to toilet facilities; adjustment to uniform and workspaces; and flexible working arrangements. </p>
<p>Nottinghamshire Police is not the only UK employer responding to this emerging workplace issue. Other organisations seeking to support and educate staff through menopause policies are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/marks-spencer-recruiting-women-from-different-backgrounds">Marks & Spencer</a>, <a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/hr/policies/health/menopause">Leicester University</a>, <a href="https://menopauseintheworkplace.co.uk/case-studies/menopause-severn-trent/">Severn Trent Water</a> and energy company <a href="https://www.eonenergy.com/about-eon/media-centre/eon-becomes-britains-first-menopause-friendly-energy-company/">E.ON</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-employers-need-to-recognise-the-menopause-at-work-82543">Three reasons employers need to recognise the menopause at work</a>
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<h2>What can Australian organisations do?</h2>
<p>Careers need not be stilted or threatened by the impact of menopause. Even though there is no “typical” menopause, some easy and inexpensive workplace adjustments can be made to help with symptoms. </p>
<p>Most importantly, an open dialogue needs to be established so employees aren’t placed under further stress by trying to conceal menopause symptoms. This may be done through workplace and managerial training and health promotion programs. </p>
<p>In addition, simple physical changes to the workplace can be made. Examples include providing easy access to fans and/or temperature control for women experiencing hot flushes, and providing adequate toilet and personal spaces for affected women to seek short-term refuge. Flexible working hours and other arrangements can also help with managing symptoms, including fatigue from sleep disruption.</p>
<p>Changes like these assist in meeting the organisation’s occupational health and safety obligations. Just as crucially, they are instrumental in communicating the workplace’s commitment to its employees’ health and well-being. This in turn will improve employee retention and satisfaction, far beyond the time when menopausal symptoms are present. </p>
<p>Indeed, researchers are working to further understand the impacts on the careers and progression of women in Australia with a view to increasing awareness of the ramifications of menopause in the workplace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth McPhail does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Workforce participation rates for older women have increased greatly, but most workplaces have yet to realise the benefits of helping them to manage the impacts of menopause.Ruth McPhail, Head of Department of Employment Relations & Human Resources, and Professor, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/910452018-03-01T11:40:44Z2018-03-01T11:40:44ZHow the devastating 1918 flu pandemic helped advance US women’s rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208319/original/file-20180228-36671-jjv25p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C50%2C961%2C702&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More women than men were left standing after the war and pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://lccn.loc.gov/2011661525">Library of Congress</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When disaster strikes, it can change the fabric of a society – often through the sheer loss of human life. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/05/tsunami2004.internationalaidanddevelopment3">left 35,000 children</a> without one or both parents in Indonesia alone. The Black Death <a href="https://www.livescience.com/2497-black-death-changed-world.html">killed more than 75 million people</a> worldwide and <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-death">more than a third of Europe’s population</a> between 1347 and 1351. </p>
<p>While disasters are by definition devastating, sometimes they can lead to changes that are a small silver lining. The 2004 tsunami <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/12/26/indonesia-reconstruction-chapter-ends-eight-years-after-the-tsunami">ended a civil conflict in Indonesia</a> that had left 15,000 dead. The 14th century’s plague, <a href="https://www.rwjf.org/en/culture-of-health/2013/12/the_five_deadliesto.html">probably the most deadly disaster in human history</a>, set free many serfs in Europe, forced wages for laborers to rise, and caused a fundamental shift in the economy along with an increased standard of living for survivors.</p>
<p>One hundred years ago, a powerful strain of the flu swept the globe, infecting one third of the world’s population. The aftermath of this disaster, too, led to unexpected social changes, opening up new opportunities for women and in the process irreversibly transforming life in the United States.</p>
<p>The virus disproportionately affected young men, which in combination with World War I, created a shortage of labor. This gap enabled women to play a new and indispensible role in the workforce during the crucial period just before the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/19thamendment.html">granted women suffrage in the United States</a> two years later.</p>
<h2>Why did the flu affect men more than women?</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-greatest-pandemic-in-history-was-100-years-ago-but-many-of-us-still-get-the-basic-facts-wrong-89841">Known as the Spanish flu</a>, the 1918 “great influenza” left <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/29/health/1918-flu-history-partner/index.html">more than 50 million people dead</a>, including around <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journal-plague-year-180965222/">670,000</a> in the United States.</p>
<p>To put that in perspective, World War I, which concluded just as the flu was at its worst in November 1918, killed around 17 million people – <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25776836">a mere third of the fatalities caused by the flu</a>. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kolata-flu.html">More American soldiers died from the flu</a> than were killed in battle, and many of the deaths attributed to World War I were caused by a combination of the war and the flu.</p>
<p>The war provided near perfect conditions for the spread of flu virus via the respiratory droplets exhaled by infected individuals. Military personnel – predominantly young males – spent months at a time in close quarters with thousands of other troops. This proximity, combined with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361287/">the stress</a> of war and the malnutrition that sometimes accompanied it, created weakened immune systems in soldiers and allowed the virus spread like wildfire.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208320/original/file-20180228-36703-1k4dxiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When soldiers shipped out, influenza virus could be stowing away onboard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Eawatchf-AP-I-APHSL-USA-WWI-American-Troops/276539db593a4899b405f9ca175e85fb/1/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Overcrowding in training camps, trenches and hospitals <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/jul/30/influenza-pandemic-1918-viruses-biology-medicine-history">created an ideal environment</a> for the 1918 influenza strain to infect high numbers of people. In fact, the conditions of war helped the virus perfect itself <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/1/05-0979_article">through several waves of infection</a>, each more deadly than the last.</p>
<p>Many troops were doomed before they even reached Europe, contracting the flu on the packed troop ships where a single infected soldier could spread the virus throughout. When soldiers returned to the U.S., they scattered to every state, bringing the flu along with them. </p>
<p>It was more than just male conscription in war, however, that led to a greater number of men who were infected and died from the flu. Even at home, among those that were never involved in the war effort, the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2740912/">death rate for men exceeded that of women</a>. Demographic studies show that nearly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2740912/">175,000 more men died than women in 1918</a>.</p>
<p>In general, epidemics tend to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2740912/">kill more men than women</a>. In disease outbreaks throughout history, as well as almost all of the world’s major famines, women have a longer life expectancy than men and often <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/01/03/1701535115">have greater survival rates</a>.</p>
<p>The exact reason why men tend to be more vulnerable to the flu than women continues to elude researchers. The scoffing modern term “man flu” refers to the perception that men are overly dramatic when they fall ill; But recent research suggests that there <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j5560">may be more to it</a> than just exaggerated symptoms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208321/original/file-20180228-36674-1uzoi6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The flu’s aftermath furthered a trend started by the war effort.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Pennsylvania-Uni-/a8dcff1102e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/2/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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<h2>Flu brought more women into the workforce</h2>
<p>The severity of the epidemic in the U.S. was enough to temporarily shut down parts of the economy in 1918. In New England, <a href="http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/default/files/public/downloads/cidrap_coal_report.pdf">coal deliveries were so severely affected</a> that people, unable to keep their homes heated, froze to death at the height of winter. During the 1918 flu outbreak, researchers estimate businesses in Little Rock, Arkansas, saw <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/%7E/media/Files/PDFs/Community-Development/Research-Reports/pandemic_flu_report.pdf?la=en">a decline of 40 to 70 percent</a>. </p>
<p>The worker shortage caused by the flu and World War I opened access to the labor market for women, and in unprecedented numbers they took jobs outside the home. Following the conclusion of the war, the number of women in the workforce was <a href="http://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/women-in-the-1920s.htm">25 percent higher than it had been</a> previously and by 1920 <a href="https://www.dol.gov/wb/info_about_wb/interwb.htm">women made up 21 percent</a> of all gainfully employed individuals in the country. While this gender boost is often ascribed to World War I alone, women’s increased presence in the workforce would have been far less pronounced without the 1918 flu.</p>
<p>Women began to move into employment roles that were previously <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/women-in-world-war-1-1222109">held exclusively by men</a>, many of which were in manufacturing. They were even able to enter fields from which they had been banned, such as the textile industry. As women filled what had been typically male workplace roles, they also began to <a href="http://time.com/3774661/equal-pay-history/">demand equal pay</a> for their work. Gaining greater economic power, women began more actively advocating for various women’s rights issues – including, <a href="http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/">but not limited to, the right to vote</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208322/original/file-20180228-36703-txw39t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Once a woman’s the boss, how can you deny her the vote?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-DC-USA-APHS350732-Women-s-Suffrage/3dd9b4d05c8647d1aeb2e4610cdeae7a/3/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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<h2>How the flu helped change people’s minds</h2>
<p>Increased participation in the workforce allowed many women to obtain <a href="https://www.warandgender.com/wgwomwwi.htm">social and financial independence</a>. Leadership positions within the workforce could now be occupied by women, especially in the garment industry, but also <a href="http://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2002/3/02.03.09.x.html">in the military and police forces</a>. The U.S. even got its <a href="https://www.afscme.org/for-members/womens-leadership-training/leadership-tools/body/Women_in_Labor_History_Timeline.pdf">first woman governor</a>, when Nellie Taylor Ross took her oath of office, in 1923, in Wyoming. An increased ability to make decisions in their personal and professional lives empowered many women and started to elevate their standing.</p>
<p>With the war over and increased female participation in the labor force, politicians could not ignore the critical role that women played in American society. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/world/europe/1918-flu-war-centennial.html">Even President Woodrow Wilson</a> began to argue in 1918 that women were part of the American war effort and economy more broadly, and as such, should be afforded the right to vote. </p>
<p>Outside of work, women also became more involved in community decision-making. Women’s changing social role <a href="http://time.com/3774661/equal-pay-history/">increased support</a> for women’s rights. In 1919, the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs was founded. The organization <a href="https://www.afscme.org/for-members/womens-leadership-training/leadership-tools/body/Women_in_Labor_History_Timeline.pdf">focused on</a> eliminating sex discrimination in the workforce, making sure women got equal pay and creating a comprehensive equal rights amendment.</p>
<p>The 1918 influenza pandemic was devastating. But the massive human tragedy had one silver lining: It helped elevate women in American society socially and financially, providing them more freedom, independence and a louder voice in the political arena.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With many men ‘missing’ from the population in the aftermath of the 1918 flu, women stepped into public roles that hadn’t previously been open to them.Christine Crudo Blackburn, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M UniversityGerald W Parker, Associate Dean For Global One Health, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; and Director, Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program, Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M UniversityMorten Wendelbo, Research Fellow, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/780782017-05-22T02:07:27Z2017-05-22T02:07:27ZUS civil service’s preference for hiring military vets comes at a hidden cost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170238/original/file-20170521-12260-1rk6mru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The federal government has long shown a hiring preference for veterans to help them find jobs following their service.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sara D. Davis/AP Images for U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An important way the U.S. shows its gratitude to veterans who have fought America’s wars is by giving them a leg up in getting a job with the federal government.</p>
<p>The policy, known as “<a href="http://www.military.com/benefits/veteran-benefits/veterans-employment-preference-points.html">veterans’ preference</a>,” became law after the Civil War, was strengthened following World War I and grew even more entrenched after World War II and in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>While it’s good that the nation thanks its troops, the strong preference for veterans has had some negative effects as well, particularly in terms of lessening the civil service’s diversity, as <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article/23/2/247/1000440/The-Impact-of-Veterans-Preference-on-the">my research</a> into this policy shows. </p>
<h2>How veterans’ preference works</h2>
<p>Congress gave disabled veterans preference in hiring for some federal jobs after the Civil War.</p>
<p>Lawmakers greatly expanded it after World War I, allowing able-bodied, honorably discharged veterans to receive a hiring preference in most civilian federal jobs, as well as widows of deceased veterans and wives of severely disabled ones. More recently, the Obama administration strengthened veterans’ preference by directing agencies to establish hiring goals and making <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/25/AR2010122502099.html">other changes</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/14/veterans-continue-to-get-jobs-in-the-federal-government/?utm_term=.b7671d575797">one-third of new federal hires are veterans</a>.</p>
<p>Here’s how it worked up to 2010. The civil service rated job applicants for almost all nonpolitical jobs on a 100-point scale, typically by having them take a test or evaluating their education and experience. Disabled veterans got an extra 10 points added to that score, while other former soldiers received 5 points. </p>
<p>The federal personnel agency ranked applicants based on this score and, when the final score was a tie, placed veterans ahead of nonveterans. Thus, disabled veterans with scores of 90 and other veterans with scores of 95 ranked higher than nonveterans with scores of 100. In addition, veterans with more serious service-related disabilities “floated” to the top of the list as long as they scored above a passing grade of 70.</p>
<p>Typically, hiring officials had to choose <a href="https://chiefhro.com/2014/10/15/was-the-rule-of-three-as-bad-as-we-thought/">one of the three candidates with the top scores</a>. If the final three included both veterans and nonveterans, the hiring official needed written permission from the federal personnel agency to “pass over” a veteran to hire a nonveteran lower on the list.</p>
<p>That’s how the vast majority of current federal employees were hired. Since 2010, hiring officials set bars in advance to divide qualified applicants into two or more levels. They can consider anyone in the most-qualified category. </p>
