Agenda 2012

NTEU WOMEN’S JOURNAL

Www.NTEU.org.au/women

bluestocking week

revival of a celebration of educated women

bluestocking week events across the country equity in higher education bargaining through a gender lens our brilliant careers

ISSN 1839-6186

Volume 20 September 2012

Women’s Action Committee (WAC) The NTEU Women’s Action Committee (WAC) develops the Union’s work concerning women and their professional and employment rights.

The WAC meets twice a year. Its role includes: • Act as a representative of women members at the National level.

• To identify, develop and respond to matters affecting women.

• To advise on recruitment policy and resources directed at women.

• To advise on strategies and structures to encourage, support and facilitate the active participation of women members at all levels of the NTEU.

WAC Delegates 2011-2012 Aca Academic staff representative G/P General/Professional staff representative

National President Jeannie Rea, jrea@nteu.org.au

National vice-President (general staff) Gabe Gooding, ggooding@nteu.org.au

Indigenous Representative

• To recommend action and advise on issues affecting women.

• To inform members on industrial issues and policies that impact on women.

• To make recommendations and provide advice to the National Executive, National Council, Division Executives and Division Councils on industrial, social and political issues affecting women.

• Monitor and review the effectiveness of issues, policies and structures affecting women.

WAC is composed of one Academic and one General/Professional Staff representative from each Division, plus one nominee of the Indigenous Policy Committee.

Sharon Dennis, sharon.dennis@utas.edu.au

act Aca Sara Beavis, sara.beavis@anu.edu.au G/P Katie Wilson, katie.wilson@canberra.edu.au

NEW SOUTH WALES Aca Kate Gleeson, kate.gleeson@mq.edu.au G/P Justine O’Sullivan, j.osullivan@uws.edu.au

www.nteu.org.au/women

NORTHERN TERRITORY Aca Trudi Hill, trudence.hill@cdu.edu.au G/P Janet Sincock, janet.sincock@cdu.edu.au

SOUTH AUSTRALIA Aca Margaret Hall, Margaret.M.Hall@flinders.edu.au G/P Jess Cronin, jessica.cronin@adelaide.edu.au

QUEENSLAND Aca Donna Weeks, dweeks@usc.edu.au G/P Carolyn Cope, c.cope@qut.edu.au

TASMANIA Aca Sharon Dennis, sharon.dennis@utas.edu.au G/P Nell Rundle, nell.rundle@utas.edu.au

VICTORIA Aca Virginia Mansel Lees, v.mansellees@latrobe.edu.au G/P Shannon Kerrigan, s.kerrigan@latrobe.edu.au

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Aca Alison Bartlett, bartlett@cyllene.uwa.edu.au G/P Kate Makowiecka, k.makowiecka@murdoch.edu.au

DOWNLOAD OR READ THIS MAGAZINE ONLINE @ www.nteu.org.au/agenda Agenda (formerly Frontline) Editor: Jeannie Rea

ISSN 1839-6186 (print), ISSN 1839-6194 (online)

Production: Paul Clifton

Original design: Maryann Long

Editorial Assistance: Terri MacDonald All text and images © NTEU 2012 unless otherwise noted.

Published annually by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).

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PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia Phone: 03 9254 1910

Fax: 03 9254 1915

Email: national@nteu.org.au

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NTEU WOMEN’S JOURNAL

Cover: Launch of Bluestocking Week 2012 at the State Library, Melbourne.

Photo by Paul Clifton.

WWW.NTEU.ORG.AU/WOMEN

Volume 20, September 2012 editorial

Travelling the research road with women

a timeless battle

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11

NEWS

Virginia Mansel Lees reports on the NTEU Deakin Branch Bluestocking Week event: ‘Deakin women as supervisors and PhD students: Equity, Diversity, Difference and Respect in our relationships with each other and our research participants.’

Vic TAFE cuts stop women’s access to education 3

Bluestockings, surfing and canons 12

Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 to replace EOWW Act 3

From stockings to surfboards and back again, Jeannie Rea explores 130 years of women in Australian universities.

NTEU National President Jeannie Rea.

NTEU Gender Equity Audit underway 3 inequity still limiting women’s careers 4

gender equity in tertiary education 14

How did it come to this? Women and the casualised academy 4 gender and higher education in australia: the stats 5

Racism meets the patriarchy on campus 16

bluestocking revival

blue stockings in JAPAN

8

Donna Weeks tells of the Japanese Bluestocking women who championed the rights of women 100 years ago.

feminisM AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE 9 If you ever wondered where feminism was at, the Bluestocking Week panel ‘Feminism ain’t what it used to be’ at UWA was a good place to find out.

revival started by La Trobe student 10 Clare Keyes-Liley, La Trobe Student Union President ran a small revival of Bluestocking Week in May 2011.

On the surface, it appears we have much to celebrate with Indigenous women’s participation in higher education, but when drilling down further Celeste Liddle finds the results raise a few questions.

7

NTEU and NUS have revived Bluestocking Week with staff and students joining in seminars, debates, music, luncheons, rallies, forums and games on campuses around the country.

bargaining Domestic Violence is an industrial issue

Roller coaster ride from casual teaching to full time student liaison officer 20 Cheryl Forrester is Student Liaison Officer, Gnibi, College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University.

From mature age entry to associate professor with luck, gumption & hard work 21 Alison Bartlett is an Associate Professor in Gender Studies, University of Western Australia.

jenny strauss’ brilliant career 22 From a childhood on a dairy farm to graduating from the University of Melbourne with a BA Honours in English Language and Literature, all the way to Associate Professor and Honorary Senior Research Fellow.

edna chamberlain social work pioneer 23

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As a result of WAC’s advocacy, National Council agreed to the proposal that NTEU develop a bargaining claim for rights and entitlements for employees affected by domestic violence.

looking at nteu agreements through a gender lens

From limited term contract to continuing full time on soft money 20 Karen Ford is an Administration Officer at the University of Wollongong.

Professor Sharon Bell reflects on the widespread belief that our aims of women’s participation and success in higher education have been achieved – perhaps even over-achieved as women are seen to ‘dominate’ much of higher education.

bluestocking week

my career

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Sarah Roberts outlines NTEU’s new bargaining claims which, if achieved, will reduce barriers to women’s career progression and help to close the gender pay gap.

Professor Edna Chamberlain was a pioneer for social work who used her training and her life experiences to ensure that service delivery was tied to policy deliberations.

activism nus women’s department With almost no money, the women’s student movement has had to get a lot smarter about how it runs campaigns.

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Jeannie Rea at the Bluestocking Week launch with NUS Women’s Officer Noni Sproule.

editorial

a timeless battle

jeannie rea jrea@nteu.org.au

When the NTEU Women’s Action Committee (WAC) invited the National Union of Students (NUS) Women’s Department to join us in reviving Bluestocking Week, we were pleased to discover that they were already committed to the same plan. Like many student initiatives, Bluestocking Week had disappeared because of the Howard Government’s anti-student organisation legislation. This was a real loss because Bluestocking Week drew attention to what women had won and were still fighting for in higher education.

Reviving Bluestocking Week in 2012 was an opportunity to recognise the pioneering women that came before us, to celebrate women’s scholarship and participation in higher education and to continue campaigning around issues preventing full gender equity. It was not just about access and numbers of women at universities, but also about what was being taught and researched, and by whom.

quarter of the professoriate. Consequently, we eagerly await the recommendations of the NTEU partnered ARC Linkage project on Gender and Employment Equity, which aims to devise practical strategies (see p.4).

Professor Sharon Bell interrogated the proposition that women are now over-represented in higher education in a Bluestocking Week address at Charles Darwin University (see p.14).

When we talked of themes for 2012, the students immediately focussed upon the ‘male canon’, as despite the work developing the canon in women’s, gender and diversity studies over the past decades, young feminists still saw male experience and male power at the centre of higher education teaching and research. Their university experience was still physically hazardous as they campaigned for safety on campus. They were acutely aware that women academics were doing much of the teaching, many on casual conditions, while men dominated in the high end of research, and most of the administrative and service staff were women. They knew that their male peers would get higher salaries on graduation and pay off their HECs earlier. (see gender stats, p.5)

NTEU has commenced a new round of bargaining, where the focus is upon getting careers started and getting ahead. The claim for general staff, two thirds of whom are women, concentrates on career development and progression (see p.18). The claim for academic staff is about regulating teaching hours, to bring workloads under control. A major impediment to academic women being promoted is that they are concentrated in teaching work, leaving little opportunity for research. The academic claim also seeks to introduce new ongoing teaching scholar positions to assist in getting some of the women and men stuck in casual teaching onto a career path (see p.4)

To me this highlighted the continuum of women’s experience in universities from the pioneers of the late 19th century, through to the central role of the second wave women’s movement in opening up higher education, and today’s ongoing struggle for gender equity for all women. Today women are the majority of university students and staff, but numbers are clearly not enough.

