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GENDER EQUALITY AND THE FUTURE OF WORK DR BRIONY LIPTON Briony Lipton is a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the Women, Work and Leadership Research Group at The University of Sydney Business School.
PROFESSOR RAE COOPER Rae Cooper is Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations as well as Co-Director of the Women, Work and Leadership Research Group at The University of Sydney Business School.
DR MERAIAH FOLEY Meraiah Foley is the Deputy Director of the Women and Work Research Group at The University of Sydney Business School and a Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies and Work Integrated Learning.
New technologies, such as driverless cars and robot surgeons, have captured the public imagination about the future of work. Advances in artificial intelligence, digital connectivity, reproductive technologies, big data, algorithms, and robotics will have a profound impact on the availability of jobs and the nature of work over the coming decades. Such epochal prophecies fail to consider how the unfolding future of work and professions may affect women and men differently, potentially replicating and further embedding gender inequality in workplaces. The mass entry of women into the labour market represents a remarkable transformation in the world of work over the past 60 years. Yet, workplace gender equality remains elusive. Women and men are differentially
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER | VOLUME 30: ISSUE 1 – AUGUST 2021
positioned in the labour market and are therefore exposed to vastly different risks and opportunities in this changing world of work. How do we build upon women’s and men’s current workplace experiences to construct a more gender-equitable future of work? This is one question at the heart of research in the Women and Work Research Group at the University of Sydney Business School. The recent Australian Women’s Working Futures Project (AWWF) focused on what young women value and think is important for future success at work. The landmark, nationally representative survey found that young Australian working women reported that what ‘matters most’ in a job are: respect in the workplace (80%), job security (80%), decent pay (65%). Remarkedly, 2/3 of women say there isn’t gender equality in the workplace, while 2/3 of men say there is. Looking into the future, around half (53%) of women thought that gender equality in the workplace would improve in the next 10 years, while 38% expected gender equality in the workplace to stay the same or get worse.
