02 Womens Decisions About Paid Work and Family Life After Childbirth - A Critique of The Hakim Model

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research
Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fasteanu Co-editors
2004
First published on Informit e-Library, November 2004 An imprint of RMIT Publishing PO Box 12058, ABeckett Street Melbourne, Victoria 8006 Australia Telephone 61 3 9925 8100 Fax 61 3 9925 8134 Email: info@rmitpublishing.com.au http://www.informit.com.au/library/ Copyright 2004 Copyright rests with the individual authors of the papers, the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT. ISBN: 0 86459 337 6
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any mean electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau 1
IF ONLY IT WERE A GLASS CEILING: GENDERED ACADEMIC CAREERS

Belinda Probert 7
WOMENS DECISIONS ABOUT PAID WORK AND FAMILY LIFE AFTER CHILDBIRTH: A CRITIQUE OF THE HAKIM MODEL
Sheree Cartwright 24
LOVES LABOUR: CONFLICTS OVER WORK AND RELATIONSHIPS FOR TRAFFICKED FILIPINA ENTERTAINERS IN KOREA
Sallie Yea 36
DECENT WORK OR DISTRESS ADAPTATION? EMPLOYMENT CHOICE AND JOB SATISFACTION IN THE SRI LANKAN GARMENT INDUSTRY
Judith Shaw 50
BEING ABLE TO DO WHAT YOU ASPIRE TO DO

Lionel Boxer 65
PROCESSES FOR DEALING WITH CONFLICT IN THE WORKPLACE: MEETING FEMINIST CONCERNS REGARDING MEDIATION
Kathy Douglas 74
(IN)VISIBLE WOMEN: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN AN AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS PUBLICATION

Maureen Fastenau 92
HANDWORK, FOODWORK AND SMALL COMMERCE: REFLECTIONS ON GENDERED MICROENTERPRISE IN BOLIVIA

Dr Robyn Eversole 109
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
119
Introduction
Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau Co-editors This collection of papers suggests the broad and rich terrain that can be travelled by those interested in the topic of women and work. In Australia, as elsewhere, an increased acceptance of the right of women in principle at least to equal status with men and the growing presence of women in the public sphere has seen research interest in women and their working lives grow exponentially over the last 25 years. While much theoretical debate has focused on womens sameness to and/or difference from men, there has also been a growing recognition of the heterogeneity among women. The interdependence of what were assumed to be separate public and private spheres of work and family is also increasingly acknowledged. However, despite profound social changes in employment and in family and household structures, and despite significant policy and legislative reform, women as a group remain unequal in the workplace, in political structures and in economic resources. It is the persistence of this inequality that continues to provide the impetus for research around women and work, across a range of disciplines and from a variety of theoretical perspectives. How did this monograph come about? It has been a common lament among academics for at least the past 25 years or so that the explosion of knowledge has led to silos within disciplinary silos. This isolation has been further intensified over the past 1015 years with the growth of mega-universities which has further worked to isolate academics. Even those researchers in the same institution with shared interests within and across disciplines infrequently meet, limiting the opportunities for the dialogue that enriches knowledge and research. This collection of papers arises from an attempt by a group of RMIT academics interested in the topic of women and work to develop communication channels within the University across disciplines and between academics at different stages of their research journeys. It has its origins in the chance meeting of two academics, Sara Charlesworth from the Centre for Applied Social Research in the School of Social Science and Planning, within the Design and Social Context Portfolio, and Maureen Fastenau from the School of Management in the Business Portfolio (notice the silos!) We knew of each other but were unaware that we were working in the same university until a mutual colleague suggested that we might be interested in talking to each other. We leapt at the chance! After several enjoyably stimulating conversations, we wondered how many other academics at RMIT were exploring various aspects of women and work and would enjoy an opportunity to discuss their work with others sharing their interests. We decided to seek expressions of interest from colleagues and research students to
1
Charlesworth, C, Fastenau, M (2004) Introduction in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 1-6.
present papers at an in-house conference. The conference was held in February 2004, with over 50 people attending and with 15 papers presented. Professor Belinda Probert, then Pro Vice Chancellor (Design and Social Content Portfolio), RMIT University, and now Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic), University of Western Australia, was the keynote speaker. The research she presented appears as our first paper. This monograph also showcases another five of the papers presented at the conference, together with two papers contributed by RMIT researchers unable to attend on the day. In selecting papers for the monograph we have tried to illustrate the diversity of research around women and work that is being carried out at RMIT University, from a study of women working in export manufacturing zones in Sri Lanka (Shaw) to studies of senior managers and professionals in Australia (Probert and Fastenau). In their scope, the papers range from the more theoretical (Boxer) to the more empirical (such as Yea and Eversole), and from a focus on the lived experience of the work/family divide (Cartwright) to different approaches to the mediation of workplace disputes (Douglas). We also wanted to highlight the diversity of the researchers themselves, who range from postgraduate students and recent PhD graduates through to established researchers with significant publication records and international reputations. Biographical details of each of the contributors are set out at the end of this monograph. The Papers Several of these papers highlight the complexity of womens lives; lives requiring an often tenuous balancing of paid work and private lives, including family obligations and relationships, a balancing act often undertaken in unsupportive environments. Many of these papers remind us that policy decisions are often simplistic approaches to the complexity of factors that structure, and often limit, womens opportunities and choices. All of these papers remind us that while women may be disadvantaged, they are not victims; they are actively engaged, often in the overlooked but nonetheless heroic struggles of ordinary people, to shape and control their own lives. Documented here are the powerful forces which, wittingly and unwittingly, are used to deny women equality and the courageous struggle in which women, individually and collectively, engage to make better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. Research on the reconciliation of work and family lives has traditionally focused on the workplace. Belinda Probert and Sheree Cartwright, however, turn their gaze to the divide between the public and private spheres. In her keynote address, If Only It Were a Glass Ceiling: Gendered Academic Careers, Belinda highlights the importance of the household in structuring workplace outcomes. Her paper challenges the conventional wisdom on gender inequality for academics that suggests women are under-represented in senior academic positions because of gender biases. Drawing on the findings of two large-scale studies of Australian academics, Belinda argues that university EEO policies have been largely effective in that women are not more likely to do more poorly than men in the promotions process; women are, however, less likely to apply for promotion. While on average women academics have less human capital than their male colleagues, as measured by qualifications and work
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
Introduction
experience, they also have to contend with greater responsibilities for family work which may impact on their careers. The absence of many senior women in the top of the academic careers structure is linked, Belinda argues, to the way households organise the division between paid and unpaid work rather than to discrimination against women in the workplace. While EEO and work/family workplace initiatives and policies are essential to allowing women to remain attached to their careers, it is within the highly gendered and complex context of the household that womens ability to devote time to the particular demands of an academic workload has to be negotiated. In her paper Women's Decisions about Paid Work and Family Life after Childbirth Sheree Cartwright also acknowledges the nterrelationship between the household and the workplace. Sheree focuses on the work of Catherine Hakim, which has had a particular resonance in Australia where it has been favoured by the Coalition government to guide and justify its family policies. In particular, Sheree offers a critique of preference theory on which Hakim's model is based and of the static nature of much research on women's choices about work-life balance. She highlights the importance of longitudinal studies for revealing the dynamics of women's decision making about work-family balance as they move through the changing requirements of managing a family, particularly with regard to childcare demands. Sheree argues that research freeze-framed on women's decisions at a particular stage of their family development is a flawed basis for policy development. She also cautions against the use of preference theory, based as it is on an assumption that women in affluent and liberal modern societies have genuine choices as to what to do with their lives. Sheree argues that while women have choices, these choices, limited as they are by constraints imposed by work practices and government policies, may not actually be an expression of preferences. Sallie Yea also focuses on the blurring of the public and private in her paper Love's Labour: Conflicts over Work and Relationships for Trafficked Filipina Entertainers in Korea. Sallie examines how Filipina entertainers attempt to negotiate relationships with their clients, usually American soldiers, in South Korean military entertainment zones in order to re-establish some control and agency over their employment and their personal lives. Sallies research documents how these migrant workers are coerced into supplementing their incomes through requirements to provide emotional and sexual labour to their employing clubs' clients. Rather than prostitution, many of the Filipinas establish boundaries to the emotional and sexual services they will provide and to whom, frequently resulting in relationships which hover on the edge of ambiguity with many of the elements of prostitution, such as barter, promiscuity and emotional indifference, partly or completely absent. These romances not only provide the women with income, but in buying her time, regular customers (boyfriends) minimise the emotional labour they must expend on other customers and the pressure, sometimes necessity, to engage in prostitution. Without minimising the abuse inherent in the commodification of human beings in the sex trade, Sallie allows the Filipina entertainers to define their own reality, thus effectively reminding us that even in extremely difficult circumstances women are not without power and that men may offer sympathetic assistance. In her paper, Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?, Judith Shaw also highlights the ways in which globalisation impacts on traditional social and familial roles. While
Sallie Yeas paper focused on a particularly ugly manifestation of the global economy the globalisation of the sex industry Judith explores the effects of globalisation in Sri Lanka's export garment industry on women's social and economic well-being. Although offering regular and secure employment to rural women, who often lack other employment opportunities, the industry suffers from an inability to attract and retain staff. Using structured questionnaires administered by staff from a working women's centre and focus group interviews, Judith's research carefully documents the unsafe working conditions, under-payment of wages, excessive hours, harsh discipline, and sub-standard living conditions that characterise garment trades work in the export zones. At the same time the forces of modernisation and globalisation that have required these women to undertake economic roles also challenge their traditional social and familial status. However there is some potential for change. Judith points to the possibility that the upgraded skills and labour productivity required for high-end production, together with demands from buyers for adherence to internationally acceptable labour conditions, will generate pressures to improve the working and living conditions of the women working in Sri Lanka's export garment industry. Lionel Boxer and Kathy Douglas turn their attention to the organisational level and, from very different perspectives, explore the ways in which women can negotiate the gendered power structures there. In his paper, Being Able To Do What You Aspire To Do, Lionel Boxer applies his elaboration of a social constructionist model to gendered organisational cultures and practices. Lionels model is partly based on Positioning theory which concerns the discursive production of self. He argues that if gender equality is to be achieved, individual women will need to re-Position themselves and others to both push for and take advantage of changes in dominant workplace cultures and discourses. Lionel contends, somewhat controversially, that as individual women assert their right, for example, to be considered on their merits for the jobs they aspire to, other individuals will be compelled to respect them as competent to undertake these jobs. As a result, individual women can progressively align the social order with their ambition. Appropriately aligned, the social order or culture will provide an environment for women to do what they aspire to do. In Processes for Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace, Kathy Douglas highlights a number of gender issues in the use of mediation at a time when more workplaces, courts and tribunals are requiring disputing parties to attempt to resolve their conflicts through mediation. She examines different approaches to mediation used to resolve workplace grievances. Kathy considers the feminist critique of mediation as not providing women with the same opportunities as men to participate equally in mediation processes. She argues that methods of mediation practice may in fact be the cause of women's disadvantage in mediation processes. Traditional mediation practice is based on a problem-solving model, more suited to a male transactional approach. Mediators are nominally neutral and thus do not intervene in mediations to counter power imbalances and differences in negotiating style which may disadvantage women. Kathy suggests that second generation mediation practices, storytelling, narrative, and transformative models, may be more suited to women's emphasis on relationships, and that the participation of mediators to address power imbalances may enable women to participate more satisfactorily in workplace mediations.
Introduction
Maureen Fastenau turns her attention to some of the forces outside the workplace that continue to construct the disadvantage women experience. While the increasing number of women in Australian senior management roles and in business is held out as a measure of progress towards gender equity, the extent to which this increased presence has translated into increased acceptance of women in such roles is more contested. In (In)visible Women Maureen investigates whether the representation of women in Business Review Weekly (BRW), a leading Australian business publication, has altered in the fifteen years since the enactment of the Affirmative Action legislation. In particular, she discusses the implications of this representation on women's opportunities for recognition of professional expertise and for gaining leadership roles in organisations. The media has been recognised as a powerful mechanism for stimulating and facilitating change or for maintaining and reinforcing the status quo. While Maureen finds that there has been some increase in the representation of women in BRW, she also shows that women continue to be underrepresented. Moreover, she argues that they are often presented in ways which perpetuate traditional views of women as aliens in the business world. Robyn Eversole also focuses on women operating within the world of business. While drawing on a case study in a developing country, Robyn, like Maureen Fastenau, draws our attention to the social and economic contexts in which women operate and try to achieve some independence, financial and otherwise. In Handwork, Foodwork and Small Commerce, Robyn considers the role of microenterprise development on women's economic opportunities in Bolivia. Based on a series of ethnographic studies exploring microenterprise development, household economy, and community economic development in the city of Sucre, Robyn argues that microenterprises will only offer women satisfactory income levels and income security if consideration is given to the social and economic contexts in which they develop their businesses. Failure, for example, to implement community economic development programs that identify innovative and new economy business opportunities and perpetuation of gendered divisions of labour will continue to restrict women to traditional economic endeavours and to hamper their ability to achieve financial security. In fact, without efforts to expand economic opportunities and facilitate women's skills development in non-traditional business areas, microenterprise programs may actually increase competition in women's traditional areas of food preparation and service and textile and clothing manufacture, thereby creating more desperate and marginal enterprises rather than providing income security for women and their families. Acknowledgements The conference and this monograph would not have been possible without the support of a number of people. We would especially like to thank Associate Professor John Murphy, Director of the Centre for Applied Social Research, and Professor Clive Morley, then Head of the School of Management, who provided financial and other support for the conference. Ms Natalie Myer wore many hats, including conference administrator and publications officer. The success of the conference and the timely editing of the manuscripts owe much to her skill and hard work. The papers were blind refereed, and we would like to thank the referees for their detailed and well-considered reviews. All those submitting papers, including those
not published in this monograph, have expressed their appreciation for the critical analyses of their papers and the suggestions made about improving their work provided by the referees.
Sara Charlesworth Maureen Fastenau Co-Editors September 2004
If Only It Were a Glass Ceiling: Gendered Academic Careers1

Belinda Probert Pro Vice-Chancellor, Design and Social Context Portfolio2
In this paper I want to argue that research into gender inequity in academic employment, in the UK and Australia at least, has been insufficiently willing to expose many of the most commonly accepted assertions to rigorous scrutiny, and that this has prevented us from properly understanding the remarkable persistence of unequal outcomes for men and women in terms of pay and status. I want to suggest that most of the factors that are widely used to explain the fact that women remain concentrated in the lower levels of the academic hierarchy are not in fact supported by credible evidence,3 and that for those of us interested in action to address these inequalities, our attention is being diverted from the real problems. The research on which I base these arguments derives from two large studies of gender equity in Australian higher education. The first was a national survey of academic and general staff in 18 universities (Probert et al 1998, see also Probert 1999a, Probert 1999b) undertaken for the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU); the second was a survey of all academic staff at the University of New South Wales (a prestigious, large university belonging to the elite group of eight universities in Australia), which was followed up with focus group discussions with female academic in their forties, currently at Level C (senior lecturer in Australia) (Probert et al 2002). Both these Australian studies confirm what we all know: that men and women are unequally distributed through the academic hierarchy, with far fewer women than men employed above Level C. The under-representation of women at level D and E (Associate Professor and Professor) is particularly striking across the sector.4 The data from UNSW presented here (Table 1) are in no sense atypical, although the overall proportion of academics at UNSW who are women is low.
An article based on this research is forthcoming in Gender, Work and Organization 12, 1, January 2005. 2 Now Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Western Australia. 3 Many of these factors have had some real historical basis, but to remain focussed on them is to ignore the substantial gender equity reforms that have been introduced in public sector employment over the last twenty years, and their substantial impact. 4 There are interesting changes at the highest management levels however, with 3 of the 7 ViceChancellors in the state of Victoria now being women, and more than half the Vice Chancellors executive at my own university now made up of women. It is possible that this is a reflection of the declining attractiveness of such jobs, but this is pure speculation. 7
Probert, B (2004) If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling: Gendered Academic Careers in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 7-23.
Table 1: Male and female staff by level

UNSW ACADEMIC STAFF as at 31 March 2001 Percentage of male/female academic staff at each level Level A Level B Level C Level D Level E Total staff Men % 9 35 24 13 21 100 Women % 24 46 Percentage of academic staff at each level who are male/female Men % 48 65 76 86 89 71 Women % 52 35 24 14 11 29
19
5 6 100
This pattern is common not only to Australian universities, but to universities in the UK and the US,5 and it appears resilient to change, despite the impact of antidiscrimination legislation and policy development around equal employment opportunities and affirmative action. Explanations for the under-representation of women at senior levels tend to be embedded in two different frameworks. The first framework, which dominates the academic literature on gender and work, argues that this unequal outcome results from the unequal treatment at work of men and women in terms of any or all of the following: appointment levels, workloads, promotions, access to mentoring, and other factors that contribute to career progression. The second framework, which is to be found in the work of labour market economists, focuses on the different levels of human capital that men and women have, and often links this to arguments about the different kinds of choices that men and women make between career and parenting. In this work the outcome reflects gendered choices rather than unequal treatment. The recent article by David Knights and Wendy Richards on Sex discrimination in UK academia published in Gender Work and Organisation this year, provides what I would see as a widely held picture of the problem by adopting the first framework, but strengthening it by further arguing that womens necessarily different biographies (resulting from childbearing) can also be seen as a factor contributing to discrimination. Rather than seeing the gendered constraints of childbirth and childcare as the result of choice, Knights and Richards (2003) insist on the dominant position of masculinity within academia and the active marginalisation of femininity in everything from the construction of academic disciplines to selection panels. Such is the accepted dominance of the first framework that Knights and Richards (2003, p. 217) can rely on assertions and anecdotal examples to develop their argument. For example, they claim that casualisation in higher education affects women disproportionately;6 that there is anecdotal evidence that men may be
5 6
See articles in Gender, Work and Organization, 10, 2, March 2003. Our national study included the first detailed case study of casual employment at an Australian university, and we were able to get a 20 per cent response rate from casual staff at the UNSW. While data on casual employment is even less reliable than any other category, existing analyses conclude that there is no evidence to suggest that women are especially concentrated in sessional employment or that casualisation is a phenomenon that is particularly associated with women. It is the under-representation of women in continuing employment that makes their numbers in sessional employment appear excessive. 8
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Belinda Probert and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling
appointed at higher levels, and will therefore remain more highly paid; that the promotions process also creates pay differentials, and there is some reason to believe that this process may disadvantage women (Knights and Richards 2003, p. 218). All this is by way of introduction, however, since the authors wish to argue that even when universities attempt to address these inequities through policies and practices based on a purely meritocratic system, they simply reinforce the advantages that men have over women by requiring women to behave and think like men.7 The initial research into gender pay equity that we undertook across the Australian higher education sector8 was designed to test the first framework of ideas what I am calling the conventional wisdom on gender inequality for academics - which suggests that women are under-represented at the top because of gender biases. For example, it is regularly asserted that women are less successful in gaining promotion because of their commitment to teaching. This, it may be argued, is because teaching (a feminine activity, even if socially constructed to be so) is undervalued by male dominated promotion panels concerned with glamorous publication records. For Knights and Richards, promotions panels are, furthermore, likely to privilege male (hard) disciplinary work over female (soft) disciplines, largely because they are made up of predominantly male senior academicswhose success may often be attributed to conforming to the malestream, mainstream or hard aspects of their disciplines (Knights and Richards 2003, p. 223). While such assertions are historically plausible, what evidence exists to support them today? Some, at least, of the evidence derives from research projects that have asked women to describe their experiences of academic life, or from focus group based research in which groups of women are asked to discuss how they feel about their experiences of the promotions system, or how supported they feel as academics. It is extremely rare for men to be asked similar questions, so that the male experience as positive and supportive is taken for granted. A perhaps extreme, but not irrelevant example, can be found in Kate Hawkins attempt to understand womens underrepresentation in academia by undertaking exit interviews with 23 women who had resigned their positions from a large public university in the southwest of the United States, which produced narratives of negative themes (Hawkins 1994). There are two points that can be made about studies relying on this kind of methodology. The first is that women may feel that they are less successful than men when applying for promotion, but this does not tell us whether this is in fact the case; nor does it provide us with any evidence about why this might be. The second is that mens experiences of these processes may not necessarily be dissimilar to womens. In fact, in our research, which systematically asked men and women the same questions, we have been struck by the extent to which men and women feel similar kinds of difficulties in developing their careers. Both, for example, feel that there is little support available to them to do research, with men feeling even more pessimistic than women (Probert et al 1998, p. 61). One reason why so much writing on this issue remains speculative or unsubstantiated is that little relevant data is available. What is most easily accessible in most countries
Knights and Richard adopt an almost essentialist and dichotomised view of male and female difference on which bourgeois concepts of equal opportunity or merit must necessarily founder. 8 While talking about my research, it would not have been possible without the work of Peter Ewer and Kim Whiting, with Kim Whiting carrying out the multiple regression analysis for us.