While women are approaching half of the senior general staff, we are only one

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VOLUME 20 SEPTEMBER 2012

Rather than being dispirited by the ongoing challenges, we had much to celebrate in Bluestocking Week, which was enthusiastically taken up with events on campuses around the country, some of which are featured in this issue of Agenda.

Getting ready for Bluestocking Week was an impetus for many to begin looking for the history of women in universities. It was evident that while something was known of the early and more recent higher education heroines in some places, there is much be retrieved, analysed and published.

A number of branches showed Dr Clare Wright’s recent documentary Utopia Women, which tells another neglected story, that of women’s long campaign for the vote. I reminisced at the NUS launch of my own sexist university experiences in the 1970s (see p.12). We were taught by a famous male historian that there was no struggle for the women’s suffrage in Australia – ‘the vote was handed to women on a plate’. He claimed there was no story to tell. He was wrong, as were others who ignored the horrific history of race relations.

It took another 20 years for the writings of feminist Indigenous historians to be published, telling the stories of Indigenous women confronting the racism of white women, who were silent or collaborators with white men in rape and then stealing of Aboriginal children.

The Bluestocking imagery started many conversations and internet searches. Rather than getting absorbed into the debate about origins, NTEU explained that ‘bluestocking’ was a term for an educated, intellectual woman (though, until the late eighteenth century, it referred to learned people of either gender). The term later became pejorative and was used to dismiss the first generations of women university students and staff.

Scholarly women reclaimed the title with pride, and the term continued to be used by academic women well into last century.

Bluestockings were very fond of publishing magazines. I hope you enjoy this second edition of Agenda, throwing the gender lens on the policies, strategies and politics of the NTEU. Jeannie Rea is NTEU National President and editor of Agenda.

NEWS

Vic TAFE cuts stop women’s access to education The impacts of massive cuts to TAFE funding in Victoria are being felt deeply through urban and rural areas, as courses close and people lose their jobs. The economic and social effects are crippling communities.

Communities expect TAFE to provide vocational and further education to young adults, as well as to people needing to retrain. In regional areas, with lower school retention rates, TAFE has been relied upon as a way back to education and training. With widespread government job cuts and private businesses collapsing, more and more people need retraining opportunities.

Helen Brady and Nicole Bremner from GippsTAFE at the Traralgon TAFE rally on 5 June 2012. Photos: Justin Westgate

TAFE has always been particularly important for women – including economically poorer, Indigenous and immigrant women – to get into education and training to open up access to decent jobs. For so many women, TAFE has not been the second chance after leaving school, working and then needing further training: TAFE has provided the first chance, the access to basic education to get started on improving life choices. Success stories abound of women who started with a literacy and language course and worked their way through to well-credentialed and interesting careers.

We have heard many of these stories at meetings and rallies around the State as the NTEU, with the Australian Education Union (AEU) and local community organisations have organised public meetings, petitions and rallies to protest to the Baillieu Liberal Government that these cuts have gone too far. The NSW and Queensland Liberal Governments are looking to copy Victoria’s deregulation and blatant program of decimating public post-secondary education. www.nteu.org.au/tafe

Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 to replace EOWW Act New legislation on equal opportunity has been drafted and is now being debated in Parliament. If passed, the new Bill will amend the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 (the EOWW Act) to reflect a new focus on improving gender equality in the workplace. Specific recognition is made of equality in remuneration and the centrality of family responsibilities to the achievement of gender equality.

The Bill also seeks to change the name of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and the title of the Director of the Agency to the Director of Workplace Gender Equality.

In the 2011 issue of Agenda, we reported on the Government’s Review of the EOWW Act and the EOWA. The purpose of the Review was to examine both the effectiveness and efficiency of the Act, and to consider practical ways of improving the equal opportunity framework.

NTEU has been involved at all stages of the process, and we are very excited to see the new, substantially enhanced, gender equity legislation now before Parliament. For a full report on the new rules around equal opportunity and what these mean, please go to: www.nteu.org.au/women/publications/extra

NTEU Gender Equity Audit underway

NTEU’s first internal Gender Equity Audit is currently underway. The Audit is the first step in a broad review by the Women’s Action Committee (WAC) to determine how successful NTEU has been in implementing gender equity and women’s empowerment, both within the union and our workplaces.

The Audit examines a number of areas relating to gender equity and NTEU’s approach to both representation and activism by women. It is intended to not only update current information the Union has on gender equity, but to also expand current knowledge and examine culture, practice and attitudes to equity within the Union.

Most importantly, the Audit is a mechanism for conversations within NTEU, and to establish women’s perspectives as to how they feel they are perceived by the Union. The Audit has been sent to all Branches and Divisions of the Union, and initial results will be presented at the National Council in October.

For further information on the Audit please see the extended report online: www.nteu.org.au/women/publications/extra VOLUME 20 SEPTEMBER 2012

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NEWS

inequity still limiting women’s careers The first cut of the findings of the recent survey on Work and Careers in Australian Universities reveal that women’s and men’s experiences of working in universities continue to be distinctly differentiated by gender. However, the gender gap is closing on some aspects of recruitment, career progression, workloads and job satisfaction.

The survey conducted in 19 universities asked, in separate questionnaires, general, academic and casual academic staff a broad range of questions on their jobs, income, satisfaction, security, promotion, reclassification, and retirement income, as well work and family issues including parental leave and flexible work. The response rate was 35% for academic staff, 32% for general staff and 12% for casual academic staff. From the vast amount of data collected, there is now an opportunity to interrogate what is really going on in terms of gender and employment equity.

The survey is part of an ARC Linkage Project on Gender and Employment Equity: Strategies for Advancement in Australian Universities. Along with UniSuper and Universities Australia Executive Women, NTEU is a partner to the project led by Professor Glenda Strahan of Griffith University. The project includes further components focussing upon senior women, general staff careers and academic casuals, which is being researched by Robyn May as a PhD project (see story below).

The project seeks to provide detailed explanations of the underlying influences on the (re)production of gender pay inequity in universities, with specific attention to the gendered impact of recent changes in the sector and the ways in which these intersect with gender equity and work/family policy innovations.

A first reading of the survey findings indicates that the policies and practices for gender equity are having an impact. However, inadequate sector funding, excessive workloads, widespread job insecurity and an explosion of precarious working arrangements are mitigating the impact of positive changes.

The project always aimed to devise practical strategies to promote gender equity in modern universities. The survey results indicated that we need these strategies.

How did it come to this?

Women and the casualised academy

robyn may

Robyn.May@griffithuni.edu.au

Twenty years after a study of casual academic staff at the University of New South Wales raised concerns, based on their findings, that there were structural barriers to women’s advancement in academia, it is depressing to see that not only has little changed, things have in fact become worse.

The authors of that study reflected that for many women ‘casual employment may constitute their actual career’. In 2012, casual academic employment does appear for many women to be their actual career, and it’s not the career of their choosing.

My research, based on a survey of casual academic staff at 19 universities during 2011, finds that only a small minority of casual academics are ‘casuals by choice’, and men are just as likely to say they prefer casual work as women. My case study research also finds very low levels of preference for casual work, and for the few who do prefer casual work there is often ambivalence associated with their choice.

One interviewee described her time of casual teaching as a ‘career plateau’, something that filled what would have otherwise been a ‘black hole in a CV’.

Since the early 90s women have made inroads into the academic hierarchy, but progress has been slow and the academic profession has changed rapidly. Career entry points are no longer clearly signposted. As women have taken to higher degree study in ever greater numbers, casualisation of academic teaching and, to a lesser extent, research has rapidly expanded to the extent that casual staff now perform most of the undergraduate teaching in our universities. Women comprise almost 60 per cent of casual academic staff in Australia, and around 45 per cent of ongoing academic staff. Many of these casuals are questioning whether their aspirations for an academic career will ever be fulfilled, and my study finds much higher levels of pessimism about career prospects amongst women, particularly those with PhDs. A number of the casuals I have interviewed report exhaustion from the uncertainty of work and unevenness of workload; one tells me that casual work has made her poor, whilst the students she works with are often well-off, and that she identifies with ‘educated middle class women who had few options but to serve as governesses to rich families in England’.