<p>Veterans no longer get extra points, but they do get placed at the top of whichever category they qualify for, and veterans with compensable disabilities go to the very top if they meet minimum qualifications. Hiring officials cannot pass over veterans in the top category to hire more qualified nonveterans. </p>
<p>The evidence is not all in, but the new system probably strengthens veterans’ preference.</p>
<h2>The policy’s impact</h2>
<p>This preference dramatically increases one’s chances of getting a federal job. Even though veterans have decreased as a share of the federal workforce – as World War II and Vietnam War veterans have retired – their odds of getting government jobs have actually increased.</p>
<p>In 1980, <a href="USA.ipums.org">census data show</a> that veterans were about twice as likely as nonveterans to hold federal jobs (9 percent of veterans were federal employees, compared with 4 percent of Americans without military service). By 2015, the share of veterans working for the feds soared to 18 percent, while less than 3 percent of nonveterans held federal jobs – mostly thanks to the changes initiated during the Obama years. (The percentages are estimates based on a sampling of data from census years.)</p>
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<p>The pattern is especially strong among younger veterans, those born since 1980, who are about 15 times as likely as nonveterans of the same age to hold federal jobs. Nearly 10 percent of veterans born from 1920 to 1950 held federal jobs when they appeared in the census data. That rose to about 15 percent for those born in the 1950s and 1960s. Veterans born since 1970 are even more likely to be federal employees, and nearly half of those born in 1990 had a federal job by 2015.</p>
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<p>Every state also gives veterans some hiring preference for government jobs. Four – Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Dakota – even provide “absolute” preference, that is they hire veterans with a passing score ahead of all nonveterans. These programs <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160323X14537835">have had much less impact on state government workforces</a>, however, perhaps because veterans have less desire for state than for federal jobs.</p>
<h2>How this affects diversity</h2>
<p>This very strong preference for veterans ends up hurting groups that are less likely to have military service. </p>
<p>Strongly preferring a group that is so male necessarily disadvantages women. Even today, 89 percent of veterans are men, yet only 53 percent of nonvets in the work force are. White men make up 69 percent of vets but only 37 percent of nonveterans. And most minority groups apart from black men are underpresented among veterans, particularly women. White women, for instance, make up only 7 percent of veterans, even though they make up 32 percent of the rest of the workforce.</p>
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<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article/23/2/247/1000440/The-Impact-of-Veterans-Preference-on-the">My research</a> finds that the civil service would be more diverse in the absence of veterans’ preference, in which case the male-female split in the federal service would be 50-50 rather than its current 57-43 breakdown. And the employment of Latinos, Asians and gay men would probably all increase by 20 percent.</p>
<h2>The costs of preferring vets</h2>
<p>Clearly veterans’ preference has had a powerful and growing impact on who gets federal jobs.</p>
<p>Although it only directly benefited about one-tenth of veterans in the past, nearly one-third of recent veterans have federal jobs, many more than would have them in the absence of preferential hiring. This makes it an effective policy to express the nation’s thanks for veterans’ sacrifices.</p>
<p>Yet all policies come with costs. Applicants without military service pay some of them by having a lower chance to get these jobs, and nonveterans are concentrated among women and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic, Asian and gay men.</p>
<p>The nation loses, in my opinion, from a less diverse federal service.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory B. Lewis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The US government has long shown a hiring preference for veterans. But because of the demographics of the US military, this has limited the federal workforce’s diversity.Gregory B. Lewis, Professor of Public Management and Policy, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/518942015-12-07T03:08:47Z2015-12-07T03:08:47ZReel action on gender: Screen Australia sets minimum targets for female-led projects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104578/original/image-20151207-22677-1tl1q95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screen Australia will target female-led projects. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Preiser Project</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Screen Australia <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2015/mr_151207_gendermatters.aspx">announced this morning</a> a A$5 million plan called <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/c7902a0f-6496-43e2-96b2-e24262ea8ba6/Gender-Matters-Women-in-the-Australian-Screen-Industry.pdf">Gender Matters</a>, a three-year suite of initiatives aimed at addressing gender imbalances in the Australian film industry. </p>
<p>In order to attract funding, projects must have at least three of their four key creative roles – director, writer, producer and protagonist – occupied by a woman.</p>
<p>This plan follows a string of initiatives aimed at addressing gender diversity from within the Australian film industry. </p>
<p>In the past month, Screen NSW set targets for <a href="http://if.com.au/2015/11/16/article/Screen-NSW-sets-gender-equity-targets/HBGTBBAWAM.html">50/50 gender equity</a> for development and production funding by 2020; Film Victoria announced a <a href="http://film.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/96552/Victorian-Women-Leadership-Development-Initiative.pdf">A$50K partnership with the Natalie Miller Fellowship</a> to advance the careers/leadership roles of women in the screen industry; and the Australian Director’s Guild has proposed <a href="http://if.com.au/2015/10/26/article/ADG-calls-for-50-per-cent-gender-quota/NTIBLSOYLL.html">quotas of 50%</a> for directors getting Screen Australia funding.</p>
<p>Women are a vital and under appreciated part of Australia’s film industry. If Screen Australia can follow through on these targets, we might see real change in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-right-to-make-a-scene-about-gender-equity-in-the-australian-screen-industry-51728">stubbornly persistent gender imbalance</a>. </p>
<h2>Best in show: why gender matters</h2>
<p>The industry has been <a href="http://www.aftrs.edu.au/media/books/lumina/lumina14-ch13-1/index.html">slow to acknowledge</a> the low participation of women, that they get paid less, and that they are a minority across key creative fields. </p>
<p>And more significantly, there has been no acknowledgement that not only are women not increasing their participation – but in some areas <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/b636257b-0143-4771-bde5-7611eda229a4/DidUKnow_March2013.pdf">it is declining</a>. In 1992, women were 18% of directors of feature films, today they are only 16%. </p>
<p>One reason this issue has been slow to attract attention is that Australian women punch well above their weight in the film industry. The presence of highly successful women makes the industry look more representative than it actually is. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2014.942024">According to my research</a> of the AFI (now AACTA) feature film categories between 2000 and 2010, women won Best Film 80% of the time, Best Direction 40% of the time and Best Original Screenplay 50% of the time. </p>
<p>In that period, women made up, respectively, 33%, 18% and 20% of the workforce in those categories.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104581/original/image-20151207-22703-j6j8gh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Dressmaker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Universal Pictures.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The strong performance of women illustrates the business case for drawing more women into the industry. Promoting the work of women also promotes innovation and diversity in the stories that are reaching our screens.</p>
<p>It is becoming difficult to ignore that audiences are flocking to the cinemas to see films such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2910904/">The Dressmaker</a> (2015), or to the small screen to see female-centred Australian shows such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2222848/">Puberty Blues</a> (2012-), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2433738/">Wentworth</a> (2013-), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1724700/">Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo</a> (2011).</p>
<p>Shows made by female creatives have also made an impact, such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1988386/">Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries</a> (2012–), created by Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1530541/">Offspring</a> (2010–), created by Debra Oswald, John Edwards and Imogen Banks. </p>
<h2>Quotas or targets?</h2>
<p>Senior leadership at Screen Australia has been very firm in saying these initiatives are targets, not quotas. The operative difference is that a target is optional and a quota is mandatory. </p>
<p>The issue of quotas is <a href="https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/20131119_PP_targetsquotas.pdf">complex</a>, but many, including myself, believe quotas (and affirmative action) are necessary to get some change. However, some women are ambivalent about them and it does mean they have to deal with perceptions that they got an unfair leg-up. Quotas can be seen as divisive, at at a time when everyone, men and women, should be working together to get the best possible industry.</p>
<p>Setting targets, with firm plans on how to achieve them, may counterbalance the perceived drawbacks of quotas. </p>
<p>It’s worth noting that a comparable situation has played out in the political arena: in 1994 the ALP adopted a quota system, which Howard rejected as “patronising women”. Today, the ALP has around <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-quotas-in-politics-the-absence-of-women-isnt-merit-based-45297">twice as many female MPs as the Liberal party</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, whether you call it a target or a quota, the key will be strong leadership, and a commitment from Screen Australia to integrate this policy into every level of their funding policies. </p>
<p>We know that dedicated resources for underrepresented populations can have a highly positive results: <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding/indigenous/default.aspx">Indigenous filmmaking funds</a> spurred a whole generation of filmmakers who produced some of the most vibrant work Australia had seen for decades. </p>
<p>This is long overdue action from the industry, but is likely to make a significant positive impact on its success – and I commend the industry for putting gender on the agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa French does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Screen Australia has announced a five point plan to promote gender balance, including A$3 million funding for female-led creative projects.Lisa French, Deputy Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355132015-01-12T06:22:46Z2015-01-12T06:22:46ZLatvia and Bulgaria did it, so why can’t the UK encourage female engineers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68181/original/image-20150105-13833-1d9e083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=109%2C88%2C742%2C519&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steps on the ladder.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/undpeuropeandcis/6853736630/in/set-72157629628024197">United Nations Development Programme in Europe and CIS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Engineering has been a British success story. But its future is in doubt unless the country can educate, recruit and retain many more female engineers. </p>
<p>The sector has survived, even thrived, by importing engineers from India, from China and from Eastern Europe. But all advanced economies are competing for those candidates. Currently one in five engineering graduates in the UK <a href="http://www.heidi.ac.uk/">is from overseas</a>. It’s simply not a sustainable model. The only realistic solution is to attract more women into engineering and make sure they stay in the profession. </p>
<p>There are successful models out there. Unfortunately, though we can’t simply replicate the Latvian and Bulgarian model or even the Swedish one, where, <a href="http://www.engineeringuk.com/View/?con_id=145">according to Engineering UK</a>, 26% of engineers are female, compared to just 9% in the UK.</p>
<p>For the former Iron Curtain countries the gender balance is actually a consequence of having had a command authority and it took the Swedes 30 years of national government level action to get their gender balance right. We simply don’t have time for the latter approach or, I suspect, much inclination to live under a communist state.</p>
<h2>STEM cells</h2>
<p>Instead, we hope projects like our own Women in Engineering programme at Brunel could be the key. The idea is to establish an approach which looks at the entire engineering education and career lifecycle and which eventually bumps up the number of female undergraduates in <a href="http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/">Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)</a>.</p>
<p>Our own pilot gives female postgraduates a senior engineering mentor from industry for 12 months plus coaching in leadership and presentation and communication skills. This will be extended to more students in the next academic year. However, one of the crucial aspects of this approach happens outside the curriculum. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/education/not-for-people-like-me">Research evidence</a> shows that school children, and especially girls, can be turned off science very early in their careers and that it requires repeated interventions to counter that mind-set.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68186/original/image-20150105-13820-163htvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/meccanohig/8602018267/in/photolist-pG3YRY-pFXE5Z-deEXVv-5ZFU4S-pFZT3h-dAPC24-4TaZHN-e1QLAt-5ZFUBm-5ZFUXJ-5ZBGyT-4Tb3EN-5ZFREw-oWsWFW-eGURy8-e7d8GC-e7d8Vb-e78AkM-aZALmK-24MLNc-cNNAB-dDutQg-4jJ82V-pkSqha-pm7WJW-cNNAA-4rzt3P-zsdae-pcDkhG-pm7Wmw-4Usr5j-pj7ur1-p4EdnW-6StgrJ-ARF5t-37iuyv-p4EaT7-6mcUUu-Jm4M2-cLZjD-cVEg6-95y6wH-2adKpq-cVE5j-24NnRZ-4UssKq-iRXuk-puxKFy-9mHNx-pJRAUb">Gary Higgins</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s why outreach activities are so important to help create students who can go on to become ambassadors for their profession. Our £4m grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England is to attract more women STEM students, but also to grow undergraduate numbers by 25% by 2020. As part of this push, we aim to have our students interacting with 30,000 11 to 14-year-old school pupils a year in a mixture of off and on campus sessions. </p>
<p>We are at a critical moment in time – if the UK economy is going to continue to recover then we must make a significant dent in the gender imbalance in engineering now, and build Britain’s capacity to deliver home-grown engineers that support economic growth.</p>
<h2>Bridging the gap</h2>
<p>So we need to create a virtuous cycle that reaches into the earliest stages of an engineering career. We’ve developed a set of activities, from welding with chocolate to building water filters to running robot races, that can be delivered by our engineering students within a normal school science lesson.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68183/original/image-20150105-13839-q12saw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A chocolate bridge (of the non-load-bearing variety)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dandeluca/7640996034/in/photolist-5u6uxZ-7E6ZcC-6xjg1B-cDd6UW">Dan DeLuca</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An engineering student STEM ambassador will go into a school and spend a couple of days teaching chocolate welding to pupils and then return to deliver an engineering careers talk to young people with whom they’ve enjoyed a stimulating and fun science and engineering-based activity. (Oh, unless you’ve tried it would you believe a simple bridge made of four bars of chocolate could bear a 3.8kg load?)</p>
<p>Students will regularly return to schools to deliver other, hopefully stimulating, sessions so pupils are exposed to fantastic role models several times before they start making decisions about GCSE choices.</p>
<p>Real, live engineers are the best advert for the profession. Female engineering students at British universities have the opportunity, and maybe the responsibility, to go on to be flag bearers and ambassadors, as well as eager recruiters of fellow professionals to the cause.</p>
<p>The school pupils we are able to reach will be tracked so we know which activities are most successful in getting young people generally and women in particular into STEM subjects at A-level and beyond.</p>
<p>Students on our pilot programme joke that in 15 years time, when they are the CEOs of all the world’s major engineering companies, they’ll have a meeting and the number one item on the agenda will be: Just, how are we going to attract more men into engineering?</p>
<p>That may be a pipe dream but it’s a good target.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff J Rodgers receives funding from HEFCE, RCUK and the EU. He is a Governor of both Brunel University London and Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC. </span></em></p>Engineering has been a British success story. But its future is in doubt unless the country can educate, recruit and retain many more female engineers. The sector has survived, even thrived, by importing…Geoff J Rodgers, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/351522014-12-09T19:39:42Z2014-12-09T19:39:42ZAbbott should dump, not ‘refine’, his paid parental leave scheme<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66688/original/image-20141209-6735-1uyw62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To bolster women’s employment participation as Tony Abbott so desires, better funding for child care would be a good way to go.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Tony Abbott <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/12/07/pm-abbott-backs-down-paid-parental-leave">confirmed</a> over the weekend that he will use the parliamentary summer break to review his paid parental leave (PPL) scheme, which has so far proven to be a large <a href="https://theconversation.com/abbotts-paid-parental-leave-looks-like-dead-plan-walking-30073">political liability</a>.</p>