7
is aggregate data around the current level of appointment of male and female academics and their pay, which tells us about gender differences, but cannot account for them. Indeed, since level overwhelmingly determines pay, this remains the focus of attention. Evidence around the appointment process or promotions processes is not readily available, nor is evidence about human capital or different kinds of workloads9 - all of which might be expected to affect level. As a result, it is possible to describe unequal pay, but very hard to identify the inequities that might be involved, or explain the inequality. In both our Australian studies a survey was used which was designed to gather data on such critical matters as levels of human capital, family responsibilities, career preferences, workloads and objective outcomes of appointment and promotion practices10 so that theories about gender inequity or gender difference could be tested. The first thing that both these pieces of work allowed us to do was to test the way men and women navigate the academic career path. Here I will focus on the UNSW data, and it is totally consistent with that gathered in the earlier survey across 18 different universities. Both studies show that one obvious cause of gender stratification is that men begin their academic careers at higher levels than women, and have more years on average in the sector. As Table 2 shows, half of the female academics at UNSW began their career at Level A, with a further 23.2 per cent beginning as Research Assistants, and almost a quarter at Level B. By contrast, 40 per cent of men began at Level A, with over a third beginning at Level B. Table 2: First position in higher education by sex (column per cent)
Position Research assistant Level A Level B Level C Level D Level E N Women 23.2 50.0 24.7 1.5 0.5 194 Men 16.9 34.4 39.3 6.6 1.7 1.1 349
Is this male advantage evidence of inequity or could it be justified by differences in educational attainment or human capital generally? Are men better qualified at the time of their first appointment? Table 3 shows that there is some good evidence to support this explanation. 38.2 per cent of men held a PhD at the time of their first
This point is also made by Melanie Ward (2001) in her study of the pay of male and female Scottish academics. Ward uses multiple regression analysis to model the determinants of academic salaries. 10 In the national study, a random survey of academics from 18 universities gave us a sample of 1683 from which to develop regression models for male and female incomes. The survey of all academic staff at UNSW produced 1007 survey returns.
10
appointment, compared to 12.2 per cent of women.11 This is particularly significant given that a PhD is increasingly seen as an entry-level requirement for an academic career. Table 3: Qualifications held when first position obtained by sex (column per cent)
Position Bachelor Degree Degree with Honours Graduate Diploma Masters (coursework) Masters (Research) PhD Other N Women 22.4 24.5 7.7 13.3 14.3 12.2 5.6 196 Men 15.6 18.4 2.3 10.8 10.2 38.2 4.5 353
In both studies we also tested the theory that men are more likely to negotiate over their initial employment level, and to be more successful in this negotiation. In the national study we found that women were just as likely as men to negotiate over the entry point at which they were employed by their current university (about a quarter of all men and women claimed to have done this). And of these, there was no significant difference between the sexes in terms of who was successful (about three quarters). The relatively low number of women with a PhD when they began their academic career was a surprise finding from the national survey, and in the UNSW study a series of questions were asked to try and account for this gender difference questions I return to later. However, the UNSW study also revealed that among those who begin their career without a PhD, women are also less likely to go on and complete one than men (52.9 per cent compared to 61.9 per cent). Educational attainment is only one measure of human capital, with work experience being the other major element. Years worked is a very strong predictor of level, and hence pay, in the Australian university system where progression within each level is still largely automatic, with promotion bars between levels. When we look at experience, combined with educational advantage, it would seem that men are at higher levels simply because they have been in the system longer. Table 4 summarises the average years worked in higher education (full and part time) for UNSW, and compares this data with that from our earlier national industry study.
11
It may be that the practices of different disciplines differ with respect to the status attaching to a PhD at the entry point to the career path - i.e. it may be considered essential in some disciplines, and more optional in others. This may in turn have implications for our analysis of educational attainment and the gender stratification of the career path, because of the concentration of men in traditional disciplines (e.g. engineering). Unfortunately when we break down the number of women holding a PhD at the point of entry by discipline, the numbers become so small as to be unreliable. However, our NTEU study showed that gender differences in the attainment of qualifications were consistent across all disciplines. 11
Table 4: Average length of service in higher education by terms of employment and sex Data Source NTEU UNSW
Women Years worked in higher education full time Tenure/Continuing Contract Years worked in higher education part time Tenure/Continuing Contract 12.6 7.1 5.1 4.6 Men 17.7 5.4 5.7 4.6 Women 12.2 5.3 4.6 4.6 Men 17.2 6.6 3.4 3.7
As with the gender difference in qualifications, we have not yet explained these differences, but it is not clear that there is anything inequitable about their effects. PROMOTION It is widely believed among Australian female academics that they do less well than men in the promotions process and that this reflects either direct discrimination or systemic/indirect discrimination. Such views are also reflected in Knights and Richards (2003) analysis of sex discrimination in UK Academia, in which they claim male dominated promotions panels are likely to over-value male dominated disciplines and hard sciences compared to female dominated and soft disciplines. Others argue that promotion panels are likely to undervalue teaching compared to research and that this will also discriminate against women, who are assumed to invest more in teaching than research. The massive expansion of higher education and growth of different types of universities in Australia means that many institutions have introduced promotions criteria in which staff have some discretion in how to weight their contribution to teaching, research and university or community service at different levels of the career structure. We would expect this change to go some way to addressing the commonly heard (but rarely researched) concern that women are disadvantaged by focussing more on teaching than research. What both our studies revealed is that the conventional wisdom is not supported by the outcomes of promotions processes. On the contrary, in our UNSW study women are more likely to be successful than men when they apply for promotion.12 And this is so despite the fact that women do indeed tend to place greater weight on teaching and less on research when compared to mens applications.13 Table 5 shows the relative success rates at the UNSW a university that prides itself on being one of the top research performers in Australia.
12 13
In the national study, the success rate for men and women was also very similar. In the national study, women allocated significantly more weight to teaching than men (an average of 41 per cent compared to 35 per cent), while men allocated significantly more weight to research than did women (an average of 41 per cent compared to 33 per cent.) 12
Table 5: Number of times promotion successful by sex and number of times applied (column per cent)
Times applied Times successful Never Once Twice Three or more Total Once Women Men 3.7 96.3 54 1.6 98.4 62 Twice Women Men 39.1 60.9 23 40.0 60.0 60 Three Women Men 85.7 14.3 7 13.9 50.0 36.1 36 Four or more Women Men 100.0 4 5.6 41.7 52.8 36
The data from our research suggests that the explicit recognition of teaching quality in the work of academic staff, and changes to promotion criteria, have been successful in eliminating research bias in promotions outcomes in many universities, and there is no evidence of gender bias in promotions outcomes. There is, however, evidence that women are less likely to apply for promotion as men - or that men approach their careers more aggressively than women. At UNSW 63 per cent of men have applied for promotion, compared to 53 per cent of women. Moreover, of the staff who do apply for promotion, men do so with greater intensity, applying for promotion more often than women. As Table 6 shows, the longer academic staff have been in the higher education system, the bigger the gap between mens rate of application for promotion and womens. Table 6: Number of times applied for promotion by sex and years in higher education (column per cent)
Years in higher education No. times applied Never Once Twice Three times Four or more times N 7 or less yrs W 76.9 23.1 39 M 69.2 30.8 52 W 48.2 39.3 10.7 1.8 56 8-13 yrs M 47.3 35.1 12.2 5.4 74 14-20 yrs W 31.4 41.2 21.6 5.9 51 M 29.9 26.9 34.3 9.0 67 W 25.0 37.5 20.0 7.5 10.0 40 20+ yrs M 17.7 15.6 22.0 19.1 25.5 141
Table 7 shows that only seven women (compared to 36 men) have applied for promotion three times, and for those applying four or more times, only four are women (compared to 36 men). But there is relatively little difference between the number of times men and women apply until they have accumulated more than 14 years of service (which would take male academic staff to near the top of Level C), at which point women begin to fall seriously behind. This data suggests that many researchers may have been looking in the wrong place if we wish to understand why women are so unequally represented above Level C in the academic hierarchy. Women have less human capital than men, measured in terms of formal qualifications and work experience, and they do not seem to attack the career structure as vigorously as men, with significant proportions appearing to stop climbing just as they are getting near the peaks. We need to know more about the reasons for this.
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WORKLOADS AND PRODUCTIVITY Another commonly held belief about gender inequity is that unequal treatment in the allocation of workloads and opportunities for research may contribute to male overrepresentation in higher-level jobs. In both our studies data was gathered about actual workloads in an attempt to test this hypothesis. Questions were asked about numbers of lectures given in the current semester, numbers of tutorials, numbers of students work marked, coordination responsibilities and so on. What we found was that, whether measured in terms of class numbers, hours worked or numbers of students, male and female workloads are on average roughly comparable.14 In the UNSW study, if we aggregate the data for teaching loads for the semester, we find that on average women spend 55.6 hours teaching at undergraduate level compared to 52.3 hours for men. And on average women will spend 10.4 hours teaching at postgraduate level compared to 13.7 hours for men. As in the broader NTEU survey we found no evidence to support the commonly articulated contention that women carry heavier teaching loads than men.15 While we found no evidence to support the suggestion that women are given higher teaching loads than men (i.e. no evidence of institutional or systemic discrimination), we did find evidence that women spend more time than men on student welfare and pastoral care. When asked about time spent on activities other than teaching and research, by far the most common one identified was administration (mentioned by three quarters of both male and female academic staff). For women the next most common one was student welfare work (mentioned by 42.6 per cent compared to 26.5 per cent of men) and mentoring (27.8 per cent compared to 17.6 per cent of men). Men were more likely to identify conference organisation and management (22.2 per cent compared to 13.1 per cent of women) and consultancies (10.5 per cent compared to 2.8 per cent of women). While at Levels B and C a strong focus on teaching and student welfare may well be of no disadvantage to women, it is possible that the fact that this time is not being spent on other career enhancing activities may be a longer term disadvantage. However, there is no evidence to support this. While it does not appear that women do more teaching than men as part of their workload (holding level constant), there are some gender differences in research output.16 In the national study these differences were insignificant when discipline was held constant, but in the UNSW study differences remained when discipline and level were held constant, with men being more productive than women. Unfortunately we could not further explore these differences because of the sample size.
14
A well known British academic who has written about the gendered experience of postgraduate research students refused to believe our findings, and when presented with the data suggested that the men responding to the survey must have lied about their workloads. This suggestion is hard to take seriously with almost a thousand responses from men, but what is interesting and symptomatic of this area of study is the extent to which researchers wish to believe certain things. 15 This finding has been regularly met with disbelief when presenting findings to groups of female academics. 16 It is difficult to compare research work in a reliable way, and much easier to focus on quantity than quality. What we do know is that for the purposes of promotion most universities rely heavily on academic publications recognised by the Department of Education Science and Training, and for this reason both studies asked staff to report on the different DEST recognised categories, from which a weighted measure was derived.
14
What we can say is that women do not perceive themselves to be less supported in their research environment than men, although the vast majority of both sexes perceive material obstacles to undertaking research. However, significant gender differences emerged from a question asking all staff what they needed most in order to be able to do research. Over half of women (52.0 per cent) nominated a need for teaching relief or time off, compared to 35.3 per cent of men. Men, by contrast, were most concerned with financial support. This felt need for teaching relief by women needs to be further analysed since it would not appear that it is caused by having heavier teaching loads than men. FAMILY LIFE While most work on gender equity in higher education has focussed on the issue of whether men and women are treated unequally in the workplace, or rather differently, it is widely recognised that women also have to contend with greater responsibilities for family work, and that this may have an impact on their careers. Some measures have been introduced in universities (and other workplaces) with the intent of making it easier for parents (nearly always mothers) to manage a range of family related demands while protecting their careers. For example, academic staff at Australian universities are entitled to paid and unpaid maternity leave, have access to part-time employment, and carers leave, and in some cases, to special support designed to get those returning to the workforce after parental leave back into their research. To what extent do these measures give women equal opportunities in the academic workplace? In answering this question we need to know something about the family related responsibilities of academic staff, but we also need to set these against the specific nature of academic work and how it is organised. For example, Lotte Bailyn (2003, p.139) argues that the distinctive aspects of academic work makes the ideal, the perfect academic someone who gives total priority to work and has no outside interests and responsibilities. In both our studies we asked about whether staff lived with a partner and if they had dependent children, or older relatives requiring significant care, and for those with dependent children, we asked who was primarily responsible for their care. In analysing the UNSW and national data around family and household arrangements we found an unusual pattern emerging in the later UNSW study. In particular, female academic staff at UNSW appear to be significantly less likely to live with a partner than comparable social groups in Australia. The difference for between UNSW men and others is much less marked. A comparison with the national NTEU survey illustrates this point in Table 7. Table 7: Do respondents live with a partner by sex (column per cent)
Data source Live with partner Yes No N UNSW Women 63.5 36.5 197 Men 80.2 19.8 353 NTEU Women 72.1 27.9 674 Men 83.8 16.2 989
Such a difference could reflect a younger age profile of female staff at UNSW in 2002, but in fact there is no significant difference in the average age of staff in the two
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studies. Furthermore, age (or perhaps life-cycle factors) appears to be significant for somewhat different reasons. At UNSW it is in the 40-49 year-old group that the proportion of women who live with a partner falls dramatically compared to other industry studies we have undertaken. The comparable figures are 80.4 per cent living with a partner among female primary and secondary school teachers, and 81.5 per cent in the finance sector (banking and insurance workers) (Probert et al 1999, 2000). In this age group, our national higher education study found that 72.4 per cent of female academic staff lived with a partner, while it falls further at UNSW to 61.6 per cent. Up until that age bracket, the UNSW data is roughly comparable with the larger national survey. This data was one key factor behind the decision to hold two follow-up focus group discussions with female academic staff aged between 40 and 49. During the second focus group discussion it emerged that eight out of the ten women had broken up with their partners while they were studying for their PhD. As one of them commented, to this day I wonder how much a price I did have to pay to do my PhD because my marriage ended 4 or 5 months after - the price I paid for working so hard. And I did... I worked all the time. At the same time, the proportion of UNSW staff with children is much higher than our national study, both among people living with partners and those without, as Table 8 shows. Table 8: Have children by sex and live with partner17 (column per cent)
Data Source Women Lives with partner Has children No children N Does not live with partner Has children No children N 70.4 29.6 125 38.6 61.4 70 83.4 16.6 283 35.7 64.3 49.0 51.0 484 17.7 82.3 186 52.5 47.5 823 10.1 89.9 158 UNSW Men NTEU Women Men
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The impact of the caring load falls more heavily on UNSW staff than it did for their national colleagues in 1996. The primary care giver is more likely to be self than shared for both men and women in comparison to the national study; however only 8.4 per cent of male UNSW continuing/contract staff are primary care givers, compared to 67.3 per cent of women. This data is presented in Table 9, and confirms what we know about wider demographic trends: the stable nuclear family organised around a male breadwinner and a female home-maker is declining as a social norm. With the increase in both the number of sole parents and families with both partners at work, the complexity of peoples lives is increasing, as they juggle the demands of work and family.
17
The question used in the NTEU study was How many children under 18 do you have living at home?. As a result, the number of children in the UNSW study will be slightly higher as it asks about all children, not just dependent ones. 16
Table 9: Main carer of children by sex (column per cent)

Data Source Main carer of children Self Partner Shared Other N Women 67.3 2.8 25.2 4.7 107 UNSW Men 8.4 49.0 39.4 3.2 249 Women 48.9 2.9 42.6 5.5 272 NTEU Men 4.4 47.1 44.5 4.0 452
The caring load of UNSW women is also high compared to our other industry studies. Among primary/secondary teachers, 40.2 per cent of mothers describe themselves as having primary care of their children, as do 48.3 per cent of mothers in the finance sector, compared to 67.3 per cent at UNSW. It is important to recognise that almost all the partners of female academics were in full-time employment (91.7 per cent of national study), while only 57.2 per cent of male academics had partners in full-time employment. These dilemmas are compounded by the fact that almost a quarter of female academic staff also have caring responsibilities for aged parents - 16.9 per cent of these academic staff have caring responsibilities for aged parents, compared to 13.8 per cent of men. Table 10: Other caring responsibilities by sex (column per cent)
Women Aged parents Aged relatives Partner with illness or disability Relative with illness or disability Other person No other caring responsibilities N Men 13.8 3.0 4.5 7.4 2.0 72.3 202
22.3
3.8 3.8 10.5 6.7 46.7 105
From this initial data, it appears that academic staff at UNSW are experiencing widely recognised social changes more intensely than the community norm. Fewer UNSW staff live with a partner, and more care for children on their own, and this is particularly pronounced for women. It is not possible to make assertions about demographic trends from the UNSW study, but they are supported by national level data on the rate of marriage breakdown, and should alert us to issues that should be taken up in future research. LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE? The UNSW study of gender equity in academic employment allowed us to follow the survey with interviews around issues that emerged from the survey data. The survey data confirmed the earlier national study data which provided no evidence to support many of the commonly held assumptions about why women fail to develop their academic careers as successfully as men. Both studies suggest that policies in support
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of equal employment opportunities and affirmative action18 have been effective and that appointment and promotions procedures, and the allocation of teaching workloads, are largely free of systemic gender bias. The UNSW study allowed us to ask more questions about why men are so much more likely to have a PhD than women, and what men and women require in order to be able to do research both of which are critical dimensions of the human capital required in academic careers. The absence of many women above Level C in the career structure would appear to be linked to the way households organise the division between paid and unpaid work rather than to discrimination against women in the workplace. What the UNSW data suggested was that we needed to focus more closely on the experience of women currently at Level C in order to capture the relationship between their domestic lives and their professional lives. In order to do this we sent out a request for women at Level C to participate in focus group discussions, but particularly to those between 40 and 50 years of age with children, since this group appear to face particularly heavy family responsibilities. Those who agreed to participate were invited to discuss how, when and if they had completed a PhD; whether they intended to apply for promotion to Level D, and how they had arrived at this decision; and how their family responsibilities affected their careers. They were also encouraged to discuss ways in which their careers could be enhanced. Of the 15 women who participated, nine had dependent children (mostly late primary or secondary school age), and ten were separated or divorced. They came from a very wide range of disciplines including arts, commerce, medicine, engineering and law. Only 2 did not now have a PhD, and both of them were from disciplines where the PhD has been historically less important. However, several women gave us insights into the reality of the lives that lie behind the gendered pattern of PhD completions, and a picture of what goes wrong when we add household roles into the picture. I was a late starteras I gave birth to my fourth child I started my PhD and took on my full-time position as an associate lecturer, and my PhD took five years on that basisIt was fucking stupid. I got a job at a university, realised, well Ill have to do a PhD now, enrolled six weeks before I had my first child and basically wrote it with a full-time job and a baby. Took about five years. I think I got six months off at some stage for study leave but I remember my HOS [Head of School] saying youre not allowed to do your PhD on study leave you do pure research. Of those still without a PhD in our UNSW survey, women with children overwhelmingly cite lack of time as the principle obstacle (followed by teaching commitments and family19). Similarly, time off was what women most said they needed in order to do research more generally, in contrast to men who needed money. In comparison, men with children appear to be less pressed for time than women with children. Men with children are far more likely simply to be not interested in
18
In Australia affirmative action legislation does not permit the use of quotas or positive discrimination, but refers to the requirement that large employers monitor and report on gender patterns in employment, and introduce measures designed to increase female employment where it is underrepresented. 19 This was an open-ended question, hence the additional category of family.
