Category: Inequity

Australia’s low-paid workforce a threat to wages growth

Carers – aged care, childcare and disability care workers – have been the No.1 growth occupation in the past 10 years, with an additional 170,000 workers added between the 2006 and 2016 censuses. The majority are women. . . .

Caring roles – caring for children, the sick, the disabled and the elderly – have for the most part fallen to women and historically have largely been unpaid. . . .

Formalisation and expansion of these historically unpaid roles can be considered to be a relatively good thing – especially for women. The care workforce has opened up employment opportunities for many workers, particularly older women. It’s also removed barriers to employment, freeing women up to pursue other paid work opportunities. And it also means that finally some of the work that women have always done can now actually be counted. But there are plenty of problems with building such a large low-paid workforce, not least for the workers themselves.  . . .

Meanwhile, childcare workers continue to advocate a pay rise but earlier this year lost a five-year wage case as unions were unable to prove comparable worth to male-dominated industries.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-s-low-paid-workforce-a-threat-to-wages-growth-20181224-p50o4y.html
[category Aust, workforce discrimination, inequity] 

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The Brisbane male-only Tattersall’s Club votes to allow female members

The male only Tattersall’s Club prepared to enter the 21st Century last night, when its members voted to allow women to join the club.

Still, the vote in favour of women only narrowly won, with 1368 members voting against women joining club, compared to 1405 members voting in favour of the change. More the 200 votes were declared informal, with reports some members declared cries of “shame”as the result became known.

Earlier this week the ABC reported that in the weeks before Justice Thomas Bradley’s appointment as a Supreme Court Justice, he put his name to a motion to change voting rules at the club, in a move that would have resulted in it being “practically impossible” for the club to allow women to become members.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/the-brisbane-male-only-tattersalls-club-votes-to-allow-female-members/
[category Aust, inequity]




	


	





	

		
		
Why are our prisons full of domestic violence victims?
	


	
	
	

		
	

		


The number of women in prison is continuing to soar, new data shows. But advocates warn we can’t arrest the increase until we start properly addressing domestic abuse, which affects an overwhelming majority of women behind bars.



One emerging but “alarming” phenomenon leading to women’s criminalisation, lawyers and advocates say, is the growing number of domestic violence victims being misidentified by police as primary aggressors — and named as respondents on family violence intervention orders.

Disturbingly, she said, a growing number of perpetrators are attempting to “game the system” and will, for instance, apply for intervention orders during family law proceedings out of spite or to gain an advantage.


“What we’re hearing … is the really sophisticated and creative ways in which abusive men are manipulating the [family violence] system … research we’ve conducted recently suggests that abusers are feeling like there is a system that’s persecuting them, that they will then use to persecute their victim.”


The costs are borne by entire families: Imprisoning mothers can have devastating consequences for their children and perpetuate intergenerational offending and cycles of incarceration. This disproportionately impacts Indigenous women in prison, of whom some 80 per cent are mothers.


“We hear frequently that women who sought police intervention to keep them safe were instead arrested, so of course that’s going to deter them from seeking help and makes them even more vulnerable [to abuse].”


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-20/womens-prisons-full-of-domestic-violence-victims/10599232

[category Aust, domestic violence]





	


	





	

		
		
Prejudice against women in power is greater than we think
	


	
	
	

		
In a fascinating study, researchers have shown that results from conventional self-reporting surveys on gender prejudices should be regarded with a measure of skepticism. People have not been telling the researchers the truth.


Gender stereotypes and gender-oriented prejudice pose a serious threat to women’s careers and facilitate gender bias in the workplace. According to theorists, prejudice against women leaders emerges from an incongruity between their gender role and the more masculine social role of a leader.


When granted full confidentiality, 28 per cent of women and 45 per cent of men in the sample indicated that they considered women to be less qualified for leadership positions than men. Across the two study methods, men showed more prejudice than women. However, the increase in the estimated prevalence of prejudice from a conventional direct question to the crosswise model was higher in women (from 10 per cent to 28 per cent) than in men (from 36 per cent to 45 per cent), indicating that women responded more strongly to being granted full confidentiality.


Source: Prejudice against women in power is greater than we think | Wellness Daily

	


	







	

		
		
Exam scores docked to reduce number of women at Tokyo Medical School
	


	
	
	

		
Tarla Lambert for Women’s Agenda writes:


A medical school in Tokyo has been forced to accept more than 60 female students after admitting it had discriminated against women for the past two years.


The school admitted that in August this year, it had been reducing the entrance exam scores of female applicants to ensure the numbers of female students remained low. The justification given was that women tend to quit their careers in medicine prematurely to raise families, and thus cause staffing shortages at the hospital.


In Japan, the persistent continuation of traditional gender roles prevents women from pursuing equal opportunities at work. Far fewer women enrol in university and even if they do, they are still expected to give up their careers to be home-makers down the line.