In the context of an ageing academic workforce, and with much talk of national skills shortages, the scenario that faces so many of our most educated, women in particular, is a national disgrace, and deserving of far more attention than it is currently receiving.

Robyn has a PhD Scholarship on an ARC Linkage, Gender and Employment Equity, Strategies for advancement in Australian Universities. NTEU along with Unisuper and Universities Australia Executive Women is an industry partner on the project.

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NEWS

gender and higher education in australia: the stats history First Australian university opens (Sydney)

1850

First women enrolled at an Australian university (Melbourne)

First Indigenous woman to graduate from a university, Margot Weir (Dip Phys Ed, Melbourne)

1882 1885 1884

1959

58% of university students are women (55% undergraduates, 52% postgraduates)

1980

2010 1987

Edith Dornwell graduates (Science, Adelaide)

First graduates, Bella Guerin & Lydia Harris (BA, Melbourne)

45% of university students are women

First woman Vice-Chancellor, Professor Di Yerbury appointed at Macquarie University

enrolments

vice-chancellors

Emrolments continue to be largely clustered in what are seen as ‘feminised’ disciplines:

Female

Male

73%

health

74%

education engineering

16% 19%

i.t.

qualifications

women in the university workforce

25-29 year olds with a bachelor degree 41%

30%

australians with a phd 33%

gender pay gap At 45-50 yr: 17.5%

academics

26.7%

professors 27%

44%

hecs debt 1

2

3.1

Due to career breaks, family demands and occupational segregation, women take 3.1 years longer to repay their HECS debt.

on graduation

3 years after graduation

$2000

$7000

$2000

Management & Commerce

Education

general staff

57%

67%

senior general staff 45%

academic casuals

The number of women in senior general staff positions has doubled in last 15 years. This is a great positive outcome, due mostly to the institution of gender equity programs and structural changes that work against systemic and cultural discrimination against women.

VOLUME 20 SEPTEMBER 2012

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BLUESTOCKINGS

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BLUESTOCKINGS

BLUESTOCKING REVIVal

celebrating at the DARWIN bluestocking event @ CDU

When the first generations of women burst into universities in the late 19th century they were dismissively called ‘bluestockings’. This was meant to be a slur on being scholarly, serious and intellectual women. Not surprisingly university women wore the bluestocking label with pride.

Over 20 years ago, Australian women students organised Bluestocking Week to celebrate women’s achievements in higher education and to campaign for more. In 2012, NTEU and National Union of Students revived Bluestocking Week with staff and students joining in seminars, debates, music, luncheons, rallies, forums and games on campuses around the country.

mary kelly speaks at the bluestocking morning tea @ qut

More photos throughout this issue of Agenda and online: www.nteu.org.au/women/bluestockingweek

wac at bluestocking week launch in Melbourne

bluestocking concert @ uq

march to commemorate the names of inspirational women @ curtin

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bluestockings

blue stockings in JAPAN donna weeks

The cover of the first issue of the magazine ‘Seito’ (Bluestocking).

dweeks@usc.edu.au

The revival of Bluestocking Week here in Australia afforded me a moment to reflect on one longstanding aspect of my work – women in politics in Japan. The typical generalisation about Japanese women, the ‘two steps behind’ compliant wife, is a stereotype, and one which resists destabilising challenges. But Japanese history is in fact replete with boisterous and remarkable women with robust political agendas.

In 1911, a group of women launched a feminist monthly journal Seito (Bluestocking), a direct reference to their British sisters of the time, and whose courage we have just celebrated here again in 2012. Amidst an era of a new internationalist Japan bent on emulating military triumphs, the Bluestocking women, led by Hiratsuka Raicho and Yosano Akiko, championed the rights of women.

The bluestockings spirit arguably lives on now as we witness growing protests and activism by Japanese people, led largely by young women worried about the fallout— actual and political—of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Their medium today is Twitter and their concerns about those who make decisions echo down through the century since Hiratsuka and Yosano. Japanese women continue to exert a feminist response to the politics of our time.

Donna Weeks is Lecturer in Japanese Studies and International Relations at USC, NTEU USC Branch President and WAC representative, Queensland.

NTEU UQ Branch Bluestocking Week cake.

Although it only lasted until February 1916, it remains a key milestone in the history of political women in Japan and subject of much recent and renewed analysis.

It was not until the first post-war election in April 1946 that Japanese women achieved universal suffrage as part of the democratic reforms. And despite some reasonable success in representation in that election, it wasn’t until 1989/90 that we saw women return in numbers to parliament, in a phenomenon known as the ‘Madonna whirlwind’, led by Doi Takako, the then leader of the Japan Socialist Party. She later went on to become speaker of the lower house and now, in her 80s, continues to advocate for spirited women.

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bluestockings

Bluestocking Week panellists at UWA with Pussy Riot members on the screen.

feminisM AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE

ALISON BARTLETT

bartlett@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

If you ever wondered where feminism was at, the Bluestocking Week panel ‘Feminism ain’t what it used to be’ at the University of Western Australia was a good place to find out. Stacked with a Baby Boomer, a GenX and GenY feminists (in the form of an Arts/Law student, a mid-career lecturer and a professor), this panel was bound to be infective if not invective, especially as it was to be hosted by local comedian Laura Davis. Additionally, it was the day the Pussy Riot punk feminist poets were due to be sentenced for performing in an Orthodox church in Moscow, and their larger-than-life image was projected above the panel on the lecture theatre screen.

Despite the generational stacking, everyone was very amenable and agreeable in deciding that feminism ain’t what it used to be and neither should it be. Professor Philippa Maddern vehemently argued that patriarchy ain’t what it used to be either: patriarchs used to be the easily identifiable old men in suits telling sexist jokes, whereas modern patriarchs are more sneaky, appropriating the language and policies of fake liberalism while carrying on practices that allowed women to ‘choose’ to inhabit low paying, low status, short terms jobs as a lifestyle choice.

and the joys of teaching such writing. She reported graduates finding exciting places to use their feminist knowledge as an AusAID intern, for example, working with women’s policy, or in a script-writing team for Neighbours television drama.

Student Zoe Bush talked about the challenges for feminism to negotiate queer and black feminism as well as postfeminism and neoliberalism, and how she finds inspiration in socialist feminism, local action, and care feminism, which explains her involvement in the local student Feminist Action Network.

There was some disagreement around social networking as an effective medium for distributing feminist material or a fictional community that doesn’t compare with being at a protest or rally. Chantal’s anecdote of sharing a Guardian story on Facebook about the medical dangers of removing pubic hair turned the discussion to hair depilation and celebrity. Another worthwhile anecdote from Zoe was that scientific studies have found that women with botox in their face are not only unable to express some emotions facially but are also unable to ‘feel’ those emotions they can’t physically form.

Dr Chantal Bourgault remembered being inspired by reading the French feminists and thinking ‘Wheeee, can writing be like this?’

The recent ‘turn’ to emotions prompted a reminder that feminists have been thinking about these ideas for a long time and we

should more regularly revisit the canon of feminist thinkers. There were questions from the audience about how young women in the academy were affected, how to engage (non-feminist) men with feminism, and what kind of future masculinities would be reconcilable with feminism. There was some pondering of the compromises involved when feminists occupy bureaucratic positions of power, and this turned to the compromises of parenting, and the extra kudos men accumulated for parenting (like being helped onto a bus with a pram, while women with prams were given a wide berth by everyone).

This was feminism in an hour: interactive, provocative, consensual, divided, emotive and thoughtful, as always.

Alison Bartlett teaches Gender Studies at UWA, currently researches Australian feminist history, and is president of the Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association, and an outgoing member of the Women’s Action Committee.

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revival started by La Trobe student

Bluestockings on display at the 2012 launch Melbourne.

ACTIVISM

clare keyes-liley

ltsu_president@latrobe.edu.au

Like many good feminists the women in my life are my inspiration. My mother is an academic and I have witnessed firsthand the struggles of working in the competitive arena that is academia.

When I took over the Women’s Department at La Trobe University in January 2011, the office had fallen into disuse and the space was a nirvana of old NUS materials dating almost 20 years. In my exploration I found some Bluestocking 1998 stickers. After much Google searching (which turned up a couple of sorority like groups in the US and European websites that looked older than the sticker) I asked my mother what it was.

Her response was ‘Oh, NUS used to do that all the time in 90s, it hasn’t been done for years.’

So I decided to run Bluestocking Week at La Trobe in May 2011. It was small and I never imagined it could have been picked up with such enthusiasm on a national scale in 2012.

