What’s IR got to do with it? Building gender equality in the post-pandemic future of work

In Australia and globally, deeply entrenched workplace gender inequalities - such as women’s dominance in precarious work, labour market gender segregation, and the gendered division of unpaid labour - were exposed or even exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In this chapter, we draw on Australian data to examine the gendered nature of the crisis and to recommend critical industrial relations levers to build gender equality post-pandemic. We find that during the pandemic, women workers were more likely to lose jobs and hours than their male counterparts; essential, frontline workforces were highly feminized, underpaid and exposed to significant stress and health risks; and that the gender gap in unpaid domestic and care work widened. Each of these risk entrenching pre-existing gender inequalities after the COVID-19 pandemic. Arguing that industrial relations represents a key arena in which to build gender equality post-pandemic, we recommend improving pay and conditions in feminized and undervalued sectors, and providing access to more secure employment with employee-oriented flexibility.