<p>However, Abbott shouldn’t waste his time and taxpayers’ money on a review. His PPL idea doesn’t need reviewing. It needs scrapping. </p>
<p>This is not because there is no need for PPL: it is because Australia already has an effective and <a href="http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/parental-leave-pay">equitable scheme</a>. It is quite consistent with schemes in other OECD countries, notwithstanding their enormous diversity, as the ANU’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-the-coalitions-paid-parental-leave-policy-similar-to-overseas-schemes-17302">Peter Whiteford</a> has previously pointed out.</p>
<h2>What’s so good about the existing scheme</h2>
<p>The existing scheme began at the start of 2011 and so is just four years old. There are costs associated with the establishment of any program and with its break-up and replacement with something else. In the age of austerity and budgetary constraint – as we are continuously <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/treasurer-joe-hockey-says-revenue-slump-will-be-worse-than-expected-due-to-extraordinary-drop-in-iron-ore-price/story-fnn8dlfs-1227149197102?from=public_rss">reminded</a> – these are important considerations. </p>
<p>But the current PPL scheme is clearly delivering good results across a range of measures. These should be at the forefront of considerations in whether it should be replaced.</p>
<p>The existing PPL pays everyone the same rate: A$641 per week before tax. That adds up to the national minimum wage for a 38-hour week. It is paid for 18 weeks, which is in line with schemes in other comparable countries, according to a recent <a href="http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/PF2_1_Parental_leave_systems_1May2014.pdf">OECD report</a>. It should be noted that the information about Australia in the report is out of date.</p>
<p>While the Coalition’s original <a href="http://lpaweb-static.s3.amazonaws.com/The%20Coalition%E2%80%99s%20Policy%20for%20Paid%20Parental%20Leave.pdf">PPL proposal</a> made much of the “replacement” wage for women – which would particularly benefit middle and higher-income earners – it provided little evidence that such women are motivated by higher-level maternity leave payments in relation to the time taken off work. Also, as Whiteford <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-the-coalitions-paid-parental-leave-policy-similar-to-overseas-schemes-17302">points out</a>, the “replacement wage” in other OECD countries is open to interpretation. </p>
<p>The existing scheme pays the same rate for low-earning women in casual and part-time work as women on incomes up to $150,000. Women working around one day a week in ten of the previous 13 months before the birth are eligible. This is a great boon for women with other children or locked into short-hours work who cannot work full-time. Women who are self-employed and not earning very much from a business are also eligible.</p>
<p>An important finding of the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/06_2014/paid_parental_leave_scheme_review_report.pdf">review</a> of the current paid parental leave scheme, which was released in June, is that it has encouraged women on low incomes, in casual work and those self-employed to stay at home with their newborn babies for longer and, at the same time, encouraged them to return to work in the longer term. It has also had positive effects on employers’ retention of mothers on their return to work. </p>
<p>These are very desirable outcomes in terms of equitable life chances for babies and equitable treatment of mothers at a vulnerable point in their lives. The evaluation associated with the review found:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… an improvement in mothers’ and babies’ health and well-being and work-life balance particularly amongst those for whom PPL made the most difference – mothers least likely to have access to employer-funded parental leave, and those with least financial security due to precarious employment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With so many women working in part-time casual jobs – around <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6359.0November%202013?OpenDocument">25%</a> of the female workforce – including <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0">10%</a> underemployed, the existing PPL is proving to be an effective social program.</p>
<p>The review indicates that there are community concerns about PPL, such as in some of the eligibility criteria. However, its report card indicates that this program has very considerable positive social impacts for Australian women and there is no justification for it to be scrapped and replaced.</p>
<h2>What Abbott needs to focus on</h2>
<p>As Abbott is very concerned about women’s advancement and retention in the workforce – he has the women’s portfolio, with Michaelia Cash as the minister assisting – he has many policy possibilities to consider over the summer break.</p>
<p>As well documented, women participate in the workforce on very different terms than men. This results in a <a href="http://www.wgea.gov.au/latest-news/future-not-so-super-women">gender pay gap</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-08/australian-women-falling-behind-on-super/4561018">lower retirement income</a>. A troubling and significant <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-other-gender-equality-gap-australia-needs-to-talk-about-34276">gender wealth gap</a> is also coming to light.</p>
<p>By any measure, PPL is just one plank in the raft of measures that contribute to women’s employment participation and economic equality. A PPL scheme facilitates women’s return to work but does nothing to help their ongoing capacity to do those jobs. </p>
<p>As the <a href="http://www.nfaw.org/paid-parental-leave-childcare-belong-together/">National Foundation for Australian Women</a> points out, accessible and affordable child care goes hand in hand with PPL. This has actually overtaken PPL as the defining issue for women in the workforce. The question of child care is to be <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tony-abbotts-ppl-under-the-microscope-in-childcare-overhaul/story-fn59niix-1227144070570">rolled into the review</a> of Abbott’s PPL scheme.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the question of funding for Abbott’s PPL scheme. The <a href="http://lpaweb-static.s3.amazonaws.com/The%20Coalition%E2%80%99s%20Policy%20for%20Paid%20Parental%20Leave.pdf">original proposal</a> was to be funded through a 1.5% levy on around 3000 of Australia’s largest companies and to be offset by a modest company tax rate cut. The levy and related company tax cut amount to forgone revenue that could be better used to bolster the budget, whether or not anyone believes there is a <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/content/where-budget-emergency">budget emergency</a>.</p>
<p>There are a lot of outstanding needs across social programs generally. But to bolster women’s employment participation as Abbott so desires, some better funding for child care would be a good way to go.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Sheen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed over the weekend that he will use the parliamentary summer break to review his paid parental leave (PPL) scheme, which has so far proven to be a large political liability…Veronica Sheen, Research Associate, School of Social Sciences, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/292472014-07-16T09:47:14Z2014-07-16T09:47:14ZMore women in cabinet means better policy but greater conflict, research shows<p>The Conservatives clearly have a women problem: over the past four years the cabinet contained more ex-Etonians than it did females. Prime minister David Cameron recognised this and promised a “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10967386/William-Hague-quits-as-a-dozen-ministers-axed-in-cabinet-reshuffle.html">cull of the middle-aged white men</a>” in the latest reshuffle. </p>
<p>The dust has now settled and Cameron was true to his word. The new cabinet includes <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/14/reshuffle-at-a-glance-whos-in-whos-out-live">four new female members</a>, four women have been promoted to junior ministers, and the government features two new female whips. A few more women at the top table is certainly a welcome move. However it only goes part of the way towards addressing either the Tories’ woman problem, or the national problem of a lack of females in powerful roles.</p>
<p>Changes at the top mask a deeper problem. Women still make up just 23% of MPs. This means the UK ranks <a href="http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">65th out of 189 countries</a> in terms of equal representation, immediately below Madagascar and just 11 places ahead of Saudi Arabia (20% women MPs). </p>
<p>The Conservatives (as well as the Liberal Democrats) have typically done much worse than Labour in appointing women candidates. The Tories did improve following the 2010 election, but the results were certainly nothing to boast about. This means there is a shallow stream of new female talent coming into the party. </p>
<p>There are many ways the party could address this issue. It previously had an “A list” for women and ethnic minority candidates. However, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-quietly-drop-david-camerons-alistfor-minority-candidates-8199985.html">this was dropped</a> in favour of voluntary lists. Yes, things such as better working hours and the introduction of a parliamentary creche have helped. But we are still some way off a truly inclusive working environment for MPs. </p>
<p>A recent report by All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women in Parliament suggested a range of measures to improve the situation. <a href="http://policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2014/07/14/the-women-in-parliament-all-party-parliament-group-appg-inquiry/#_ftn2">Recommendations include</a> zero tolerance of unprofessional behaviour in parliament, a better balance of time spent in constituencies and in Westminster, establishing a women and equalities select committee, making the parliamentary calender more predictable, and improving the online gateway to parliament. </p>
<p>If these moves seem obvious that’s probably because they are: these are common practice in many workplaces. But MPs have traditionally operated in a world of their own.</p>
<p>If we were to see more women in parliament and, eventually, in cabinet, then clearly there are big questions about the impact of these raw numbers. Will simply introducing more females into the cabinet change things? </p>
<p>Having more women in cabinet is likely to lead to issues which are important to women being further up the political agenda. Yet commentators have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/14/what-is-tory-partys-problem-with-women-cameron-cabinet-reshuffle">pointed out</a> that many of the females appointed to the cabinet have values and interests which might be considered as antithetical to the interests of women. So perhaps in this instance, the impact will be lessened.</p>
<p>However, the government’s opponents might take comfort in another piece of research. A systematic review of the literature shows that Conservative women tend to have <a href="http://www.academia.edu/3667084/To_the_Left_To_the_Right_Representing_Conservative_Womens_Interests">more left-leaning economic policies</a> than their male counterparts.</p>
<p>The big question now is how this more diverse cabinet will perform, not so much in terms of ideology but as a group able to take the best decisions. We know Conservative cabinets have traditionally been dominated by old white males; what now?</p>
<p>Evidence from <a href="http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.7.6.615">studies of diverse groups</a> suggest a more diverse cabinet is likely to have more conflict, take longer to come to a decision, but come up with better solutions. Also we should expect members of the cabinet to be less satisfied with the group process. </p>
<p>Research in the corporate sector suggests more diversity at the top will result in better performance on objective measures, but performance will be seen <a href="http://www.bbcprisonstudy.org/includes/site/files/files/2010%20BJM%20Tobin's%20Q.pdf">more negatively on subjective criteria</a>. So with more women in cabinet the quality of policy is likely to be better, but the quality of media coverage is likely to be worse. Not the ideal scenario for David Cameron and his team in the run-up to an election.</p>
<p>As for the women in cabinet themselves, they won’t find it easy. Evidence from the US Senate suggests powerful men tend to speak more, while powerful women speak less. When powerful women do speak out, they are often <a href="http://asq.sagepub.com/content/56/4/622.abstract">punished with negative audience ratings</a>. </p>
<p>Life is going to get tough if any new women cabinet members get angry. Angry men tend to be seen in a positive light, and their anger is blamed on the situation. In contrast, <a href="http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/content/can-angry-woman-get-ahead-status-conferral-gender-and-expression-emotion-workplace">angry women are viewed negatively</a>, and their anger is seen as a personal failing.</p>
<p>If we are interested in making our political sphere more equal, then we must go far beyond appointing a few additional women to the cabinet. It is vital that we reform how parties select their candidates, the working practices once in parliament, as well as the gendered dynamics within cabinet itself. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andre Spicer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Conservatives clearly have a women problem: over the past four years the cabinet contained more ex-Etonians than it did females. Prime minister David Cameron recognised this and promised a “cull of…Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/287472014-07-08T13:49:10Z2014-07-08T13:49:10ZWithout women, the computer game boom years may not last<p>An <a href="https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/9215B88F-2AA3-4471-B44D-B5D58FF25DC7/IGDA_DSS_2014-Summary_Report.pdf">encouraging report</a> by the International Game Developers Association recently found that women now make up 22% of the computer game workforce. This is a massive improvement from the previous figure of <a href="http://creativeskillset.org/assets/0000/6013/Publishing_Labour_Market_Intelligence_Digest_2010.pdf">just 4% of the UK industry</a> in 2009.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t go far enough. A serious sector ought to have a workforce that reflects wider society. Until it does, the industry will see its creativity diminish, its reputation suffer and eventually its bottom line will be hit.</p>
<p>Although the computer games industry is approximately 40 years old it has grown rapidly over the past decade or two. What was once largely small firms and individuals programming in their bedrooms is now a <a href="http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/esa_ef_2014.pdf">US$15 billion market</a> dominated by multinational corporations. And it’s still growing – one forecast says the industry will be worth <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/07/18/new-reports-forecasts-global-video-game-industry-will-reach-82-billion-by-2017/">US$82 billion</a> by 2017.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2013.pdf">Entertainment Software Association</a> in 2013 women represented 48% of players and are equal purchasers of games. So given all this, why are women still underrepresented in the industry workforce? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.igi-global.com/book/gender-considerations-influence-digital-media/102183">Recent</a> research by me and my colleagues <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/book/gender-divide-computer-game-industry/76717">suggests</a> the gender divide within computer games takes many forms. Men and women are represented differently within the games themselves, there are differences in how games are played across the genders, different motivations for playing, and differences in access to the space and time to play. </p>
<p>The fact that games are produced by a male dominated industry producing games largely for men clearly has consequences too. In particular, the sexist portrayal of women in games and wider gaming culture perpetuates the view that computer games are for boys. Within games there is a distinct lack of playable female characters, and when a game does have a playable female character, these characters more often than not are scantily clad, showing plenty of flesh. Even the scary killer nurses in Silent Hill were “sexed up”. </p>
<p>The problems don’t end with the games themselves; magazines, reviews and game covers also under or negatively represent women. <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-007-9250-0#">One study</a> examined the content of 225 computer game covers and found male characters were used four times more frequently and were given significantly more game-relevant action than female characters. When women did appear they were less likely to be the primary character, less likely to be without a male character and more likely to be portrayed as sexy or objectified. </p>
<p>This is particularly important as game covers can be viewed by anyone wandering along a high street or shopping mall, even if the game rating is not suitable to the observer or the observer is not interested in playing the game. As one of the main ways of transmitting information about the game’s content to the wider public, the cover is an often overlooked form of perpetuating computer gaming’s negative portrayal of women.</p>