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completing a PhD. For men and women without children the obstacles are more varied and less gendered. It is interesting to note that men are more likely than women to claim a general lack of support. As noted earlier, women are less likely than men to go on and complete a PhD if they begin their career without one. Table 11: What prevents obtaining PhD by sex and have children (column per cent)* No children Have children
Women Men Women Lack of time 62.1 36.4 33.3 Financial 10.3 6.1 22.2 Lack of supervisor 3.4 6.1 11.1 General lack of support 3.4 6.1 3.7 Teaching commitments 13.8 3.0 3.7 Heavy workload 3.4 24.2 37.0 Age 6.9 6.1 3.7 Illness 3.0 Not interested 13.8 21.2 14.8 Family 13.8 6.1 3.7 Other 3.0 N 29 33 27 * Percentages add to more than 100 as people could give more than one response Men 28.6 14.3 9.5 14.3 9.5 23.8 14.3 9.5 21
Within the focus groups there was lengthy discussion of the ways in which womens responsibility for their children constantly came into conflict with the requirements of their work. In particular, with this older group of women, it became clear that normal family-friendly workplace entitlements (maternity leave, part-time work, carers leave) are quite unable to resolve this conflict, even where they can freely be taken up. It is not having a baby or the demands of a sick child that create the major tensions, but the relentless and continuous collision between work and life on a daily and weekly basis. For example, women reflected on the difficulties they experienced in finding childcare on campus, with one remembering that she was on the waiting list for five years and didnt get offered a place. Several described their sense of guilt at having to leave the campus to pick up small children and the difficulty they faced in getting their colleagues to acknowledge these basic needs: I got one of those teaching awards and when did they want to award it? At 4.40 in the afternoon! Our staff seminar is at four oclock on a Friday afternoon followed by dinner Nor did things seem to get any easier when the children were older. The most striking comments in the focus groups concerned the demanding nature of being the primary carer of teenager children an experience summarised by the comment that its harder with teenagers. Or as another described it:
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The teenage thing I find this to be the hardest period of my life. From about five years ago I started getting calls in the school holidays Mum! Theres a gang of boys outside, egging our house, so in the school holidays, I cant afford childcare You manage school holidays from afar. I find this so stressful. It was also pointed out that January (summer holidays) was a particularly important time for parents to be with their children, yet critical meetings for the coming year were sometimes scheduled at this time. In two cases women talked about the way an older child had become particularly needy. This included a teenager whose self-destructive behaviour meant that her mother had to take a whole session off and do nothing but look after my daughter. This woman was strongly supported by her Head in this crisis, but nonetheless as a result she spent hours every day trying to be home closer to four [oclock] rather than to six or seven, and trying to be available to [her other children] and be present and watching what they are doing. Less dramatically another woman described discovering that her nine-year-old was failing at spelling. It was just scary that you do miss those things and you really want to be there to try and help them. One of the reasons men have greater human capital in terms of experience is related to these childcare issues. Of academic staff with children at UNSW, 88.1 per cent of women report that their caring responsibilities had an effect on their career plans, compared to 51 per cent of men. Interestingly, almost half of the these women indicated they had had to cut back their hours of work or stop work, compared to only 18 per cent who said that they had made a personal choice to stay home. Of the men who reported that caring had an impact on their careers, just over 40 per cent also described this as requiring them to cut back on their work. Not surprisingly, academic staff with dependent children see lack of time as the other main impact of family on work. Where staff with dependent children do not have a partner who takes on this caring as their primary responsibility, they feel they are unable to work the long hours that academic jobs need and require. It should be noted that this does not mean that they are unable to work normal full-time hours. It may equally reflect a reaction to the increasing workloads experienced by many academics over the last decade. In our focus group discussions this theme was constantly raised by the women with children the feeling that we always need to work harder, that you are just keeping your head above water. Discussing our evidence about the outcome of promotion applications at UNSW women were surprised by the data that shows a higher success rate for women than men, and encouraged by it. Several women hoped to become full professors, and two spoke warmly of how their supervisors were pressuring them or supporting them into applying for promotion. A significant minority, all with older children, had, however, given up any idea of moving beyond Level C. As one woman with two school-age children described it: Theres no point when your ambition just starts to dissipateI regard it as a failing. I think about what has happened to me and it is partly to do with exhaustion.
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These comments clearly also shed light on gendered patterns of research output. In the focus group discussions women with older children explicitly acknowledged that research was the only thing that could be put off when the combination of teaching, administration, children and research created overload. Thats what academics do. Primarily it is kids then comes teaching, and what times is left after that? There isnt much and so publications become like icing on the cake. And this is not a problem that is confined to the years when children are very young. Almost all this group of older mothers commented on the fact that having children meant they no longer felt able to get to international conferences. The reasons were varied. For one, it was because the logistics of childcare just fail. For another, with four children, her spectacular early career success was now constrained by particularly modern problems. I cannot go away. I used to go to international conferences Got invited to Harvard to give a paper, paid for by themand all of a sudden Im at home managing the bong. These tensions reflect a collision between the allocation of responsibility for the care of children to their mothers (rather than to their fathers or to publicly provided and affordable childrens services) and the particular demands of academic life. What the UNSW study brings into sharp relief is the fact that it is not just babies that cause disruption to mothers lives, but teenagers and family breakdown. In other words, normal family-friendly entitlements are quite unable to redress these kinds of work/family conflicts, even where they can freely be taken up. It is not having a baby or the demands of a sick child that create the major tensions, but the relentless and continuous collision between work and life on a daily and weekly basis. For against these family demands, academics must manage not only their teaching and administrative responsibilities, but an apparently insatiable demand for increased research outputs a demand that is increasingly experienced as a set of externally imposed performance indicators, but also as the an internalised understanding of what senior academics should be doing. CONCLUSION A major purpose of this paper has been to argue that many analysts of gender equity in universities have been looking in the wrong place. Two large scale studies of Australian academics suggest that the problem women face in advancing their careers is not the presence of a glass ceiling, let alone more directly discriminatory practices in appointments, promotions or workloads. Rather, if we want to understand more about the difference between mens and womens experience of paid work, we need to acknowledge how much this depends on what happens in the household. As Alison Morehead (2003) argues in her recently completed doctoral research, the household beats the workplace hands down as a site where gender matters and where gender determines what you do. In her study of
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womens work in a large hospital, Morehead (2003) argues that the key determinant of mothers paid work patterns is the management of absence from the household. In seeking to account for the way some households have shifted to a more balanced division of household work to support mothers employment, she develops the concept of the power of absence. In the context of hospital work, some women can increase their ability to be absent from the home because of the nature of shift work. Thus for many nurses there is a requirement to work shifts that include peak periods of domestic work in the late afternoon and early evening, which in turn requires fathers to take up a much larger domestic workload. In addition, nurses are often unable to leave work in the event of a childs sickness at school or other unforeseen event. In other words, if it is agreed in the household that these mothers should have paid employment, this brings with it the power of absence, in which a key element is the non-overlapping work hours of spouses employment. What is particularly striking about academic employment is, by contrast, its flexibility and the sense that it should in fact be more compatible with family responsibilities than more rigid working patterns. Much of what academics do can be done from home, at night or on weekends. This may, however, have precisely the opposite of its expected consequences in some cases. It is possible that the flexibility of academic work makes it more difficult for women to exert the power of absence since there are relatively few hours when they are required to be in the workplace. It is also possible that the increasing number of women taking up senior management positions in Australian universities is a reflection that such positions bring with them a quite different power of absence than senior academic positions. As Morehead (2003) argues, the working time schedule of the mother is an important predictor of the division of household labour, more so than the fathers. At the same time the professional or managerial male partners of female academics are likely to be experiencing longer working hours, and strong expectations about being at work and working late.20 In other words, we need to focus on the question of how fathers have an impact on mothers choices, and on households and what goes on in them. Much of the contemporary literature on work and family relies on the concept of an individual mother revealing preferences for different quantities of paid and unpaid work, or making rational decisions about maximizing household income. In reality, womens ability to devote time to paid work is the outcome of a complex and highly gendered set of negotiations and compromises within the household. To accept the importance of the household as the critical sphere in which mothers ability to develop their careers is negotiated is not to reject the significance of workplace initiatives and policy. On the contrary, provisions such as paid maternity leave and access to part-time employment are essential to allowing women to remain attached to their careers. Similarly, measures that introduce transparency around workload allocations and promotions criteria within a meritocratic framework appear to have had a significant impact in reducing gender discrimination. Nonetheless, this paper suggests that these measures are unlikely to ensure any substantial increase in the proportion of women reaching senior academic positions.
20
Morehead argues that long working hours for men can negate the potential effects on the gender division in the household of both parents working full-time jobs, and that the father gets two kinds of benefits: by being able to avoid unpaid work, and by improving his status in paid work by staying late. 22
BIBLIOGRAPHY Bailyn, L (2003) Academic careers and gender equity: lessons learned from MIT, Gender, Work and Organization, v. 10, no. 2 (March): 139. Hawkins, K (1994) Analyzing the pure case: womens narratives of academic life, Womens Studies in Communication, v. 17, no. 1: 1-25. Knights, D and Richards, W (2003) Sex discrimination in UK Academia, Gender, Work and Organization, v. 10, no. 2 (March): 213-238. Morehead, A (2003) How employed mothers allocate time for work and family: a new framework. PhD thesis, University of Sydney. Probert, B (1999a) Working in Australian universities: pay equity for men and women?, in D. Cohen et al (eds), Winds of change: women and the culture of universities: conference proceedings. Sydney: University of Technology. Probert, B (1999b) Gender pay equity in higher education, in P Fogelberg (ed.), Hard work in the academy: research and interventions on gender inequalities in Higher Education. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. Probert, B, Ewer, P and Leong, K (2002) Gender equity in academic employment at the University of New South Wales. Melbourne: Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University. Probert, B, Ewer, P and Whiting, K (1998) Gender pay equity in Australian Higher Education. Melbourne: National Tertiary Education Union. Probert, B, Ewer, P and Whiting, K (2000) Pressure from all sides: work and life in the finance sector. Melbourne: Finance Sector Union. Probert, B, Whiting, K and Ewer, P (1999) Building the foundations of our future. Melbourne: Australian Education Union. Ward, M (2001) The gender salary gap in British academia, Applied Economics, v.33, no. 13 (October).
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Womens Decisions about Paid Work and Family Life after Childbirth: A Critique of the Hakim model
Sheree Cartwright School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT University In Australia there has been new attention paid to womens work/life choices, which have been driven by changes in paid work and family, and marked particularly by an increase in womens paid work participation rate over the last three decades. The increase is most obvious among married women with young children (Pocock 2003). Attention to womens work/life decision-making also coincides with the apparent adoption of Hakims model by the Howard Government with regard to its women and family policies. This paper is a review of the research literature to date on womens decisions about paid work and family life after childbirth. A key objective is to critique Hakims model about womens choice (Hakim 2000, 2003). The main focus is the Australian context however the discussion also extends to the UK. Previous research explains womens paid work patterns by focusing on womens preferences for paid work and family life, but neglects to document womens lived-experiences at particular stages throughout the life-course. These analyses have tended to be based largely on quantitative research methods, which are linked to more general theories of womens paid work orientations (Hakim 2000).
INTRODUCTION Paid Work and Family Trends in Australia There has been a great deal of change in Australia affecting paid work and family life over the last three decades. This is marked particularly by womens changing economic and social opportunities and behaviours, including paid workforce participation trends. There has been a distinct change in womens paid workforce participation from 30 per cent in 1970, to 56 per cent in 2003 (ABS 1971, 2004). The steady increase is most obvious among married women with young children, showing a continuity of womens paid work participation after childbirth (ABS 2003). Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that most women with dependent children are now heavily engaged in the paid workforce (ABS 2003). For example, the proportion of all women with dependent children in the paid workforce (i.e. mothers in one-parent families - lone mothers, and mothers in couple families couple mothers) has increased from 45.6 per cent in 1985 to 60.4 per cent in 2003 (Campbell and Charlesworth 2004, p7). Similarly, mothers in couples with jobs has
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Cartwright S (2004) Womens Decisions about Paid Work and Family Life after Childbirth: A Critique of the Hakim Model in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 24-35.
Womens Decisions about Paid Work and Family Life after Childbirth
increased significantly over the past 25 years, doubling among those whose youngest child is less than one year old (Pocock 2003, p73). Research from Australia indicates that more women today are remaining in the paid workforce during the childbearing years and that fewer women are now leaving the paid workforce during the peak child bearing years compared with women from previous generations (Pocock 2003, p72). For example, the labour force participation rate of women aged 25-34 years rose from 63 per cent in 1988 to 71 per cent in 2002 (McDonald and Evans 2002, p8; ABS 2004). This also suggests that what is different is that women today are making varied choices about their paid work and family arrangements around childbirth (Himmelweit and Sigala 2004). It has also been noted that women who worked during their pregnancy return faster to the job they held prior to their pregnancy after giving birth, when they have longer previous continuous employment experience (Glass and Riley 1998). These changes show that more and more workers bring caring responsibilities with them into the workplace and no longer approach the workplace entrance as the ideal workers associated with the earlier male breadwinner/ female homemaker model (Campbell and Charlesworth 2004, p.i). Furthermore, in the Australian context many women work part-time in order to combine motherhood and paid work. In fact, Australia has the second highest participation of part-time workers in the OECD. While some women decide to continue in paid work, some reduce their hours in paid work and others decide to cease paid work and become full-time mothers (Pocock 2003, p.72-85). The ways in which women make decisions about organising paid work and family life, the influential factors upon their decision-making, and how much of decision-making is given over to agency or structure are increasingly significant questions today. These questions are related to major shifts in society over the last 30 to 40 years. In particular, changing social mores around womens participation in the paid workforce, and an increase in womens paid workforce participation rate, rising education levels for women particularly post-school education, greater control over fertility, growth of service sector jobs and the decline of manufacturing jobs and the growing availability of part-time and casual jobs. This paper is concerned with the research literature to date on womens decisions about paid work and family life after childbirth. A key objective is to critique the Hakim model of womens choices due to the apparent adoption of it by the Howard Government with regards to its women and family policies. The approach used in this paper will discuss the current popularity or influence of the Hakim model, outline Hakims model, and discuss the various critiques and criticisms of Hakim. The paper will conclude by discussing the need for a model that recognises the dynamism of womens decision-making and which is based on qualitative research as well as quantitative. THEORISING WOMENS PAID WORK AND FAMILY DECISIONS AFTER CHILDBIRTH There is a growing accumulation of empirical information particularly over the last 15 years in Australia about the conflict/balance between paid work and family life, paid work and disadvantage around maternity for women, and womens work/life preferences (Campbell and Charlesworth 2004; Gray, et al. 2003; Samson 2002; Gray,
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Sheree Cartwright and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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et al. 2002; Warner-Smith and Imbruglia 2001; Evans and Kelley 2001; Probert 2002; Cotton, et al. 1990; Castleman, et al. 1989). Current data about the nature of womens decisions about paid work and family after childbirth reveal differential experiences among women (Himmelweit and Sigala 2004). In particular, some women feel they have little or no choice about returning to paid work soon after childbirth (Samson 2002) and some women are clearly constrained to take up part-time or casual work (Pocock 2003, p.167-8). Previous analyses of womens work/life choices to date from in Australia (Castleman, et al. 1989; Samson 2002; Gray, et al. 2002), and in the UK (Hakim 2000; Houston and Marks 2002) have largely been based on womens preferences, using quantitative research methods and are linked to more general theories of womens paid work orientations (Crompton and Harris 1998; Hakim 2000; Samson 2002). A number of investigations have used human capital theory (Barrow 1999), preference theory (Hakim 2000; Samson 2002), theory of planned behaviour (Houston and Marks 2003) or rational-choice theory to explain womens paid work/life orientations. There have also been many attempts to explain the relationship between women and the labour market, for example patriarchy and gender theory which highlight the gendered division of labour within the household and separate spheres for men and women (Hartman 1981; Hochschild 1989; Connell 2002), and domestic ideology (Williams 2000). Despite this growing body of knowledge there are gaps in the research literature around womens lived-experiences in deciding about paid work and family life after childbirth in Australia. While research in paid work and family life is growing, there is still less material focusing on womens paid work/family life decision-making in the Australian circumstance. Preference Theory and its Popularity In looking at what British sociologist, Catherine Hakim (2000) has said about what women want in terms of paid work and family life, she describes a major shift in society, towards one in which there are a variety of life-styles for people to pursue. Using data from a national survey, Hakim argues that lifestyle preferences predict work and fertility rates. The central argument is that women are not homogenous but have different preferences and priorities regarding balancing paid work and family life. Women have choices about paid work that are denied to men (McRae 2003a, p.319). Hakims (2000) preference theory suggests that womens preferences for paid work and family life are directly interconnected with the choices they make. She argues that preference theory reinstates personal preferences as an important determinant of womens behaviour and it states that attitudes, values and preferences are becoming increasingly important in the lifestyle choices of people in rich modern societies (Hakim 2000, p.17). Furthermore, after the new scenario is achieved in affluent modern societies of the 21st century womens employment decisions, and eventually, those of men also, will be driven primarily by their personal preferences for one of the three qualitatively different work-lifestyles (Hakim 2000, p.189-90). Based on their preferences, Hakim (2000, p.158) argues that all women in modern societies fall into one of three types according to their choices, preferences and behaviours. These include work-centred women who are more inclined towards paid work (20%), home-centred women who are more inclined to care work within the
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Sheree Cartwright the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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home (20%), and adaptive women who prefer to combine both paid work/home without giving a fixed priority to either (60%). Hakims model is concerned with womens choices between family work and market work: a genuine choice in affluent modern societies (Hakim 2000, p.1). Preference theory states that in modern societies women can now make genuine choices about the balance between paid work and family life and that differences in womens labour market choices reflect and determine differences in life-style choices and preferences found at all levels of education, and in all social classes. It has developed from major shifts in the Western world, particularly, the womens movement, the contraception revolution, the equal opportunities revolution, the expansion of white-collar occupations, the creation of jobs for secondary earners, and the increasing importance of attitudes, values and personal preferences in the lifestyle choices of prosperous liberal modern societies (Hakim 2000, p.3). Hakims Work-Lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century: Preference Theory, is an important contribution to current understandings of womens labour market patterns. Its popularity or influence can be seen through current researchers application of preference theory in their own work (Samson 2002), and the way in which many researchers today (including this author) test or challenge its arguments (McRae 2003a, 2003b; Crompton and Harris 1998a, 1998b; Houston and Marks 2003; Himmelweit and Sigala 2004). Furthermore, Hakims model takes account theoretically of gender differences in labour market behaviour and outcomes (McRae 2003a, p.318). Hakims adaptive women is supported by the steady increase in womens paid workforce patterns in Australia and the UK, particularly the high rate of women in part-time employment, showing that the traditional full-time homemaker ideal where a womans main responsibility is childcare and family work in the domestic sphere is in the minority. Furthermore, support is found for Hakims arguments that employment careers are centrally important for only a minority of women (McRae 2003a, p.318). Hakims model challenges previous social science research on womens labour market behaviours and outcomes. Hakim claims that previous studies have frequently focused on the views of women employed full-time which, according to Hakim (1996, p.88) are seriously unrepresentative of the views of the majority of adult women. She argues that studies have frequently assumed that because they account for the large majority, adaptive women are representative of all women and consequently failed to include women who have been out of the labour market for many years (Hakim 2000, p.285, in McRae 2003a, p.319-20). Highlighting its popularity or influence, Hakims model has sparked recent interest by policy makers including the Howard Government. Hakims model and its influence on the Howard Government has been depicted in a positive light in the Weekend Australian as producing an about-face on the work and family debate (Symons 2004, p.8). In the same article, noting Hakims influence the Weekend Australian reported, Indeed, Mr Howard went so far as to say how he was very impressed by Dr Hakims ideas about valuing mothers and womens choices, because they were so realistic and compelling This is rational economic man finally making her voice heard (Symons, 2004, p.8).
