Gender

Analysis and Comment (30)

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While young women are rising through Australian media ranks, the old glass ceiling remains. Woman reporter image from www.shutterstock.com

Women overtake men in the media, but not in pay or power

By Folker Hanusch, University of the Sunshine Coast

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…
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Women need to play a greater role at the top of Australia’s art institutions. Man in gallery image from www.shutterstock.com

Why are so many arts organisations run by blokes?

By Joanna Mendelssohn

One of my favourite paintings in the Art Gallery of New South Wales is Emanuel Phillips Fox’s Art Students. It’s particularly notable because all the Melbourne Art School students pictured are women…
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Timing sex around ovulation doesn’t change the odds of having a boy or girl. Image from shutterstock.com

Monday’s medical myth: you can control the sex of your baby

By Monique Robinson, University of Western Australia

Despite most parents ultimately just wishing for a healthy baby, there are many cultural and social factors that can drive the desire for a baby of a particular sex. The medical technology for sex selection…
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The inclination to see differences between men and women makes us blind to their similarities. Daniele Civello

Gender differences: more fictions than fact?

By Stephen S Holden

We see gender differences everywhere – in the psychology, thoughts and behaviour of men and women. But the inclination to see differences makes us blind to the overwhelming similarities of men and women…
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In species such as the jacana, above, females desert the eggs as soon as they are laid. Rainbirder

Role reversal: adult sex ratio leads to ‘gender-bending’ birds

By Simon Griffith

Why do some species exhibit patterns of reversed gender roles? That question was addressed in a Nature Communications paper published yesterday. Typically in animals, females tend to invest more in caring…
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From hire to liar: honesty is not always the best policy in workplace negotiations. Image from www.shutterstock.com

Sweet little lies: how men and women use deception in negotiations

By Mara Olekalns, Melbourne Business School

Negotiations, by their nature, tempt individuals into an ethical slide. Even the most principled negotiator would consider it acceptable to withhold some information from an opponent, just as a self-protective…
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Ageing men are seen as an especially lucrative niche sector. Sean MacEntee

What to make of modern medicine’s attention to men

By Alan Petersen, Monash University

Women have long been subject to intrusive biomedical interventions. And the control that modern medicine exerts over women’s bodies has been the focus of much feminist activism. Men are usually seen as…
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard in parliament – has the Slipper resignation cost her political momentum? AAP/Alan Porritt

Sinking the Slipper: Labor is its own worst enemy

By Zareh Ghazarian, Monash University

The Gillard government could have been forgiven for believing an electoral renaissance was underway. But just as it appeared the prime minister was going to cruise to the end of the year, the government…
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Julia Gillard attacked Tony Abbott’s past comments about women in a passionate speech during Question Time. AAP/Lukas Coch

Julia Gillard hits back at a long history of sexism in parliament

By Cheryl Kernot

Peter Slipper has resigned. The sexist text messages mentioning female genitalia published as part of a civil court case were suddenly the bridge too far for Her Majesty’s Opposition. But the Opposition…
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Tony Abbott greets Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer before an event in Melbourne. Does the Opposition Leader have an issue with women? AAP/David Crosling

Tony Abbott and women: how both sides have played the gender card

By Carol Johnson

In a discussion with ABC journalist Emma Alberici on Lateline last week, Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer defended Tony Abbott from attacks by Labor ministers who criticised his attitudes towards women. In the…
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Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella has been criticised for her failure to respond when GetUp director Simon Sheikh collapsed on Q+A. ABC Television

Sophie Mirabella shouldn’t be attacked for failing to emote

By Lauren Rosewarne, University of Melbourne

By 9AM yesterday I’d been called a Sophie Mirabella apologist. Of all the very many slurs I’ve ever been subjected to, that one came as one hell of a surprise. And I just thought I was defending every…
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We need to take a better look at the role women can play in the Millenium Devlopment Goals. AAP/EPA/Harish Tyagi

Challenge 11: How improving women’s status helps us all

By Mel Dunn and Danielle Logue, University of Technology, Sydney

In part 11 of the multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Danielle Logue and Mel Dunn note the striking absence of male voices in discussions of women’s empowerment, despite it being fundamental…
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Two-thirds more men than women have been paid for sex in Australia, and all sex workers have rights. Jason Pier in DC

Make room for sex workers in the sisterhood … and don’t forget men

By Anthony Smith, La Trobe University

When one reads an opinion piece littered with references to “liberal elites”, it is usually a safe bet that one is reading an inherently conservative point of view dressed up to look progressive. So it…
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Women are equally represented in academia, but most professors are still men. Flickr/Herkie

Why do female academics give up on becoming professors?