It is important that as students and academics and staff in universities we work together to overcome the challenges that lay before us. Whether it is not getting called upon to speak in your tutorial, being overlooked for a promotion because you simply haven’t had the time to complete the required

Danielle Green, Victorian Shadow Minister for Women, Child Safety, Disability Services and Health Promotion; Jane Garrett MP, Member for Brunswick; Noni Sproule, NUS Women’s Officer; Jeannie Rea, NTEU President; and Clare Keyes-Liley, President, La Trobe Student Union at the NUS Bluestocking Week launch at La Trobe University.

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research because of other commitments, or being left out of important decision making bodies because your position isn’t quite senior enough despite the fact everyone in the room is a man.

all participants in higher education. Only united will we be able to achieve real results for the future.

Clare Keyes-Liley, La Trobe Student Union President

The importance of having the support from students, academics and all university staff is so important to achieve any kind of change for women in higher education. Bluestocking empowers women to seek support from

Editor’s note: NTEU gives particular thanks to Kate Makowiecka, WA General Staff representative on WAC, for initiating NTEU’s Bluestocking Week revival and providing so much energy and commitment to making it a success.

bluestockings

Travelling the research road with women virginia mansel lees v.mansellees@latrobe.edu.au

The research journey was the focus of NTEU Deakin Branch Bluestocking Week event. National President Jeannie Rea opened the seminar ‘Deakin women as supervisors and PhD students: Equity, Diversity, Difference and Respect in our relationships with each other and our research participants.’ She noted the critical importance of gender research and the contribution of feminist research methodologies to qualitative research.

Georgia Birch spoke next on her doctoral research with a group of older Somali women and their health needs. Much time was spent by Georgia with the women developing the research project rather than just going in and attempting to ask questions that most likely would not have been answered and certainly would not have given the wonderfully rich tapestry of experiences that women have now shared of their journeys. For me, this approach

to research highlights the importance of working with women in ways that allow us to hear their stories rather than imposing structured questioning that can change the context.

Julie Peters then spoke about her research as a transgender woman and how her enquiry had led to very different understandings of gender non-conformity. Julie outlined her own life journey and how that had been the catalyst for her research and that this journey was continuing to evolve as she made further explorations of gender and its many variants.

One of the over-arching themes to emerge was that regardless of the topic, gender research was often questioned during the ethics approvals processes meeting with

negativity or questioning that other research may not necessarily have been asked. It was a most lively and engaged discussion and highlighted the many strands that we weave together in our daily lives and in our collective research on gender.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the day for me was the way in which the conversations between all of the women present were able to unfold with many questions and observations being made. I truly felt at the end of the afternoon that a journey had certainly begun and that there was much left to explore with this group on our collective quest to unravel gender.

Virginia Mansel Lees, who chaired the seminar, is the NTEU Victorian Division President, lectures at La Trobe University Albury Wodonga and is also President of the La Trobe NTEU Branch.

Bluestocking Week event at Deakin University, Burwood Campus.

Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University framed the discussion using the metaphor that we are all travellers. How and where we travel and the connections we make with each other are what make the journey sustainable and inviting.

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bluestockings

Photo: Matthew Kenwrick, www.flickr.com/people/58847482@N03/

Bluestockings, surfing and canons jeannie rea jrea@nteu.org.au

130 years of women in Australian universities

In1884, after Australia’s secular and publicly funded universities had been directed by the colonial parliaments to enrol women, Bella Guerin and Lydia Harris were conferred with Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Melbourne. The following year Edith Dornwell achieved a science degree from the University of Adelaide. They were Australia’s first women university graduates. Dr Margot Weir was the first Indigenous woman university graduate in 1959, when she gained a Diploma from the University of Melbourne.

Those first women graduates of the late 19th century were followed by a small but steady stream of women pioneers making their way through the disciplines and into the professions. But their numbers remained limited and most women did general arts (and sometimes science degrees), with the main professional outcome being school teaching. Very few women moved onto higher degrees or into academia, and any that did were unlikely to gain permanent positions or promotion. Not surprisingly, this meant that women’s experience was largely ignored and even ridiculed in teaching and research well into the latter part of the 20th century.

In speaking to university students and staff during Bluestocking Week, I often began by talking about the original Bluestockings, the women who enthusiastically burst into universities bravely declaring their right to be there and to actively engage in their learning. While they did have male supporters, the first generations of girls and women seeking an education had to deal with bizarre theories like the one that women shouldn’t study because all the energy in their bodies would move to their brains and their wombs would atrophy. Women,

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they were also told, had smaller brains so must be less intelligent and couldn’t cope with too much learning. Women students and staff were harassed, ridiculed and continually challenged in the classroom and on campus. Opponents would use all sorts of excuses such as claiming concern for women’s fragile temperaments, or they didn’t have the facilities to accommodate women, or – a favourite – that they would distract the men.

In response to these stories, particularly younger staff and students expressed surprise at the virulence of male opposition. They also commented that this history helped explain why women still have not achieved equity in higher education and that decision making power continues to be stuck in a masculinist construct.

Puberty Blues goes to university These conversations had me reflecting further upon what had happened between 1882 and 2012 for women in higher education. I decided to add to the story through the lens of my experience as someone who went to university in latter part of the 1970s – the Puberty Blues generation. For while many

girls got stuck in the horrible sexual politics depicted in the 1979 book by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey (currently screening as a television series) some of us got to university.

Like the Puberty Blues girls, my friend Sue and I had tried surfing, but the boys cut us off every time we tried to catch a wave.

We also were not allowed to join the surf lifesaving club. With only one quarter of the kids in my first form at a suburban high school even getting to sixth form and a handful going further, the focus was still on girls getting a job until marriage, and avoiding pregnancy until then. Even at the selective academic girls’ high I moved onto, some girls had to argue to their parents to let them go to university if only to find a better class of husband.

We were very fortunate to be at university at a time of rapid change for women. The Whitlam Labor Government had abolished tuition fees and introduced a student living allowance scheme which meant that more women could go to university. It may not have opened up higher education to the working class, but it did mean the sisters of the boys going got to go too. By 1980, 45% of undergraduates were women. There had been a rapid expansion of university

bluestockings At the same time Women’s and Gender Studies courses and research are losing management support and resources, despite being popular with students. So the opportunities to devote teaching and research to investigate and debate the issues of gender and power have diminished. The latest research indicates that young women are put off embarking upon a research degree and entering academia, because the current reality is that most will languish in casual teaching and contract research positions. However, young women (and male) students and staff are making it clear that they will not accept this.

Bella Guerin’s graduation, 1883. Source: www.lib.unimelb.edu.au [Ernest Scott, A history of the University of Melbourner, MUP, 1936, opposite p. 124]

and college places and of jobs requiring degrees. Mature women also started going back to school and university. They were the annoying ones who had always done the reading and spoke up in the tutes, but we grudgingly admired them. But having your Mum holding court with your friends in the student caf was pretty embarrassing!

The importance of the women’s movement in advocating for radical and reformist social change should not be underestimated for the first generation of university women, but even more so for my generation. As teenage undergraduates we supported the women faculty members who were challenging both the male canon and their inferior professional status. We knew we were supposed to get equal pay for equal work, but knew our career prospects were shaped by our gender.

We argued with male students and tutors who still thought that women were intellectually inferior to men and dragged out dodgy theories to support their assertions.

We still had to deal with young men and women who thought that girls shouldn’t show off their brains. We protested against the lecturers who told sexist jokes and then ignored the women students, except when they sexually harassed them. When we organised women’s collectives on campus and the national Australian Union of Students (AUS) Women’s department, the opposition was even more vitriolic as men tried to break up our meetings and screamed abused at us.

It was not safe on campus then, and it is sad that this is still the case.

With active feminists amongst staff and students, huge changes were made to who was at university and to what was taught and by whom. New fields of research opened up

and the patriarchal control of university managements and governance was challenged.

By 1986 we had our first woman vice-chancellor and more followed. However, now only nine of the current 39 vice-chancellors are women. As the first generation of 1970s feminist activists retire, we worry whether women’s advancement into the top jobs has stagnated. Many clever and capable women are quite reluctant to seek senior positions, when the structure and processes remain so unfriendly to women.

Women have the numbers The 2012 ABS gender indicators confirm that more girls than boys are finishing secondary school. There are now more women university graduates, with 41% of women aged 25-29 holding a bachelor degree compared to 30% of men. But men are still able to find work more readily, and they are paid more and promoted over just as able women colleagues. Whilst the gaps have lessened, the median starting salary for recent young female graduates in 2011 was still $2000 less than their male counterparts. (This no doubt contributes to why it takes women 3.1 years longer to pay off their HECS debt.) The dream of gender pay equity is still years away, with women still having to work 64 more days this year to earn the male median wage.

