Category: Workforce Discrimination

JAPAN: Gender Counselors Hired to Convince Female Students to Accept Trans-Identified Males – Reduxx

Female students at a women’s university in Japan are being asked to speak with “gender-specialist counselors” in order to convince them that men who identify as transgender are “female.”

Japan Women’s University (JWU) recently announced it would be adopting a self-identification policy that would allow men to apply for admission so long as they stated they were female. The policy will be implemented at the start of 2024, despite half of the female students currently enrolled expressing opposition or hesitation, as reported by the Asahi Shimbun.

Dr. Caroline Norma, who lectures in the Master of Translating and Interpreting at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, spoke with Reduxx about the growing impact gender ideology is having on Japanese women’s already precarious situation.

Having written extensively on the issues impacting Japanese women, Dr. Norma said that recent efforts to coerce female students to accept trans-identified men in universities exemplify how the system has become “infected with gender identity propaganda from the West.” She specifically pointed to the humanities departments and the NGO sector as examples.

Commenting on the deliberate denial of females into mixed-sex universities, Dr. Norma highlighted how profitable the medical industry is, and how women in Japan “are systematically shut out of opportunities” to earn an independent income.

“Japanese women are forced to fight things like negative quotas operating for gender identity and male advancement in the absence of liberal values of women’s rights. Only 25% of Japan’s doctors are female, even though the medical system is filled with old female patients,” she says. “Birthing women are rarely given pain relief, and spycam incidents involving male doctors arise regularly in the news. But none of this is seen as reason to improve chances for women, and no particular nationwide policies are in place to reverse the situation of women in Japan.”

International rankings, including those from the World Economic Forum, consistently place Japan as one of the most unequal countries in the developed world in terms of political representation and economic opportunities for women.

Source: JAPAN: Gender Counselors Hired to Convince Female Students to Accept Trans-Identified Males – Reduxx

NRLW 2022: Caitlin Moran punishment lashed by RLPA

Newcastle NRLW player Moran caused a stir over online comments she posted about following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Despite taking down the post, the NRL announced a proposed sanction of a one-match suspension and a suspended fine equating to 25 per cent of her salary.

Knights coach Ronald Griffiths came to the fullback’s defence, telling AAP: “The relationship between Indigenous people and the monarchy is a complicated one.”

“The RLPA believes a fine equivalent to 25 per cent of Caitlin’s salary, although suspended, is far too severe. Caitlin’s proposed financial punishment is another example of the inconsistent and disproportionate penalties handed down to players.

Source: NRLW 2022: Caitlin Moran punishment lashed by RLPA

Yes, the gender pay gap is real, and probably worse than you think

It’s an attempt to quantify the phenomenon that when women get out of bed in the morning, put on their suit (or scrubs or high-vis vest) and go to perform their full-time job – they bring home less money for the work that they do. About 14 per cent less, as it turns out.

Part of the reason is that women tend to work in industries which pay below-average wages, including aged and child care. In its issues paper for this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit, Treasury estimates that: “Industrial and occupational segregation explains around a quarter of the pay gap among full-time workers.”

It’s also true that when women go off to work, they are less likely than men to be employed in senior positions. He’s the CEO and she’s the secretary (although it’s worth noting the pay gap as calculated by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency excludes some positions deemed as “junior”).

Quite why traditionally female work is so undervalued by society and why women fail to progress up the career ladder are worthy questions in themselves and something the gender pay gap helps to highlight.

But even after taking into account these compositional effects from industry segregation and seniority, researchers keep striking upon a stubborn bedrock of pay difference which is harder to explain away.

So far, I have only been discussing the pay disparity between male and female workers who work full-time.

This overlooks the important fact that women also tend to cluster in part-time work, largely due to those caring and other home responsibilities. Indeed, women are twice as likely as men to work part-time.

So, when you measure the total returns to employment across all employees – full and part-time – the gender pay gap blows out to about 30 per cent.

The ability to generate an income – an ability eroded by time spent out of the workforce – is a key factor in not only women but anyone’s ability to live independent lives, to leave unsuitable jobs or relationships where necessary.

Source: Yes, the gender pay gap is real, and probably worse than you think

‘Abhorrent behaviour’: Sexual harassment and bullying rife in NSW parliament

One third of respondents to a survey of staffers in the NSW parliament said they have experienced bullying or sexual harassment at work, according to a new report released on Friday.

The report indicates that the key drivers of the harmful behaviour that occurs in NSW parliament include the unequal distribution of power between politicians and staff, and the underrepresentation of women and people of diverse background in decision-making roles.

Women were more likely to experience sexual harassment than men across all roles, with female MPs (46 per cent) being the most likely group to report experiencing sexual harassment.

In the report, younger female staffers talked about sexual harassment as being normalised in the workplace, mentioning the unequal power dynamics between MPs and staffers.

“It’s very normalised, the MP and Chief of Staff sleeping with junior staff. The power dynamics were so unbalanced, it thwarted any possibility of a balanced relationship,” one staffer told the review.

Source: ‘Abhorrent behaviour’: Sexual harassment and bullying rife in NSW parliament

Suicide rate among female defence veterans double the general population, says Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released in Canberra

The suicide rate of female Australian Defence Force veterans is more than twice as high as women of their age in the general population.

