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Holding up half the sky? Women at work in the 21st century

Author

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  • Barbara Pocock

Abstract

This is an edited version of the 2015 Fay Gale Lecture soon after the author’s retirement as Director of the University of South Australia’s Centre for Work + Life. It begins with the author’s personal work reminiscences as a touchstone for reflecting on continuity and change in women’s working lives. A first job in sheep-shearing sheds illustrates the insecurity and hard physical and emotional labour associated with manual work. Despite strides in Australian women’s qualification levels, discrimination is being ‘refreshed and remade’. Examples include recent Australian reversals in paid parental leave policy and the role of sexual harassment in patrolling work boundaries. The institutional basis of unequal pay and inflexible work/family time allocation is demonstrated in the Productivity Commission’s 2015 Workplace Relations agenda. This recommends reduced Sunday penalty rates that will disproportionately affect feminised, low-paid retail and hospitality work and rejects any strengthening of parents’ statutory right to request flexible work arrangements. Three remedies are proposed – creative approaches to research, campaigning and political action.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara Pocock, 2016. "Holding up half the sky? Women at work in the 21st century," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(2), pages 147-163, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:27:y:2016:i:2:p:147-163
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304616647694
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sue Williamson, 2015. "A case study of regulatory confusion: Paid parental leave and public servants," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(3), pages 430-447, September.
    2. Roger Wilkins & Mark Wooden, 2014. "Two Decades of Change: The Australian Labour Market, 1993–2013," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 47(4), pages 417-431, December.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Paul Dalziel, 2019. "Wellbeing economics in public policy: A distinctive Australasian contribution?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(4), pages 478-497, December.
    2. Tjasa Bartolj & Nika Murovec & Saso Polanec, 2022. "Reported time allocation and emotional exhaustion during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Slovenia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 117-137, March.
    3. Shah, Dhara & Meiklejohn, Ainslie & Spencer, Nancy & Lawrence, Sandra, 2024. "Precariat women’s experiences to undertake an entrepreneurial training program," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    4. David Peetz, 2016. "The Productivity Commission and industrial relations reform," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(2), pages 164-180, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender pay gap; paid parental leave; penalty rates; Productivity Commission; sexual harassment; work–life collision;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J58 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Public Policy
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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