The care crisis : a research priority for the pandemic era and beyond

Focusing on two areas of care research - unpaid domestic labour and academic work - this chapter considers points at which the care deficit has been made most apparent or amplified by the coronavirus pandemic. The chapter unpacks the gendered dimensions to the care crisis and argues that family relationships and organisational cultures might mutually reinforce the care gap. Centring on the pandemic recovery but also reimagining our care relationships and infrastructures, recommendations are made for future research and advocacy to address the care deficit

Vice-Chancellor's Gender Equality Fund Final Report 2019: Redressing the Promotion Gap: Practices and Processes to Minimise Gender Disparities in Academic Advancement

Like many universities in Australia and internationally, women at Western Sydney University (WSU) remain under-represented in senior academic positions. In addition, there is a persistent gender pay gap for female academic staff across the institution. Despite the robust literature, researchers and higher education institutions have struggled to understand how vertical gender segregation might be alleviated in academia, and to establish effective gender equity programs which target gender differences in promotion. In addition, little research has evaluated the impact of existing programs beyond the individual level and in comparison to other institutional initiatives. The degree to which gender initiatives are effective in making change is one of the most important and challenging questions in striving for gender equity in contemporary universities, yet this has been inadequately addressed by researchers. There are two key research questions for this project: how does WSU’s promotion policy and process compare with other Australian institutions, and; how might WSU alter current policy and practice to reduce the gender promotion gap? Data was collected through interviews with women academics who had progressed to Professor or Associate Professor whilst at Western Sydney, and both internal and external members of the Western Sydney University Academic Promotions Committee. The research also included an assessment of the WSU promotions policy and relevant promotions and gender equality process documents, and a comparison was carried out between WSU and two other institutions. We find that women are at a disadvantage in achieving measures of excellence in academic competitions for promotion. What is more, gender bias also works around these measures, so that even when women do successfully compete in terms of the metrics, they are blocked by institutional gatekeepers or marginalized and stigmatized for attempting to play a game for which they are seen to be corporeally mismatched. These processes were recognized by the women who bid for promotion but also by several of the promotions committee members. Although there is some useful policy and processes in place in our institutions in relation to promotion, gender bias continues to work through cultural practices. There is also evidence of a reticence to see the metrics of excellence, that serve academic capitalism very well, as anything but neutral or to see gender inequities as systemic. In order to redress the promotion gap, we therefore need to challenge these perceptions and look to cultural and educative solutions. This project provides recommendations for increasing women’s promotion rates, which will also assist in reducing the gender pay gap

Vice-Chancellor's Gender Equality Fund Final Report 2021: Equity, Policy and Practice: Disruptions to Candidature and Barriers to Career Progression for Women HDR Candidates

Whilst prior research has established barriers to career progression for women academics, the experiences of women HDR candidates and the barriers to candidature progression, including movement to on-going, academic labour, or careers outside of academia, has not received the same level of attention. This project therefore aims to generate a better understanding of equity considerations for research disruption, with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, for women HDR candidates. There are two key research questions for this project: 1. What are the barriers to HDR progression for WSU women candidates? 2. How might WSU support the progression of women HDR candidates through targeted strategies? This report provides recommendations for best practice for supporting the progression of women HDR candidates at Western

The Future of Work and Childcare: Towards Equity and Justice for Western Sydney Communities

This white paper by Western Sydney University researchers advocates for more equitable models of work and childcare that prioritise gender equity, gentle parenting, community building, social support, and climate justice. The care economy in western Sydney is under-resourced and inflexible, and current policies prioritise economic growth over family and community relationships. Women, especially those from disadvantaged or marginalised backgrounds, face greater challenges in accessing education and earning less than men. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted existing inequalities in work and childcare responsibilities. The researchers propose a vision statement and a place-based research agenda to influence socially just policy making and practices. The six proposed research streams include defining gendered workforce participation, understanding the childcare sector, mapping formal childcare services, generating a childcare stress metric, collecting evidence on innovative models and informal childcare supports, and co-creating equitable and just systems through design justice workshops with local people, groups, and the sector

The interaction of gender and class in nursing : appropriating Bourdieu and adding Butler

The aim of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for exploring the ways in which class and gender interact in occupational fields. In recent years, very little research has been specifically concerned with the relationship between gender and class. Much of the literature which grapples with the question of how gender and class interact contains theoretical limitations which appear to stem from a reliance on categorical theories of both class and gender. In this paper it is proposed that, when used in conjunction, the approaches of Bourdieu and Butler provide a framework for exploring class and gender in terms of embodied practice. In order to illustrate the possibilities enabled by 'appropriating Bourdieu and adding Butler', the paper suggests ways in which this conceptual framework makes possible the examination of the complex relations between gender and class within one particular area of 'women's work': the field of nursing