A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released on Friday, which is the first to include suicide information for ex-serving women, found that between 2001 and 2017, 21 women who had been in the armed forces during that period took their own lives.

Among serving men in the defence force, the report found suicide rates were about 50 per cent lower than in the general population but ex-serving men, which does not include those in the reserves, had an 18 per cent higher suicide rate and ex-serving women had a 115 per cent higher rate.

Professor Megan Mackenzie, from the University of Sydney, said women in the United States armed forces also struggled with elevated suicide rates.

She said women who had served in the armed forces faced the risk of sexual assault and were sometimes made to feel invisible when they returned to civilian life.

Source: Suicide rate among female defence veterans double the general population, says Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released in Canberra

Michigan Supreme Court rules sex discrimination ban includes sexual orientation

Is discrimination because of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity a form of discrimination “because of sex”? For over 50 years, courts interpreting laws banning discrimination because of sex said “No.” But in 2020, the Supreme Court said “Yes,” in Bostock v. Clayton County, answering the question whether a federal statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, would apply when employers fire a person because they are gay or trans. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court, wrote that “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.” He based his analysis on the plain language of the statute prohibiting discrimination against an individual because of their sex.

On July 28, Michigan’s Supreme Court interpreted the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), which forbids discrimination because of sex, to encompass sexual orientation discrimination claims, by a vote of 5-2. While the court was not bound by legal precedent to do so, and in fact its decision overrules a 1993 ruling by the state’s court of appeals, the majority of the court found the US Supreme Court’s reasoning to be persuasive enough to justify overruling the prior Michigan precedent, perhaps the first time a state’s highest court has done so, although some lower level courts in other states have also done so.

Source: Michigan Supreme Court rules sex discrimination ban includes sexual orientation

Don’t buy the Stonewall line on gender identity? Fine. You can’t be sacked for that now | Sonia Sodha | The Guardian

Recent court rulings vindicate a woman’s right to believe that biological sex matters.

You might think the last place to harbour unlawful discrimination would be a barristers’ chambers that prides itself on “defending human rights and upholding the rule of law”. But the employment tribunal last week found that Garden Court Chambers discriminated against and victimised its tenant Allison Bailey on account of her “gender critical” beliefs.

It is the second such finding of discrimination by the courts in a month, after they ruled that Maya Forstater was denied work by the thinktank CGD Europe because she articulated her belief in the scientific reality that someone’s biological sex is real and immutable. Like Forstater, Bailey disagrees with campaigners such as the charity Stonewall that someone’s self-identified “gender identity” should override their sex and argues that women have the right to access female-only sports, prisons, refuges and changing rooms. Garden Court announced that it was investigating her social media activity, including a tweet robustly criticising Stonewall for championing gender ideology and another calling out the coercive concept of the “cotton ceiling”, a reference to lesbians’ knickers in the context of the absurd view that lesbians who exclude males who identify as women from their dating pool are transphobic.

Source: Don’t buy the Stonewall line on gender identity? Fine. You can’t be sacked for that now | Sonia Sodha | The Guardian

Foreign territory: Women in international relations (from 2019)

A three-year study has revealed severe gender imbalances in Australia’s international relations sector, despite some prominent trailblazers.

Key Findings

  • Australia’s international relations sector has a severe gender imbalance in its workforce, despite some notable trailblazers in a few prominent roles.
  • The sector is not acting swiftly enough to address the imbalance, with fewer women in important diplomatic and intelligence roles, policy-shaping activities and senior positions compared with international peers, the corporate sector and the public sector as a whole.
  • This imbalance needs to be addressed for the sector to make its workforces more effective and innovative, using the best available talent to navigate Australia’s place in an increasingly complex world.

Source: Foreign territory: Women in international relations

BBC ‘disappearing women’ as gender quota filled by trans guests who self-identify

The 50:50 equality project was founded in 2017 by Ros Atkins, the BBC News presenter, and heavily promoted on the corporation’s website to empower women.

It urges BBC editors to monitor the number of contributors on their programmes to gather data and set diversity benchmarks, with the aim of at least half being women.

But it has erupted in a trans row, as its methodology now says “content-makers monitor the gender identity of their contributors with the aim of featuring at least 50 per cent women – they do not monitor whether a contributor’s gender differs from their sex registered at birth”.

It means trans women born as male will be counted as women, sparking a backlash from BBC staff who say the scheme has been hijacked by trans activists.

A senior BBC insider told The Telegraph: “The BBC has now ‘disappeared’ women as a sex class and instead monitors ‘gender identity’. It’s redefined a word which we all understand, without any public debate, and Ros Atkins has gone along with the change.

“In this 50:50 monitoring, the BBC is still following ‘Stonewall law’ in failing to respect sex as as a protected characteristic. Sadly, the BBC still seems to be a deeply sexist organisation where these concerns raised by women are dismissed.”

Source: BBC ‘disappearing women’ as gender quota filled by trans guests who self-identify

Allison Bailey: Barrister awarded £22,000 after employer discriminated against her over gender critical views | The Independent

An employment tribunal has ruled a criminal chamber discriminated against a lesbian lawyer who held “gender-critical” views and has been ordered to pay £22,000 in compensation.

Source: Allison Bailey: Barrister awarded £22,000 after employer discriminated against her over gender critical views | The Independent