By Joanne Pyke, Victoria University

Australian higher education is often seen as a female-friendly industry, with overall numbers of both female students and academic staff outnumbering men. Yet women remain a minority as senior academics…
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Jose Maria Vasconcelos (or Taur Matan Ruak) is the new president of East Timor, but will he do more for the women in his country? AAP/Antonio Dasiparu

East Timor: new President, same problems for women

By Sara Niner, Monash University

The recent election of José Maria de Vasconcelos, or Taur Matan Ruak as he is known, to the Presidency of Timor-Leste is not good news for women in that country. Adding yet another member of the male…
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Is there a genuine rise in the appeal for sadomasochist behaviour among women in 2012? flickr/Jeremy Brook

Spank me silly: sadomasochism and the modern woman

By Lauren Rosewarne, University of Melbourne

The poster for Secretary is up on my wall at work. I actually paid to see A Dangerous Method purely for Jung’s novel approach to therapy (and God do I hate period films.) While I probably won’t read all…
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We might expect dramatic sex ratio fluctuations when a whole population experiences extreme food shortages. Teeejayy

Little China girls: how history’s worst famine shifted the sex ratio

By Rob Brooks

People often ask me whether natural selection continues to operate on modern humans in industrialised societies, even though technology has liberated so many from hunger and early death. My answer is always…
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Julia Gillard’s recent leadership battle provides a lesson for all executive women. AAP

How the gender balance increases the company bottom line

By Rosemary Howard

Today is the 101st anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day celebrated around the world to mark the legal, political, social and economic achievements of women. The change in corporate governance…
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Carla Bruni’s daughter Giulia will never officially be known as a mademoiselle after the French government changed its policy. EPA/Thibault Camus

Ms, Miss, Mademoiselle … why titles for women matter

By Lauren Rosewarne, University of Melbourne

Alongside sketchy rationales like postponing the whole rat race thing, a pivotal reason that I got my PhD was to avoid the Miss/Ms conundrum. As first world a problem as is imaginable, but it plagued me…
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What’s gender got to do with it? We asked Cheryl Kernot. AAP/Julian Smith/Lukas Coch

Cheryl Kernot on politics, the media and female leadership

By Cheryl Kernot

As one of the few women to have run a political party in this country Cheryl Kernot is well aware of the role gender plays in the Australian political landscape. In the wake of Bob Brown’s claim this…
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A toilet wall has more than meets the eye. Flickr/ukslim

Women’s toilets in Australia: the writing is on the wall

By Jan Schapper, La Trobe University

La Trobe University’s Dr Jan Schapper recently completed a study into signage and writing on women’s toilets in Australia. The research, just published in the international journal, “Gender, Place and…
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There is an entire history of excuses given for why women shouldn’t be given roles in the military. Australian War Memorial Collection

Women in Australia’s military: On the frontline of the gender war

By Michelle Smith, University of Melbourne

The recent plan to see women take on frontline combat roles in the Australian military from 2016 removes one of the last formal barriers to women’s participation in all realms of work. Unsurprisingly…
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Solomon Island women were excluded from the peace-making process after the civil war. AAP Image/Lloyd Jones

Excluded: The forgotten women of war and peace

By Jasmine-Kim Westendorf, La Trobe University

There is a profound silence in conflict. Women’s voices are absent. They are excluded from decision-making and peace processes across the world’s trouble spots. This exclusion not only perpetuates political…
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Saudi women are still segregated from men in many walks of life, but next year they will get the right to vote. AFP/Fayez Nureldine

Vote now on a socially inclusive Saudi Arabia as women get to cast their ballot

By Fiona Hill, Deakin University

While Saudi women celebrate their hard-earned right to vote in next year’s Municipal Council elections, the frenzy of international media interest highlights just how mysterious this country remains…
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Women rushed to change their lives in the 60s and 70s, but their progress has stalled now. Flickr/Maciek Zygmunt

Why the rush for gender equality has stalled

By Paula England, New York University

No one is too surprised today if a young woman becomes a doctor, lawyer, or executive. But eyebrows are raised just about as much today as in decades past if a couple features a tall woman and short man…
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Men are the economic winners from the current resources boom. flickr/robstephaustralia

The Boom: blokes are benefiting. What about women?

By Margaret Alston, Monash University

In a decision hailed as ground breaking Fair Work Australia has recently determined that gender is a key factor in women’s low pay. Essentially the argument is that workers in the female dominated community…

Research and News (1)

Research Briefs (9)

Men more likely to survive shipwrecks

Uppsala University

Men have almost double the chance of surviving a shipwreck compared to women, a new study has found. Economists from Uppsala…

Gay men get fewer job interviews

Harvard University

Gay men are 40% less likely to be offered a job interview than their straight counterparts in some parts of the United States…

Empowered women have less sex

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Sub-Saharan African women who are empowered to make household decisions tend to have sex less often, according to a study…

Participants (263)