The Women’s Policy Action Tank recently published a special issue of the Good Policy newsletter, exploring three areas of policy with a gender lens: women and the criminal justice system, Indigenous women, and women’s experience of employment. Each topic is explored using a dialectical approach, in which two authors approach a topic from a different angles. We will be publishing the paired articles on our blog over the coming three weeks. This week: read about the impacts of the welfare system on Indigenous women.
Read MoreHigher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK are showing a keener interest in gender equality and diversity at work than ever before. There is systematic interest in the progress we make, processes in place to measure our performance, manage our ambitions and focus our goals. There is also interest in spotting and managing talent. Right? If so, why is it then that more men advance into and currently occupy leadership positions than women? In this piece Rachel Dickinson discusses her early findings from a study looking at women in leadership roles in Senior Management Teams (SMT) in Higher Education.
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Tuesday’s budget lock-up for the Victorian State budget revealed significant investment not only for direct family violence services but also for the inter-related services which work together to make women and children safer. In today’s blog, Tanya Corrie, of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, breaks down the numbers. Tanya is the Research & Policy Specialist for Financial Security and the acting Head of the Women’s Research, Advocacy & Policy (WRAP) Centre.
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On March 1st, the first of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand’s Good Conversations[i] was held to discuss child support policies with an expert panel. Today’s policy piece provides a summary of the 7 primary questions on child support that were raised and why they are critical policy areas that need urgent addressing. Collectively, single mothers experience poverty at an alarming rate, and Australia’s child support system is partly to blame. This summary has been co-authored by Kathy Landvogt (Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand), Terese Edwards (National Council for Single Mothers and their Children - NCSMC), and Kay Cook (Swinburne University).
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Over the weekend, thousands participated in the March for Science, both in Australia and globally. Influenced by the Women’s March, the March for Science has struggled with reflecting the highly diverse scientific community. In today’s post, sociologist Zuleyka Zevallos provides a brief history of the controversies, explains why diversity in science is important, and provides practical suggestions for moving forward on stronger footing.
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Tuesday April 5th is Youth Homelessness Matters Day. As detailed in an accompanying blog, youth homelessness is on the rise due to a range of policy changes. Couch surfing is the predominant manifestation of youth homelessness, although largely hidden. Shorna Moore from WEstJustice has written before about young people’s experiences of couch surfing; today she provides a look into how couch surfing specifically places young women and their children in precarious situations.
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Over the past months we have run several blogs on single mothers and how welfare policies manage to both keep them on the brink of poverty and also create convoluted bureaucratic processes in their quest to move from welfare to work. It was heartening, therefore, to come across the research findings shared here by Haley Fisher, which reports that more generous child support both reduces poverty and increases rates of return to work for single mothers. It may seem contrary, but keeping families on the brink of poverty does not provide the right incentives for re-entering employment. This article originally appeared in The Conversation, and can be viewed in its original format here.
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Previously we have published 2 blogs (here and here) written by Juanita McLaren, a student intern with the Women’s Research, Advocacy and Policy (WRAP) Centre at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand. As a part of her research, Juanita is interviewing single mothers who are registered with the JobActive (Welfare to Work) scheme. Here Juanita relates “Gloria’s” (not her real name) story, who simultaneously won a community award for her volunteerism while also failing to adhere to Centrelink’s requirements for volunteer service.
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Juanita McLaren, interning with Good Shepherd, has written previously about her experience as a single mother of Centrelink policies (see her posts here and here). On International Women's Day (8 March 2017), she was interviewed by Rayna Fahey on the radio show The Renegade Economists on 3CR, discussing the feminisation of poverty in Australia and the role that government policy plays.
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Women, work, and raising children is an oft-visited topic. But what about the men? In today’s post, Amanda Cooklin from LaTrobe University’s Transition to Contemporary Parenthood Program, shares recent research into how policy can better help fathers manage work-family conflict.
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While there are many similarities in child support policies between Australia and New Zealand, there are also some critical differences – differences which put low-income single mothers at greater disadvantage, while making it harder for them to re-enter the workforce. Today’s policy analysis Identifies critical areas that need review in order tobetter support single mothers and their children. Michael Fletcher will be speaking on this topic at the upcoming Good Conversations event: Child Support Policy and Its Impacts on Women’s Economic Security.
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Under the Coalition Government, Australia’s International Aid budget has suffered unprecedented cuts, and is on target to soon fall to its lowest level on record – a fact few people are aware of. Additionally, since AusAID was merged with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 2013, aid is now directly and intentionally tied to Australia’s economic partnerships abroad. The gendered nature of poverty means the budget cuts and shift in focus are likely to unequally disadvantage women and their children. Today’s Scorecard analyses the gendered benefits and risks reflected in Australia’s aid budget.
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Australia’s approach to supporting carers reflects a judgment on parenting vs other kinds of caring, which has led to a punitive approach to supporting single parents, usually mothers. In no way does caring support provide the flexibility most carers – primarily women – would like for active participation in formal employment. Today’s policy analysis examines how caring policies could be reconfigured to provide more support for the lived realities of all carers while also interrogating the negative discourse around parenting roles.
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Yesterday the news was alight with stories from the Department of Human Services that 35,000 people refused to take jobs and remain instead on welfare; this despite Australia’s expenditures on welfare plummeting well below the OECD average. An insider’s view of how the welfare-to-work system works is therefore very timely. In today’s blog, Juanita McLaren details the sheer volume of interactions she has via the private sub-contractor who provides her with job-seeking support – despite being offered only one position in the past year. She asks a more pertinent question: how much of the welfare budget is allocated to monitoring compliance? Juanita is on student placement with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand and has written previously about the time requirements in the welfare to work scheme.
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Are higher-status positions and good pay rewarded to those most qualified or those who win an endurance test of hours spent at the office? Today’s contributor, Lyndall Strazdins of Australia National University, presents the evidence that gender divides in the workplace are heavily influenced by the number of hours available for working. This not only limits women’s participation in the workplace with negative consequences on their financial security and influence, it is also negatively impacting on men’s work-life balance and health. She argues for an overhaul of working-time related policies to create a more beneficial working life for everyone.
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The number of women incarcerated in Australia is on the rise, yet there are stark differences in the nature of women’s offending which raise the question: is the criminal justice system poised to respond to gendered differences in the prison population? The Women’s Policy Action Tank has previously examined whether the prison system is an appropriate response to women’s offending. Today’s policy analysis provides the data to understand these gendered differences and proposes changes that will better respond to women in the criminal justice system.
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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of premature death for Australian women, largely due to a lack of a gender lens in both education and medical response. Today’s policy analysis provides the evidence for a gendered approach to CVD.
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Ageism, or the devaluing of older people, differently impacts on women due to the overlay of sexist attitudes on women’s worth. Additionally, lower-status employment and financial insecurity can create an environment whereby older women are particularly vulnerable to instances of elder abuse. Today’s Scorecard identifies key areas for an improved policy response.
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The Liberal’s Welfare to Work model has been dissected from many angles, including several Power to Persuade blogs (e.g., this recent policy comparison, this discussion of the psychological impacts of feeling ‘workless’, and this piece on how current welfare policies are designed to punish recipients. Today’s piece provides an insider’s perspective, as Juanita McLaren uses the required number of work hours to demonstrate the illogical bureaucratic requirements that are placed on recipients. Juanita is on student placement with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand.
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