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The apparent adoption of Hakims model by the Howard Government is alarming given that it is a static model with many criticisms (McRae 2003a, 2003b; Houston and Marks 2003; Pocock 2003; Himmelweit and Sigala 2004). Since the Howard Government came into office in 1996 it has cut public spending on childcare by $546 million, cut approximately $36 million in family programme expenditure, collapsed all current parenting payments into the Family Tax Initiative and has set about implementing a traditionalist type of family policy based on the idea of a malebreadwinner/female-homemaker household (Samson 2002, p.22-9). In her research on the impact of the Howard Government policy of the labour market preferences of partnered women with preschool aged children in Australia, Samson (2002, p.23) argues that: changes to welfare benefits are not part of a social engineering exercise but have been designed to support the decision of a large proportion of women with children to pursue caregiving full-time and has increased womens economic dependence on their partners. In addition, the Howard Government has increased the disadvantage faced by women when they move from being a full-time homemaker to working in paid employment. When assessing the Howard Governments family, labour market and childcare policies over the past decade it is clear that it has negatively impacted on women with children and Australian families. Further type-casting women into only three categories in line with Hakims model, would misrepresent the complex nature of womens decision-making processes and experiences of paid work and family life. Furthermore, it should be noted that government policies and programs are only one factor in enabling or discouraging women from combining paid work and family care responsibilities and the level at which they decide to do so. Critiques and Criticisms of Hakims Model Hakims model has received considerable criticism in recent years, particularly the categorising of women from all modern affluent societies based on their apparent behaviour that produce three groups identified by Hakim as: work-centred, homecentred and adaptive women. Upon first reading Hakims model, it appears that in one broad sweep women are locked into one of only three categories, which do not account for women who fall between categories. For example take the following passage: A minority of women have no interest in employment, careers, or economic independence and do not plan to work long term unless things go seriously wrong for them. Their aim is to marry as well as they can and give up paid employment to become full-time homemakers and mothers. The group includes highly educated women as well as those who do not get any qualifications In contrast, other women actively reject the sexual division of labour in the home, expect to work full-time and continuously throughout life The third group is numerically dominant: women who are determined to combine employment and family work, so become secondary earners (Hakim 2000, p.189).
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The latter sentence, The third group is numerically dominant: women who are determined to combine employment and family work, so become secondary earners (2000, p.189), highlights that Hakim doesnt envisage or indeed conceive of a woman or a man being both family-centred and the main breadwinner. Furthermore, Hakims model is static where people may not fit overall and ignores the fact that women make decisions about the balance of paid work and family responsibilities repeatedly over the years, not just once. It neglects to take account that women or men may behave in one way at one life stage and in quite a different way at another life stage. It simplifies womens decisions and paid work/family lives. Drawing on her longitudinal survey research with just over 1,500 first time mothers surveyed in 1988, 1999 and 1993, McRae reflects on Hakims preference theory as a model explaining the position of women in the British labour market (2003a, p.317). McRae argues there is little evidence that it is womens preferences that distinguish the minority from the majority (2003a, p.318). She found that first-time mothers work histories were based almost entirely on observable external characteristics and not preferences (2003a, p.325). McRae argues that the preferences upon which Hakim has built her model remain largely absent with regard to the women in her study. Rather, women in McRaes study indicated differing relations that Hakim had not accounted for in her model (2003a, p.324). McRae notes (2003a, p.324), Even without taking preferences into account, it is possible to identify groups of women with differing relationships to the labour market; women who fit family and work together differently a career and children, children and a job, my family comes first, my family is my job. Houston and Marks (2003) surveyed women during pregnancy and after childbirth to examine how psychological and job-related factors in pregnancy differentiated those mothers who carried out their intention to work and those who did not. In support of Hakims (2000) characterisation of womens work orientations proposed in preference theory, Houston and Marks (2003, p.209) empirical evidence shows, The proportions of women who intend to work full-time, part-time or not at all are broadly in line with the proportions proposed by Preference theory. They further argue, that 24 per cent of the women who responded to the survey were not able to return to work in a manner consistent with the preferences they expressed in pregnancy. These findings would equally support the view that opportunities and constraints (Crompton and Harris 1998a) also play a role in the amount and level of work participation (Houston and Marks 2003, p.209). Other studies have shown that some women have a range of diverse and complex employment patterns after childbirth such as a combination of full-time work, parttime work and periods of absence from the paid workforce which make it difficult to determine a pattern of womens labour attachment after childbirth (Moen 1985, in Cotton, et al 1990). There is a lack of acknowledgement of womens differing experiences in decision-making, and relations to the labour market (McRae 2003a), which Hakims primary arguments (1998, 2000, 2003a) fail to consider. Hakims (2000, p.18) argument that women are unconstrained and unforced when deciding about a particular life direction, and that Affluent and liberal modern
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societies provide opportunities for diverse lifestyle preferences women have genuine choices as to what to do with their lives (Hakim 2000, p.273-4), have come under considerable scrutiny in recent years (McRae 2003a, 2003b; Pocock 2003; Himmelweit and Sigala 2004). While Hakims (1998a, p.135) earlier work also represents women as self-made who actively or freely choose their current lifestyle of paid work or family life or a mixture of both, other researchers have strongly disagreed, describing women as constructing their paid work/family lifestyle out of both the opportunities and constraints/structures available to them at a given time (Crompton and Harris 1998a, p.118). A vast number of researchers point out the varying degrees in which different groups of women are able to make genuine choices about paid work/family, and highlight constraints such as the gender contract, access to and affordability of child care services and economic constraints (Himmelweit and Sigala 2004; Pocock 2003; Samson 2002; Probert 2002). McRae (2003a, p.328-9) argues that Hakims model does not follow that these patterns of behaviour are unconstrained. All women face constraints in making decisions about their lives. All non-trivial decisions have opportunity costs (things that must be foregone) as well as real costs Some women have substantially better chances than others of overcoming constraints, and hence of living as if they faced no constraints. However, while Hakim does not deny the existence of constraints and contextual influences on womens preferences her arguments paint a conflicting and contradicting picture of choice and constraint in womens paid work and family life. In the Australian context, Samson (2002) argues that some mothers are more constrained than others in their decisions about paid work and family. For example, partnered women with pre-school aged children are more constrained than women with school-aged dependents because they are forced to make concomitant decisions about childcare (Samson 2002, p.4). Australian mothers with preschool children like the majority of Australian women have little scope for real choice in the current economic climate due to structural barriers and gender culture constraints that clearly limit womens opportunities (Samson 2002, p.4). Samson (2002, p.90) argues, We need to differentiate between preferences and lived-experience as previous empirical studies largely take for granted that womens preferences are evidenced by their actions and expressed views. She continues, preference-formation create a conceptual framework in which not only are some features of individual decisionmaking prioritised over others, but serve to obscure womens particular lived experience of decision-making (Samson 2002, p.6). Samson states (2002, p.89): More crucially, these findings shed some light on the true nature of womens preferences regarding their labour market activity. They support the contention that women who are presented with a greater variety of options about organising their work and family lives make markedly different decisions about their labour market participation than those lacking such options, and that the structure and organisation of the labour market and welfare institutions in turn shape the choices women see as viablenot all women who appear to have chosen the role of full-time mother (or fulltime worker, for that matter) have really made that choice.
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Himmelweit and Sigala (2004, p.2) found that mothers identified internal (personal) and external (structural, institutional) constraints on their decisions, particularly their identity, economic, and institutional presence and affordability of services. Houston and Marks (2003) found that planning, income and workplace support were the strongest predictors of working as intended, and 24 per cent of respondents were not able to return to work in a manner consistent with their preferences during pregnancy. The majority of women in their study preferred to work full-time, however, fewer women actually returned to paid work than stated their preference for returning to paid work. Other arguments, however, suggest that mothers attitudes and choices are already structured by such economic conditions and state policies so that mothers have limited information on which to choose arrangements about paid work and family life (Fagan 2000, p.244). Furthermore, recent studies of Australian womens childcare decisions note womens choices are associated with external constraints such as economic concerns, as well as internal factors such as self-esteem, isolation (WarnerSmith and Imbruglia 2001), maternal responsibility and identity as a good-mother (Lupton 2000). Barbara Pocock (2003, p.261) in The Work/Life Collision, argues that Australia needs to modify the current Work/Care regime to meet the diverse needs of individuals and catch up with behavioural realities. She argues that policy makers and governments ascribe too much power to individual agency and believe individual needs are a matter of choice. The choice framework, she argues, does not encourage a focus on the constraints that shape or determine choices, and keeps the cultures and habits that construct and limit choices, out of view (Pocock 2003, p.261). She further argues that the presumption of choice is mistaken: At present in most places there is simply no option to choose, for example, decently paid permanent part-time work or income support while caring for a child for a year or two (Pocock 2003, p.261). Other research has focused on the effects of constraints upon womens health and well-being. Much attention has been paid to the affects of the double day for many Australian women who do the lions share of household and care work as well as participating in the paid workforce. In particular, the double-day implications for time-poverty, health problems and other negative outcomes particularly for working mothers with dependents (Cartwright and Warner-Smith 2003; Bittman and Wajcman 1999). Hochschild (1989), emphasised the negative implications of the second-shift for womens health, and also highlighted the positive implications of paidemployment for womens emotional well-being: Studies show that working mothers have higher self-esteem and get less depressed than housewives, but compared to their husbands, theyre more tired and get sick more often (Hochschild 1989, p.4). The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey show that households in Australia have unchanging patterns of domestic and care work, which remain largely the responsibility of women (Melbourne Institute 2002). Despite increasing numbers of women in the paid workforce, working mothers still bear the major burden of family management.
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The constraint literature challenges Hakims propositions about womens free choice in determining their paid work and family lives, and suggests that women are heavily constrained according to the choices available to them and their ability to negotiate or overcome constraints. Unlike Hakim (2000) who argues that women have genuine, unconstrained choices about how they wish to live their lives, the constraint literature indicates that conflicts, tensions and disadvantage largely exist for women juggling paid work and family life. Women and Part-Time Work In the Australia, part-time and casual employment is one of the key means used by working mothers to combine paid work and family responsibilities (Earle 2002). The high concentration of women in part-time and casual employment is also evidence that the labour market remains largely unresponsive to accommodate the needs of workers with family and caring responsibilities (Pocock 2003). In particular, the employment growth of women in the service sector can be seen as a strategy for an industry that is reliant on casual and part-time labour with low-skill, short hours, lowpay, minimum leave entitlements and offers little opportunity for building a career (Earle 2002, p.14). This has also been described as feminised employment that do not in fact pay a living wage such as retailing and hospitality (Probert 2002, p.12). Empirical accounts from Australia have focused on how mothers negotiate existing constraints, demonstrating a move toward a range of negotiation strategies that mothers use in their interaction with constraints (Pocock 2003; Earle 2002; WarnerSmith and Imbruglia 2001). For example, arranging external family members to care for children to enable an easier combination of family and paid work and return to the workforce (Pocock 2003, p.72-104). McRaes (2003a, p.324) findings indicated, there are women employed continuously part-time as an alternative strategy for combining work and family life. Hakims model has been criticised for depicting women who are employed part-time as not as committed to their work as full-time employees. Hakim (2000, p.165-6) argues: The adaptive group consists of women who want to combine employment and family without either taking priority it includes women with unplanned careers who develop successful employment or political careers more by accident than by design or because the economic or political environment created special opportunities for them. The adaptive group includes large numbers of drifters, women with no definite ideas about the life they want, who respond to opportunities as they arise or not, and who modify their goals quickly and repeatedly in response to the changing social and economic environment Castleman et al (1989, p.8) argue that, except for the apparently greater financial pressures on women planning full-time return, no differences were found between those planning full-time return and those planning part-time return. This suggests that the usual assumption that part-time working women are less interested in and less committed to their jobs than full-time workers is quite unfounded. In the same vein, Himmelweit and Sigala (2004, p.12) note that many mothers from their study,
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Stressed that having caring responsibilities did not mean that they were any less conscientious at work. Towards a New Model There is a need for a model that recognises the dynamism of womens decisionmaking and which is based on qualitative research as well as quantitative. Previous investigations separate womens constraints and preferences from their choices and opportunities. There are divergent arguments within the literature on womens choices about paid work and family, particularly around the conceptualisation of womens choice, and the extent of constraints regarding womens choices (Samson 2002; Probert 2002; Hakim 1991, 1998, 2000, 2003a; Crompton and Harris 1998a). While there is a growing body of information, at present little is still known about the complexity of individual decision-making processes and the lived-experiences of womens paid work and family life decision-making in Australia. We need to acknowledge that by exploring womens decisions about paid work and family we are presuming that all women plan their paid work and family lifestyle, participation and behaviour. Unpredictable or unplanned occurrences such as accidental pregnancy or an offer of child care by a relativeor a partners changing circumstances, as well as the first time experience of having a child, may instantly change circumstances and behaviours (Richards 1977, p.11-2). Barrow (1999, p.1) uses human capital theory to explore womens decisions to return to work within one year of childbirth, focusing on the effect of child care costs. She states, First, I assume a woman makes her labour force participation decisions by maximizing her utility, taking her husbands labour force participation and income as given (Barrow 1999, p.3). We need to consider that ideas and decisions about motherhood, parenting/family life and paid work lives may not be rationally and logically designed. We need to carefully consider these arguments about conceptualising womens choices/decisions and the representation of the opportunities and constraints available to women. These differing views open up the possibility of thinking about womens decision-making in terms of examining womens lived-experiences (including opportunities, constraints and choices) as well as preferences for combining paid work and family after childbirth. There needs to be an awareness of the difficulty inherent when considering womens paid work and family life decisions. Although it may be challenging to do so, investigations should be designed to gain indepth narratives repeated over a period of time about womens actual livedexperiences and preferences regarding decision-making about paid work and family life after childbirth in Australia. BIBLIOGRAPHY ABS (1971) Labour Force, Catalogue no. 6.22. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. ABS (2003) Australian Social Trends, Catalogue no. 4102.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. ABS (2004) Year Book Australia Labour Force, Catalogue no. 1301.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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ABS (2004) Year Book Australia Spotlight on Parental Leave, Catalogue no. 6150.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Barrow, L (1999) An analysis of womens return-to-work decisions following first birth, Economic Inquiry, v. 37, no. 3: 432-434. Bittman, M and Wajcman, J (1999) The rush hour: the quality of leisure time and gender equity, Discussion paper no. 97. Sydney: Social Policy Research Centre. Campbell, I and Charlesworth, S (2004) Background report: key work and family trends in Australia. Melbourne: Centre for Applied Social Research. Cartwright, S and Warner-Smith P (2003) Melt-down: young womens talk of time and implications for health, well-being and identity in late modernity, Annals of Leisure Research, v. 6, n. 4: 319-338. Castleman, T; Mulvany J and Wulf, M (1989) After maternity: how Australian women make decisions about work and family. Melbourne: Swinburn Press. Connell, RW (2002) Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press. Cotton, S; Antil, JK and Cunningham, JD (1990) Factors influencing the labour force attachment of mothers with preschool-aged children, Australian Journal of Psychology, v. 42, no. 2: 157-171. Crompton, R and Harris, F (1998a) Explaining womens employment patterns: orientations to work revisited, British Journal of Sociology, v. 49, no. 1: 118147. Crompton, R and Harris, F (1998b) A reply to Hakim, British Journal of Sociology, v. 49, no. 1: 144-148. Earle, J (2002) Family-friendly workplaces: a tale of two sectors, Family Matters, no. 61 (Autumn): 12-17. Evans, MDR and Kelley, J (2001) Employment for mothers of pre-school children: evidence from Australia and 23 other nations, People and Place, v. 9, no. 3: 2840. Fagan, C (2000) Mens long work hours and womens short work hours: the case of Britain in P Peltola (ed.), Working time in Europe: toward a European working time policy: Finnish EU presidency conference report. Helsinki: Hakapaino Oy. Glass J and Riley L (1998) Family responsive policies and employee retention following childbirth, Social Forces, v. 74, no, 4: 1401-1435. Gray, M; Qu, L; de Vaus, D and Millward, C (2002) Determinants of Australian Mothers employment: an analysis of lone and couple mothers. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. Gray, M; Qu, L; Renda, J and de Vaus, D (2003) Changes in the labour force status of lone and couple Australian mothers. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. Hakim, C (1991) Grateful slaves and self-made women: fact and fantasy in womens work orientations, European Sociological Review, v. 7, no. 2: 101-121. Hakim, C (1998) Developing a sociology for the Twenty-First Century: preference theory, British Journal of Sociology, v. 49, no. 1: 137-143. Hakim, C (2000) Work-lifestyle choices in the 21st Century: preference theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hakim, C (2003) Public morality versus personal choice: the failure of social attitude surveys, British Journal of Sociology, v. 53, no.3: 339-346. Hartman, H (1981) The family as a locus of gender, class and political struggle: the example of housework, Signs, v. 6, no. 3: 366-394. Himmelweit, S and Sigala, M (2004) Choice and the relationship between attitudes and behaviour for mothers with preschool children: some implications for policy
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in Proceedings of 2004 conference on globalisation, families and work: meeting the political challenge in the next two decades. Brisbane. Hochschild, AR (1989) The second-shift: working parents and the revolution at home. New York: Viking Penguin. Houston, D and Marks, G (2003) The role of planning and workplace support in returning to work after maternity leave, British Journal of Industrial Relations, v. 41, no. 2: 197-214. Lupton, D (2000) A love/hate relationship: the ideals and experiences of first time mothers, Journal of Sociology, v. 36, no. 1: 50-63. McDonald, P and Evans, A (2002) Family formations and Risk Aversion, Discussion Paper for Negotiating the Life Course. Canberra: Australian National University. McRae, S (2003a) Constraints and choices in mothers employment careers: a considerations of Hakims preference theory, British Journal of Sociology, v. 54, no. 3: 317-338. McRae, S (2003b) Choice and constraints in mothers employment careers: McRae replies to Hakim, British Journal of Sociology, v. 54, no. 4: 585-592. Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (2002) Hilda Survey Annual Report. Melbourne: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. Pocock, B (2003) The work/life collision: what working is doing to Australians and what to do about it. Sydney: Federation Press. Probert, B (2002) Grateful slaves or self-made women: a matter of choice or policy? Clare Burton Memorial Lecture, Australian Feminist Studies, v. 17, no. 37: 7-17. Richards, L (1977) Good mothers and other mothers: family style and social change La Trobe Sociology Papers. Melbourne: Social Change Research Unit. Samson, A (2002) Choosing their Choice? Impact of the Howard Government policy on the labour market preferences of partnered women with preschoolers in Australia. Negotiating the Life Course Discussion Paper Series, no 110. Canberra: Australian National University. Symons, EK (2004) Professor tore down picket fence ideal, The Weekend Australian, May 8, p.8. Taylor, J (1996) Issues of paid employment for mothers of young children, Women and Work, v. 17, no. 3: 12-18. Warner-Smith, P and Imbruglia, C (2001) Motherhood, employment and health: is there a deepening divide between women?, Just Policy, no. 24: 24-32. Williams, J (2000) Unbending gender: why family and work conflict and what to do about it. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Loves Labour: Conflicts over Work and Relationships for Trafficked Filipina Entertainers in Korea
Sallie Yea International Development Programme, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT University There is now a burgeoning literature on the interrelated subjects of sex tourism, militarised prostitution and female entertainers in Asia. Despite the central importance that many women who are the subjects of this literature place on relationships, romance and sometimes even love in narrating their employment experiences and discussing their working lives, very little of such detail figures in this literature. This paper explores the experiences of romance and relationships for migrant Filipina entertainers and the meanings these women attach to such experiences through a discussion of narratives of women living and working in two US military club areas in South Korea. Although relationships that circumvent or contradict client-worker norms are given scant attention in the literature on both sex tourism and militarised prostitution, research with these women in Korea reveals that they are often preoccupied with the tensions between work and relationships, the way relationships are both expressed and constrained by their status as trafficked entertainer and negotiations over their financial and emotional security.