<p>Gaming adverts also play a part. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295036.2010.515234#.U7qk_I2zAV8">Research suggests</a> that computer games aimed at girls tend to offer productivity over play, self-help over fun and play up to traditional expectations of femininity. This alienates women from gaming and further contributes to the myth that they don’t play computer games.</p>
<p>Perhaps the games industry wants to exclude women, to keep gaming as a predominantly male activity? After all, there are very few positive portrayals of women within games, a disturbing fact for an industry that is supposedly producing for a more inclusive audience. To address this, we need to create realistic gender options within a diverse range of gaming characters.</p>
<p>This is a problem that goes beyond just the gaming industry – negative portrayals in one form of media can influence attitudes and behaviour in a seemingly unrelated area. For instance, <a href="http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/%7Esspencer/spencerlab/articles/2002-Davies-Spencer-Quinn-Gerhardstein.pdf">research has shown</a> how gender stereotyped adverts have a negative influence on women’s choice of maths-related careers. The sheer size of the computer games industry means it wields serious power; we can’t let it reinforce gender divides and stereotypes.</p>
<p>It would help if more women were involved in making games. They could influence how women were portrayed within the games and ultimately would increase the viability of games as a female leisure pursuit and a possible career. There are already some great senior <a href="http://www.edge-online.com/features/game-industrys-100-most-influential-women/">women in the industry</a> to act as role models.</p>
<p>The industry needs to attract and retain more women, highlighting the diversity of skills and roles required in the industry and developing its appeal to a more inclusive workforce, for instance through offering flexible working. Such factors can only help to diversify the industry. </p>
<p>Women aren’t the only group seen as a minority by the games industry, both as players and developers. Research on representations of race and culture within games, as well as older and <a href="https://theconversation.com/nintendo-cant-take-the-gay-out-of-gaming-without-a-fight-26535">gay gamers</a> suggests the problem is wider. It appears the industry designs games for a white, heterosexual, male audience and is missing a large percentage of the population with its “boys’ toys” view of computer games. Boys’ toys have taken the industry a long way; but boys can’t buy all the toys.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Prescott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An encouraging report by the International Game Developers Association recently found that women now make up 22% of the computer game workforce. This is a massive improvement from the previous figure of…Julie Prescott, Lecturer in Psychology, University of BoltonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/267572014-05-16T02:35:43Z2014-05-16T02:35:43ZMen are drunks and bullies, women are cold: which is worse in a newsroom?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48671/original/94rs5zs5-1400206148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The media landscape has been transformed in so many ways ... and yet ...</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">JD Lasica</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of the men I knew who ran newsrooms in the 80s and 90s were womanisers, drunks, bullies, and gropers. Some were just sleazy.</p>
<p>And any woman, of almost any ambition, was cold or bossy or had too many family responsibilities.</p>
<p>These men were chiefs-of-staff or news editors, very occasionally the senior editors themselves. Those who had the title of editor-in-chief had either pulled themselves together or had never been that way in the first place. Usually.</p>
<p>The occasional woman from that time stayed in the job (congratulations, Judith Whelan, on your position as news director at Fairfax).</p>
<p>And the sleazebuckets got away with keeping the titles and senior positions despite these deep and serious character flaws. Talented women left in droves, frozen out by those same witless men.</p>
<p>In 2014, the media landscape has been transformed in so many ways, and yet those accusations about women haven’t changed much. Both <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/05/why-jill-abramson-was-fired.html">Jill Abramson</a>, the executive editor of the New York Times newspaper, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/14/le-monde-editor-quits-power-struggle-staff">Natalie Nougayrède</a>, editor-in-chief of the French title Le Monde, have both been forced out of their jobs in the last three days, amid accusations of authoritarianism and controlling behaviour. They are, fortunately, both a little too old to be criticised for wanting to get home to the kids.</p>
<p>They were the first women to hold those senior positions at their publications.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48652/original/kzz9jgj4-1400202713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The New York Times’ outgoing editor Jill Abramson in 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Lane/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And, as a result of this recent news, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julie-posetti-3353/profile_bio">Julie Posetti</a>, a lecturer at the University of Wollongong, research fellow at the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum based in Paris, has been forced to redraft Trends in Newsrooms, a book she is writing as part of her year-long fellowship.</p>
<p>“We’re about to go to press but I’m having to re-write the chapter which identified a positive global shift on gender equality on top titles in the wake of the upheaval at Le Monde and the NYT,” she told me.</p>
<p>“This underlines the entrenched nature of inequality at the top of our industry and indicates the fragility of progress.</p>
<p>"These developments are so very disheartening,” said Posetti.</p>
<p>In Australia, our firsts took place somewhat earlier than those at either Le Monde or the New York Times. </p>
<p>Cathy Harper was the first female chief-of-staff at the Sydney Morning Herald in 1982. The chief political correspondent at The Conversation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-grattan-20316/profile_bio">Michelle Grattan</a>, was my editor when I worked at the Canberra Times in 1994 but was forced out in about 12 months. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/smh-and-age-editors-quit-fairfax-20120625-20xnx.html">Amanda Wilson</a> was the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald for just 18 months.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48660/original/d52vzjqm-1400203893.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan with Kevin Rudd in February 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Porritt/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Australia, as I mentioned earlier, we have our first female news director in the person of Judith Whelan; and utterly/ appropriately terrifying anchors of current affairs programs, such as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/profiles/content/s1865168.htm">Leigh Sales</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/reporter_ferguson.htm">Sarah Ferguson</a>. But <a href="https://newmatilda.com/category/folio/women-media-2">in the research</a> Professor Wendy Bacon, Julie Posetti and I did for New Matilda in 2013, we found an overwhelmingly male hierarchy in news media, online, in print, in broadcast. </p>
<p>We aren’t – right now – hearing details of senior female journalists in Australia being <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/poison-pay-cuts-and-the-plan-to-sack-jessica-rowe/2006/06/30/1151174401419.html">boned</a>. And the managing editor of the Sun-Herald, Kate Cox, told me that she thinks newsrooms in Australian have changed. </p>
<p>She says that she has had no experience of men challenging her authority; as soon as you can prove you can handle crises, the doubt vanishes.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48658/original/xznpb746-1400203373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Cleaver</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She told me, however, that there is a serious structural issue for women in newsrooms – and maybe for all workplaces:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The issue is getting women to take the jobs and getting them to keep them … It took [Fairfax] a long time to convince me to do this job. I would give reasons why I wouldn’t do it.</p>
<p>A lot of the time a man would give ten reasons why they can.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48654/original/w9hpygdh-1400202877.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nathalie Nougayrede, outgoing editor of Le Monde.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MAXPPP/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cox says that when Garry Linnell was persuading her to take her role, he said that when a vacancy came up, there would be a queue of men outside his office explaining why they would be perfect for the role. And no women.</p>
<p>But she also acknowledges the existence of the gender pay gap in media organisations and in western countries.</p>
<p>And that, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/05/why-jill-abramson-was-fired.html">rumour says</a>, is one of the reasons why Abramson got the flick. She discovered her predecessor earned more than she did. </p>
<p>Convenor of the newly formed <a href="http://womeninmedia.net/">Women in Media</a>, a nationwide networking and mentoring initiative supported by the Walkley Foundation for Journalism and MEAA, Tracey Spicer, told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the reasons Jill Abramson was pushed off the glass cliff was because she dared to question the gender pay gap. This has all the hallmarks of a gendered execution [and] it’s particularly resonant in Australia, a country in which no woman has been editor of the national broadsheet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spicer, author of the lively antidote to male behaviour in news media, <a href="http://thehoopla.com.au/dear-misogynist/">Dear Mr Misogynist</a>, says what happened to Abramson – and women everywhere – illustrates the need for organisations such as Women in Media:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Those few women who manage to make it to the top are inevitably accused of being “pushy” … surely that is a requirement of the editor of a newspaper? Apparently only men are allowed to be pushy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But perhaps Ann Friedman, <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/05/jill-abramson-will-never-know-why-she-got-fired.html">writing this week</a> in the New York Magazine sums it up best:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Women never know whether they’re being met with a hostile reaction because of their performance — something that they can address and change — or because of both male and female colleagues’ internalised notions of how women should behave. I’ve asked these questions about my own career: Am I struggling because I’m not playing the game well enough, or because the game is rigged against me? </p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26757/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenna Price is on the NSW steering committee of Women in Media, feminist activist and cofounder of Destroy the Joint.</span></em></p>Many of the men I knew who ran newsrooms in the 80s and 90s were womanisers, drunks, bullies, and gropers. Some were just sleazy. And any woman, of almost any ambition, was cold or bossy or had too many…Jenna Price, Senior lecturer, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/265262014-05-12T05:20:42Z2014-05-12T05:20:42ZNo more excuses for the lack of women experts on air<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48162/original/tz3f6nnq-1399630980.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A modern rarity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WTUL_Microphone.jpg">Tulane Public Relations</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Executives from four major news providers – BBC, ITN, Channel 4 and Sky – have pledged to try to improve the number of women interviewed as experts on their programmes; and this summer will be the test of that. They made this promise at a conference at City University London where former DCMS Secretary of State, Tessa Jowell called women’s representation in broadcasting “disgraceful”. </p>
<p>For the past two years the ratio has stuck at four males to every one female interviewed as experts on news programmes. This has been <a href="http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/SearchResults.aspx?qsearch=1&qkeyword=expert+women&x=0&y=0">confirmed by our research</a>, done in the Department of Journalism at City from March 2012 to April 2014. </p>
<p>I started looking at this informally in 2010 when I was furious at listening to “Today” on BBC Radio 4 and not hearing a woman’s voice for about 40 minutes. Then I realised that was a good day. </p>
<p>I asked students to help me count the number of women on the programme over a three-week period and we found that male expert interviewees outnumbered women by as much as six to one. In fairness, in four years Today has improved from dire, to just as bad as the rest. The figure has settled at four to one over five flagship news programmes despite broadcasters’ reporting strenuous efforts to improve the ratio. The magazine Broadcast has run a campaign called <a href="http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/home/expert-women/#">Expert Women</a> since March 2012 based on our figures and this certainly caused an initial, positive response. But now things have stagnated.</p>
<p>The programmes we measure are BBC News at Ten, ITV News at Ten, Channel Four News, Sky News (selected evening bulletins) and Today. Between them, daily, they are consumed by about 6m different people. A spin off is that we now also have data on how many women reporters, presenters and interviewees there are. And it’s not a good read for an egalitarian.</p>
<p>So why is this? Do women in society have less important roles than men, to the ratio of 80/20? No. The evidence is that the ratio of authoritative or expert roles in society generally is much more 70% to 30% (2.3-1) with a growing proportion of women getting important jobs.</p>
<p>Some journalists maintain it is childcare which keeps women off the airwaves. But that is not the case either. According to the <a href="http://www.barb.co.uk/">Broadcast Audience Research Board</a>, only a third of women in the UK have children under 15. So even if every woman with a child was unable to be on TV or radio at any time, there would still be a ratio of 70% men, 30% women available to be experts on air.</p>
<p>It could be that women are considered less interesting and important than men. In 2011 the editor of the Today programme Ceri Thomas <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/mar/31/bbc-radio-4-today-female-presenters">commented</a> that there was no opportunity for women journalists on his show, “because it is too tough an environment for novices, frankly”. The idea that there were women broadcasters who already existed, who were able to cope with the Today programme, was beyond his comprehension. </p>
<p>This belief – that women as authority figures were not quite up to it – was prevalent in the broadcasting industry. Guest getters I spoke to said, “You learnt from the people that had been doing it for years. When you wanted someone on say, retail, you went to X or Y (both male), that’s just what you did.” They told me programme guests were “generally white, over 40, male, in suits or uniforms”. But guest getters also reported that women were notoriously difficult to recruit, and needed far more persuasion and reassurance. Not surprising perhaps given the lack of role models.</p>
<p>In 2013 the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/news/article/art20130711164644721">BBC Academy</a> looked at the problem from this perspective and decided to hold training days for women experts. They offered 30 places and more than 2,000 women applied. So the BBC rolled it out to the regions as well. I sent questionnaires to the 164 women who eventually took part. 31 replied. Crucially, 71% reported lack of confidence, and 45% actually cited pressure from peers and the fear of being “pushy”. </p>
<p>This was particularly marked in women in academia. Academics often work alone and jealously protect their areas of expertise. The culture of peer review and attack means that academics seem particularly sensitive to criticism. Of course many women can give as good as they get, but when the top roles are dominated by men, it is hard to get a foothold and junior academics often prefer to avoid the fray than to be savaged. Even female astrophysicists and chemists found it hard to put themselves forward as experts to be exposed on TV and radio, though they clearly wanted to – otherwise why would they have taken part in the BBC’s training days?</p>
<p>We also found that male reporters outnumber female reporters three to one. Yet my experience, and the research of my colleague <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2013/10/29/book-review-women-and-journalism-franks/">Suzanne Franks</a>, shows more than 60% of journalism students are women, most of whom, initially at least, want to be on air. But they don’t make it. Many are told that having a family is incompatible with being “on the road”. </p>
<p>But the macho insistence on being ready to race to the scene of a story and stay there for days on end regardless of the family is not a reality for most reporters who finish their shift and go home like everyone else. Even when stories like that do happen (and it’s not as often as you think) what is to stop women leaving the children for a few days? Men do.</p>
<p>Campaigns come and go. It’s easy to dismiss this one by saying there are more important things in the world than the number of women on TV. But fairness and equality is vital to our culture. It’s ironic that both broadcast journalists and recognised academic experts, so often ready to fight for justice in the wider world, don’t seem to apply it when it comes to their female colleagues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lis Howell received a one-off grant in 2011 from the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange.
