New research group focuses on women and work

According to Dr Baird and her colleague, Dr Rae Cooper, the new mechanism to set minimum wages and the emphasis on individual bargaining are both likely to impact greatly on women's pay and entitlements.

The School of Business at the University of Sydney is developing its reputation as a centre of expertise in the area of women and work with the formation of a new research group.

"Rising participation rates of women in the workforce has been one of the most significant social and economic changes to affect business and family life in the past twenty years," says Dr Marian Baird, the group's convener and a senior lecturer in work and organisational studies.

"WorkChoices draws attention to the issue of women and work much more closely," she says. According to Dr Baird and her colleague, Dr Rae Cooper, the new mechanism to set minimum wages and the emphasis on individual bargaining are both likely to impact greatly on women's pay and entitlements.

The new Women and Work Research Group will bring together scholars in the School of Business, including Dr Susan Ainsworth, Dr Dominique Beck, Dr Rae Cooper, Dr Leanne Cutcher, Dr Suzanne Jamieson, Dr Gabrielle Meagher and Dr Di van den Broek, as well as others who are researching women and work across the University.

The group includes industrial relations specialists, social policy experts, economists and historians. It will act as a "clearing house for research about women and work", and contribute to the development of theory and methodology in the area, Dr Baird says.

"Recent debates in Australia about maternity, family and carers' leave, the effect on women of changing industrial relations regulations, extended working hours and the difficulty of finding appropriate child care, declining birth rates and low levels of female representation on company boards, have highlighted the need for quality research in the field."

The WWRG also aims to build links with groups outside the university, Dr Baird says. "We want to build bridges with business, but we also want to form partnerships with a range of organisations, including non-profit groups, unions and women's groups as well as researchers in other universities.

"We're also interested in attracting top PhD candidates from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region to undertake research." The WWRG will also host visits by leading international scholars (see details of visit by Associate Professor Peter Berg, below).

Upcoming events

The first in a series of WWRG forums and seminars that will bring together practitioners, policy makers and researchers will be a talk by Professor Anne Ross-Smith from UTS on the unacknowledged emotional work that senior female executives do in organisations.

Titled "Watch out here come the feelings: Women executives and emotion work," it will be held on 30 August at the Darlington Centre between 12.30 and 2pm.

On the 20 September the WWRG will host a half day forum featuring Michigan University's Peter Berg, one of the world's leading labour studies academics. His presentation on the situation of women and work in the US, a country which has moved further down the track of a deregulated labour market than Australia, promises to shed some light on the potential direction of work for Australian women.

He will be followed by the University of Sydney's Dr Baird and Dr Dominique Beck and colleagues from RMIT, Dr Sara Charlesworth and Sheree Cartwright, who will present findings from their ARC-funded investigation into gender equity and organisational efficiency in Australian organisations.

Also speaking will be Anna McPhee, Director of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, who has recently visited the USA and will comment on the parallels and differences between the two paths each country has taken.

Future events will focus on female unionists in Asia and Australia and the impact of the Australian Fair Pay Commission's first minimum wage decision, due later this year.

For more information about the WWRG and/or upcoming events, contact Dr Marian Baird on 02 9351 6439 or the WWRG co-ordinator, Dr Dominique Beck, on 02 9351 6439.

Contact: Kath Kenny (media enquiries only)

Phone: 02 9351 2261 or 0434 606 100