'Understandings of Sex Discrimination in the Workplace: Limits & Possibilities'

2007 Clare Burton Memorial Lecture
Friday 19 October, 12.00 - 2.30pm
Terrace Ballroom
Hyatt Regency Perth

Sex discrimination in the workplace and ways to work towards gender equality will be discussed at the 2007 Clare Burton Memorial Lecture hosted by Curtin University of Technology at the Hyatt this week.

Dr Sara Charlesworth, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Social Research (CASR) at RMIT, will present a lecture entitled “Understandings of Sex Discrimination in the Workplace: Limits & Possibilities,” which will examine the effectiveness of Australia’s sex discrimination laws in the workplace and focus on the contradictory ways in which sex discrimination is understood at an organisational level. 

Dr Charlesworth said that framing women’s disadvantage in employment as ‘sex discrimination’ often limits the avenues for change as well as positive action to address the issue, particularly in a deregulated market such as Australia.  

“Operational reasons are increasingly being used and accepted as a justification for, and denial of, discriminatory outcomes against women,” she said.

“An example of this is that after returning from maternity leave many women are not assigned the same level of work as they had prior to their leave with the reason being cited as operational requirements.
 
“The lecture will explore alternative ways of outlining women’s disadvantage in employment so that legal regulation can become more effective in working towards gender equality in the workplace.”
 
Drawing on experience and debate in the United Kingdom, Dr Charlesworth will also discuss a number of measures that may better increase the chance of positive changes in equality laws, particularly at a workplace level.

Dr Charlesworth is currently completing post-doctoral work on workplace sex discrimination where her work has focused on the ways in which organisational and legal norms contribute to maintaining gendered inequalities in the workplace.

She has a background in social work, industrial relations and legal studies and has worked in the areas of equal employment opportunity, work and family balance and workplace change.

She was a member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board from 1988 to 1994, a member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal from 1994 to 2001 and a member of the academic advisory panel for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Striking the Balance: Women, men work and care investigation.

She has also undertaken work analysing various areas of gender inequality including inequality in pay due to gender and poor quality part time work at labour market, industry and workplace levels. 

The annual Clare Burton Memorial Lecture commemorates leading researcher, bureaucrat and academic Dr Clare Burton who passed away suddenly in 1998.  Dr Burton was a leading researcher, public sector administrator, academic, consultant and writer on employment equity.
Memorial lectures have been held annually in each capital city since 1999 and are run by the Australian Technology Network of Universities Women’s Executive Development Program (ATN WEXDEV), with assistance from significant public sector sponsors. ATN WEXDEV is a strategic career development program designed for senior women on the academic and general staffs of ATN universities. The ATN is comprised of Curtin University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of South Australia, and University of Technology, Sydney.  The 2007 Clare Burton Memorial Lecture is sponsored in WA by the Department for Communities' Office for Women's Policy.

All media are welcome to attend this event. To register your interest, please contact Katie McGregor on 08 9266 4364 or email k.mcgregor@curtin.edu.au

Modified: 18 October 2007

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