INTRODUCTION Some GIs say to me, You just tell us you love us. But we heard about you. You dont love, you just want us to buy a drink. Customers get jealous of each other. Even Tim [boyfriend] gets jealous. He thinks hes just my boyfriend because I want him to buy me drinks. I have to lie to other customers and say Tim is not my boyfriend, just a sweet guy. Sometimes customers insult me and call [me] liar. Tim and I had fights [about that] and he wanted me to leave the club (Charie, 24 years). When I went with other customers it caused big problems in our relationship. One time David saw me go into the VIP room with a customer. I had to do that because I needed the money. My brother got in trouble with the police for assault. After that David [boyfriend] gave me a letter, which said that he could not accept the work I was doing in the club if we were to be boyfriend and girlfriend. In the letter there was US$1000. In the letter David asked me to accept the money and not to sell myself for money any more. After that I stopped going to the VIP room (Jenny, 25 years).
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Yea S (2004) Loves Labour: Conflicts over Work and Relationships for Trafficked Filipina Entertainers in Korea in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 36-49.
Loves Labour
These reflections from Charie and Jenny mirror those of many Filipino women (Filipinas) who have come to South Korea1 to work as migrant entertainers in United States military club areas or camp towns (kijichon, in Korean). Both Charie and Jenny eventually ran away from the respective clubs where they were employed because neither woman could cope with the tensions between her work and relationship any longer. Charie and Jenny also despised the work in the clubs, since the club owners and their managers (promoters) regularly coerced them into performing duties that were not stated in their contracts, including prostitution, and both were financially exploited during their stay in the clubs. Although their decisions to run away were informed by a coalescence of factors, their relationships nonetheless assumed paramount importance among these. Once they ran away both women became illegal migrants in Korea and their relationships with their boyfriends took on a formative role in shaping their futures.2 There is now a burgeoning literature on the interrelated subjects of sex tourism, militarised prostitution and women trafficked for prostitution/entertainment in Asia. Despite the central importance that many women who are the subjects of this literature place on relationships, romance and even love in narrating their migration experiences and discussing their working lives, little of such detail figures in this literature. Although relationships that circumvent or contradict client-worker norms are given scant attention, women like Charie and Jenny are often preoccupied with the tensions between work and relationships, the way relationships are both expressed and constrained by their status as trafficked entertainers and negotiations over their financial and emotional security. Further, relationships with GI customers often come to play a pivotal role in these womens imagined futures once they are in Korea and, sometimes, prior to their migration from the Philippines as well as after they return. Thus, what often starts as a one-year stint in Korea as an entertainer often becomes a much longer, sometimes permanent movement in which their futures become intimately intertwined with those of their boyfriends. This paper is an attempt to make a positive intervention into discussions of migrant and trafficked women and work by focusing on narratives of love, romance, boyfriends and relationships among Filipinas working in US military camp towns in Korea.3 In doing so, it is not my intention to sentimentalise the experiences of these women. Nor do I wish to suggest that forming relationships with GI customers that transcend their working arrangements somehow erases the power dynamics and human rights abuses that exist in these relationships or are an inherent part of trafficking for prostitution. There is no doubt that all of the women who participated in this research experienced some form of human rights abuses and emotional trauma
Hereafter Korea, unless otherwise contrasted with North Korea. Jenny was married to her GI boyfriend, David, 4 months after running away from Club U. They continue to live in a small rental apartment nearly the base where David works. In June 2003 their first child was born. Charie went to work in a factory in Seoul after running away from Club P and, after 3 weeks, discontinued contact with her fianc, Tim. When I later found Charie again she admitted she was ashamed about leaving Tim but said she did not really love him. I discovered that she had another boyfriend, Ronny, who was a Filipino factory worker in Seoul, whom she also met while working in Club P. They are now living together in a small rental apartment in Seoul and work together in the same factory nearby their apartment. 3 The existence of romantic relationships between entertainers and their customers has been recognised in some studies on militarised prostitution (Pollack Sturdevant and Stoltzfus 1992) and sex tourism (Cohen 1982 and 1986).
2 1
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Sallie Yea and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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while working in Korea and that some of these abuses occurred at the hands of GIs and other customers. It is simply that such abuses do not capture the complexity of these womens experiences, the agency that the women attempt to assert in negotiating their everyday lives, relationships and status as entertainers, or the selfunderstanding and imagined futures the women are constantly attempting to shape while in Korea, all of which aim to achieve a recognition that they are people, rather than commodities and that some of their interactions at least need to be understood in terms of emotional relationships, rather than commercial transactions. Establishing romantic relationships with customers is one means by which these women are able to assert agency and work towards a (partial) reversal of the power dynamics between themselves, their employers and their customers and to overcome the stigma attached to their labels as entertainers or prostitutes by introducing the notions of romance and love into such encounters.4 These relationships usually begin as a source of amusement or fun and as a means to counter the boredom of otherwise mundane lives in the kijichon (US Military camp towns). In most cases GI boyfriends also play an important role in providing financial and emotional support for the women. Often, however, the relationships develop into more serious affairs with deeper levels of emotional attachment and financial dependence. During a 12 months period from July 2002 to August 2003 I met over 100 Filipinas currently or previously working in clubs in the three major kijichon areas in Korea of Tongducheon, Songtan and Itaewon. Formally, 20 of these women participated in indepth narrative style interviews and completed a comprehensive, 10-page questionnaire, whilst a further 27 participated in the questionnaire only. Altogether these women are currently or were previously employed in more than 15 different clubs in these three areas. The ages of the women ranged from 16 to 35 years, although most of the women were in their early 20s. Although participants were drawn from a range of different areas in the Philippines, the majority was from Mindanao, Laguna, Bulakan, Manila and Quezon City. For most Korea represented their first experience to go abroad for work, but some of the women had also been to Japan, Malaysia and Saipan previously to work as entertainers. About half the participants were single mothers and many had separated from their Filipino boyfriends or husbands prior to their migration to Korea. All of the women except one were involved in boyfriend-girlfriend relationships while working in the kijichon, which varied in their degree of intensity, seriousness and longevity. In fact, some of the women had more than one boyfriend at the same time, whilst others changed boyfriends often more than once during the course of the research period. A few of the women established romantic relationships with customers even though they were still married or involved in a serious relationship back in the Philippines. Of the 47 participants, 44 had a boyfriend (or husband) who was a GI based at either Camp Casey, Camp Hovey or Camp Red Cloud (for Tongducheon participants) or Osan Air Base or K-6 Army Base (for Songtan participants). Two of the women had boyfriends who were Filipino factory workers rather than GIs. Filipino migrant workers figured as the second most popular choice of boyfriend among the women in
4
See also Sea-ling Cheng 2002. Transnational Desires: Trafficked Filipinas in US Military Camp Towns in South Korea, Doctoral Dissertation, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford. In Chapter Five, Cheng discusses the discourse of love and romance between GIs and Filipinas in the kijichon. 38
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the kijichon.5 As well as the women who participated directly in my research, I also had access to unpublished interviews and additional information (including one womans diary) concerning 11 Filipinas who were working together in one club in Tongducheon (Club S) and were rescued by the police working in concert with the Philippines Embassy in June 2002. Some details of these 11 womens experiences have also been collected and published by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM 2002).6 The chapter first gives a brief history of militarised prostitution in Korea, including the introduction of foreign women into these areas in the 1990s and the particular circumstances of their work and life in the clubs. This is important because the context and conditions of their club work and life, in part, supply the impetus for women to engage in relationships with GIs. I then discuss the way relationships are formed and sustained in the context of the womens work in the clubs and the tensions this situation can create for the women. Throughout the chapter I draw extensively on the narratives of the women themselves. My aim is to extend understandings of trafficked entertainers in Korea through accounts of their emotional and relational lives, which are an important and perhaps dominant part of their migration journeys, imagined futures and working lives. CLUBS AND SEXUAL LABOUR IN KOREAS KIJICHON Military prostitution involving the United States was first established in Korea in the early 1950s in the context of Cold War political tensions in East Asia. In 1953, at the conclusion of the Korean War (1950-53), the US military established a permanent presence of approximately 37,000 troops in South Korea. There are currently 99 military bases and installations in the country, with kijichon also existing outside the largest ones. Kijichon may be defined as areas in the immediate proximity of the base that are oriented predominantly to the entertainment, leisure and consumption needs of the US military personnel. In most kijichon the streetscape is dominated by businesses with signage in English and goods and services catering to American tastes, including clubs and brothels. The institution of military prostitution in Korean kijichon has, until very recently, almost exclusively involved the sexual labour of Korean women. Filipino and Russian women began to enter Korea as entertainers (E-6 visa) to work in the kijichon clubs in 1995 as Koreas position in the global economy vis--vis Russia and its Southeast Asian neighbours, including the Philippines improved. In 2001, according to National Statistics Office figures, 8,586 entertainers came to Korea, among which 6,971 (81 per cent) were female. These included 1,599 Filipinas and 3,518 Russian women, which together comprised just under 60 per cent of the total of entertainers
The only participant without a boyfriend in Korea was Celia (22 years). She was involved in a de facto relationship with a Filipino man who remained in the Philippines. When Celia arrived in Korea she was pregnant with their son. She ran away from the club where she worked after just 3 days in order to continue the pregnancy. 6 For part of the fieldwork period (August-October 2002) I was involved in a survey of trafficked Filipinas conducted by the Korea Church Women United (KCWU). Some material from interviews conducted by my research partners as part of that study is also drawn upon in this paper. Unless otherwise stated all research participants (women and men) are referred to by pseudonyms.
5
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that came to Korea for that year. Although it is difficult to ascertain precise numbers of Filipinas working in kijichon clubs, based on numbers of official entrants and unofficial/illegal workers, one may safely estimate that there are at least 1,500 women at any one time, although this number could be twice as high. The majority of Filipinas who work in kijichon come to Korea on one-year contracts; however, they must renew their E-6 visa after six months. In their contracts, which are normally signed by the women while they are still in the Philippines, the following generic job description is normally given by the agency: to entertain customers by taking their orders for drinks, talking to them and sitting with them. Some women have trained as professional singers or dancers while in the Philippines and are told they will be using these skills as professional entertainers in the kijichon clubs in Korea. All of the women who participated in this study stated that, once in Korea, the nature of their work changed from what had been agreed to in the contract. Many of the women did not receive a copy of their contract at all and could therefore not verify the differences between their contracts and their actual work and conditions of employment. Many of the women have their passports and alien registration cards withheld from them once in Korea. These items would be returned to the women only when their contracts had expired and they were due to leave Korea. The withholding of such documents is a common strategy employed by the club owners and womens managers to ensure that the women do not run away. In addition, for many of the women, all or part of their salary is withheld as an additional incentive to stop them running away and, more importantly, as a means of coercing the women to supplement their income through sexual labour, including prostitution and a system of ladies drinks (explained below).7 It is these additional duties that are generally not mentioned in the womens employment contracts. Unlike their salaries, money from their sexual labour and drink sales is normally paid to the women in cash on a regular (daily, weekly or fortnightly) basis. For their daily living expenses, the women normally use this money, rather than their salaries. In sum, because the women normally receive less money than has been agreed to in their contracts, in order to have a constant source of cash income they must generate money through a drink sales system and by engaging in the provision of sexual services at the clubs. Thus, even though many of the women are normally not physically forced to undertake these additional duties, a form of economic coercion related to their tenuous financial situation provides a powerful motivation for them to generate drink sales and go on bar fines or do prostitution within the club itself. Women who chose not to provide sex for customers, however, say that they always had no money in Korea. As Julie (26 years) stated My boss doesnt push me to go on a bar fine. She says, Its up to you. If you want to make extra money then go its not my decision. I dont go on bar fines, but I dont have any money because of that. In addition, the women face problems related to their free time, freedom of movement and social life. These circumstances in their work and living situation
The women normally receive a salary of between W450,000 500,000 per month. However, all women interviewed for this study indicated that their manager kept a percentage of their salary as his agency fee. This fee was often as high as 25 per cent of the womans monthly salary, thus reducing her actual net salary to well below the current minimum wage in Korea.
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provide both the context for women to form relationships with GI customers in the clubs and, in part at least, the motivation for them to do so. AMBIGUOUS INTERLUDES IN KIJICHON CLUBS Cohens (1982 and 1986) ethnographies of relationships between Thai prostitutes and foreign tourists (farangs) in Bangkok provides an insight into the establishment and maintenance of romantic relationships between Asian women and foreign men in a similar context to that of Koreas kijichon. Cohen (1982) found that relationships between prostitutes and foreign sex tourists in Bangkok came to hover on the edge of ambiguity with many of the elements of prostitution, such as barter, promiscuity and emotional indifference, partly or completely absent. Such ambiguity characterises many entertainer-GI interactions in the kijichon clubs and bars of Korea, with women construing encounters with some customers in benign and even positive terms. For the Filipinas in Koreas kijichon the words describing their work are carefully chosen: bar fines are often called dates, and the women are often quick to point out that such dates rarely entailed sexual intercourse. As Cheng (2002, p. 103) points out, romantic love is an emotional discourse in the kijichon clubs for both Filipinas and GIs, who are constantly engaged in defending themselves against the label of prostitution. In other words, because the women are not professional sex workers, they seek to construct their work via an alternative discourse of love and romance. Apart from the womens desire to negotiate and counter their status as entertainers in Korea, a combination of the womens vulnerable situations both in kijichon clubs and the womens constructions and comparisons between GIs help bring some GIs and the women together in romantic relationships. The drink system that exists in all the clubs operates in the following way: because the women normally receive less salary than has been agreed to in their contracts (or salary is withheld completely), in order to have a constant source of cash income they must generate money through a drink sales system and, for some women, by engaging in the provision of sexual services at the clubs. The drink system entails having customers buy them drinks for which they receive a percentage from the club. A drink for a woman normally costs between US$10 or US$20 and, as an unwritten rule, each drink allows the customer to spend between 15-25 minutes with the woman, after which the customer must buy her another drink. From the purchase of drinks the women get between W1,000 and W2,000, or between 10 and 20 per cent of the money, the rest going to the club owner. A book is usually kept behind the bar in which a record of how many drinks each woman sells in a week or month is kept. It is this drink system that supplies the nickname GIs give to the women who work in the clubs, dubbed juicy girls, juices or drinkie girls. The name juicy girl derives from the fact that the usual drink for the women is a tiny glass of juice. Buying a ladies drink is a symbolic act in that the drink represents a period of time for which a customer buys a womans company or she sells her personality (cf. Hochschild 1983). What the woman is expected to do in the 15-25 minutes of time she will spend with her customer for each drink will usually depend on the price of the drink, whether the woman works in a good or bad club and what the GI expects. Usually, he higher the price of the drink,the greater the services to be rendered by the woman. I
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asked Emily (26 years) from Club B what happened when a GI bought her a ladies drink. She said: If a customer is drunk he tries to touch you. I say, No touch me. He says something like, Why? Youre working in a club, right? I can do whatever I like with you. I dont like that because I have no self-respect. I want respect. There is often an expectation by GIs that buying a drink for a woman allows him to fondle and touch her on any part of her body and kiss her. This expectation is particularly pronounced in bad clubs, or clubs where women perform strip shows and that allow prostitution within rooms in the club. Thus, although the drink system does not necessarily entail penetrative sex, it does allow GIs to do anything short of that with the woman while they sit together in a booth or at a table within the club itself. Women like Emily constantly negotiate these expectations through covert forms of resistance (cf. Scott 1985) that fall short of directly challenging customers or the club owners but are aimed at maintaining their own sense of self-respect. Some customers expectations surrounding buying ladies drinks fall more closely into line with those of the women themselves. Here, the purchase of a ladies drink entails conversation and dancing with the possibility of some minimal physical contact. It is these encounters that normally provide the space in which romantic relationships develop, since the interactions between the customer and the woman are based on conversation and forms of entertainment that do not compromise the womens selfrespect. Customers that show respect for the women are held in higher esteem and the women draw a strong distinction between good and bad GI customers on this basis, as Charie explained: I have met some GIs who understand our job. They know already what our job is. Sometimes they tell us if they are already married. But sometimes they say, What do I get if I buy you a drink? Some guys are for fun, other guys are disgusting. They look like this [Charie gestures up and down with her eyes] and I get embarrassed. I like the guys who are just (there) for fun. They spend money. Their parents have good jobs back in America, so they can spend their salaries not like me [Charie repatriates most of her salary to her family in the Philippines]. So they can have fun. Like two guys who come to Club P a lot and they are fun. They play cards and dance with us. They have fun and we give them fun too. The women view customers who wish only to purchase their time for physical pleasure as disgusting, while GIs who go to the clubs for socialising are fun. Honey (24 years) ran away from Club L after three months because she could not endure her work. The expectations of some of her GI and other customers and the pressure her mamasan (Korean female club manager or owner) exerted for her to perform sexual labour were a constant source of tension for her: The GI customers will come from the other clubs and say, Hey, if I buy you a drink you give me a lap dance. I say No and I go to the mamasan and tell her. Mamasan says, You do that because he buy you a drink, and she gets mad when I wont go to the customer who asks me that. Some customers say, This club is boring. They say, We get a fuck at Club M and one customer just came from Club F and said, I got a blow job there.
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Some GIs would go to the clubs and compare the availability and cost of sexual services available to them. For the women in the clubs these GI customers were a source of tension and this reinforced the womens views of them as disgusting. The bar fine system can offer a similar space as the drink system for romantic relationships to develop, although GIs initial encounters with women are usually through the drink system. A bar fine is the purchase of a womens time to take her outside the club. The length of time varies, and there is usually a set price for different periods of time, such as three-four hours or overnight.8 As with the drink system, what a woman is expected to do with the customer on a bar fine depends on the club, the customer himself and his negotiations with the woman. If the woman has already established a relationship with a customer (through, for example, repeated encounters in the context of the drink system) a bar fine is viewed in far more benign terms than if a customer purchases the womans time without establishing some preceding relationship with her. Some customers, especially those who already know the women, view bar fines more like dates on which they take the woman bar hopping, to a restaurant or shopping. In these cases, even if the woman spends the night with the customer there is not necessarily any expectation on his or her part that they will have sex. The distinctions between customers that are developed by the women through the drink system are thus perpetuated in the context of bar fines. Cherry (27 years), for example, had this to say about GIs who took her on bar fines: When this black guy tries to [have] sex I ran away. I told the guy, No sex, but hes drunk and crazy so I ran away. Some GIs, they help. They say, Okay, you need to get out. Theyre good. [Do you have sex with these GIs?] I say to them, Just bar hopping, and then you can go home for curfew. Just the Korean guy or the guy I never know try sex with me and I say No. Sometimes they slap me and say, Why you not [have] sex with me? Youre a juicy girl. In sum, romantic relationships between Filipina entertainers and customers can develop in the context of the womens work. Given the restrictions on womens freedom of movement and free time in many of the clubs, the drink and bar fine systems that operate in the clubs offer the only real space for relationships to develop. Specifically, the drink system and, sometimes, the bar fine system, enable Filipinas and GIs to talk, dance and have fun in the club and to go on dates. However, not all GI customers view their encounters with women in such benign terms, and many customers simply wish to purchase a womans sexual labour. Such constructions, played out through the drink and bar fine systems, help situate some GIs as potential partners through a comparison with other GIs who are perceived as dishonest, disgusting or violent.9
8
The cost of a bar fine varies between different clubs and sometimes customers will negotiate with the mamasan to establish a price that is outside that set by the club. As an example, in Club TH in Songtan the price of a bar fine was US$200 for overnight. Of this amount the woman would receive 30 per cent. However, Cherry, who worked in this club, said that sometime the mamasan would let her go on an overnight bar fine for as little as US$80. Cherry would become extremely upset at this de-valuing of her time and she was, of course, never party to the price negotiations. 9 These distinctions are often also racialised. Although the clubs in US military camp town are established primarily for the entertainment needs of the GIs, Koreans and migrant factory workers also patronise the clubs. Migrant workers and Koreans are normally not allowed in the clubs until the GIs have returned to base to meet their nightly curfew, in part to avoid fights from breaking out in the clubs. All the women interviewed for this research preferred American GI customers to other
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CLUB ROMANCES, LADIES DRINKS AND THE LORE OF BAR FINES The complex system of penalties, rules and restrictions on Filipinas working in the clubs provides the context in which the women and their GI boyfriends both initiate and negotiate their relationships. It also supplies an important motivation for the eventual possibility of a woman leaving the club to marry or live in some sort of cohabitation arrangement with her GI boyfriend (see Yea 2004). The women become involved in relationships for a number of reasons. Their boyfriends provide emotional and financial support (particularly through repatriating money to the womans family in the Philippines); assist with the meeting of their day-to-day material needs (by buying them food, clothes and sundry items and so on); provide them with limited freedoms by buying their time or taking them on a bar fine, and buy them drinks and/or buying their time in the club while they are at work (so they do not have to go with other customers). The most common form of support, mentioned by all the women was their boyfriend buying their time or buying them drinks. Buying drinks or short time/long time prostitution would mean that the woman did not have to entertain or service other customers. Jenny (26 years), for example, had two GI boyfriends, both of whom were initially customers, during the 11 months she worked at Club U. She became engaged to her second boyfriend shortly after he assisted her to run away from the club. Like Rae, both Jennys boyfriends would buy her drinks so that she was not forced to serve other customers. While she was still working in the club her second boyfriend bought her out on bar fines three times at a cost of between US$200-500 each time. She said they did not have sex until the third occasion he took her out, and even then he did not want to push her. He bought her out only so she could have some free time because, as with all clubs included in this research, the women would either receive only one day off a month or none at all. Jenny said: The first time he took me out on a bar fine was overnight after I finished work at midnight. We went to a hotel but he told me to just sleep because I am so tired. The next day we went to Second Market [the local town market] and we had lunch. I felt like I had a day off. Cheryl (23 years) also had a GI boyfriend while she was working at Club M. Because this club, like Club Y, would do prostitution within the club, rather than through a bar fine system, Cheryls boyfriend would often spend the night with her in the context of a buying her time for a night (long time). She explained that he would
customers. This preference was constructed as a result of a number of factors including: linguistic affinity (English was the medium for conversation) between the Filipinas and GIs, the regularity with which GIs were able to visit the clubs because of the proximity of the bases to the clubs (as opposed to migrant workers who, because of constraints of time, money and proximity, could often only visit the clubs on the weekends), and the benevolence expressed by some of the GIs towards the women. This attitude (discussed in detail in the following section) was often demonstrated when GIs would give women money or buy them food and personal items even if the GI was not the boyfriend of one of the girls. In addition, at a more fundamental level, when Koreans or migrant workers (although not Filipino migrant workers) went to the clubs they would usually do so only for the purpose of sexual gratification (like some GI customers) whereas, as suggested above, many GIs would go to the clubs simply to socialise.
