The gig economy has been widely heralded as the future of work. Proponents celebrate it as a means for workers to escape the tyranny of the traditional workplace and to cultivate a career on their own terms. They cite it as the conduit to freedom and choice for today’s workers. For many, however, the reality…
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If we use pop culture as the barometer for women’s workplace fashion, the 70s is defined by Christina Hendricks’ pencil skirt and cinched waist in Mad Men, the 80s was all about Melanie Griffith’s power suits and shoulder pads in Working Girl while in the 90s, Calista Flockhart’s Ally McBeal wore short skirts much to the shock of Boston’s fictional law…
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There have been countless studies on working mothers: the pros and cons, the implications, the inevitable stress, anxiety and guilt that come with the decision to return to work. After years of exhaustive debate and the tired, boring insistence that women can ‘have it all’, Harvard University has conducted what may be the most comprehensive…
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Janice MacLeod’s memoir, Paris Letters, is resplendent with insights, humour and creativity, and has a lot to teach us about the modern attitude towards work. At 34, MacLeod was a copywriter on the periphery of career burnout. Like a numb trolleybus, being wheeled from one place to another, she was sifting from one folder to the next, without accruing…
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Political journo and TV presenter Annabel Crabb’s has investigated women, men and domestic expectations in her new book, The Wife Drought. In an Adelaide event earlier this week, Crabb discussed the themes in her book in her characteristically witty manner. Here’s what I learnt. The reason why there aren’t many women in parliament is because…
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In a recent survey, which has more interest in what women wear to work, rather than what they do at work, the groundbreaking discovery has been made that we apparently put far more effort into our outfits on Mondays than on any other day of the week. In fact, as the working days progress, the outfits become…
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Channel Seven’s Natalie Barr thinks she’s the only woman who doesn’t hate men. In a column for The Daily Telegraph, Barr gives her own perspective of feminism, opening with ‘Hey ladies, men aren’t the enemy. Am I the only woman who’s not angry at men? I’m a woman and I’ve never felt discriminated against.’ She…
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As part of the Abbott government’s plan to slash around $1 billion of red tape, small Australian businesses can soon expect more relaxed reporting requirements concerning gender equalities in their workplaces. In a new system being considered by Employment Minister Eric Abetz, the plan proposes that only companies with over 1000 staff members would need…
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A few weeks ago I wrote in my article ‘My Inclusive and Supportive Workplace‘ of my anticipation and enthusiasm for attending Ally Network training at the university where I work. The Ally Network at my workplace consists of staff members, ‘Allies,’ that offer non-judgemental support for LBGTQI staff and students on issues such as discrimination,…
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A woman has finally reached the upper echelon of the automotive industry, with General Motors announcing its new chief executive officer to be long serving employee, Mary Barra. Barra is the first woman to reach the top on a global level, after joining the corporation 33 years ago. Over the decades, the company employed her…
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Monday was White Ribbon Day in Australia, representing an international day for the elimination of violence against women. In Australia, one woman is killed every week by a current or former partner, and 1 in 2 women over the age of 15 report physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives….
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If you passed me in the corridor at work you wouldn’t assume I am a lesbian. I look neither butch nor femme. In my dress, make-up and hairstyle I appear to conform to traditional notions of a feminine appearance. Sometimes I wear badges featuring LGBTQI symbols or pin-up girls, subtly expressing my sexuality. Although I…
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Following Norway’s footsteps from 2003, Germany is now set to introduce a quota for numbers of women in boardrooms. The country’s major political forces, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the social democrats, have made a compromise over the frauenquote, or women’s quota. As of 2016, companies registered on the German stock exchange will be required…
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The perennial problem for women in the workforce : For love or money? Why is this a problem more so for women than for men? It’s the fact that women will always be thought of as the most capable and “natural” care givers to young children. Some dogmas just don’t die. Until the attitude that…
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