She is a member of the Royal Television Society.</span></em></p>Executives from four major news providers – BBC, ITN, Channel 4 and Sky – have pledged to try to improve the number of women interviewed as experts on their programmes; and this summer will be the test…Lis Howell, Director of Broadcasting, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/240652014-03-07T23:34:42Z2014-03-07T23:34:42ZStereotypes of women and work leave academics out of the picture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43268/original/ggs665bw-1394077511.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This is a stock image of a happy female academic. She hasn't realised she isn't likely to make professor.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a clever marketing move, Facebook’s finance chief Sheryl Sandberg and stock photography supplier Getty Images <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com.au/creative/frontdoor/leanin">recently released a series of photos</a> which represented women in “more empowering ways”.</p>
<p>What Sandberg, the author of “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead”, is trying to counter is the narrow range of images used to portray women, work and family – the businesswoman with briefcase, the mother with children and the one juggling both.</p>
<p>Society’s focus on women and work appears fixated on these kinds of stereotypes - and government policy settings are squarely aimed at them. Think paid maternity leave, tax rebates for child care, gender balance reporting requirements for corporations with 100 or more employees.</p>
<p>The corporate sector is required to report annually to the federal sex discrimination commissioner on diversity and gender balance (although there are <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-equality-reporting-is-not-red-tape-22892">moves to roll this back</a>), but the reports are inconsistent, include data on issues that may be irrelevant for senior women (such as breastfeeding in the workplace) and often incomplete. They don’t seem to produce the desired outcome of rectifying the imbalance, especially at senior levels.</p>
<p>One neglected corner of the working women debate is that of female academics – the women who teach the new generation of leaders, produce valuable research and take part in what is commonly referred to as “thought leadership”.</p>
<p>Women have played a big role in academia (in expert opinion and research), in the arts and the not-for-profit sector, where significant contributions are too rarely recognised and rewarded.</p>
<p>Female academics have reached some dizzying heights. Elizabeth Blackburn won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; Condeleeza Rice was a political scientist at Stanford before and after her time as US Secretary of State.</p>
<p>In finance and economics, my field, only a handful of women are at very senior levels. Janet Yellen is head of the US Federal Reserve. Christine Lagarde (in fact, a former lawyer, not an academic) is managing director of the IMF.</p>
<p>Yet their input is essential. Not simply to contribute a “female” perspective on economic issues, but because women represent over half the world’s population and should be heard in every debate that impacts on their livelihood.</p>
<p>Women are plentiful at the lower levels of academia but they get stuck there and rarely advance to professor. It is a lonely field and a lot of women feel very isolated. In many jobs, there is paid leave to support women who take time off to care for sick children. In academia, when your time is effectively your own, the flexibility is often envied. But time off eats into research, reduces publication rates and limits promotion possibilities.</p>
<p>An academic job for a woman is different to an academic job for a man. Community-wide expectations that women will be represented on all boards or working parties have created a situation where women at very senior levels spend large parts of their time in meetings and other activities that take them away from their research and, by extension, their prospects of promotion.</p>
<p>And no matter how many programs there are to support women’s advancement, women still shoulder the largest part of the childcare and home responsibilities.</p>
<p>Women can also hinder themselves by their own attitudes. Senior women should not be waiting around for the right male mentor to come along, but they do need support to network and create their own opportunities.</p>
<p>If we want to have women at the most senior levels, taking part in decisions that impact on the nation’s and the world’s economy – or carrying out research that influences those decisions – they need funding for networking and mentoring programs. And they need support at the broadest possible level, not just within their own institutions.</p>
<p>Federal and state governments should take some responsibility for supporting women who want to help themselves to become senior opinion leaders and researchers. By funding formal mentoring programs, networks and fellowships, governments would be acknowledging the fact that universities are incubators of ideas that have far-reaching implications.</p>
<p>Women spend too much time chasing the money for these programs instead of doing the productive work of research, teaching and supervising PhD students.</p>
<p>The private sector is reluctant to contribute without a clear benefit – they need a return on investment. The not-for-profits can’t afford it. Universities are living in straitened times.</p>
<p>Formal mentoring programs for female academics in finance and economics currently exist in the US, UK, China and Canada, but receive little support in Australia.</p>
<p>At the Australian School of Business at UNSW, there are programs to support women but the benefits of senior academic women spread far wider than the campus.</p>
<p>Low numbers of women in the field have flow-on effects in business. Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria <a href="http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2014/01/29/harvard-business-dean-apologizes/">recently apologised for his school’s treatment of female students and professors</a>, promising to double the number of case studies in which women are portrayed as central leaders in business problems.</p>
<p>Sometimes perception is part of the problem. Women need to put themselves in the centre of the picture, or the business problem.</p>
<p>To do that they need to connect with other women, share success stories, get access to conferences, fellowships and other opportunities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renee Adams is the Commonwealth Bank Chair in Finance.</span></em></p>In a clever marketing move, Facebook’s finance chief Sheryl Sandberg and stock photography supplier Getty Images recently released a series of photos which represented women in “more empowering ways…Renee Adams, Professor of Finance, Commonwealth Bank Chair in Finance, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/230042014-03-06T19:37:25Z2014-03-06T19:37:25ZEviction from the middle class: how tenuous jobs penalise women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42296/original/nyt545kr-1393206939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women who are suddenly forced to rely entirely on insecure part-time work can find themselves rapidly sliding out of the middle class. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-128078999/stock-photo-middle-aged-woman-standing-near-printer-in-confused.html?src=5VNojGJz2FPKLDdchMeBOg-1-29">Daria Filimonova/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong><em>The Conversation is running a series, Class in Australia, to identify, illuminate and debate its many manifestations. Here, Veronica Sheen discusses how insecure jobs can cause women in midlife to tumble out of the middle class.</em></strong></p>
<hr>
<p>Treasurer Joe Hockey wants a new debate about pushing the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/21/joe-hockey-debate-raising-retirement-age">pension eligibility age</a> beyond <a href="http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/age-pension">67</a>. This could provide fresh challenges for people who have been evicted from the middle class by midlife. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.policypointers.org/Page/View/12494">My research</a> on midlife women in insecure jobs reveals how people who once would have been considered “middle class” lose this broadly defined social status. It gives an insight into what this means for their social and economic situation – social class – in later life. </p>
<h2>Trajectories out of the middle class</h2>
<p>The main trajectory involved losing a long-term permanent job after the age of 40. The women told of the effects in their workplaces of factors – including downsizing, work intensification, casualisation, credentialism and off-shoring – that led to their job loss.</p>
<p>After 40, due to a combination of <a href="http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/workplace-discrimination-cuts-deep-across-australia-report">age discrimination</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/mind-the-gap-but-theres-more-to-gender-equality-than-pay-parity-7436">scarcity of full-time, permanent jobs</a>, they found it very difficult to find an equivalent-level job despite good education and skilled employment histories. </p>
<p>Stephanie, 49, explains what happened after leaving a permanent public sector job:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was pretty burnt out. I was always expecting to get some part-time work and, having been working for a long time, I actually thought I had some transferable skills that would be useful in a whole lot of areas, but it was really hard trying to find some work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The pathway then for Stephanie was into casual and sometimes fixed-term employment in administration. This was interspersed with spells of unemployment – a typical scenario for many.</p>
<p>Another trajectory involved leaving a permanent job in the late 20s or early 30s to raise and care for children. This may have meant dependence on a husband’s income from a “good job”, with some women continuing in part-time, casual employment to supplement household income.</p>
<p>In a number of cases, however, the husband’s income was then eroded by business failure or retrenchment, or by disability. This meant an exit from the middle class for the household. It placed more pressure on the woman’s employment which, as part-time and insecure, could not compensate for the loss of the male job.</p>
<p>The other major trajectory out of the middle class was through divorce or separation. As well as loss of the husband’s income, this meant becoming a sole parent and provider for the household. </p>
<p>For some, this change motivated a move out of permanent full-time work because it was too difficult to <a href="https://theconversation.com/grappling-with-the-time-bomb-of-australias-work-rest-and-play-5330">balance the job and additional caring</a>. Barbara, who cared for her teenage son with a disability while working casually as a security officer, told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I often think that the government job I had, I should have stayed there. It was just better. But there was pressure from my mum, pressure from my son’s father, ‘You’re selfish going to work and leaving your son in crèche.‘</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The problem for women who had left permanent jobs in earlier periods arose in their 40s or 50s after their children were more independent and they wanted to return to permanent work. There was no pathway back. The doors to a middle-class life had closed behind them.</p>
<h2>The loss of the future tense</h2>
<p>Much can be said about the eviction from the middle class. It is partly about loss of the steady pay cheque maybe even sending you to the edge of poverty. It may also involve <a href="https://theconversation.com/down-and-out-in-australia-the-new-way-to-define-poverty-1812">social exclusion</a>. </p>
<p>However, my interviews suggested it goes deeper than that. I wished to probe how study participants saw their future unfolding. The subject proved highly sensitive and was glossed over or avoided. </p>
<p>Maureen’s words summed up a general feeling among the women:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I thought about all that now I think I would end up in the loony bin.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the 1990s, sociologist Pierre Bourdieu understood this crisis, writing in his essay <a href="https://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745622187">Job Insecurity Is Everywhere Now</a> that insecurity “destructures” existence for those affected:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It makes the whole future uncertain and prevents all rational anticipation and basic belief and hope in the future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If a person is struggling to make ends meet day to day, they have little capacity to make plans to undertake a desired activity, or to make some kind of investment with a view to a future gain. Social indicators are helpful in documenting major areas of <a href="http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-182273012/towards-new-indicators-of-disadvantage-deprivation">poverty, deprivation and social exclusion</a>.</p>
<p>In my study, the women in precarious jobs were just managing to get by on a frugal “no frills” basis. This did not allow any medium to longer-term planning or investments. </p>
<p>In his book <a href="http://www.bloomsburyacademic.com/view/The-Precariat/book-ba-9781849664554.xml">The Precariat</a>, economist Guy Standing makes a useful point that a precarious job may lift an individual over the official poverty line such that she is in a state of “near poverty”. But it is still a fraught situation.</p>
<p>The women’s insecure circumstances provided no platform for reaching out to a future life as they struggled to stay balanced on the ledge in the present. This was in part a result of constrained material circumstances. In part, though, it was because fear and uncertainty permeated their lives.</p>
<p>Perhaps ultimately that is the privilege of middle-class status. You have a hold on your future.</p>
<h2>The impact in later life</h2>
<p>By midlife, choices and time frames for transitions to a different life are more constrained. Women in the study reported entrapment in low-paid and precarious work. They spoke of the difficulties of finding their way into better employment that could reinstate their grasp on the future.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42297/original/nnr5bmvw-1393207222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42297/original/nnr5bmvw-1393207222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42297/original/nnr5bmvw-1393207222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42297/original/nnr5bmvw-1393207222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42297/original/nnr5bmvw-1393207222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42297/original/nnr5bmvw-1393207222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42297/original/nnr5bmvw-1393207222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Being trapped in a low-income, precarious job can make it difficult to plan for a better future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-70942156/stock-photo-portrait-of-professional-cleaning-lady.html?src=5gFhMbM6qPttikJoIPuAfg-1-13">Igor Gratzer/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given the constraints they faced in their 40s and 50s, I thought many of the women would face hardship in old age. They were unable to contribute enough to superannuation or make savings, which exarcerbated an already <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-08/australian-women-falling-behind-on-super/4561018">disadvantageous position</a>. A few faced poverty and uncertainty with housing. Many of the precarious jobs were difficult and unsustainable, with some posing mental and physical health risks.</p>
<p>It is possible that the stage is being set for the emergence of significant new inequalities in the older population. On the one hand are groups of older people who have been been able to weather adverse and rapidly changing labour market conditions relatively well. They will form a well-to-do aged middle class. They can really retire when they wish and when they can afford to.</p>
<p>On the other hand are those who have experienced the full brunt of changes in the world of work with too little <a href="http://www.erd-report.eu/erd/report_2010/documents/volA/factsheets/1-what_social_protection_en.pdf">social protection</a> to mitigate these effects. They will form an aged underclass - especially if they have had a long period of unemployment and difficult jobs prior to qualifying for an age pension at 67 or older. </p>
<p>Some groups of women, including women who have been sole parents and older single women, are very exposed to high levels of social disadvantage in later life. Good jobs are particularly important for these women in midlife until retirement to ensure they have the opportunity of ageing with dignity in accordance with community standards.</p>
<p>Ironically, the jobs they are entrapped in by midlife give the least promise of viability to keep working in until 67 or even later as Joe Hockey suggests we should.</p>
<h2>Implications of policy neglect</h2>
<p>Public policy has major deficiencies in relation to helping people in midlife make transitions into new, more sustainable occupations. With a rapidly changing labour market, much more focus is needed on opening pathways into decent jobs at later stages of life. This is especially important in view of the pressures on people to keep working well into their 60s. </p>
<p>Many women in the study said they could not afford to undertake the retraining they needed for better jobs. They could not afford to forgo the income they received from whatever employment they had, nor could they afford the fees and costs of training courses. No public support was available for them. Some were also sceptical whether retraining would be enough to compensate for the age discrimination they faced. </p>