One hundred and thirty years later, Bella and Lydia would hardly recognise their university. Today there are more women than men in universities, both as staff and students. The feminisation of higher education has obscured the reality that although we have the numbers, we do not have gender equity.

On reflection, I see five clear connections between the experiences of the original Bluestockings, the Puberty Blues generation and contemporary university women.

Firstly, we still have to negotiate male opposition and resentment. Secondly, women still have to be pioneers opening up new areas. Thirdly, higher education encourages independence and introduces women to new ways of seeing the world that may challenge their upbringing and preconceptions about their life paths. Fourthly, shifting the male canon and the centring of middle class white male experience is an ongoing project. And finally, just like their foremothers, who understood their good fortune of going to university, and often committed their professional and personal lives to progressive social change and justice, so do today’s feisty young women.

With the National Union of Students (NUS) we organised Bluestocking Week to celebrate what we have achieved and to remind us to be ever vigilant in advocating women’s rights to higher learning in all areas, at all levels and for all women.

Bluestocking Week 2012 achieved the aim of creating a (colourful) space to again put women’s experience in higher education in the spotlight.

Jeannie Rea is NTEU National President

We argued with male students and tutors who still thought that women were intellectually inferior to men and dragged out dodgy theories to support their assertions.

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Gender Equity in Tertiary Education

Sharon Bell at the Charles Darwin University Bluestokcing Week event.

bluestockings

sharon bell

DVC Research & International, CDU

In the post-Bradley world one might surmise that our attention to equity groups, including women, might flourish. We need to remember, however, that Professor Bradley, in tandem with all the other major reviews instigated by the current Federal Government, takes the participation and success of women in our sector as a given. There is a widespread and oft publicised belief that our aims have been achieved when it comes to women’s participation and success in higher education – perhaps over-achieved as women are seen to ‘dominate’ much of higher education.

In Australia in the higher education equity policy space, with the exception of EOWA compliance, gender equity has virtually fallen off the policy table. Subsequently, reporting on women’s participation is not a performance indicator in Mission Based Compact agreements (2011-2013) in terms of either undergraduate participation or in relation to research training or the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) that replaces the Higher Education Equity Support Program (ESP).

Commerce (49%) and Creative Arts (63%) hover around 50-60%. This uneven representation of women in the different areas of education (and the workforce) is known as horizontal segregation (FASTS Women in Science in Australia, 2009).

In this context we should ask the question: are women over-represented in higher education?

Moreover, the period of significant growth in the participation of women in all fields of education was in the decade 1983 to 1993 – the decade of institutional amalgamations and incorporation of Nursing and Teacher Training. Since 1993 participation has continued to grow but at a slower rate with the exception of the broad field Agriculture, Environment and Related Studies.

Women make up approximately 55% of all undergraduate students and 52% of postgraduate students. However, the number of female students is not evenly distributed between the different fields of education. The Health and Education fields have the highest numbers of female students at 73% and 74% respectively. This is in marked contrast to the fields of Engineering and Information Technology where the numbers of female students make up only 16% and 19% respectively. Other fields such as Natural and Physical Sciences (52%), Management and

If we try to see the sector through the eyes of our students, many of our students undoubtedly experience gendered, indeed feminised institutions – institutions that are, through their eyes, dominated by women: from the administrative staff who handle recruitment and enquiries, the casual teachers in the large cohort disciplines in which many study, the professional support staff in libraries, counselling services and equity offices. They are unlikely, until post-graduate studies, to gain entrée to the male dominated world of university research. Perhaps at graduation

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ceremonies they are surprised to find there are so many senior males who also inhabit their scholarly universe.

In October 2009, under the banner headline ‘Women no longer the second sex?’

University World News published a special report arguing that if you look to many universities around the world you’ll see women outnumbering men. The publication’s international evidence was based on UNESCO’s Global Education Digest 2009 which reports that in terms of graduation, ‘women outnumber men in 75 of 98 countries with available data’ (University World News, 2009, Issue 0098). Yet UNESCO’s Global Education Digest 2010 notes that ‘despite the improved access to tertiary education globally, women face considerable barriers as they move up the education ladder to research careers and in the labour market. At the Bachelor’s degree level, most countries reporting data have achieved gender parity in terms of graduates. Women are more likely to pursue the next level of education, accounting for 56% of graduates with Master’s degrees.

However, men surpass women in virtually all countries at the highest levels of education, accounting for 56% of all PhD graduates and 71% of researchers.’

bluestockings In this context it is interesting to ponder the ironic twist documented in the recent Grattan Institute report Graduate Winners: Assessing the public and private benefits of higher education. Author Andrew Norton confirms that for women the median bachelor degree holder earns roughly $800,000 in a lifetime more than a year 12 graduate. For men the figure is $1.1 million. ‘In most but not all disciplines (IT, Nursing, Education, Humanities and Performing Arts) men have higher net private benefits than women’.

Closer to home the Go8 recently found women’s participation in post-graduate degrees newsworthy. Under the curious headline ‘Australia’s women earning higher degrees’ the Go8 reported (October 2010) that the number of women completing postgraduate degrees in Australia has increased significantly over the past 15 years. Unfortunately, the report failed to contextualise this by noting that the 2006 Census indicates that two-thirds of the people with doctoral qualifications in Australia are male. Moreover, the distribution of the doctoral population is clustered in a small number of disciplinary groupings dominated by the Natural and Physical Sciences, a field in which women constitute less than 50% of doctoral completions in 5 of 6 Narrow Fields of Education, the exception being biological sciences.

Importantly, Society and Culture is the second ranked grouping and recent completions are growing significantly in this field.

In the policy space gender equity has been overtaken by other priorities – most particularly the participation and success of Low SES students. This policy drift is evident in the Bradley and Cutler Reviews and now translates into the framing of Mission Based Compact Agreements and funding through HEPPP. The shift in our priorities occurs at a time when worldwide interest is focusing on the participation and success of women in the workforce and in corporate leadership. Why then are we off the pace when it comes to gender equity? I would argue that over the past 20 years we have become confused about our own intent in terms of gender equity in higher education. The gender equity target in higher education was never to achieve population parity in undergraduate education – that was taken as a given.

Our aim, articulated in ‘A Fair Chance for All’ (1990) was more nuanced and strategic: ‘women, particularly in non-traditional courses and post-graduate study’. We aimed to have women participate in those fields of education or levels of courses in which the proportion of women was less than 40%: Agriculture and Animal Husbandry; Architecture and Building; Business Administration and Commerce; Engineering and Surveying; and Science.

We were also insightful enough to have our eyes on the (still) male dominated research space. Yet we have barely paid attention to that initial objective of achieving equity for women in post-graduate study, particularly in research-intensive disciplines. Moreover, our overall achievement in undergraduate participation is clustered in traditional disciplinary groupings, particularly health and education with some notable recent ‘break-throughs’: architecture, law, medical science, veterinary science, and environmental sciences.

Those with a broader interest in equity as measured by participation more generally, and particularly in the context of the lack of progress in the participation of Low SES students in higher education may ask ‘Does discipline matter?’ or is it a question of vive la différence?

If we attempt to articulate what equity might look like beyond numerical targets, it is a reasonable assumption that women who enter the tertiary sector should be able to aspire to levels of achievement comparable to males in the sector. That given similar levels of capability (evidenced by undergraduate, honours and post-graduate completions) their life circumstances and the organisational culture of the sector should not be an impediment to reaching the highest levels of success

including: participation and success in a range of disciplines including ‘non-traditional’ (research intensive) disciplines; participation and success in all types and all levels of research from institutional based programs to national competitive programs; participation and success in those programs targeting the highest levels of research excellence, and representation in leadership comparable to participation in the sector across a range of institutional types from comprehensive to research-intensive.

Change to this experience inevitably demands systematic organisational cultural change, ensuring that ‘women have no doors closed to them that are open to men’ (Cockburn, 1991, 31). This is a move from ‘accommodation’ of women to ‘reframing’ the professional environment – a move that also calls into question conventional masculinities.

(Williams, 2000, 271) This change is critical, not just for women, but also for many of the disadvantaged students who are entering the deregulated higher education as we move to a much more open and less selective system.

Policy settings that lack nuance and focus only on one dimension of the academic enterprise – undergraduate participation – can blind us to entrenched patterns of inequality that, despite the banner headlines, remain firmly in place.

