Women at Work

1
Women at Work

• Dr Brigid van Wanrooy
• Workplace Research Centre, The University of
  Sydney
• Womens Business Current issues and future
  agendas
• 7 March 2008, Sydney

2
Research Objective

• To inform debate and policy development on
  Australian working life

provide an overview of womens current labour
market experiences
3
A Research Imperative

• Policy environment in a state of flux
• Potential labour shortages
• aging population
• declining/stabilising fertility
• What are the consequences for women?
• Is progress being made?

4
Methodology

• Telephone survey Australia-wide
• In the labour force in March 2006, aged 16-58
• Data collected once a year 2007-2011
• n8,341 Women n3,905
• Workers perceptions of working life

5
A study of working life
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How are women faring?

• Women compared to men in part-time and full-time
  jobs
• Part-time jobs are not the same for men and women
• Women compared to men in high and low skilled jobs

7
Female and Male workforces
Men
Women
8
Permanency in the workforce

• Women hold 74 per cent of part-time jobs
• Only 42 per cent of part-time jobs are permanent
• 77 per cent of men are in permanent jobs
• 66 per cent of women are in permanent jobs

9
Employment and the life course
10
Part-time employment

• Women
• Prime aged
• With children
• Higher skilled
• Permanent
• Longer tenure
• Regular hours

• Men
• Young
• Studying
• Lower skilled
• Casual
• Short tenure
• Unsociable hours

11
Full-time employment

• Women
• Professionals
• Standard hours
• Unpaid hours

• Men
• Managerial
• Unsociable hours
• Longer hours

12
Women in industrial relations

• Public sector union membership higher for women
  among part-time employees.
• Female union membership in the private sector is
  lower (11 compared to 16 men).
• High degree of satisfied non-members in private
  sector part-time employment (69 women compared
  to 59 men).
• Despite this, women rely on collective
  arrangements (female v male)
• Award plays a role (70 v 60)
• Award reliance (46 v 35)
• Collective pay setting (67 v 56)

13
Women in negotiation skill level

• Reliance on collective arrangements leads women
  being less likely to say that they can negotiate
  pay directly with their employer (43 v 54 men)

14
Negotiation in collective and individual
workplaces
15
Womens attitudes toward work

• Part-time employees are more likely to say they
  have control over their work hours.
• Compared to men
• Women feel less secure in the labour market.
• Women are more likely to trust managers.
• Women in full-time jobs and high-skilled jobs are
  more likely to feel overloaded.

16
Two labour markets

• Different experiences for employees
• Low pay low skill compared to high pay high
  skill

High Nurses, Accountants, Teachers 44 are women
Low Cleaners, Call centre workers, Sales
assistants, Child carers 53 are women
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Women High pay and high skill

• More professional, less managerial
• Overloaded
• Unpaid hours
• Casual (14 compared to 7 men)
• Have a degree (55 compared to 44 men)
• Award plays a role (54 compared to 44 men)

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Women low pay and low skill

• In smaller workplaces
• 42 per cent are in workplaces less than 20
• Caring and white collar occupations
• Community personal service workers (24)
• Clerical administrative workers (36)
• Casual (43 compared to 36 men)

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Women in the workforce A research imperative

• Australia at Work enables us to map the broad
  terrain of womens working lives
• Australian IR policy is enduring constant change
• Requires research and evidence, to identify
• social and economic impacts
• unintended consequences
• areas for policy refinement