'What have I done?' : an exploration of the ambivalent, unimaginable emotions of new motherhood

Women are presented with all manner of information about what motherhood is like and how it should be done. These sometimes dialogic, sometimes competing scripts shape expectations, but often fail to prepare parents-to-be for what is to come. Making use of two diverse case study interviews with Australian mothers, this chapter explores the disunity between pre-birth expectations and the lived bodily experience of new motherhood. These disconnections occur around appearance, birth, relationships, self-concept, and career, and point to the ideological nature of much parenting discourse. Mothers report a range of emotional responses to new parenthood that often do not fit with the dominant romantic narratives that are constructed around baby making including anxiety, anger, guilt, and grief. While this disconnect sometimes encourages women to resist dominant ideology, they also demonstrate commitment to gender norms and a complicated relationship with good mothering discourse

Class and career choice : motivations, aspirations, identity and mobility for women in paid caring work

This article explores the significance of class for women’s participation in paid care work. It draws on in-depth interviews with female nurses and social workers in order to understand what motivates women to pursue paid caring careers. Using the theoretical tools of Bourdieu, this article explores the career motivations, mobility experiences and aspirations of differently classed nurses and social workers. The research reveals some significant differences between the women who self-identify as coming from working-class backgrounds and those who self-identify as coming from middle-class backgrounds. The article therefore provides a gender/class analysis of women’s participation in the paid caring field and moves beyond gender analyses of caring work

Pierre Bourdieu : health lifestyles, the family and social class

Pierre Bourdieu is a not a theorist readily associated with the sociology of health, illness and medicine. Bourdieu was very much focused on social class cultures and, while he examined the bodily dimensions of classed experience and the production of knowledge, he was generally unconcerned with health issues. Nevertheless, William Cockerham (2013a:251) observes that Bourdieu has recently become fashionable in medical sociology and his concepts ‘social capital’, ‘habitus’ and ‘lifestyles’ are most popular. Cockerham (2013a) claims Bourdieu’s new-found popularity is an aspect of medical sociology’s recent ‘theoretical turn’, and that his concepts appeal to medical sociologists who wish to move their thinking from ‘methodological individualism’ to focus on the relationship between health and social structures. Bourdieu’s theory is therefore useful for ‘building bridges between mainstream theory and medical sociology’ (Williams 1995:601). Of particular interest for this chapter, Bourdieu theorised lifestyle practices, and his understanding of the ways in which these practices are embedded within and enact class culture helps researchers to explain the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle practices in an era in which rich nations have unprecedented access to health education. This chapter examines the relevance of Bourdieu’s conceptual approach for the analysis of the relationship between health, lifestyles and social class, and focuses on research which seeks to understand young people’s health-related lifestyle practices in the context of family life. It begins with an overview of Bourdieu’s life, work and key concepts. It then moves on to look at what Bourdieu’s theoretical approach has to offer the study of lifestyles, and in the final section, charts how his concepts have been taken up in youth health lifestyle research

Gender Capital at Work : Intersections of Femininity, Masculinity, Class and Occupation

Gender Capital at Work uses new data from interviews with nurses, social workers, exotic dancers and hairdressers to explore the processes involved in producing and reproducing gendered and classed workers and occupations. In doing so, this book argues that femininity, femaleness, masculinity and maleness work as assets in feminised occupations and that the concept 'gender capital' may help researches to better understand the complex relationship between gender, class and occupation. This book builds on Bourdieusian theory, particularly the concept 'gender capital', and provides a unique approach to gendered occupational segregation

Theories of vertical segregation in feminized occupations : rethinking dominant perspectives and making use of Bourdieu

Feminized occupations such as nursing, teaching, social work and librarianship are gendered because they are numerically dominated by women and aligned with femininity. They are also gendered because men have long secured a disproportionate number of the senior and powerful positions within the upper echelons of these fields. This chapter is concerned with this second process – vertical segregation. Vertical segregation is a widespread social problem that exists in all economies and across diverse occupations and is a particularly vexing feature of feminized occupations. As Anker (1997, p. 136) identifies, occupational segregation is problematic because excluding parts of the population from workforce positions is a waste of human resources and it indicates that the labour market is inflexible and so unable to adapt efficiently to change. Sectorial segmentation is also obviously disadvantageous to women: it impacts women’s income and statuses as well as the ways they are viewed by others and the ways women view themselves. What is more, this is a longstanding issue; occupational segregation is a problem that has plagued the workforce since women first entered the labour market and it is an issue that still demands research and theorizing because we do not yet understand exactly how it is perpetuated or how it might be resolved