Professor Sharon Bell is Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and International, Charles Darwin University. This article is based on the speech Sharon gave at the NTEU CDU Branch Bluestocking Week event.

Why i do what i do – donna weeks, usc The privilege of serving union members on WAC is equalled only by the privilege of learning and sharing with wise women of the union movement, its history, our purpose and a strengthening of our collective will to ensure a better society.

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indigenous SECTION

Racism meets the patriarchy on campus

celeste liddle cliddle@nteu.org.au

NTEU is very proud of the high percentage of Indigenous academic staff that are union members. At this point in time, it is estimated that of our Indigenous academic staff across the country, 54% of them are union members and 12% of them are level D or E academics. Of the members, 72% are women.

This breakdown of statistics paints a number of very interesting pictures. For one, Indigenous women are more likely to join the Union than their male counterparts. Granted, there are more Indigenous women than men in the sector, but the mainstream statistics show roughly a 50% male membership. For another, it potentially indicates that Indigenous men, despite them having issues with regards to institutional racism when undertaking their work as clearly outlined in the NTEU’s report I’m Not a Racist, But..., seem to progress more freely through the academic ranks that their female colleagues.

filled, and women are strongly represented in most Divisions and at the National level.

We also welcome our first Indigenous female Division President in the Northern Territory, Helen Bishop As we enter the next round of collective bargaining, it will be particularly interesting to see how the white patriarchy within the tertiary education industry responds to the demands of the black matriarchy and whether, with this amount of Indigenous female influence, a couple of embedded structural inequities are challenged leading to a more collegial environment for all.

So when it comes to Indigenous women in the academy, are we just seeing institutional racism at play, or are our women being hit with the double-whammy of racism and the patriarchy? Are our women joining the NTEU at a significantly higher rate simply because they are more committed to unionism in the workplace, or is it because they are significantly more likely to experience adversity on campus? Or both?

One positive out of all this is that in the recent NTEU elections a majority of the Indigenous representative positions were

Doing this would provide an opportunity to best analyse the structural issues on

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Celeste Liddle is NTEU National Indigenous Organiser.

Perhaps this is a pipe dream, but as feminists such as Audre Lorde and Carol Adams have argued, racism is a product of the white patriarchy, and having so many strong Indigenous women at the forefront in the next bargaining round provides an opportunity to challenge both.

It will be interesting to see whether the report of National Review of Indigenous Higher Education, due for release soon, will cast further light on race and gender issues on campus.

Whilst it is guaranteed to highlight a number of disparities on campus for Indigenous Australians in comparison with their colleagues, one has to wonder whether it is almost more important to highlight the internal disparities as well within our mob.

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campus and provide ways forward. Indigenous women are essential to the academy and it is my hope that through the addressing of both racism and sexism on campus we see many more of them elevated to leadership positions in the future.

Celeste Liddle at the Bluestocking Week launch in Melbourne

On the surface, it appears we have much to celebrate, but when drilling down further the results raise a few questions. It is interesting, for example, that despite the overwhelming majority of the membership being women, a slight majority of the level D and E positions are held by men. In addition, it seems that men are more evenly distributed throughout the increments, whilst many more women are clustered at the top of their level, and have been there for quite a while. For all of our recent high-level senior management Indigenous appointments within the various universities, only two of these positions have been filled by women despite our women being in such an extraordinary majority.

bargaining

Domestic Violence is an industrial issue

In 2011, the Women’s Action Committee (WAC) reported to NTEU National Council on the achievement of the first ever Family Violence Clause negotiated by the ASU at the Surf Coast Shire Council in Victoria. Since this time there is increasing interest amongst other unions in pursuing such clauses more broadly, a move supported by the ACTU and its Women’s terri macdonald Committee, the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse (ADFVC) (based at tmacdonald@nteu.org.au UNSW) and the WAC. As a result of WAC’s advocacy, National Council agreed to the proposal that NTEU develop a bargaining claim for rights and entitlements for employees affected by domestic violence. A model clause that seeks to develop an advocacy and action campaign around the elimination of domestic violence, focusing upon the workplace, has now been established, and is part of the 2012 NTEU Bargaining Kit.

NTEU’s Model Clause NTEU’s claim is intended to address the need to support staff who are dealing with the consequences of domestic violence, including the provision of special leave and flexible working arrangements. It has been determined that the clause must include an agreed statement of principle on dealing with the impact of domestic violence, and provide for the joint development of policies and protocols to address matters arising from, or as a result of, an employee being impacted by domestic violence.

Importantly, the clause should also include referral to relevant agencies for support and counselling, and education around domestic violence issues (of both management and staff) is an integral component.

Any domestic violence related clause must also ensure that no employee is disadvantages in their employment as a consequence of dealing with issues and consequences of domestic violence, and that sufficient special leave can be granted for the purposes of dealing with matters either arising or resulting from domestic violence (such as seeking safe housing, attending counselling or medical appointments, court hearings, family/carer obligations, providing support networks etc.).

NTEU to Push for ‘Best Practice’ Domestic Violence Clauses Where Branches have chosen to pursue a domestic violence clause, the emphasis must be for a quality outcome; it is vital that the claims negotiated are seen as ‘best practice’ in terms of coverage, effect and outcomes, as these will provide a benchmark in further bargaining rounds. The outcomes of our domestic violence claims will be assessed against the outcomes achieved by other unions and the ACTU, as well as best practice models set by the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse.

Education of management and members For Branches arguing for the claim, it will be vital that both management and members are educated on impact that domestic violence has in the workplace. The statistics on domestic violence are chilling, but illustrate well just why domestic violence is a workplace issue; two thirds of women who suffer the effects of domestic violence are in paid employment, and research has shown that maintaining the link with paid employment is a key pathway for women seeking to leave a violent relationship.

However, despite the importance of this link, many women find themselves fired or having to resign because of the impact domestic violence has on their work. Such a result has negative implications not only for those directly affected by domestic violence, but more broadly as well.

Economic impact Domestic violence significantly affects Australia’s economy. It is estimated that in 2002-2003, domestic violence cost the economy $8.1 billion. Access Economics reports that the annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence for Australian businesses in 2002-03 was $484 million, and that the amount of management time spent on dealing with absenteeism equated to $14.2 million in 2002-03.

Replacing staff who were fired, or left due to domestic violence, is costly as well, with the same report estimating that costs of rehiring or replacing staff as $36.6 million in 2002-03.

Conclusion It is clear that domestic violence is not only a societal issue; it is an industrial concern as well. It is NTEU’s view that unions, employers, government and the community need to ensure there are mechanisms to assist those affected by domestic violence, and that we are educated more broadly on the impact of domestic violence.

The WAC has put forward a motion to this year’s National Council that NTEU implement an education campaign to support those Branches that plan to pursue a domestic violence claim. This program should compliment and support the principles of NTEU domestic violence model clause, and be designed to assist Branches and Divisions seeking to inform both members and management about the impacts of domestic violence in the workplace.

Terri MacDonald is a Policy & Research Officer in the NTEU National Office.

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bargaining Photo: Jess Cronin

looking at nteu agreements through a gender lens sarah roberts sroberts@nteu.org.au

In the last round of bargaining in universities (Round 5), NTEU achieved impressive salary outcomes and a range of important improvements in conditions of employment. The Union also gained improvements in parental leave and carers’ leave and the right to request flexible work which will have the real and direct effect of helping to assist women return to the workforce after child rearing, and relieve the burden in relation to caring for dependents that has traditionally been ‘women’s work.’

As well as the Union’s claims on domestic violence (see article on page 17), in Round 6 of bargaining the Union is making a range of further claims which, if achieved, will reduce barriers to women’s career progression and help to close the gender pay gap.

Improvement in general staff classifications In 2010, women make up 67% of university general staff but hold only 45% of senior positions, with this figure doubling

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over the last 15 years.

Women are consistently underclassified – whether due to an entrenched culture of patriarchy, women clustering in feminised (devalued) roles, or internalised reluctance to apply for reclassification. The academic studies tell us that women are likely to be significantly more qualified than their male counterparts before considering applying for promotion.

One thing the Union can do to improve this situation is to ensure classification criteria and processes for general staff are fair, transparent and enforceable. In Round 6

of bargaining, NTEU is claiming that all Agreements include: • A clear entitlement that general staff be classified at whichever classification corresponds to the work performed. If achieved, this will ensure that staff who perform work at a higher level will be classified at the higher level.