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do this so she did not have to go with other customers. Each time he bought her overnight the cost was between US$250-300. Apart from providing opportunities for time off and to avoid having to serve other customers, the womens boyfriends are also a source of financial support. They provide their girlfriends with money and goods, including food, sundry items, phone cards and clothes, and, by buying drinks or time, are contributing to the money the women earn through commission. In addition, some women recounted that their boyfriends would also repatriate money to their families in the Philippines. Again, this situation of boyfriends becoming financial providers arises in the context of poor work conditions in the clubs, under which the women are often denied all or part of their salaries. Rae (18 years) stated that her first boyfriend put US$1000 in her bank account in the Philippines for her use. However, she said that her mother withdrew all that money and told Rae she needed it for operations for the family. Jenny (26 years) also stated that her boyfriend sent money back to her family in the Philippines three times, totalling US$500. She said, My brothers wife will have a baby soon. They didnt have enough money for an ultrasound, so David sent them US$200 for that. I didnt know he sent money like that to my family. I never asked him to. The importance of such support to the women should not be underestimated: for the vast majority of women assistance from GI customers/ boyfriends is currently the only form of support available to them, since non-governmental organisations (NGOs) dealing with militarised prostitution and trafficking in Korea are having difficulty in accessing and communicating with foreign women. CLUB WORK VERSUS RELATIONSHIPS When a woman enters a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with a GI while working in the club she becomes caught in a complex Catch-22 situation. On the one hand she receives support through the various mechanisms discussed above. On the other hand, such relationships are fundamentally incompatible with her duties within the club, particularly generating drinks sales, going on bar fines and undertaking prostitution. When a woman begins to neglect these duties she becomes subject to verbal abuse and unceasing pressure from the club owner or bar manager to improve her drink sales and bar fines/ prostitution. At the same time her boyfriend will exert reverse pressure on her to stop these duties and live entirely on her salary and financial contributions from him. Some clubs prohibit the women working there from having serious boyfriends or discourage them by making negative remarks about the boyfriend, since these relationships can compromise the profits the owners can make from the womens sexual labour. Cheryls (23 years) experience of the incompatibility between club work and a romantic relationship is typical of many of the women interviewed. She reflected on her dilemma in the following way: Mamasan kept saying to me, Youd better work harder because your drinks are so low compared with the other girls. I didnt want to do that [go with other guys] because I have my boyfriend. I only want to go with him. When I met him I started to wear a long costume in the club [she shows me a photograph of her and her boyfriend sitting in the club; she wears long pants as part of her
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costume], so that they GIs wouldnt want to go with me. The month before I ran away [July 2002] my drink money was so low. It was only W200,000 [100 drinks]. The mamasan did not know Cheryl had a boyfriend, as she would have been punished if the mamasan knew. The Korean bar manager in Club M would, however, let Cheryl spend time with her boyfriend in the club when the mamasan was not there. Jenny (26 years) was also under pressure from her boyfriend David to stop some of her duties in Club U. She explained: When I went with other customers it caused big problems in our relationship. One time David saw me go into the VIP room with a customer. I had to do that because I needed the money. My brother got in trouble with the police for assault. After that David gave me a letter, which said that he could not accept the work I was doing in the club if we were to be boyfriend and girlfriend. In the letter there was US$1000. In the letter David asked me to accept the money and not to sell myself for money any more. After that I stopped going to the VIP room. Nonetheless, the consequences of Jennys decision were difficult for her to tolerate, since her manager was constantly telling her to stop spending time with her boyfriend in the club and to serve other customers. She said that she made the decision to run away after one particularly distressing episode in which David had bought her food because she was so hungry. She sat with him for 10 minutes longer than was allowed under the club rules relating to drinks. She described this moment in the following way, I was with David one day in the club. He had bought me a drink, so I was sitting with him. I was very hungry, so he had bought me something to eat. I was just finishing to eat and was walking to the toilet. The mamasan [club owner] threw ice at me and it hit my back. Mamasan yelled at me, Why you stay with him so long? You spend too much time with him for that drink. I went to the toilet and started crying. My manager came in and I started yelling at her. I said, I was hungry and I was only eating. I went back out to the club and I was so mad. I sat at the bar and I refused to work. I just sat at the bar. That was basically when I decided to run away. Charie (24 years) faced similar conflicting pressures to those experienced by Jenny. While working in Club P she was constantly berated by the papasan in her club for having a serious boyfriend. Charie recalled: Papasan says all GIs are liars. They discourage us in the club to fall in love with guys. Like Tim papasan says hes a bad guy because hes divorced three times and hes only 34. If you fall in love with a guy you wont get drinks. A guy will give money to a girl instead of buying her drinks some money for her future. If you have a boyfriend and he buys you a drink, instead of 15 minutes maybe you spend 20-25 minutes. They allow boyfriend, but not serious boyfriend. All our customers are our boyfriends [laughs]. Some customers introduce like, This is my girlfriend. Like that. I feel bad when they say that. I
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think, Oh, if only Tim know that. [What do you think about the GIs?] Some GIs say to me, You just tell us you love us. But we heard about you. You dont love, you just want us to buy a drink. Customers get jealous of each other. Even Tim [boyfriend] gets jealous. He thinks hes just my boyfriend because I want him to buy me drinks. I have to lie to other customers and say Tim is not my boyfriend, just a sweet guy. Sometimes customers insult me and call [me] liar. Tim and I had fights [about that] and he wanted me to leave the club. In addition to the conflicting pressures exerted on the women by their boyfriends and the club owners, some of the women also experience extreme insecurity over the fidelity and sincerity of their boyfriends. Indeed, some of the womens boyfriends experience a similar sense of insecurity and doubt. Eve (24 years) was wearing an engagement ring when I interviewed her in Club J in September 2002. As her contract was finishing the day following the interview, she said, I dont know what will happen [when she returns to the Philippines]. I think he has other girlfriends. Graces (22 years) relationships with GIs also formed a very big part of her experiences in Korea. Unlike most of the other women, Grace came to Korea twice to work in the same club in Tongducheon. During her first contract period (2000-1) she became engaged to a GI, whom she said she really loved, but he broke her heart. She recounted the moment when she discovered his infidelity: One night my brother [another GI, friend] took me out to drink [on a bar fine]. We went to his friends house and when I went inside I saw my fianc. He was with another girl. All I did [after that] for a long time was drink and have fun and get fucked up. I didnt care about anything or anyone. Often the conflicting pressures exerted by their boyfriends and the club owners or managers, as well as their own insecurities about their boyfriends, become too great for the women to tolerate. Their boyfriends often help the women negotiate their departure from the club, especially since their boyfriends sometimes put pressure on them to cease club work.10 The woman will either run away from the club with her boyfriends assistance, or he will help her seek assistance from the police or other authorities, or he will buy her penalty, which is the cost of buying the womens contract so she becomes free.11 Despite the widespread practice of the penalty
10
Some of the boyfriends dont know if their girlfriend is planning to escape, or she negotiates her departure by herself. Rachel (22 years), for example, left the club where she was working after 8 months of her one-year contract. Although she had a GI boyfriend at the time she paid US$500 out of her own money to the club owner to break her contract early and return the Philippines. Her boyfriend later came over to the Philippines, where they were married, and they returned together to Korea. Although the five research participants who ran away together from Club T in Songtan all had GI boyfriends, they did not tell their boyfriends of their plan to run away because they did not want to discuss their plans in English, for fear that the club owner would learn of their intention to run away. They phoned their boyfriends after they were safely in Seoul after running away. In another episode, in Tongducheon I was handed a flyer in one club by a GI. On the flyer there was a photograph of the GIs girlfriend who had run away from the club where she was working and simply disappeared. She had not contacted her boyfriend for one week, since running away. This scenario is also quite common amongst women wishing to leave the clubs, since they fear retaliation from their employers should their whereabouts be revealed to anyone. 11 Often the woman will be granted her freedom to leave the club when her boyfriend pays her penalty which can be as high as US$5000. However, the manager or club owner will retain salary and documents, such as passport and alien card, in an attempt to exact further payments from the womens boyfriends later.
47
option, it is highly illegal in Korea. Among the 44 participants in this research who had GI boyfriends, over half relied on the assistance of their boyfriends to help them leave the club. Some ran away, one sought assistance from the police, and some had their boyfriends pay their penalty. Media accounts and the limited academic research on trafficked entertainers in US military camp towns in Korea explain womens decisions to run away from the clubs in terms of the human rights abuses they experience in the context of their work.12 Whilst womens decisions to run away can certainly be in part explained in this way, it is also true that the women run away because the situations linked to their relationships. In this way their boyfriend becomes more than simply a facilitator of escape from the club and becomes part of the motivation for running away. CONCLUSION Labels like the global political economy of sex (Altman 2001) or economies of pleasure (Manderson & Jolly 1997) reflect an emerging research agenda on transnational sexual liaisons that views such relationships exclusively as commodified encounters. New expressions of this commodification, including trafficking for prostitution, are seen to be both facilitated by, and products of the global economy. It is often implicitly assumed by much of this literature that such encounters are fraught with exploitative relations expressed through sites of gender, class and nationality. Media and academic interpretations of these womens experiences tend to reduce relationships with customers as a strategy to exit their work/trafficking situations. Although it is partly true that women use their boyfriends to help them escape from their situations, it is my view that these relationships cannot be dismissed quite so readily. Further, if they occupy such a prominent place in the narratives of the womens work, then they deserve more discursive space than they currently occupy in the literature on sex tourism, prostitution and trafficking. Women certainly strategise about their choices while working as entertainers, and the particular conditions of their work often have an important bearing on whether or not they enter a romantic relationship with a customer. However, failing to then explore the experiences of the women and men who enter these relationships, the (often confused) meanings they attach to them, and the longer term consequences of these romances, is to perpetuate an instrumentalist view of such relationships and reinforces a reductionist understanding of the women, which is located only in a singular trafficking victim or prostitute identity. In this chapter I have suggested that many of the women and men who are subjects of these sexual economies do not necessarily construe their encounters entirely (or even predominantly) through such commodified or exploitative lenses, including many
12
A recent report by the Air Force Times (2002), for example, cites one story of a Filipina, Jennifer who ran away from the club where she was working in Tongducheon with the assistance of her GI boyfriend. The media account stated, Army Pfc (Private first class) Brian met Jennifer in a bar in South Korea where she was being held against her will and forced to work as a prostitute. With the help of a Catholic priest, he helped her escape the bar. Here (in a photograph of the couple riding in a taxi that accompanies the article) they ride through the streets of Seoul on her first day of freedom. Similarly, in the only existing report on the women in the US military camptown clubs in Korea, the women are seen to run away, [B]ecause of the poor working conditions, unfair contracts, and other arbitrary practices in the business (KCWU 1999, p. 87). 48
Loves Labour
women trafficked for sex work or women working in military base area clubs and the men who are their customers. Women working in prostitution abroad whether trafficked or not - are not simply victims (cf. Doezema 2000), nor are clients always only exploiters of womens sexuality. Recognising this can help us to move beyond essentialist descriptions that tie these subjects exclusively to sexual exploitation and commodification. In fact, the boundaries between work (clients, customers) and relationships (boyfriends, girlfriends, fiancs) are often much more fluid and less precisely demarcated than much of the current literature would have us believe. BIBLIOGRAPHY Air Force Times (2002) Sex Slaves and the US Military, August 12 (http://airforcetimes.com/channel.php) Altman, D (2001) Global Sex, Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Cheng, S (2002) Transnational desires: trafficked Filipinas in US Military Camp Towns in South Korea. PhD thesis, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, England. Cohen, E (1982) Thai girls and farang men: the edge of ambiguity, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 9: 403-428. Cohen, E (1986) Lovelorn farangs, Anthropological Quarterly, v. 59, no. 3: 115127. Doezema, J (2000) Loose women or lost women? The re-emergence of the myth of white slavery in contemporary discourses of trafficking in women, Gender Issues, (Winter): 23-50. Hochschild, AR (1983) The managed heart: commericalisation of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. International Organisation of Migration (prepared by June JH Lee) (2002) A review of data on trafficking in the Republic of Korea, Geneva: IOM. Korea Church Women United (1999) Fieldwork report on trafficked women in Korea, Seoul: KCWU. Manderson, L and Margaret J (1997) Sites of desire, economies of pleasure: sexualities in Asia and the Pacific, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pollack, SS and Stoltzfus, B (1992) Let the good times roll: prostitution and the U.S. military in Asia. New York: The New Press. Scott, JC (1985) Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of resistance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Yea, S (2004) Runaway brides: marriage and relationships between Filipina entertainers and US GIs in South Korea, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, v. 25, No. 2 (July).
49
Decent Work or Distress Adaptation? Employment Choice and Job Satisfaction in the Sri Lankan Garment Industry
Judith Shaw International Development Program, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT University This paper investigates the factors underlying the employment decisions of female garment workers in Sri Lankas Export Processing Zones. It finds that most are pushed rather than pulled into EPZ employment by poverty and a weak labour market. Workers come from poorer than average households. Their remittances make a vital contribution to family welfare, and more often than not are the sole source of regular household income. Generally low levels of job satisfaction and workers employment preferences indicate that most would prefer to be elsewhere, but their employment choices are constrained by a limited and unattractive range of alternative livelihoods.
INTRODUCTION Over the last two decades there has been a phenomenal expansion in garment manufacturing in South and South East Asia, due to a combination of factors including competitive regional labour costs, the widespread adoption of exportoriented growth policies, and guaranteed access to Western markets under the terms of the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA). In Sri Lanka the export-oriented garment industry has become a key sector of the economy, contributing 15 per cent of GDP, 5 per cent of jobs and 52 per cent of export earnings. About two-thirds of investment in the sector is foreign-sourced, mainly from South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Production is concentrated in urban Export Processing Zones (EPZs), which employ nearly 185,000 staff, or two thirds of the countrys garment workers (Central Bank 2002). Nearly 90 per cent of garment workers are young women, most of whom migrate from impoverished rural areas. In a weak labour market, where unemployment and marginal, intermittent informal sector jobs are the norm for unskilled workers, the Zones are virtually the only source of regular, secure employment available to young rural women. Nevertheless, persistently high turnover and vacancy rates indicate that EPZ factories have difficulty attracting and retaining staff.1 There is a substantial literature on labour standards and living conditions in the Sri Lankan garment industry, most of it highly critical.
Estimates of vacancy rates in the garment sector vary from 6 per cent (Kelegama et al 2002) to 11 per cent (World Bank 1999). 50
Shaw J (2004) Decent Work or Distress Adaptation? Employment Choice and Job Satisfaction in the Sri Lankan Garment Industry in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 50-64. 1
Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?
Unsafe working conditions, under-payment of wages, excessive hours, harsh discipline, poor career development prospects, suppression of trade union rights, substandard accommodation arrangements and the social stigmatisation of garment workers have been extensively documented (Heward 1997, Gunatilaka 1999, Kelegama and Epaarachchi 2002, CENWOR 2001, ACCFTU 1995, Hettiarachchi 1992). There is evidence that Sri Lankans classify available labour market opportunities into good jobs in the public and white-collar sectors, and bad jobs in farming, the nonfarm informal sector, overseas domestic service and the Zones. The paradox of simultaneous high female youth unemployment and high EPZ vacancy rates persists because the greatest expansion in labour market opportunities in recent years has been in bad jobs, notably in the Zones and overseas, while the supply of good jobs has contracted. Young women whose families are willing and able to support them prefer to remain under-employed or unemployed at home, and only the poorest are compelled to seek EPZ employment (World Bank 1999). Thus, rather than being pulled to the Zones by the prospect of regular work, women are pushed by poverty and a lack of alternatives into jobs which they would not otherwise take. This paper investigates the factors underlying the employment decisions of Sri Lankan EPZ workers. The assumption that most garment workers are poor is supported by anecdotal evidence, but there has been little attempt to test it empirically. Section 3 compares the socioeconomic status of EPZ workers households with that of the wider population. Section 4 reviews the labour market for rural women, and examines the EPZ employment decision in the context of the accessibility and attractiveness of alternative livelihoods. Few studies have sought to gauge the perceptions and motivations of the workers themselves (for an exception see CENWOR 2001). Section 5 examines workers views on their lives as factory girls. The concluding section discusses the impending termination of the MFA and its consequences for garment sector employment. METHODOLOGY The principal survey instrument was a structured questionnaire administered in January 2004 to garment workers in Sri Lankas oldest and largest EPZ, the Katunayake Export Processing Zone, located 30 kilometres from the national capital, Colombo. One hundred workers were interviewed over a three-week period. The questionnaire contained a mix of open-ended and limited choice questions covering respondents demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds; their reasons for seeking EPZ employment and perceptions of alternative labour market opportunities; pay, conditions, accommodation and travel arrangements in the EPZs; and general levels of satisfaction with their working and living conditions. The questionnaire was supplemented by focus group interviews with twenty randomly selected respondents. The questionnaires were administered by staff from the Katunayake Working Womens Centre, an NGO providing advocacy and health services to garment workers. As former garment workers themselves, the interviewers were familiar with the issues covered in the questionnaire, and were able to empathise with the respondents concerns and gain their confidence. As interviewers were unable to enter
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Judith Shaw and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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the Zones due to the controversial gate pass requirement which denies entry to unauthorised personnel,2 interviews were conducted in the residential areas outside the Zone precincts. Interviewers identified respondents by visiting randomly selected accommodation facilities within the residential areas after the end of the main day shift, and requesting women who were present to participate in the survey. Where workers declined to be interviewed, interviewers were instructed to approach others until they had completed their allocated interviews. Response rates were high: nine women declined to participate when initially approached, but most workers displayed considerable interest in the survey process and were keen to take part. THE WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES: SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS The garment industry workforce profile is overwhelmingly young, single and female: women account for 87 per cent of garment factory workers, although males predominate in management positions.3 Over 90 per cent of the hundred respondents were under 30 (Table 1), and 89 per cent were unmarried. Nearly three quarters had completed at least 10 years of schooling, and 13 per cent had completed their high school A-levels, a rate of attainment consistent with the national profile and reflecting Sri Lankas commendable performance in public education in comparison with other developing countries. Table 1: Age distribution
Age group Under 20 20-24 25-29 30 and above Total Frequency 15 52 24 9 100
Respondent households are poorer than average. As Table 2 shows, they compare unfavourably with the wider population on a variety of indicators location, household access to electrical power, and occupation of the household head - which are strongly associated with household poverty (Aturupane 1999, World Bank 2002). In addition, respondent households are more than twice as likely as the general population to be female-headed. Sri Lankan census data indicates, somewhat counterintuitively, that female-headed households are not significantly poorer than the general population (DCS 2003, World Bank 2002). This finding is not supported by the EPZ sample, in which female-headed households scored below the sample
Anyone wishing to enter the EPZs must obtain a gate pass. The issue of gate passes is at the discretion of the Board if Investment (BOI), the autonomous statutory body responsible for foreign investmtent in Sri Lanka. Even Ministry of Labour officials can only enter the Zones by prior appointment, an arrangement which compromises effective monitoring and enforcement and have reportedly on occasion been denied entry (Heward 1977). The gate pass provision is routinely used to deny entry to trade union officials and non-aligned observers, as well as to troublesome workers, whose employment can be terminated by the BOIs withdrawal of their identity cards (Kelegama 1998, Gunatilaka 1999). 3 Women are employed mainly in low-level positions. While men predominate in upper management, women occupy 72 per cent of supervisory positions and more than 90 per cent of the production workforce (Kelegama et al 2002:200).