<p>Of course, retraining is no panacea when the availability of good jobs is in long-term decline. Ultimately, what would help midlife women and men in low-paid, insecure jobs is an increase in “middle class” jobs.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>See the other instalments of the series Class in Australia <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/class-in-australia">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Sheen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Conversation is running a series, Class in Australia, to identify, illuminate and debate its many manifestations. Here, Veronica Sheen discusses how insecure jobs can cause women in midlife to tumble…Veronica Sheen, Research Associate, School of Social Sciences, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224272014-02-12T06:42:05Z2014-02-12T06:42:05ZThe revolution for India’s urban women must start at home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41161/original/kfkh4gp8-1392034873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">She can change the country.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">incandopolis</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the Delhi gang rapes in 2012, the plight of women in urban India has found global attention. Much has been said about rights and safety in cities, but none of that will make a sustainable impact, unless women are also welcomed and encouraged to be a significant part of the paid workforce. </p>
<p>In urban India, only about <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/varshajoshi95/gender-mainstreaming-in-census-of-india-2011-new">15% women of working age</a> are part of the workforce. Even if we take into account women working in rural India – whose participation rate is about double that of women in cities – the average is still among the <a href="http://theconversation.com/indias-urban-work-boom-is-leaving-women-behind-22668">lowest in the world</a>. </p>
<p>While women in India are increasingly becoming more visible, whether it is in public transport, media and entertainment, it isn’t just because of policies aimed to help, but often despite them. </p>
<p>There has been hope that, with globalisation and better communication via TV, computers and mobile phones, the ideal of gender equality would take root in India or at least, with more women taking up paid employment and more organisations working towards enhancing awareness of workers’ rights, there would be significant advances. But the first steps of getting women into paid work that can be accounted for and measured appear unclear.</p>
<p>Even though India lacks in this respect by global standards, it is worth noting that the situation for its women is better than ever before. There are many women in powerful positions: <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-02-07/news/47126562_1_pepsico-ceo-indra-nooyi-fortune-list-petrobras-ceo-maria">Chanda Kochhar</a> is the chief executive of ICICI, India’s largest private bank; Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the Indian National Congress party, the political party leading the current coalition government; Vasundhara Raje and Mamata Banerjee are chief ministers of state for Rajasthan and West Bengal, respectively. Many women have received national awards in diverse spheres such as academia, finance, sports and arts. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41162/original/cgcvxwrf-1392034971.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">We build cities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/deirdre/3190828119/">deirdre/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet the average educated woman worker in India is a clerk in a bank or government office, a teacher, a call centre worker, or a receptionist. Many more illiterate or lesser-educated women are employed as domestic helpers, cooks, nannies, and as workers in construction, manufacturing and transport-related activities. Except for the few educated professionals, the vast bulk of these are informal workers without social protection of any kind.</p>
<p>Of the 150m women who are recorded as workers by the Census of India 2011, a large proportion is in rural areas, with only 28m in urban locations. With 182m women of working age in urban India, the work participation rates of women in urban areas is very low. There have been some positive changes, for instance in the period between 2001 and 2011 urban workforce participation rate for women <a href="https://db.tt/GP6fTZSM">increased</a> from 11.9% in 2001 to 15.4% in 2011. Even this apparently small shift is equivalent to 12m additional women workers (equal to the total population of many countries in the world, such as Cuba, Greece or Portugal).</p>
<p>The entire South Asian region has been marked for its exceptionally low women’s work participation rates for many decades now. The gender comparisons highlight the persistence of patriarchal structures and the notion that men are the family breadwinner, which leads to much higher male workforce participation rates of 54% (compared with 26% for females). </p>
<p>Women who do find employment often <a href="https://db.tt/GP6fTZSM">work as domestic helps</a>. And, despite a corresponding rise in NGOs to protect them, these workers (or servants as most are still called) have no basic workplace rights.</p>
<p>The case of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was recently arrested in the US for visa fraud after bringing in an underpaid domestic worker, was treated in the media as a “diplomatic row” rather than a case of mistreatment. The problem is that Khobragade’s behaviour is common in urban India. </p>
<p>Domestic workers are locked into what their employers see as a feudal relationship. Employers enjoy the feel-good factor of providing much-needed work to the destitute and desperate. So what if the income they offer is below the minimum wage? The comparison is between no employment and some employment under whatever terms and conditions they decide upon. </p>
<p>The unorganised nature of such employment further discourages domestic workers from demanding their rights – even if they are aware that they have them. The irony is that, until recently, domestic workers were accepting of the feudal relationship. But this is fast changing. </p>
<p>Although there are many domestic workers who have been able to educate their daughters to help them aspire to a better future, just as most of them contribute significantly to their household incomes, the recognition of their contribution at home and the benefit of being treated with dignity by their employers and society at large is missing.</p>
<p>It seems, then, that the revolution that will help urban Indian women the most must start at home – by encouraging them to work and recognising them as workers, thereby providing them with decent working conditions and workplace rights.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Related: <a href="http://theconversation.com/indias-urban-work-boom-is-leaving-women-behind-22668">India’s urban work boom is leaving women behind</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Preet Rustagi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since the Delhi gang rapes in 2012, the plight of women in urban India has found global attention. Much has been said about rights and safety in cities, but none of that will make a sustainable impact…Preet Rustagi, Professor and Joint Director, Institute for Human DevelopmentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205802013-11-21T06:16:00Z2013-11-21T06:16:00ZThe evidence is clear: firms do better with women on board<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35714/original/ktwj6nkk-1384970314.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">EasyJet boss Carolyn McCall is one of few women at the top of UK business.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Parsons/PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the UK, women make up just <a href="http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/dinamic-content/media/Research/Research%20Centres/CICWL/FTSEReport2013.pdf">just 17.3%</a> of FTSE 100 companies’ board members. This puts the UK <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-boards">5th in the world</a> behind Norway, Sweden, Finland and France.</p>
<p>Things are certainly improving: 44% of new appointments to FTSE 100 boards go to women. However, we are still some way off the target of 25% by 2015 recommended in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31480/11-745-women-on-boards.pdf">recent UK government report</a>. It also falls far short of where the country’s boardrooms should be – an equal split between men and women in directorship roles.</p>
<p>The question of how to remedy this yawning gap has occupied a lot of time and effort. The first big question is whether it is indeed necessary for companies to patch up the gender divide. There is a now a large body of evidence that <a href="https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/7811/1/Women_directors_on_corporate_boards.pdf">how firm performance is affected</a> by the presence of more women on boards. There are frequent reports by consultancies and companies that detail miraculous results achieved by firms which appoint more women to the board. For instance, the catering firm Sodexo launched a press release this summer claiming that companies where women make up over one third of the board have <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2438150/More-female-bosses-mean-profits-Companies-boards-women-make-42-cent-more.html">42% higher profit and 53% higher returns</a> to shareholders.</p>
<p>Although these numbers sound excellent, there are mixed reports on how improved gender balance on boards actually affects corporate performance. One <a href="http://www.bbcprisonstudy.org/includes/site/files/files/2010%20BJM%20Tobin's%20Q.pdf">interesting recent study</a> points out that companies with more women on the board tend to do better on the basis of objective measures, such as return on assets and return on equity. However, they tend to do worse on more subjective metrics, such as stock-based measures of performance. </p>
<p>The reason for this is that market analysts and investors <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/dobbin/files/2011_nclr_dobbin_jung.pdf">often take fright</a> at women being appointed to a board. This is because women are perceived as poorly performing –- even though the evidence points in the opposite direction. However, another piece of research finds that this market aversion to female board members <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00600.x/full">is not seen in all contexts</a>; it seems the market is quite prepared to reward firms for appointing women directors in consumer-facing industries like retail, or in the media. In sectors where the company is far removed from final consumers, such as logistics or resources, more female-averse sexist attitudes can still be found.</p>
<p>Other recent research has pointed out that boards which include more women tend to have better working processes. For instance, one US-based study found that women are <a href="http://personal.lse.ac.uk/FERREIRD/gender.pdf">more likely to attend</a> board meetings than their male counterparts. What’s more, their mere presence on the board actually shames the men into also turning up more. In addition, boards with more women are often reported to be nicer places. They tend to develop their members more and <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228293357_The_Contribution_of_Women_on_Boards_of_Directors_Going_Beyond_the_Surface/file/79e4150719d07aa597.pdf">suffer less internal conflict</a>.</p>
<h2>Get on board?</h2>
<p>The many benefits of having more women on boards have led policymakers throughout the world to ask how numbers could be increased. Companies themselves are often reluctant to do this, typically citing a lack of appropriate or experienced candidates. This, of course, is a myth, as women appointed to boards are often likely to be better qualified than their male counterparts in many important aspects (education, titles, community links), though <a href="https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/7811/1/Women_directors_on_corporate_boards.pdf">worse on some other factors</a> (notably, previous experience in executive roles – a catch-22 situation).</p>
<p>To address corporate foot-dragging over this issue, some countries have adopted policies which <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/18/germany-vote-more-women-in-boardroom">mandate the number of women</a> on corporate boards. The first mover was Norway, which now requires boards to be at least 40% female. Other countries including Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Iceland and that bastion of women’s liberation Dubai have followed this initiative. This week, news appeared that the famously masculine boardrooms of Germany may be forced to implement a 30% <em>Frauenquote</em>.</p>
<p>These moves towards quota systems have led some to ask whether the UK should implement a similar approach. This question is likely to be met with significant degrees of resistance from parts of the business community. They will inevitably point out that the UK economy is more liberal than most European economies, and argue that forcing companies to do something is not appropriate. Instead, they will claim, companies will be able to self-regulate their way towards a level of board equality appropriate to their business. They might also point out that the UK has done reasonably well without a quota – 5th in the world for boardroom diversity isn’t bad, after all.</p>
<h2>Nordic evidence</h2>
<p>All these arguments are to be expected, but what exactly does the evidence tell us about quotas in the most advanced case – Norway? The one major piece of negative evidence for quotas comes from two economists who pointed out that introduction of the quota <a href="http://www.freiheitliche-zeitung.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Quarterly-Journal-of-Economics-Kenneth-R.-Ahern-Amy-K.-Dittmar-The-Changing-of-the-Boards-The-Impact-on-Firm-Valuation-of-Mandated-Female-Board-Representation.pdf">led to younger, less experienced directors</a> being appointed to corporate boards. In addition, they found that the quota led to declines in some market-based measures of corporate performance. </p>
<p>However, other research has shown that the increasing number of women on boards has led to no difference in overall corporate performance on the basis of more “objective” measures such as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545701.2013.830188">return on assets</a>. In addition, the increased number of women on Norwegian boards has also been linked with an <a href="http://www.gravitasllc.com/resources/article_docs/17%5EBA9.pdf">increase in innovation</a>.</p>
<p>While the quota may have had little effect on the objective performance of Norway’s companies, it has certainly helped to build a far greater population of women business leaders in the the country. The quota made it more likely that women will be <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-012-1546-5#page-1">appointed as CEOs</a>. In addition, women business leaders were able to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2123/full">build stronger networks</a> with other directors –- an important characteristic that headhunters usually look for in board members. The potential downside of all this is the formation of <a href="http://www.boardsandgender.com/Seierstad_and_Opsahl-For_the_few_not_the_many.pdf">a small elite of women</a> who sit on multiple boards.</p>
<p>If the UK is serious about creating equality at the highest levels of our companies, then a quota could be an excellent step forward. However, it is important we are realistic about the barriers that might be faced to implementing this policy. </p>
<p>A paper published last month gives some clues about what these barriers might be. A study of the 10 countries across the world which have adopted quotas <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2327576">identifies some common features</a>: they tend to have high female workforce participation rates, well developed welfare states, and left-leaning political parties in power. </p>
<p>The UK only has one and a half of these. Women may have to wait a while longer to get on board.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andre Spicer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the UK, women make up just just 17.3% of FTSE 100 companies’ board members. This puts the UK 5th in the world behind Norway, Sweden, Finland and France. Things are certainly improving: 44% of new appointments…Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184732013-09-25T04:23:42Z2013-09-25T04:23:42ZPredicting who will publish or perish as career academics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31778/original/zhrxbdsm-1379916057.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Publishing a peer-reviewed paper isn't easy, but new research confirms it's worth the fight.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cartoon by Nick Kim, Massey University, Wellington</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It doesn’t matter whether or not you think it’s fair: if you’re an academic, your publishing record will have a crucial impact on your career. </p>
<p>It can profoundly affect your prospects for employment, for winning research grants, for climbing the academic ladder, for having a teaching load that doesn’t absorb all your time, for winning academic prizes and fellowships, and for gaining the respect of your peers. </p>
<p>And as our new research <a href="http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/63/10/817">published online in the journal BioScience</a> this month shows, if you’re a woman, if English is not your first language or if you’re still a student, you should be particularly aware of the value of publishing sooner than later.</p>
<p>It’s not called “publish or perish” for nothing.</p>
<h2>Picking winners and losers</h2>
<p>For a young academic, can we predict whether he or she will ultimately be successful? This is clearly important, both for those trying to identify and recruit future academic stars, and for those striving to train the successful academics of tomorrow. </p>
<p>Of course, “success” is a loaded word. We’re not suggesting that the publication rate of scientists is the only metric of their academic, societal or political influence. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the number of peer-reviewed articles a scientist publishes, and the number of times those works are cited by others, are generally a good reflection of their academic reach. </p>