• Improved classification procedures, including agreed position descriptions, regular access to independent review of their classifications, timely assessment and decision-making on classifications independent of budgetary considera-

bargaining

Why i do what i do – barb williams, nteu organiser I have always been inspired by people working together to achieve great things. Especially inspirational are the women in my life I will call “pioneers”. However, what motivates me are the “pioneers” to come and I count myself as a very fortunate person having the opportunity to work with, support and watch these women take their place in the labour movement. tions. This should ensure the reclassification of many staff, particularly women, who may not otherwise have applied for reclassification.

Staff Development and General Staff Secondment opportunities NTEU is making a further suite of claims for general staff that focus on staff development opportunities. They are: • The establishment of a Staff Development Fund equal to 1% of general staff salaries, earmarked for the provision of staff development and training opportunities, tuition costs, and backfill for study leave.

Importantly, this Fund is to be used to pay for development opportunities that will improve general staff careers – not on-the-job training that the university should be providing anyway.

• The establishment of a Staff Mobility Program to give general staff the opportunity to have short-term internal developmental secondments and job exchanges. This will have the effect of broadening general staff skill sets and enhancing careers.

These claims are important for women general staff in particular because the lack of career progression is one of the key reasons for the still gaping gender pay gap in Australian workplaces. The Australia-wide gender pay gap has stagnated at 17.5%. At

45-50 years, the gap widens significantly: women are paid 26.7% less than men.

contracts extended so that they can access full paid parental leave entitlements.

While clearly NTEU’s claims are no silver bullet, we know that more staff development opportunities and improved career progression will improve women’s access to senior positions and ultimately help close the gender pay gap.

Clearly, if achieved, these claims will directly improve entitlements for women.

Furthermore, we know from research (since endorsed by the Commonwealth Government with its development of the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave Scheme) that career breaks are one of the most important causes of the gender pay gap.

Parental leave Since the early 2000s, NTEU has been a leader on parental leave. The higher education sector provides the best parental leave arrangements to its staff due to the work of the Union. Over successive bargaining rounds, we have built on our success to further improve conditions and increase parental leave entitlements.

In Round 5, we achieved: • Up to 36.8 weeks paid parental leave.

• Reductions in minimum service requirements for eligibility.

• Improved primary carer leave.

• Improved paid partner leave.

• Paid parental leave for casual staff (at some institutions).

In Round 6, NTEU intends to achieve further improvements, specifically by improving paid parental leave to 36 weeks where the institution currently provides a lesser entitlement, and by ensuring staff on fixed term contracts who are pregnant have their

We also know that better paid parental leave improves women’s attachment to the workforce and the incidence of returning to work after child rearing, which reduce the incidence of long-term career breaks. And of course, the gender pay gap is directly narrowed as a result of paid parental leave because women who would otherwise not be paid are paid their normal wage during their time out of the workforce.

Over many bargaining rounds, the Union has been able to build on our achievements in bargaining through strong local and national campaigns conducted by NTEU women activists. By continuing to build and support these networks, we will be well placed to develop innovative claims and achieve real workplace reform for women workers in the future.

Sarah Roberts is NTEU National Industrial Coordinator.

For all the news on bargaining, plus background information to nteu’s key claims, visit our bargaining website: universitybargaining.org.au

and sign up to our bargaining e-bulletin to get the latest round 6 news delivered to your inbox once a month: universitybargaining.org.au/ebulletin

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mySECTION career

CAREER PROFILES

Whenever women in universities start discussing our work and careers, it is clear how our own stories tell the bigger stories of how gender discrimination may mark our lives, but also how women’s personal victories contribute to collective change.

From limited term contract Roller coaster ride from to continuing full time on casual teaching to full soft money time student liaison officer

by KAREN FORD

Karen Ford is an Administration Officer at the University of Wollongong.

My conversion to a continuing appointment is unusual and I would like to share my journey.

by cheryl forrester

In 2006, my first role was casual, two days a week, job sharing as the administration assistant to the Head of School. This lasted two weeks, as I moved into a 6 month limited term full time admin assistant with another Head of School. At this point I was not in the Union, even though my family came from a trade union background.

I grew up in a small central west town in New South Wales. I was good at school until I started high school and got in with the wrong crowd. I left school at the end of year 9 and got a job as a telephonist at the local post office. I worked there for a year and left to live and work in Sydney.

In this short amount of time I soon realised that I loved working at the university and my goal was to become a permanent employee.

I understood that I needed to pursue roles that were permanent or fixed term. This was not going to happen with my role at Biology as I was filling a seconded position. I managed another 9 months then successfully applied for a fixed 2 year term position in a research strength area of the university. Now I emphasise the research strength, as in most universities, these research areas are funded by soft money. It was when I moved into this new position that I became a member of the NTEU. The role was great, performing higher duties for most of the contract, however when it was time to ‘renew’ was told that the project that I was working in was being restructured, bye bye.

As soon as I joined the NTEU, I became involved in campus activities and joined the general staff bargaining team. Being part of bargaining team has helped me to gain a more knowledge of our Agreement.

When my contract finished I moved into a temporary role, and whilst I was there, applied for my current position. This again was in a research strength area, so again, my salary is soft money. The role was limited term for two years, and when it was time to renew, I was advised that I was going to be made permanent. I was told this the day before my 50th birthday, so it was a wonderful present.

I am currently 1 year on now as a permanent employee and I can say that it is wonderful!

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Cheryl Forrester is Student Liaison Officer, Gnibi, College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University.

I worked in administrative positions for many years before heading up to the North Coast to live where I met a partner and had two children. I decided to go back to TAFE and study Information Technology, then my year 10 Certificate. While studying, I accepted an offer to become the Aboriginal Student Support Officer for Ballina/ Wollongbar campuses.

A friend suggested I try out for university to do an education degree. I really thought I did not have a chance at all, however I participated in a test and was accepted into UTS in Sydney to do the Bachelor of Education (Adult). When I completed my BEd I commenced casual teaching and course coordination at TAFE along with my Student Support position. During the next few years my position of student support was restructured and I, therefore, lost my permanent part-time hours.

Casual teaching was a roller coaster of uncertainty with no guarantee of hours. I found it difficult to manage financially and to bring up my teenage children.

I applied for an administration position as a Personal Assistant at SCU because it offered me full time work. My role now is Student Liaison Officer at the Indigenous College and I find it challenging and rewarding. I continue to casually teach a group of Indigenous men at a rehabilitation centre in literacy, numeracy and computing, and that makes my journey in education all worthwhile.

my career

From mature age entry to associate professor with luck, gumption & hard work

by ALISON BARTLETT

Alison Bartlett is an Associate Professor in Gender Studies, University of Western Australia.

I went to university as a ‘mature-aged student’ at the grand old age of 26, because I was bored waitressing. I loved learning, and whizzed through an honours degree and doctorate in literature over the next 8 years.

When I emerged in the mid-1990s jobs were scarce, but I was in limbo for only 9 months before I was offered a tenurable Level B position in my field at a regional university. One of my postgraduate supervisors had relocated to this university, and I still feel indebted to them for championing me at that crucial time. I often attribute my academic career to luck and serendipity, and have been soundly told that this is disingenuous and diminishes my capabilities, but it feels like so many factors are beyond control.

When I began, my Dean advised that I’d have to publish three books before I’d be eligible for promotion, so I duly set to work and

published a monograph and two edited collections, then applied for promotion. I was unsuccessful, and was told this usually happened the first time. So I applied again, and was again unsuccessful. I wrote another monograph and secured a publishing contract and applied again (surely four books over 9 years would do it!).

I also applied for a Level C position at a sandstone university without much hope but a lot of cheek I thought – and got it. A week later, my promotion application came back as unsuccessful. So I moved across the country with my family to take up a four year fixed term contract at Level C, not necessarily for the promotion but in the hope of finding an environment that valued my work (which is, after all, what promotion does).

It’s hard work changing institutions. When I began, a senior woman advised me to apply for promotion in my third year, because if it was successful I could request the support of my Head of School to convert my contract to a tenurable position. This went to plan, so I now have a coveted permanent position at Level D. When I see highly capable graduates struggling to secure any work at all, I feel lucky. Women are renown for delaying promotion applications long after they’re eligible, and I certainly wouldn’t have sought Level D so soon without the possibility of job security on offer.

It’s turned out that my career progression has been more effective using chutzpah rather than stolidly plodding on doing more in an unreceptive environment. One of the ‘problems’ with my work in my first university was that I was producing interdisciplinary research in a traditional discipline; now that I’m located in an interdisciplinary field my publications are much more acceptable as output. Some academics are more astutely strategic in positioning their research, which is probably advisable, but I still get a great deal of intrinsic reward from my research, which rarely aligns with national research priorities, so I just do it. And I’m lucky to be able to do that.