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Judith Shaw and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004. 2
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average on a variety of poverty indicators, including housing quality, asset ownership and land ownership. Table 2: Household poverty indicators: respondent households and Sri Lankan population
Poverty indicator Respondents Sri Lanka Rural location 94 72 Household access to mains electricity 43 60 Household head educated to post-primary 54 59 level. 59 36 Household head employed in agriculture. Female-headed households 26 10 Sources: World Bank 2002, DCS 2003, Aturupane 1999, UNDP 1998 z 4.90 - 3.47 - 1.02 5.22 5.33 < < < p .0001 .0003 .15 .0001 .0001
Note. z scores and p values relate to difference between the respondents proportions and the corresponding proportions from Sri Lankan census data. The differences between the percentage figures of the respondents and those derived from Sri Lankan census data were represented as z-scores in order to establish whether the respondents percentages were significantly different from the Sri Lankan population as a whole. In all but one instance, the differences were significant. There was no significant difference between the two figures on the percentage of household heads educated to postprimary level.
Poverty in Sri Lanka is predominantly a rural phenomenon, with urban and rural poverty rates of 8 and 26 per cent respectively (DCS 2003). The EPZ workforce profile is overwhelmingly rural: 79 per cent were from agrarian villages and a further 15 per cent from very remote locations more than a kilometre from a village, while only 6 per cent were from cities or regional towns. Only one respondent came from the relatively prosperous Western Province, while the vast majority came from the high-poverty North Western, North Central and Central provinces. Household heads from respondent households are clustered in low-value activities. Only 11 per cent were employed in the relatively high-income non-local and formal sectors. The non-farm informal sector, in which 13 per cent were employed, is dominated by microenterprises, which are associated with a high poverty incidence, although some skilled artisans earn poverty clearing incomes (Aturupane 1999, Shaw 2004). Nearly 60 per cent of household heads were employed in agriculture, another sector characterised by very high rates of poverty (World Bank 2002, Aturupane 1999). Farmers on holdings of two acres or more are usually able to meet household food requirements and produce a marketable surplus, although steep rises in production costs and falling producer prices have led to a substantial deterioration in farm incomes since the 1980s (Dunham and Edwards 1997). On holdings of less than two acres, agriculture is a subsistence activity which earns little or no cash income (Shaw 2004). The data indicates that few of the 94 respondent households in rural agrarian locations are able to earn poverty-clearing incomes from farming: only 16 per cent occupied more than two acres, and 52 per cent occupied holdings ranging between a quarter acre and two acres. The remaining 32 per cent were landless households, which are over-represented among the poorest of the rural poor, as they are unable to meet basic food requirements from home production. Nearly a fifth of respondent household heads were economically inactive due to age, illness or unemployment. Female household heads were over-represented in the economically inactive category,
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accounting for nearly 60 per cent, reflecting both a scarcity of local economic opportunities for rural women and the relatively high proportion of elderly widows in this group. Table 3: Respondent households: main occupation of household head
Occupation Self-employed farming Farm labour Local non-farm employment (informal sector) Local non-farm wage employment (formal sector) Non-local employment Economically inactive Total Per cent 44 15 13 5 6 17 100
Most of the respondents were junior household members in terms of their relationship to the household head: 90 per cent were daughters, 8 per cent were sisters, sisters-inlaw, or wives, and 2 per cent were household heads themselves. Nevertheless, they make a substantial contribution to household income. Most rural households rely on a shifting portfolio of low-earning seasonal activities, supplementing farm labour and farming with non-farm microenterprises during the lean season. As regular employment is scarce, the respondents wage was the sole source of regular income in 59 per cent of households. In 11 per cent of households, in which the respondent was the sole economically active member or where the only additional activity was subsistence agriculture, the respondents wage was the sole source of cash income. Nearly 60 per cent of households had two sources of cash income, 18 per cent had three and 11 per cent had four or more. In many households with three or more income sources, the additional sources came from non-local employment: a female family member working in the Middle East, a son in the military or a second daughter in a garment factory. These findings provide further evidence of the increasing role of remittances in rural households. Sri Lanka has not undergone the massive rural-to-urban drifts which have occurred in other developing countries in recent years, but the stability of the rural population disguises the importance of non-local income sources in the rural economy. There is little evidence of significant relocation of whole families from the countryside to the cities, but it is common for individuals to migrate to the Western Province for work, remitting part of their wages and returning to their homes weekly or monthly. With the failure of the slow-growing rural non-farm sector to offset deteriorating farm incomes, non-local income sources (notably government welfare transfers and remittances from family members employed in the military, the Western Province and overseas) have become increasingly important in the rural economy. Estimates of the contribution of transfers and remittances to rural household income vary between 40 per cent (World Bank 1998) and 70 per cent (Dunham and Jayasuriya 1998). YOUNG RURAL WOMEN AND THE LABOUR MARKET In the last two decades neoliberal policy reforms have had a profound impact on household livelihoods. Significant among the reforms have been the promotion of
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export-oriented manufacturing, reduction of the public sector through privatisation and the curtailment of social sector expenditure, and the progressive withdrawal of subsidies and price protection in the smallholder farm sector. As a result, there has been a general shift of resources and employment out of the rural, agrarian and public sectors into the urban, non-farm and private sectors (Shaw 2001, Dunham and Edwards 1997). Over the same period there has been a substantial influx of women into the labour market, due to a combination of demand and supply side factors including strong public investment in girls education, declining fertility rates and a rise in the average age at which women marry, the post-1977 policy reforms which provided new opportunities for womens employment in manufacturing, and the declining ability of traditional livelihood practices to support rural households. Female employment is growing at a greater rate than mens, albeit from a lower base. Since 1993 the number of in-country jobs for men has increased by about 850,000 (23 per cent), while womens employment has increased by about 630,000 (39 per cent) (DCS 2002). In 2002 women held about a third of jobs in Sri Lanka. Stable participation rates and falling unemployment among males indicate that the growth in womens employment is coming from job creation rather than the displacement of male labour. High gender equality in access to education has not translated into employment equality. The influx of women into the labour force has outpaced the growth of acceptable job opportunities, and womens unemployment rates double those of men, particularly in the 15-29 age group, in which 27 per cent of women are unemployed (DCS 2002). Women are clustered in a narrow range of sectors, notably agriculture, manufacturing and overseas employment, while the male workforce is spread more evenly across the occupational spectrum. Within occupational sectors the pattern of gender segregation persists: in manufacturing, women are concentrated in garments and textiles production, and in the professions, they are concentrated in teaching and nursing. Table 4 describes the structure of the labour market for rural women. Due to the limitations of the various official data sources, which are difficult to reconcile with each other and do not rigorously disaggregate employment by gender, location or sector, the data presented here is indicative rather than definitive. Just over half of rural women are employed in the local informal sector. Agriculture remains the largest employer, accounting for a third of employment, although its share has fallen in the last decade. A fifth of rural women are employed in trade, personal services and other informal sector non-farm occupations, in which the share of employment has remained relatively stable. Most of the increase in rural womens employment since the early 1990s has been in non-local sectors which, as Table 5 indicates, pay significantly more than most of the local alternatives. In a widely held consensus, Sri Lankans define good jobs as formal sector employment in the public sector or white-collar private sector. The latter accounts for less than 3 per cent of the countrys jobs, and has a miniscule impact on rural employment, as most jobs are held by members of the English-speaking Colombo elite. The role of the state as an employer remains significant, but has declined substantially, with its share of employment falling from 23 to 16 per cent between 1994 and 2002 (Central Bank 2002). Although public sector pay fell in real terms in
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the 1990s, and compares poorly with the private sector at senior management and professional levels, lower grade public sector jobs easily outrank the available alternatives in terms of pay and conditions, job security, pension entitlements and social status,4 and a government job remains the first preference of young labour market entrants, consistently outranking other occupations in surveys of employment preferences (Lakshman 2002, World Bank 1999). In practice, female job opportunities in the public sector are largely confined to middle-class, post-secondary educated women in the nursing, teaching and clerical occupations. For young women from poor rural households, the prospects of finding public sector employment are remote, as few possess the required educational qualifications or political connections. Table 4: Rural female population aged 15 and over: labour force status and sectoral distribution of employment(a)(b)
000 Composition of labour force (per cent) 8.6 6.2 2.4 52.8 33.3 19.4 30.9 6.4 24.4 7.7 100.0 Labour force participation
Local employment: formal sector 212 Public sector 152 Two hundred garment factory program 60 Local employment: informal sector 1295 Agriculture, fishing and forestry 818 Non-farm sector(c) 477 Non-local employment 758 EPZ garment factories 158 Overseas domestic service 600 Unemployed 189 Total labour force 2454 52.6 Not in labour force 2211 47.4 Total 4665 100.0 Sources: DCS 2000, DCS 2002, Ministry of Womens Affairs 2003 (a) In this table women employed overseas are included as employed labour force participants, whereas they are classified as non-participants in official DCS statistics. As a result, the labour force participation rates presented here are higher than those indicated by the official statistics, and unemployment rates are lower. (b) Includes rural migrant workers resident in the Western Province. (c) Trade, manufacturing, animal husbandry, personal services, construction, miscellaneous nonfarm work n.e.s.
Table 5: Female wage rates in selected occupations

Occupation Local Public sector (entry level for non-graduates) THGPF garment factory Agricultural labour Non-farm microenterprise Non-local EPZ garment factory Overseas employment Source: Central Bank 2002, TieAsia 2003 Pay range (rupees per month) 6,000 2,300 3,100 1,000 2,000* Usually below 2,500 4,500 8,000 11,000 13,000 * Averaged over twelve months
Low-level public sector workers earn 60 to 100 per cent more than workers in similar private sector jobs but at senior management and professional levels, compression of pay schedules has reduced the public sectors competitiveness with the corporate private sector, and is argued to be contributing to weaknesses in public sector management capacity (Rama 1998, World Bank 1999).
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An additional source of rural wage employment is the Two Hundred Garment Factory Program (THGFP), a government initiative aimed at promoting rural industrialisation, which employs about 60,000 women in rural factories. The THGFP compares poorly with the EPZs in terms of wages and job security. Many THGFP factories lay off staff during quiet periods and factory closures are common (Shaw 2001, CENWOR 2001). Nevertheless, while they are valued less highly than public sector jobs, THGFP jobs are highly sought after as they provide scarce regular employment without the personal costs associated with migration to the EPZs or overseas. THGFP workers are free from a pervasive social stigma attaching to unmarried women who leave the parental home, and from the personal security risks faced by EPZ workers (Heward 1997). As one THGFP worker explains, Everyone knows me, from my home to the factory gate, this gives me a certain amount of protection. Women who work in the FTZ dont have this protection (Dent 2000:10). As with the public sector, the access of poorer rural households to the THGFP is limited, with evidence that THGFP jobs flow disproportionately to non-poor families. The poorest households are over-represented in remote areas with limited transport facilities, while factories are located in regional towns and on major roads. Furthermore, as with public sector jobs, the allocation of jobs in the state-subsidised factories is influenced by political patronage. A study of rural livelihoods in Hambantota district found that THGFP workers were exclusively from non-poor families which had been able to obtain the letter from a politician necessary to secure employment there (Shaw 2001). Wage employment in the informal sector accounts for around a third of rural jobs, mostly in agriculture. Daily rates for farm labour rose in the 1990s, and compare well with other informal sector wage rates (Central Bank 2002), but overall earnings are low, as employment is confined to two to four months annually, during the peak paddy planting and harvesting seasons. Some women work for wages in rural manufacturing workshops, where conditions compare unfavourably with those in larger factories: low labour replacement costs and inadequate policing by the underresourced Department of Labour allow small firms to ignore basic labour standards (Institute of Policy Studies 1998), and employees in firms with establishments of less than 25 earn on average less than half the wages of workers in larger factories (DCS 2001). The remaining 53 per cent of rural jobs are in household-level farm and nonfarm microenterprises (DCS 2000). A major sector of expansion in womens employment has been in overseas work. Most labour migrants are unskilled women, predominantly from poor rural households, who work as domestic servants in the Middle East. Between 1986 and 2002 the proportion of women among Sri Lankans departing for overseas employment rose from one- to two-thirds. In 2002 there were 133,000 female departures, an increase of 26 per cent from 1998 (Ministry of Womens Affairs 2003). With the relaxation in 1996 of the requirement for migrating workers to register with the Bureau of Foreign Employment, the precise number of overseas workers is unknown, but is estimated at around one million (Government of Sri Lanka, 2002). A conservative estimate is that around 750,000 Sri Lankan women were employed overseas in 2003, and that around 600,000 were from poor rural households.
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While overseas employment is by far the most remunerative occupation available to rural women, it is not widely viewed as a viable option for the young unmarried cohort from which EPZ workers are drawn. It is regarded as a hazardous occupation: excessive workloads, isolation, physical and sexual abuse and the withholding of pay by unscrupulous employers or agents are widely reported in the local media (CENWOR 2001, Gamburd 2000). Households prefer to send married women, due to fear of moral corruption and damage to the marriage prospects of single females. In addition, some recipient countries impose age restrictions: Saudi Arabia, for instance, only admits domestic servants aged between 30 and 43. As a consequence, overseas migrants are older on average than EPZ workers: fewer than a third of women departing in 2002 were in the 20-29 age range, and fewer than 1 per cent were under 20 (Ministry of Womens Affairs 2003). In their assessments of the attractiveness and availability of alternative jobs, the respondents confirmed the general picture described above. When asked to describe the main income-generating activities of women from their home villages, overseas employment and agriculture were by far the most commonly reported occupations, followed by non-farm microenterprises (Table 6). Ten per cent reported wage employment in the informal non-farm sector. Employment in the THGFP program is confined to villages close to a factory, and was reported as a significant local income source by 7 per cent of the respondents. Table 6: Economic activities of women from respondents villages
Occupation Overseas employment Farming and farm labour Non-farm microenterprise Local non-farm wage employment Per cent of respondents reporting activity 71.0 93.0 38.0 17.0
When asked why they took EPZ jobs rather than one of the alternatives, the women responded overwhelmingly that they were unable to earn poverty-clearing incomes from local activities. Most added that parental pressure and the perceived hazards of overseas employment had dissuaded them from taking an offshore job. As Table 7 indicates, push factors, in the form of acute economic pressure to contribute to family income or to relieve the economic burden of a non-contributing individual, were the main motivation for moving to the EPZs in more than two thirds of cases. For the remaining third, most of whom were motivated by less acute, longer-term aims (e.g., the accumulation of a dowry), rather than by immediate survival imperatives, the decision to take an EPZ job had a larger voluntary component. Nevertheless, the EPZs were not the preferred employment avenue for the vast majority of respondents: 69 per cent nominated a public sector job as their first employment preference, indicating what seems to be an unrealistic assessment of their labour market options; 20 per cent preferred local private sector employment or microenterprises; and only 5 per cent nominated the EPZs as their first preference.
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Table 7: Main reason for moving to EPZ

Per cent To contribute to household income 62.0 To reduce burden on relatives 8.0 To save for marriage 23.0 Other* 7.0 100.0 *Desire to leave home, desire to save for non-marriage purposes Reason
LIFE IN THE ZONE Respondents were asked to rate their levels of satisfaction on a range of variables relating to their work and non-workplace environment. On the positive side, 85 per cent reported that they had made new friends, and 59 per cent believed that their jobs were equipping them with useful skills and experience. Nearly all valued the opportunity to contribute to family income, and more than 70 per cent reported that their contributions had led to improvements in their status within their families. A minority felt that their marital prospects had been harmed by EPZ work, but respondents were more likely to report that the opportunity to save for a dowry had improved their chances of making a good marriage. Nevertheless, levels of satisfaction were generally low: only 20 per cent reported that in general, they were satisfied with their lives as garment workers, 70 per cent were dissatisfied, and an overwhelming 86 per cent reported that they would return to their villages if a regular job became available. As Table 8 indicates, the non-work environment was by far the major source of dissatisfaction. Table 8: Principal reason for disatisfaction with EPZ employment
Reason Pay Working conditions The non-work environment Separation from family Total Principal reason for dissatisfaction (per cent) 16 15 59 10 100
Working Conditions Despite substantial evidence of poor working conditions and abuses of labour standards in EPZ factories (CENWOR 2001, Gunatilaka 1999, ACCFTU 1995), only 15 per cent viewed the work environment as their principal cause of dissatisfaction, a reflection perhaps of the generally poor quality of working conditions in alternative occupations. Nevertheless, most respondents reported dissatisfaction with their working conditions, particularly in relation to health and safety issues and harsh or unfair treatment from supervisors. Employee relations are generally poor: over twothirds complained that they were regularly subjected to verbal abuse from their supervisors, and 14 per cent complained of physical abuse. The setting of onerous production targets was a common source of dissatisfaction, with claims that supervisors deliberately set targets at unachievable levels to avoid payment of bonuses. Just under a third believed that there were significant hazards at their
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workplaces, and 37 per cent reported having experienced at least one work-related illness or injury. These included soreness from being kept standing for long periods (30 per cent), minor injuries such as needle pricks (14 per cent), and potentially more serious problems such as the catching of hair in machinery (5 per cent) and chronic respiratory conditions resulting from the inhalation of fibres (10 per cent). Other commonly reported grievances included the denial of leave and non-payment of attendance allowances. In most cases, respondents chose not to pursue the matter, as they were afraid of being punished or losing their jobs. Pay Monthly take-home pay in the EPZs is well above the statutory minimum of Rs.3,900, as Table 9 indicates. There was no evidence of avoidance of statutory payment obligations. Take-home pay varied widely, with medians of Rs.4,300 and Rs.7,980 respectively in the lowest and highest deciles. Base pay, which ranged from Rs.3,900 to Rs.6,980, is linked to length of service and occupation. Overtime payments, which ranged up to Rs.4,000, were the major source of variation in take-home pay. Just under one quarter of workers (23 per cent) did no overtime work over and above the statutory 48-hour working week, 36 per cent worked 10-20 hours overtime, and 6 per cent worked more than 20 hours overtime. Respondents views on their working hours were mixed: while several complained that their long working weeks left them little time for sleep and non-work activities, they also valued the extra income provided by overtime work, and some complained of limited opportunities to work overtime. Table 9: Mean components of monthly pay for December 2003
Item Basic wage Attendance allowances, other allowances and production bonuses Overtime Total Amount 4565 503 1103 6171
The respondents overwhelmingly felt that their pay was insufficient: only 15 per cent were satisfied with their salaries, while 54 per cent reported dissatisfaction. They were more inclined to cite the high costs of living in the EPZs than the under-valuation of their work. As Table 10 shows, margins for discretionary expenditure are limited, with food, housing, transport and remittances accounting for two-thirds of take-home pay. At Rs.1,454, mean food expenditure is above the threshold of Rs.1,338 deemed necessary to meet basic nutrition requirements (DCS, 2002); but given the inflation of prices by shopkeepers in the Katunayake area (Gunesekara 1998), the poor quality of cooking facilities and lack of time to prepare meals, it is likely that a substantial proportion of garment workers have inadequate dietary intakes. The main items in the other expenditure category are medical expenses, clothing and other personal items, contributions to weddings and other village festivals, and interest on loans (a significant expense, as workers commonly borrow from moneylenders to cover unexpected outlays at rates in excess of 10 per cent per month).