<p>We attempted to predict the publishing winners and losers, focusing on biologists and environmental scientists on four continents, using five easily measured variables. Our <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/bio.2013.63.10.9?uid=3737536&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102642705361">findings</a> seem surprisingly unequivocal but are already provoking <a href="http://conservationbytes.com/2013/09/19/early-to-press-is-best-for-success/#more-10238">strong reactions</a> of agreement and disdain.</p>
<p>Here’s what we concluded.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter whether you got your PhD at glittering <a href="http://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> or a humble regional institution like the <a href="http://www.ballarat.edu.au/">University of Ballarat</a>. The supposed prestige of the academic institution has almost no bearing on your long-term success, once other key variables are accounted for.</p>
<p>Secondly, if you’re a woman, or if English isn’t your first language, you’re going to face some minor disadvantages in publishing. The differences are not huge, on average, and there’s enormous variability among different individuals, but men who are native English speakers do tend to have half a leg up in the publishing game.</p>
<p>Finally, by far the best predictor of long-term publication success is your early publication record - in other words, the number of papers you’ve published by the time you receive your PhD. It really is first in, best dressed: those students who start publishing sooner usually have more papers by the time they finish their PhD than do those who start publishing later. </p>
<p>The take-home message: publish early, publish often.</p>
<h2>A hidden gender gap</h2>
<p>But we have to admit a big caveat: because of limitations in the data available to us, our findings apply only to those who have remained in academia over their careers. Many hopeful academics don’t achieve this milestone, either dropping out at some stage or failing to secure an academic job.</p>
<p>Had we been able to surmount this limitation — perhaps by following a large cohort of individuals from their youth through their entire academic careers — our conclusions would probably have differed somewhat. </p>
<p>For one thing, the impact of gender on success would almost certainly have been greater. </p>
<p>Academia is a notoriously “leaky pipeline” for women. As one moves up the academic ladder, the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/8/3157.full">proportion of women falls off</a> from 40-77% at the time of PhD conferral to around 10% at the level of full professor.</p>
<p>Several explanations have been forwarded for this, including the heavy demands of motherhood in the early stages of a woman’s career, potential gender bias, and the fact that women tend not to promote themselves as aggressively as do some men. </p>
<p>We believe the ruthless Darwinian process that hinders women in academia also applies to those for whom English is a second or third language, given that <a href="http://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?pid=S0034-77442005000100031&script=sci_arttext">nearly nine-tenths of all academic journals are published in English</a>. For such people, there is great variation in English proficiency, and those with better skills are clearly more likely to succeed.</p>
<h2>Start early</h2>
<p>Despite these limitations, our study still flags early publication success as being vital. For whatever reason, some individuals evidently “get” the publishing game earlier than do others. Relative to their peers, they might be better motivated or better writers, or work in better lab environments with better mentoring. </p>
<p>Publishing scientific papers is a complex and challenging skill, and once a young scientist begins mastering this process, their path gets less rocky. It becomes easier to get other papers accepted, to win grants and fellowships, and to gain more research opportunities. </p>
<p>Small differences early in a career can snowball into much greater differences over time. For the biologists and environmental scientists we studied, the number of papers they published over their careers varied hugely, by over a hundred-fold.</p>
<p>Most of all, our study suggests that early training of PhD students is crucial, and that we must strongly encourage them to publish early and often. To gain real traction, we suggest, this should also be a criterion for evaluating the success of their PhD supervisors.</p>
<p>Furthermore, for those involved in hiring academics, we suggest that one of the best ways to identify prospective science stars is simply to compare their research output at an early stage of their career (such as the year they received their PhD, or a few years afterwards to account for postdoctoral productivity). </p>
<p>We’re well aware, of course, that hiring decisions are influenced by a range of personal and professional attributes. But all else being equal, early scientific productivity seems to be a simple and surprisingly effective predictor of long-term publishing success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18473/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. In addition to his appointment as distinguished research professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University, he also holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University, Netherlands. This chair is co-funded by Utrecht University and WWF-Netherlands.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolina Useche, Corey J. A. Bradshaw, and Susan Laurance do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It doesn’t matter whether or not you think it’s fair: if you’re an academic, your publishing record will have a crucial impact on your career. It can profoundly affect your prospects for employment, for…Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityCarolina Useche, Biodiversity and climate change researcher, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Research on Biological ResourcesCorey J. A. Bradshaw, Professor and Director of Ecological Modelling, University of AdelaideSusan Laurance, Senior Lecturer & Tropical Leader, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/158732013-09-17T05:30:10Z2013-09-17T05:30:10ZData is key to tackling sexism in the workplace and beyond<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27694/original/j6v73jn2-1374131263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Companies should make a greater effort to include data on gender inequality in sustainability reports.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Violence against women, rape, bungling of rape cases, sexism at work and in leadership are prominent topics in news headlines. Such crimes and injustices are borne out of cultures that tolerate them. Poor cultures in the workplace reflect and influence attitudes and behaviours more broadly in society.</p>
<p>Organisations are obliged to ensure equal opportunities and the starting point for doing something about inequity is revealing it – making it visible through data.</p>
<p>Data can make visible the extent of the problem and exactly where it lies. Information on the proportion of women at different levels of the organisation and on governance and senior committees and quantification the gender pay gap are standard disclosures included in the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) <a href="https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/GRIG4-Part1-Reporting-Principles-and-Standard-Disclosures.pdf">G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines</a>. In some countries, such data has to be made publicly available by law, but it is often not widely communicated or in a way which allows problem areas to be identified. It should be tabled at appropriate meetings, compared across business units and with previous years and benchmarked with other similar organisations where possible.</p>
<p>Such data allows employees, government agencies, unions and other stakeholders to hold organisations to account. It also provides organisations the opportunity to demonstrate that they are being proactive and providing equal opportunities.</p>
<p>I’ve spoken at women’s events where participants who have experienced discrimination have felt isolated and helpless. They have not been aware of the extent of it or of any activity to address it. I have seen well-intentioned men — shocked by such data — become defensive. It can be confronting. But once there is realisation and acceptance that something needs to be done, action can be taken.</p>
<p>CEDA’s recently published <a href="http://www.ceda.com.au/media/310731/cedawiljune%202013final.pdf">Women in Leadership: Understanding the Gender Gap</a> contains a number of recommendations. <a href="https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/Embedding-Gender-In-Sustainability-Reporting.pdf">Embedding Gender in Sustainability Reporting</a> a joint project of the GRI and the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group, was developed through extensive stakeholder consultation and with the guidance of an Advisory Group (on which I served). It provides examples of information that organisations can provide on performance as well as ways to improve it.</p>
<p>The failure to attract and retain good women can be as much to do with process, institutional issues and culture rather than the manager who is doing the hiring. These quotes from <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368298000282">corporate annual reports of the 1950s and 1960s</a> demonstrate how societal norms have contributed to the social and economic disadvantage of women, and how companies have perpetuated them despite the clear economic disadvantage to the company in doing so. It was a time when men were explicitly appointed to manage and women to serve; a time when women were required to leave jobs upon marriage.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It is now more important than ever that our younger men should be given every opportunity to develop fully their abilities and personalities. The proportion of men to total staff continues to decline and in consequence a greater proportion of male staff will be required to fill an increasing number of managerial and executive positions. The opportunities for our younger men are greater than they have ever been, and promotion will tend to come at an earlier age.” National Provincial Bank, 1956 corporate annual report</p>
<p>“We have opened a number of new branches during the year, including one in the West End of London under the management of a member of our women staff, Miss E. M. Harding. This interesting experiment has been hailed in some quarters as a portent, as indeed in a sense it is, but it may also be regarded as a natural and perhaps somewhat belated recognition that the holding of responsible posts in contact with our customers is no longer necessarily an exclusively male preserve.” Barclays Bank, 1958 corporate annual report</p>
<p>“The NP struck a blow for female equality in October last year with a new pay and promotion deal which enabled women staff members to take their place for the first time alongside men as branch managers…” National Provincial Bank, 1967 corporate annual</p>
<p>“…we also appointed… Miss P. Downs, who is personnel controller in charge of our female staff. We … congratulate Miss Downs in particular on being the first woman in our business to have attained top management level. For a business whose customers are predominantly women this seems a most logical step.” British Home Stores, 1968 corporate annual report*</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is obvious that such practises did not make business sense. Yet some 50 years on, the existence of a gender pay gap for new graduates is inexplicable, and in this context it should be no surprise to find pregnant women experiencing unacceptable discrimination.</p>
<p>CEDA’s <a href="http://www.ceda.com.au/media/310731/cedawiljune%202013final.pdf">Women in Leadership: Understanding the Gender Gap</a> found that the association of leadership with male paradigms is a barrier to the appointment of women leaders. Indeed, senior managers often don’t see value in attributes they don’t have. This is a significant issue when women’s leadership styles have been <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201212/why-women-may-be-better-leaders-men">found to differ</a> from those dominant amongst men, who fill the majority of senior positions.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The obvious benefit of being an equal opportunity employer is that you have access to the best staff. But the risks of not providing equal opportunities for women and men go beyond losing out on talent. Dissatisfied, even frustrated and angry workers are not productive workers and poor equal opportunities practices and workplace cultures bring reputational and financial risk, particularly where legal action is taken. This is bad for business, yet it is too often tolerated — even tacitly encouraged — to maintain the status quo in power balance. Diversity in gender and skills matters to providers of capital. It should matter to boards both in terms of ability to achieve strategy and to manage risks.</p>
<p>Ultimately for companies, poor equal opportunities practice affects the bottom line. The costs to individuals affected by workplace discrimination, bullying and undermining are significant. The impacts are economic, psychological, social and emotional.</p>
<p>Too many women have experienced male violence outside work <em>and</em> discrimination at work. Those experiencing domestic violence and rape are too often not taken seriously by authorities. These survivors are strong people who are entitled to be treated fairly and with respect at work.</p>
<p>We don’t have a complete picture of what goes on in the lives of colleagues and employees outside the work place. Improving equality in work practises will change our society and the way women and men experience life more broadly.</p>
<p>Employers have an ethical as well as a legal responsibility to ensure fair treatment at work. Workers and trade unions have a responsibility to hold them to account. This goes for discrimination on the grounds of race, age, disability and sexual orientation too.</p>
<p><em>*Note: The quotes from corporate annual reports are a sample of those collected for Adams CA and Harte GF (1998). <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03613682/23">The Changing portrayal of the employment of women in British banks’ and retail companies’ corporate annual reports</a>,Accounting, Organizations and Society 23(8): 781–812.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/15873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Adams has received funding from the ACCA for her work on gender and accountability. She was a member of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) / IFC (World Bank) joint working group on gender in sustainability reporting and is a member of the GRI Stakeholder Council.</span></em></p>Violence against women, rape, bungling of rape cases, sexism at work and in leadership are prominent topics in news headlines. Such crimes and injustices are borne out of cultures that tolerate them. Poor…Carol A Adams, Director, Integrated Horizons. Part-time Professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/158482013-07-09T04:33:50Z2013-07-09T04:33:50ZNumbers don’t tell the whole story on gender diversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27034/original/2m44y35b-1373251086.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focusing on the numbers will do little to improve gender diversity in Australian businesses.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Along with deductions, write-offs and reconciling accounts, Australian businesses have ended the financial year with their <a href="http://www.asxgroup.com.au/diversity-resources.htm">second report</a> on diversity strategy and compliance with the <a href="http://www.asxgroup.com.au/corporate-governance-council.htm">ASX Corporate Governance Council</a> (CGC). </p>
<p>Statistics from the first year’s reporting looked encouraging, with more than 90% of S&P ASX 200 companies holding a diversity policy. But what stands behind those policies and reporting? </p>
<p>In many cases, there is too much emphasis placed on plain numeric declarations and not enough on the quality of diversity management.</p>
<p>While the phrase “gender quota” does not appear in the CGC New Corporate Governance Recommendations on Diversity (the main reference for corporations on the structuring of diversity policies and practices), a reference to numeric targets for women’s participation in the workforce is the overwhelming focus of the document. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.kpmg.com/au/en/issuesandinsights/articlespublications/pages/asx-kpmg-gender-diversity-policy.aspx">Research</a> undertaken by KPMG summarising last year’s reporting results indicates that similar to the focus of the CGC document, the majority of organisations concentrated their efforts on gender ratios, as opposed to developing a broader strategy for promoting inclusion and diversity. While gender quotas have proven effective in several European contexts — notably Norway, which introduced a 40% quota on supervisory boards more than 10 years ago — diversity management goes far beyond the number of women in executive roles.</p>
<p>Using gender quotas or other purely quantitative measures to eradicate discrimination will inevitably create resistance within firms. This is because focusing on numeric goals does little to promote a positive workplace climate. A gender quota creates the impression that the inclusion of female workers is due to their gender as opposed to their merit. Employees want and need to be recognised for their skills, knowledge and expertise, and the focus of the organisational strategy should be on engagement, inclusion, and embrace of diversity as opposed to a head count.</p>
<p>Numbers on their own say nothing about organisational culture, the embeddedness of employees in organisational structures, their participation in the decision making processes, or their well-being and job satisfaction. Rather than solely focusing on policies targeting men-to-women ratios, organisations need to tackle the gender role stereotypes and provide strategies and organisational practices that will address both men and women in the workplace. This goes beyond broader use of paternity leave, part-time work arrangements for working fathers or reasonably priced child care solutions, and requires organisations to design an inclusive, open, flexible, and competence-focused workplace.</p>
