Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and accelerated many gendered labour market inequalities in Australia and around the world. In this introduction to our special issue, ‘Workplace Gender Equality: Where are we now and where to next?’, we examine the impact of the pandemic on women’s employment, labour force participation, earnings, unpaid care work and experience of gendered violence. We identify five key areas where action is urgently required to create a more equitable post-pandemic recovery: addressing gender-based labour market segregations and discrimination; building access to mutually beneficial flexibility; ensuring a more gender-equitable distribution of unpaid care; confronting gender-based violence at work and beyond; and mobilising union action through gender equality bargaining.
Highlights
At the onset of the pandemic, women accounted for 88% of registered nurses and midwives, 85% of aged care workers, 96% of early childhood educators and 55% of retail and food and accommodation services workers in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2020; Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2020; Social Research Centre, 2017; Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2019)
We identify five key themes to inform a more gender-equitable post-pandemic labour market: addressing gender-based labour market segregations and discrimination; building access to mutually beneficial flexibility; ensuring a more gender-equitable distribution of unpaid care; confronting gender-based violence at work and beyond; and mobilising union agency through gender equality bargaining
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed and accentuated many longstanding gendered inequalities in the labour market. In this introduction to the special issue, we highlight five key areas that will be crucial to achieving workplace gender equality in the post-pandemic era
Summary
With schools and early childhood education centres closed for weeks or months, women shouldered a larger burden of unpaid domestic duties at home, and experienced greater risk of domestic violence (Boxall et al, 2020; Cooper and Mosseri, 2020; Craig and Churchill, 2020; Foley and Williamson, 2021; Hill, 2020). In this introduction to our special issue, ‘Workplace Gender Equality: Where are we and where to next?’, we begin by discussing how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed longstanding gender inequality in the labour market, especially women’s concentration in more flexible – and precarious – jobs which attract lower rates of pay.
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