Top: Celebrating Bluestocking women at Curtin University. Bottom: SA Division’s Bluestocking Week forum ‘Safe Spaces: Domestic Abuse and the Workplace.’

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my career

jenny strauss’ brilliant career As the daughter of a failed dairy farmer, I only got to be a university bluestocking through the introduction of Commonwealth Scholarships, being one of the initial 1951 recipients. I graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BA Honours in English Language and Literature.

I have spent all my working life (apart from a brief stint of school teaching in England) as a university academic: University of New England, Melbourne, Monash from 1964 – as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer (1971), Associate Professor (1992), Honorary Senior Research Fellow (1998-2008).

sympathy for this, I needed to get them to change. This led rapidly to being on the Committee (and negotiating that maternity leave), then SAMU President, Chair of the Association of Victorian Staff Associations and a FAUSA Vice-President. As FAUSA Vice-President I was one of the negotiators in the merger that produced the NTEU (of which I’m a Life Member).

the women’s alliances of NGOs funded by the Government to give policy advice and carry out projects on behalf of women. In 2010, I was elected a Vice-President of the International Federation of University Women.

Do I belong to other organisations: Yes! Amnesty, PEN, ANtaR, Refugee Council of As an academic I taught Medieval Literature and Australian Literature and was one of the Australia, Victorian Council for Civil Liberpeople who introduced courses in Womties, GetUp –mostly I’m afraid I just pay ...I my subscription and sign internet en’s Writing and Feminist Criticism belonged to the second generapetitions. I sponsor one child into the curriculum, as well with the Smith Family’s as being a founding tion of university bluestockings who weren’t going Educate program and member of the Monash to accept that they must give up marriage and mothCentre for Women’s Studone in Africa through Plan erhood for an academic career. ies. I published numerous artiInternational cles, wrote books on the poets Judith Have I had a personal life? Yes: I belonged Wright and Gwen Harwood, co-edited to the second generation of university blueThe Oxford Literary History of Australia, and stockings who weren’t going to accept that I served three three-year terms on the edited The Oxford Book of Australian Love they must give up marriage and motherMonash University Council as an elected Poems, Family Ties: Australian Poems of the hood for an academic career: I married a academic staff representative and sat on Family and the two-volume Collected Verse fellow academic in 1958 and we had three more committees than I can remember (but of Mary Gilmore. I have also published four sons, born in 1959, 1963, 1967 (all at the the finance one was a bit of a revelation). collections of my poems. end of the academic year). So I know about I also became active in the 1980s in the being a working mother – especially as my I was a member of the academic union, Australian Federation of University Women husband died suddenly in 1978. but only became active in the 1970s and was twice Victorian President and twice when I decided it was time for Monash to Jenny Strauss is an NTEU Life Member.

National President. I currently represent have paid maternity leave. Since the Staff them in the Equality Rights Alliance, one of Association Committee of the time had little

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VOLUME 20 SEPTEMBER 2012

my career

edna chamberlain social work pioneer

Professor Edna Chamberlain (1921-2005) was a pioneer for social work who used her training and her life experiences to ensure that service delivery was tied to policy deliberations, thus ensuring structural change was made possible. She was also an academic leader and role model for many women seeking an academic career in a profession, although feminised, largely dominated by male hierarchical structures.

Edna was born in Brisbane and grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the experiences of which influenced her later commitment to social justice. In 1943, she won a scholarship to study one of the few post graduate courses in Social Work (offered at the University of Melbourne).

This was the first step in a long and illustrious academic career that, in many respects, broke new ground for women academics and researchers.

In 1967, after returning from further studies at the University of Chicago, Edna was employed at the University of Queensland (UQ) and became Head of Department in 1973. The following year, Edna became the first woman appointed as Professor in any field of social work in Australia. She was later appointed as foundation Dean of the Faculty of Social Work, becoming the first female Dean at the University.

In these roles she was heavily involved in the continued development of research and assisted many graduate women seeking careers in academia. Indeed, one of the many legacies from Edna’s time at UQ is the ‘Edna’ register, a mentoring program that enables staff to receive short-term assistance from a senior staff member to assist with their professional development.

Emeritus Professor Chamberlain’s many contributions to professional education and community service have been recognised by numerous awards and honors, including the Member of the Order of Australia in 1988 and Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa (UQ) in 1995. She was also President of the Australian Association of Social Workers, the Australian Association of Social Work Educators and the Asia Pacific Association of Social Work Education.

Although Edna retired in 1986, she remained involved in various research and postgraduate programs, particularly the socio-therapy program for people with Parkinson’s disease. She passed away in 2005 at the age of 84, but her legacy continues, both within the social welfare movement and for women in academia.

By Virginia Mansel Lees & Terri MacDonald

References Cooper, L. (2009). Edna Chamberlain (1921-2005): A Leader through Times of Transition and Change in Social Work & Society International Online Journal vol. 7, no 1. www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/51/353 Green, S. (1994). Edna Chamberlain: In retrospect, Australian Social Work, vol. 47, no.3, pp. 3-11. http://. dx.doi.org/10.1080/03124079408410952

Why i do what i do – jo ann whalley, murdoch University I come from a family with strong pro-union convictions. The University sector faces difficult challenges right now and the union is vital to help balance out the competing needs of economic reality and worker’s rights. I’m on the Murdoch Committee to help keep that balance.

VOLUME 20 SEPTEMBER 2012

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students

nus women’s department

noni sproule

The National Union of Students (NUS) is the peak representative body for university students in Australia. We represent more than a million students across Australia. Following the introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism the student movement, particularly the women’s student movement, had to get a lot smarter about how they were going to campaign, with many women’s departments having no money at all to run campaigns.

This year, the national women’s department has functioned with a campaign budget of $4,000. With that amount we have printed and distributed materials to all affiliate campuses, run events and participated on a national stage. In order to achieve this, we have been able to work with others, campaign on the cheap and utilise new media.

Despite the financial restraints on the department, we often manage to punch above our weight, both in the community and in the women’s sector.

This year, the NUS Women’s Department created a website plus Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, utilising written, oral and video content to get our message out to students.

In 2012, it’s been harder and harder to engage women students on these issues, as many young women have become hostile to the ‘old ways’ of feminism. This has meant that we need to stay true to our values but change the message and method of delivery in order to get women’s attention.

Feminism and women’s departments are also facing significant opposition and backlash on campus from men’s groups.

With all this in mind it is more important than ever that we run campaigns that appeal to students and their ideals around equality, moving away from what has been called ‘victim feminism’ toward campaigns that celebrate how far women have come.

Bluestockings was a perfect example of everything NUS now needs to be. It was collaboration between the department and the NTEU, it effectively engaged with social media and online modes of communication and it focused on celebrating how far women have come in higher educationwhile not ignoring how far we have to go.

I would to thank Jeannie and the women of WAC for all their assistance, and I look forward to working with them in future.

Noni Sproule is National Women’s Officer of the National Union of Students.

www.unistudent.com.au Editor’s note: It was NTEU WA Division women proposed reviving Bluestocking Week to the WAC this year.

Amy Talbot, NTEU Industrial Organiser; Selma Lexalliex; Guest speaker Dr Angela McCarthy; and Dr Anne-Marie Hill, NTEU Notre Dame Branch President at the Bluestocking Week ‘Blue Brunch’ at Notre Dame University, WA.

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Women too often carry the burden of social inequities.

These women are working to change that.

Of the world’s poorest people, it is estimated that 70% are women.

With the support of Australian unionists and unions, Union Aid AbroadAPHEDA is working to redress this appalling gender imbalance.

L-R: Jessica Sequeira, Abelita da Silva, Ricar Pascoela, Ana Filomena Mariano and Henyta Casimira - some of the founding members of the Working Women’s Centre Timor-Leste. Photos by Shabnam Hameed.

Almost three-quarters of our projects are aimed at improving opportunities for women and, by doing this, improving their families’ lives too. In Timor-Leste, we are supporting women like Jessica, Abelita, Ricar, Ana and Henyta in a vital poverty reduction initiative. These community-minded women helped form the Working Women’s Centre TimorLeste, which is working to increase women’s workforce participation and improve incomes and working conditions.

Your solidarity will make a difference.

Union Aid Abroad APHEDA

The overseas humanitarian aid agency of the ACTU

You can support initiatives like this by becoming a Global Jusice Partner.

Visit www.apheda.org.au or call 1800 888 674 to learn more.

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