<p>While numbers are important, especially to create critical mass for the change to become a new social norm, they are meaningless if not accompanied by a strategic focus on changing the organisational climate. While the number of women on corporate boards increased from 13% in 2010 to 23% in 2012, the <a href="http://www.wgea.gov.au/lead/2012-australian-census-women-leadership">Women in Leadership Census report</a> showed that the same women occupied multiple corporate board positions, with 27.5% of women on ASX 200 company boards occupying more than one directorship, a percentage almost twice as high as that among male board members. One of the interpretations of this finding could be that organisations do not actively look to identify and mentor new female talent, but instead tick the gender diversity box when necessary by accessing existing female talent.</p>
<p>It is clear that the Australian workplace is still largely a man’s world. The 2012 <a href="http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-gender-gap">Global Gender Gap Report</a>, published annually by the World Economic Forum, shows that while Australia leads in terms of open access to education for both genders, we are in 68th place for income equality. By way of comparison, New Zealand ranks 16th.</p>
<p>With inevitable changes to Australia’s demographics, organisations that embrace multinational, multigenerational, and gender-diverse workforces will have a source of unmatched competitive advantage. The war for talent and shortage of highly skilled employees on the Australian job market means that organisations need to become the “employers of choice” for a very diverse pool of job applicants. </p>
<p>With an increasing participation of highly skilled women in the job market and their growing mobility, only those organisations that provide a positive and rewarding work climate will be able to not only attract, but most of all to retain top performers. Will this year’s CGC reporting on diversity acknowledge the evolving demographic trends? The answer is probably not, but those organisations that do appreciate and leverage diversity will have a good start in the ever-increasing war for attracting, motivating and retaining talent. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/15848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Betina Szkudlarek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Along with deductions, write-offs and reconciling accounts, Australian businesses have ended the financial year with their second report on diversity strategy and compliance with the ASX Corporate Governance…Betina Szkudlarek, Lecturer in Cross-Cultural Management, Discipline of International Business, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144792013-05-26T20:26:58Z2013-05-26T20:26:58ZWomen overtake men in the media, but not in pay or power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/24245/original/j9z9sccm-1369190056.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While young women are rising through Australian media ranks, the old glass ceiling remains.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Woman reporter image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women now outnumber men in the Australian media, but they are typically younger, earn less and have less powerful positions than male colleagues.</p>
<p>A new national survey shows women now make up 55.5% of Australian journalists, a significant increase from 20 years ago, when they represented merely one-third.</p>
<p>Conducted between May 2012 and March this year, the University of the Sunshine Coast’s representative survey of 605 journalists around Australia found that just 7.4% of women respondents could be classified as senior managers, including editors-in-chief and managing editors.</p>
<p>This compares with one-in-five (21.6%) men being in a similar position. The split among senior managers we surveyed was 69.9% men and 30.1% women. Amongst the rank-and-file this was reversed: 63.7% were women.</p>
<p>The much-discussed glass ceiling still seems to be a considerable hurdle for women to overcome in terms of reaching those senior positions in the news media. Yet, even when they reach this level, they are still typically paid much less than the men – an indication that the media is no different to the general workforce.</p>
<p>Our study is the first of its kind in more than 20 years to involve such a large number of journalists, and follows on from the <a href="http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/003/3/00337.HTML">work of John Henningham</a> in the early 1990s. Other issues we covered include people’s voting intentions and cultural backgrounds, as detailed <a href="https://theconversation.com/whose-views-skew-the-news-media-chiefs-ready-to-vote-out-labor-while-reporters-lean-left-13995">in The Conversation last week</a>.</p>
<p>Our survey was conducted by telephone with journalists from around the country working at newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, online news sites and news agency AAP, as a random sample of the 8000 to 10,000 journalists in Australia today.</p>
<h2>Unequal pay</h2>
<p>At each of the editorial levels – rank-and-file, junior managers and senior managers – women have significantly lower salaries than men. Only one-third of them (35.6%) earn more than A$72,000 a year, compared with around half (53.1%) of male journalists.</p>
<p>This is even more pronounced at the high end of the scale. A mere 1.2% of female journalists reported an income of more than A$144,000 a year. In contrast, 9.8% of men fell into this category. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, women are generally less satisfied with their level of pay than men - 35.9% of them are somewhat or very dissatisfied with their pay, compared with 24.1% of men. </p>
<p>While one may argue that the lower income for women is merely the effect of fewer holding senior editorial ranks, the data actually shows that even after controlling for editorial rank, gender is still a significant influence in relation to salary. </p>
<p>This means that even at similar levels of responsibility, women continue to be paid less than men.</p>
<h2>Generational change</h2>
<p>Overall, women in the media are significantly younger and less experienced than their male counterparts. While the average journalist is 37 years old, men average almost 41 years of age, compared with women at only just over 34 years. Almost two-thirds of women (60.9%) are aged under 35 years, while only 34.6% of men are. </p>
<p>This is an indication that the strong popularity of journalism degrees among women – women make up around 70% of Australia’s journalism students – is leading the sea change in the industry. </p>
<p>It is not yet clear whether this is a generational change that will lead to a stronger representation of women in the senior editorial ranks as well, or whether there will be a drop-off from women from a certain age. </p>
<p>Certainly, women are also less experienced, with an average time in the industry of only just under 12 years, compared to the average male journalist who has been a journalist for 18 years. This fact does play a role in their salaries, as experience is strongly correlated with salaries. However, while experience is a significant influence in salary levels, gender also remains significant when combining the two factors. </p>
<p>That raises the question: why, if men and women have the same job responsibility - for example the role of a news editor - they are paid differently based on their experience.</p>
<p>So even though women have achieved parity in terms of absolute numbers in the industry, they are still consistently discriminated against in terms of pay as well as their opportunities to move through the ranks towards senior editorial positions. Much remains to be done if true gender equality is to be achieved in journalism.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Note: This research has been accepted for publication in the June edition of the Australian Journalism Review. The margin of error for the entire study sample is 4%. Sub-samples of journalists’ responses to some questions are likely to have a higher margin error, however, appropriate statistical methods were used in testing for differences between sub-samples to take account of the smaller sample sizes. The overall survey response rate was 89.5%.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/14479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Folker Hanusch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women now outnumber men in the Australian media, but they are typically younger, earn less and have less powerful positions than male colleagues. A new national survey shows women now make up 55.5% of…Folker Hanusch, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126852013-03-07T19:43:04Z2013-03-07T19:43:04ZTo reach the board, women need support to stay in the workforce<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21063/original/ftpvf6c6-1362628243.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bolstering services such as childcare will allow women to remain in the workforce and pursue ambitious career paths.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>It’s accepted across the globe that women are under-represented in business leadership positions and that something should be done about it. To date, the focus has been on increasing the number of women invited to sit as non-executive directors on boards. The aspirational figure is 40% female representation, with some countries <a href="https://theconversation.com/targets-and-quotas-a-two-pronged-approach-to-increase-board-diversity-12553">legislating quotas and others just setting targets</a>.</p>
<p>While championing diversity in this way may have merit, it’s akin to treating a symptom rather than the disease. Quotas and targets seem too narrow a policy tool to address the underlying factors associated with the lack of women reaching the top.</p>
<p>My <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2192918">recent research</a>, in association with Tom Kirchmaier from the University of Manchester, has found a strong correlation between the rates of full-time female labour-force participation and the number of women in boardrooms. That is, countries with more women working full-time have more women on boards.</p>
<p>It stands to reason that in order to gain the experience necessary to be a director, you have to have a career. Not all women, particularly those with children, are able to sustain one. Legislators need to look at developing policies that promote full-time employment by women to generate a pipeline of talent that can eventually perform leading corporate roles.</p>
<p>When most people talk about representation on boards, they are looking at the largest listed companies – the top 100, or maybe the top 200. Our research studied a more comprehensive sample comprising 9,888 listed companies in 22 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.</p>
<p>We obtained the data from business intelligence service BoardEx for a 10-year period from 2001 to 2010. To ensure our sample was representative, we restricted ourselves to country-years for which BoardEx covered at least 70% of the total market capitalisation of listed companies in that country and year. </p>
<p>Aside from the correlation between full-time work and representation on boards, our data revealed that female boardroom participation was actually lower than the usual surveys suggest. For example, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/24/double-number-of-women-directors-davies-tells-firms">2011 Davies Report</a> for the UK found that “in 2010, women made up only 12.5% of the members of the corporate boards of FTSE 100 companies. This was up from 9.4% in 2004.” Our wider sample showed that the proportion of unique female directors on the boards of listed firms in the UK in 2004 was only 5.1% and, in 2010, it was 6.5%.</p>
<p>To reach a board position, women need to stay in the workforce. But our evidence suggests that full-time employment may not in itself be sufficient. The level of government services to families also appears important. More services, such as childcare, make it easier for women to remain working and to pursue ambitious career paths.</p>
<p>A key adverse factor that is less easily addressed is the attitudes to women imposed by cultural barriers. It’s not surprising that there are less women on boards in the more traditional societies, where staying at home being a housewife is deemed to be equally as fulfilling as going to work. It is possible that present diversity policies which target boards directly may help overcome cultural barriers in the long run, though they may also reinforce gender stereotypes. </p>
<p>There are three main types of these policies: quotas, governance codes, and disclosure requirements. It’s not necessarily clear that their effect is going to be unambiguously positive. Affirmative action can produce negative results when the unqualified or unprepared are placed in roles just to make up the numbers.</p>
<p>The magnitudes of female director participation are still low, but they do show a clear upward trend over time. To foster this progression, policy-makers should try to remove the impediments to full-time labour-force participation rather than simply trying to put more women on boards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renee Adams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s accepted across the globe that women are under-represented in business leadership positions and that something should be done about it. To date, the focus has been on increasing the number of women…Renee Adams, Professor of Finance, Commonwealth Bank Chair in Finance, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110242012-11-27T04:57:51Z2012-11-27T04:57:51ZIt’s still a long way to the top for Australia’s working women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18050/original/pf42czn3-1353988751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian women are still significantly under-represented in senior management positions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2012 <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-27/women-still-excluded-from-executive-ranks/4394368">Australian Census of Women in Leadership</a>, released on Tuesday, paints a mixed picture of gender equality in the workplace.</p>
<p>According to the Census report, women now hold 12.3% of ASX 200 directorships, up from 8.4% in 2010, but they only hold 9.7% of executive key management personnel (executive KMP) positions in the ASX 200. There are 18 more women in executive KMP positions than in 2010. The report suggests some explanations for this: “the recent focus of attention on women in leadership has been directed at boards rather than executives”, and that “although it is possible to secure a board position by having demonstrated ability in other organisations and activities, senior executives normally need to have worked their way up the executive ladder. The pipeline for senior executive positions is generally narrower than for board positions and it will take time to channel more women through it”.</p>
<p>If corporate Australia wants to sustain the significant gains it has made in valuing women’s leadership, it needs to focus its attention on building pathways for career advancement. </p>
<p>To channel more women through the pipeline requires a shift in workplace cultures to enable women and men to share and balance work and life responsibilities. The model of the ideal worker dedicated only to work needs to change to reflect the realities of family and society. The Census report echoes this sentiment: “the ascent through executive ranks often requires time and availability that conflict with other commitments. While women attempt to balance these commitments, often male executives feel free to focus on their careers. More needs to be done to support women and to achieve greater work/life balance for both women and men in demanding executive positions”.</p>
<p>A much broader shift in other equality measures is also needed to enable women’s retention and advancement. ABS statistics released in August 2012 show that across Australia, women’s average full-time weekly earnings are now 17.5% less than men’s earnings. In fact, over the period of 18 years, the pay gap has increased by 1.5 percentage points from 17.2% in February 1996 to 17.4% in February 2012. The pay gap in the private sector is considerably larger than the public sector. In February 2012, the private sector gender pay gap was 20.8%, compared with 12.9% in the public sector. Furthermore, the gender pay gap in mean weekly earnings of managers in full-time positions was 20.5%.</p>
<p>The new <a href="http://www.eowa.gov.au/About_EOWA/Overview_of_the_Act/Act_At_A_Glance/WGE_Act_at_a_Glance.pdf">Workplace Gender Equality (WGE) Act 2012</a> consolidates Australia’s effort to accelerate gender equality in workplaces. From the 2013–14 reporting period, gender equality indicators (GEI) set by the Minister will underpin the new reporting framework, steering attention to “address the most pressing contemporary challenges to gender equality in Australian workplaces”.</p>
<p>GEIs will include the gender composition of the workforce and of governing bodies of relevant employers; equal remuneration between women and men; and 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.</p>
<p>No longer can it be said that the slow pace of progression for women is because of a lack of constructive support, analysis, information and successful business case examples. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s “light touch” approach is supporting employers and leaders in workplaces to remove barriers to the full and equal participation of women in the workforce.</p>
<p>The elimination of discrimination on the basis of gender in workplaces ultimately requires a values shift that translates understanding into action. Only then will Australia see a reduction in the gap between policy and practice. The possible implementation of mandatory quotas in the not too distant future would be a sad reflection on Australia’s organisational leaders, who had chosen not to take action of their own volition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/11024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diann Rodgers-Healey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2012 Australian Census of Women in Leadership, released on Tuesday, paints a mixed picture of gender equality in the workplace. According to the Census report, women now hold 12.3% of ASX 200 directorships…Diann Rodgers-Healey, Adjunct Professor, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.