The investigation into TMU found that all applicants’ first-stage test scores were reduced by 20 percent this year before adding a minimum of 20 points for male applicants.


https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/exam-scores-tampered-to-reduce-number-of-women-at-tokyo-medical-school/



	


	





	

		
		
Why women receive less CPR from bystanders
	


	
	
	

		
ScienceDaily reports:




Previous research has shown women who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest receive CPR less frequently than men, said Sarah M. Perman, M.D., M.S.C.E., assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver and lead author on the survey study.


In a new survey (Poster Presentation 198) Colorado researchers asked 54 people online to explain, with no word limit, why women might be less likely to get CPR when they collapse in public. In the replies, the team identified four themes:


    

  • Potentially inappropriate touching or exposure;
    • 

  • Fear of being accused of sexual assault;
    • 

  • Fear of causing physical injury;
    • 

  • Poor recognition of women in cardiac arrest — specifically a perception that women are less likely to have heart problems, or may be overdramatizing or “faking” an incident; or
    • 

  • The misconception that breasts make CPR more challenging.
    • 



The team’s findings showed that in their descriptive study, participants in their cohort performed CPR or used an AED on virtual-reality female victims less than on virtual male victims.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181105105453.htm

	


	





	

		
		
Single parents forced to attend 'story time' or lose Centrelink payments
	


	
	
	

		
Luke Henriques-Gomes for The Guardian writes:



Chia is one of 68,000 parents who have been placed on a new government program, Parents Next, after receiving a call from Centrelink assessing whether they are at risk of “long-term welfare dependency”.

Since July, these parents – overwhelmingly single women – must meet a fortnightly participation plan negotiated with a case worker, known as their ParentsNext provider. If they don’t, their parenting payment – $384.25 for a single person – can be suspended or terminated.

Parents say they have been forced by their providers to attend activities such as “story time”, swimming lessons or playgroup, or told to sign up to education courses at their own expense, even if they already hold qualifications.

“It’s offensive that the government believes that … women aren’t trying to do what they can to increase the welfare of themselves and their child,” Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers, told Guardian Australia.

Now that it was compulsory and women faced penalties for not complying, Edwards said it had gone “from a soft touch … to almost blaming women for undertaking unpaid care”.

People can receive parenting payment until their youngest child turns eight, when they are moved on to the lower Newstart payment. They can be placed on to the ParentsNext program once their child is six months old.

https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/06/single-parents-forced-to-attend-story-time-or-lose-centrelink-payments?fbclid=IwAR3m9KJmExoKyLqwAnM-r6wfoywVQEqpnNv8Lhg8Iv-kJRfcVFSdydWkDiY



	


	





	

		
		
Toilet design puts woman at risk of harassment and poor health, charities warn
	


	
	
	

		
Sarah Newey for the Telegraph writes:



Dark and insecure toilets disproportionately affect women and girls, putting them at greater risk of harassment and damage to their health, three charities have warned.

Across the world, one in three women do not have access to a toilet at home, instead relying on public or community toilets.

But these facilities often lack locks, robust doors or facilities to dispose of sanitary products, which discourages women from using them.

Traveling to the toilets can also put women and girls at risk, especially at night. In 2014, police in Bihar in India said that some 400 women would have “escaped” rape if they had access to toilets in their own home.

“If facilities are not in a safe geographical location, secure and bright, then the surrounding area can attract people who are interested in harassing women and girls,” said Priya Nath, equality, inclusion and rights advisor at WaterAid.

“It’s not only the threat, perception of risk is just as important. If women perceive that it is not safe to go to the toilet then they will not use it. But we know that not eating or drinking to hold on, or not changing sanitation products, has huge health problems,” she added.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/toilet-design-puts-woman-risk-harassment-poor-health-charities/



	


	





	

		
		
Australians the world’s wealthiest! And yet female homelessness on rise
	


	
	
	

		
Sandra Buckley for Women’s Agenda reports:

Currently, in Australia men retire with 47% more super than Australian women, meaning Australian women retire with almost 50% less than Australian men. So much less super, that the fastest growing cohort of Australians sliding into homelessness are Australian women who are aged over 50 and single.

It does not add up for us that women who raised you or who looked after a disabled child, sick partner or relative, in other words who spend many hours of her life performing essential caring roles, retires in poverty as a result of caring.

We are one of the few OECD countries that does not value caring and does not pay super to carers. Nor do we pay super on parental leave. We don’t pay super to those who earn less than $450 per month from one employer despite usually having several part-time jobs in order to have flexibility when looking after the kids.

One in two women in Australia earns less than $37,000 a year. And nothing will change for future generations unless we make substantive changes now.

That’s why we started the #Makesuperfair campaign at Women In Super.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/australians-the-worlds-wealthiest-and-yet-female-homelessness-on-rise/