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Table 10: Mean composition of expenditure of monthly pay, Dec 2003

Item Accommodation Food Transport* Outings and entertainment Savings deposits Remittances Other expenditure n.e.s. * Includes visits to family home Per cent of take-home pay 13.6 23.6 6.3 6.5 11.0 22.8 16.2 100.0
The Non-work Environment As indicated by Table 8, non-workplace issues were the most widely reported source of dissatisfaction. The three most commonly cited problems related to the poor quality of accommodation, threats to their personal security and the social marginalisation of EPZ workers. Most workers live in densely populated dormitory regions around the EPZ, in boarding houses which have been widely criticised for providing substandard accommodation (see for example Hettiarachchi 1992, CENWOR 2001). Boarding house residents were overwhelmingly unhappy with their living arrangements, complaining of physical squalor, noise, and air pollution in their neighbourhoods; and of overcrowding and poor lighting, cooking and sanitary facilities in their residences. About a quarter have opted for better-quality accommodation with local families, who usually provide tenants with a room of their own, a cupboard to store their belongings, adequate kitchen facilities and physical security. The average cost of family accommodation is between Rs.1,000 and Rs.1,500, in comparison with around Rs.500 for a boarding house berth. Not surprisingly, respondents in family accommodation were considerably more likely to report satisfaction with their accommodation arrangements (37 per cent) than boarding house residents (7 per cent). Personal security was a major concern. Many reported that theft was widespread, as they had no safe place to store their valuables. There were also reports of harassment by gangs of men, mostly off-duty military personnel from the nearby Katunayake airforce base, who roam the residential precincts and sometimes enter the boarding houses. Residents have little protection from intruders, as most boarding house owners live off-site, visiting twice monthly to collect rents, and do not employ watchmen or housekeepers. Two-thirds of respondents reported having experienced sexual harassment while travelling to work and nearly 80 per cent believed it was not safe to travel to work alone. Respondents complained that: We have to stay indoors because it is not safe to go out, and We cannot walk on the road alone without being waylaid. The changing structure of the labour market has placed considerable pressure on traditional expectations that women should remain in their fathers, and later in their husbands homes throughout their lives. Nevertheless, unmarried women who leave home face strong societal disapproval, fuelled by sensationalised media reports of immoral behaviour among unsupervised young women in the Zones. Matrimonial
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advertisements in the daily newspapers commonly specify that no factory girls need apply. Three quarters of the respondents felt that their lives were made more difficult by the negative images attaching to garment workers. Many complained that they were treated with contempt by boarding house owners, jeered at in public places and singled out for over-charging by shop-keepers. CONCLUSION Since the 1970s the global garment industry has been regulated by the MFA, a GATTendorsed agreement which provides garment-exporting developing countries with limited but guaranteed access to Western markets under a quota system. From 2005 the MFA will be progressively phased out and replaced with a free trade regime, with profound and potentially disruptive consequences for exporters. Given the importance of the garment sector in the Sri Lankan economy, its future prospects are of significant concern in policy circles. With the impending termination of the MFA, exporters face a choice between the low road of price competitiveness based on low wages, and the high road of quality based competitiveness. Production of highquality, high-value-added goods is concentrated among middle-income economies such as Hong Kong and Taiwan; while low-cost suppliers such as China, Bangladesh and Cambodia produce mainly for the lowest rungs in the hierarchy. Like other lowincome countries, Sri Lanka has traditionally focused on low-end production, but will have difficulty competing in this arena in the free-for-all post-MFA environment, as its production costs, while well below those of middle-income countries, are high by low-end standards. At the high end, however, Sri Lankas relatively low costs, educated workforce and strong transport and communications infrastructure in the EPZs are important competitive advantages (Central Bank 2002). The decision to take the high or low road will have a significant impact on the jobs and living standards of garment workers. While a focus on price competition will exert downward pressure on labour standards, it is likely that the upgraded skills and labour productivity required for high-end production will generate pressures to improve working and living conditions. There is a growing consensus around the need for market repositioning, and the associated requirements for improvements in pay, working conditions and training. Significantly, influential recent reports have advocated increased investment in the non-work conditions which are key sources of dissatisfaction among garment workers, linking low productivity with poor transport, accommodation and welfare arrangements (Central Bank 2002, Kelegama et al 2002). There are signs that some manufacturers are anticipating the expected post-MFA upheaval by moving up-market, with the dedication of a growing share of output to high-end production (Board of Investment 2003). There is encouraging evidence of increased attention to workers living standards among larger-scale producers, some of whom have made significant investments in hostel accommodation and transport services (Kelegama et al 2002). In addition, the post-MFA market will be increasingly sensitive to non-tariff barriers, notably in the form of demands from buyers for adherence to internationally acceptable labour conditions (Central Bank 2002, Frynas 2000). Observers are optimistic that a combination of market repositioning and consumer pressure will generate improvements in workers living standards (Kelegama et al 2002).
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While the prospects for those who remain in the garment sector are reasonably encouraging, there is little prospect of relief from the over-arching problem of female unemployment, which is likely to worsen with the termination of the MFA. The closure of uncompetitive low-end factories will cut garment sector jobs by an estimated 20 per cent, a loss which will be only partly offset by the absorption of skilled labour by expanding high-end producers (Central Bank 2002). As in other developing countries, employment opportunities have not kept pace with labour force growth, and the Sri Lankan economy faces a formidable task finding remunerative jobs for new labour force entrants (about 100,000 annually), the existing unemployed and, from 2005, an additional contingent of retrenched garment workers. With the anticipated contraction of the EPZs and the failure of successive governments to develop convincing domestic employment strategies, it is likely that offshore labour markets and marginal informal sector jobs will continue to absorb the bulk of young, poor, rural women in the foreseeable future. BIBLIOGRAPHY All Ceylon Federation of Free Trade Unions (ACFFTU) (1995) Rights at risk: a study on Sri Lankas Free Trade Zones, unpublished mimeo. Asian-American Free Labour Institute. Aturupane, H (1999) Poverty in Sri Lanka: achievements, issues and challenges, Unpublished mimeo. Colombo: Ministry of Finance and Planning. Board of Investment Sri Lanka (2003) Overview: the textile industry. Colombo, Board of Investment. Central Bank of Sri Lanka: Annual Report 2002. Colombo, Central Bank. Centre for Womens Research (CENWOR) (2001) Impact of macroeconomic reforms on Women in Sri Lanka: the garment and textile industries. Colombo, CENWOR. Dent, K (2000) Trials and tribulations of women FTZ workers, Social Justice v. 155 (March). Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) (2000) Sri Lanka labour force survey 2000 (with province-level data), Colombo, Department of Census and Statistics. Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) (2001) Annual Survey of Industries 2001. Colombo, Department of Census and Statistics. Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) (2002) Quarterly report of the Sri Lanka labour force survey, fourth quarter 2002. Colombo, Department of Census and Statistics. Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) (2003) Household income and expenditure survey 2002: preliminary report. Colombo, Department of Census and Statistics. Dunham, D and Edwards, C (1997) Rural poverty and the agrarian crisis in Sri Lanka, 1985-95: making sense of the picture, Colombo, Institute of Policy Studies. Dunham, D and Jayasuriya, S (1998) Is all so well with the economy and with the rural poor?, Pravada, v. 5, no. 10-11: 22-27. Frynas, J G (2000) Human rights and the transnational garment industry in south and south-east Asia: a focus on labour rights. Paper presented to the International Conference of the Comparative Interdisciplinary Studies Section of the International Studies Association, Washington DC, 29-30 August 2000. Gamburd, M R (2000) The kitchen spoons handle: transnationalism and Sri Lankas migrantmHouseholds. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
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Government of Sri Lanka (2002) Regaining Sri Lanka: vision and strategy for accelerated development. Colombo, Government Printing Office. Gunesekara, S (1998) Working conditions in the FTZ. Paper presented at the Workshop on Workers in the Free Trade Zone, Renuka Hotel, Colombo, August 1998. Gunatilaka, R (1999) Labour legislation and female employment in Sri Lankas manufacturing sector. Colombo, Institute of Policy Studies. Hettiarachchy, T (1992) Working in the Zone, Hong Kong, Asian Human Rights Commission. Heward, S (1997) Garment workers and the two hundred garment factory program. Colombo, Centre for the Welfare of Garment Workers. Institute of Policy Studies (1998) Sri Lanka: state of the economy 1998. Colombo, Institute of Policy Studies. Kelegama, S and Epaarachchi, R (2002) Garment industry in Sri Lanka, in G Joshi (ed.), Garment industry in south Asia: rags or riches? New Delhi, International Labour Organisation, 197-240. Lakshman, W D (2002) A holistic view of youth unemployment in Sri Lanka: an exploratory study, in S T Hettige and M Mayer (eds.), Sri Lankan youth: challenges and responses. Colombo: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Ministry of Womens Affairs (2003) Handbook on sex-disaggregated data, Sri Lanka 2003. Colombo, Ministry of Womens Affairs. Shaw, Judith (2001) No magic bullet: microenterprise credit and income poverty in rural Sri Lanka. PhD thesis, Monash University, Melbourne. Shaw, Judith (2004) Microenterprise occupation and poverty reduction in microfinance programs: evidence from Sri Lanka, World Development, v. 32, no. 7: 1247-1264 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (1998) National human development report: Sri Lanka. Colombo, United Nations. World Bank (2002) Sri Lanka poverty assessment. Washington DC, World Bank. World Bank (1999) Sri Lanka: a fresh look at unemployment. Washington DC, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit, World Bank. World Bank (1998) Sri Lanka: recent economic developments and prospects. Washington DC, World Bank
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Being Able To Do What You Aspire To Do

Lionel Boxer Centre for Management Quality Research, RMIT Business, RMIT University Those women who have made their mark in Australian public and private organisations have challenged traditional Positions allocated to women. However, for the most part these Positions have not changed. Positioning Theory was in part based on the notion that people are able to challenge and change the Positions they are allocated in every social encounter. While there have been changes in society that have generally re-Positioned women as leaders in public and private organisations, it remains the obligation of each person to establish four components of a social order that supports themselves as what they specifically aspire to be able to do. These are (1) their right to perform the work they aspire to, (2) the duty of others to respect them as competent, (3) the moral order that enables such rights and duties, and (4) actions that reinforce these rights, duties and morals. Positioning Theory that has in part evolved through feminist literature provides a framework for each individual to align the social order to their individual and collective purposes.
INTRODUCTION Those women who have made their mark in Australian public and private work have challenged traditional Positions allocated to women. They have harnessed the momentum created by popular feminist literature that has shattered traditional Positions in wider society. In this paper Positioning Theory will be harnessed to demonstrate that, while traditional Positions have been redefined on a macro level, many women need to carry these new paradigms into their places of work. Then from the micro level of Positioning Theory, a framework will be introduced to understand how individuals can re-Position themselves to enable to do what they aspire to do. Positioning Theory was in part based on the notion that people are able to challenge and change the Positions they negotiate in social encounters. During the early 1990s, when the author was a management consultant at KPMG, a colleague presented a photo of the board of a national sporting body and then asked what was wrong with the picture. After a variety of ways to improve the photo were suggested she said, wrong they are all men. Indeed, there was cause for women to be on the board of this body; an equal number of women and men were active in the sporting competitions overseen by that board. The authors response to her concern was that it was a matter of time, because businesswomen in Australia had only relatively recently been enabled to hold significant management appointments and
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Boxer L (2004) Being Able To Do What You Aspire To Do in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 65-73.
few had yet achieved the sort of experience where they would be invited to join boards. At the same time, Margaret Jackson was a Partner of KPMG management consulting division and already serving on several boards. A decade later albeit in a new millennium Margaret Jackson has been awarded the highest honour in the Australian Honours System for her leadership and service to business and the community. Thirty years ago, the person leading QANTAS would have been a man and have likely been knighted under the former Imperial Honours System. Indeed, Margaret Jackson is today perhaps the most impressive corporate director in Australia; she was even a strong contender in the last appointment of Australian Governor General. Sadly, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) Australian Women in Leadership Census suggests that Margaret Jacksons ascent to greatness is an anomaly and that too few women have achieved such heights. While some women hold senior management appointments, there remains a great opportunity for more women to do so. A path must be opened for competent women to follow and fill out the leadership ranks of Australia. However, the measure of merit used to select business leaders is seen to be based on a male benchmark of life and experience that works against women (Burton 1988). Bacchi (1993) describes this limiting factor as a brick wall, preventing women from becoming senior and suggests a diversity agenda to deal with this injustice (Bacchi 2000). Sinclair (2000) agrees that pursuing diversity will enable people to short circuit systemic barriers invented and imposed by an older and hardened generation. The challenge put forward in this paper is to change the wider culture of a workplace so that merit is defined in terms of a female benchmark and then for individual women to harness that changed paradigm and Position themselves as leaders. In the next section the burden of women at work who aspire to lead is to realign the four components of their work culture to support them in their aspirations. A social constructionist model of culture is used to explore these components. This model suggest that any culture is composed of (1) a local system of rights, (2) duties and obligations, (3) a local moral order, and (4) pubic and private actions. This social constructionist model will provide a practical framework for women to understand the residual fields of opposition (flux) that may be impeding their progress and take action to neutralise that residue. FOUCALT, FEMINISM AND POSITIONING AT A MACRO LEVEL The author noticed (Boxer 2003a) that Positioning Theory has in part evolved through feminist literature that relies in part on Foucauldian ideas. The obvious contribution made by Foucault to women and work is his reconstituted psychoanalytic understanding of sexuality as referred to by Sinclair (1998). However, a deeper exploration of Foucaults ideas about discourse and power (Boxer 2003a) reveals technologies of far greater value to those who find themselves subjugated or subordinated inappropriately (Foucault 1978, 1977, 1973, 1972, pp. 50-5). Burton (1985, p. 6) explains that the (P)osition of women can be typified as an economically-determinist (P)osition and later explains that it is not a social, but
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Lionel Boxer and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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rather personal nature of the females lack of self esteem and the females lack of power to define her own life in many respects. Murphy (1994, p. 24, p.68) supports this view in demonstrating how paternalism stifles the full potential of women while at the same time doing an even greater disservice to most men by denying them their personal feelings and sensitivities. Although affirmative action policies are in place in many corporations, Ross-Smith (2000) concludes that there is a potential for women to slip into stereotypical feminine roles in the presence of male managers. For the purpose here, discourse is understood to be all those ideas, concepts and beliefs that collectively provide a powerful framework for understanding and action. Foucault observed that people and societies are constrained by the subjectivity imposed on them by the dominant discourse of their society; the power effects of discourse produce certain types of knowledge. Feminists and other radicals suggested that subjectivity can be changed and have drawn on Foucaults discursive technologies to show how the dominant discourse can be altered. For example, Gilman (1982, p. xi-xii) extends Foucaults observation of how epistemological myths become real to discuss root metaphors that have led to what is perceived as culturally acceptable normal and abnormal. Halperin (1995) beatifies Foucault for his contribution to the queer politics that enable normal behaviour to be challenged and the residue of dominant discourse to be dismantled. Warner (1993) introduces a volume of queer theory proposing the articles he has assembled demonstrates that the confrontational word queer has been applied outside of queer such that traditional academic models have ruptured. Indeed Foucauldian ideas threaten some. For example, Cheney (1995, p.129) warns conservative America of the threat to stability from Foucauldian tactics. She warns that critical legal studies uses his ideas to destroy any illusions that might exist about stability and objectivity in the law by deconstructing its arguments. Hollway (1984) was the first to use the concept of Position in the social sciences. In doing so, she drew on Foucaults use of discourse and his exploration of power/ knowledge relationship. When Davies and Harr (1991) introduced Positioning as the discursive production of selves they did not draw on Foucault directly, but they did refer to Hollway (1984) and eight other Foucault inspired works amongst the 22 references listed in their bibliography. This observation led the author to explore Foucault for the ideas that might have inspired Positioning Theory and to arrive at a social constructionist model (Boxer 2003a, 2003b) to model the residue caused by a dominant discourse. Bearing in mind Foucault (1994, p. 524) said I write for users, not for readers, Harr explains (in an email on the 14th May 2002) he has drawn on a discursive practice (as is shown to have been influenced by Foucault) to understand the way people construct realities. In Positioning Theory, Foucaults (1972, p. 52-5) insight that positions are defined by the situation and not established by the synthetic activity of a consciousness, but produced by discursive practice and that discourse is a space of exteriority (Foucault 1972, p. 55) has been applied into a realist paradigm; human conversation is going on in ways individuals are neither aware of nor can they influence.
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DEVELOPMENT OF A CONCEPTUAL MODEL Positioning Theory concerns the discursive production of self. What this means is that people come to understand themselves and others as they engage in conversation and other encounters with other people. When people meet they speak and listen as they engage in conversation. In entering into a conversation they bring with them a Position based on their current understanding of themselves and their relationship to the other people involved in the encounter. How they react to the Positions brought to the encounter is one part of the Positioning Theory puzzle. While there are other perspectives on self, this paper does not explore these. Further research could lead to compare various ways of looking at self to validate the assumptions made here. Of interest in this paper is how people present themselves in a social encounter and then how they may challenge one another as the social encounter progresses. The initial self is here referred to as first order Positioning and the way the self evolves through the conversation is here referred to as second order Positioning. It provides an understanding of both what happens when people are subjugated and subordinated as well as how people deal with that subjugation and subordination. For many years women have been subjugated and subordinated (Burton 1985) and in recent years there have clearly been changes. There was a dominant discourse that allocated women unjust Positions and the residue remains until it is neutralised by an alternative discourse (Weedon 1987). Neutralising the residue requires that it is identified in the context of a specific social situation and dealt with during each encounter. Positioning is understood to be an effect of discursive action that happens within any social order. That discourse takes place at the intersection of the four components that define that social order or culture as shown in Figure 1 (Boxer 2003a, 2003b).
Local System of Rights
Duties & Obligations
Story-line
Position
Discursive Action
Speech Acts
Local Moral Order
Public & Private Actions
Social Constructionist Model Figure 1
Tri-polar Discursive Action Figure 2
People do not realise the full implications of culture on how they behave. When trying to understand cultural change it is helpful to consider a fish swimming in water. The fish does not realise that it is in water until it is removed. People engage in discourse within a culture that is not noticed until aspects of the culture have changed (Murphy 1994, p. 10).
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During each social encounter, those individuals involved in the conversation generate discursive action that is tri-polar as shown in Figure 2. Each participant in a social encounter brings with them their existing Position that has been developed over previous social encounters and their own self-perception. The context and events of a social encounter define the story-line of the social encounter that the participants play out as they engage in various speech acts. Each social encounter that occurs combines with all previous social encounters to create expectations of how people will behave and how they can be expected to be Positioned. If it were not for radical behaviour then Positions would not change; people would continue in their place and accept their fate. This residue is expressed in terms of a social flux as shown in Figures 3 and 4.
Local System of Rights
Duties & Obligations
Story-line
Position
SOCIAL FLUX
Local Moral Order Public & Private Actions
Discursive Action
Speech Acts
Social Constructionist Model Figure 3
Tri-polar Discursive Action Figure 4
The construct of social flux (not to be confused with the symbolic act of flux defined by Johnson (1990)) here draws on electromagnetic theory to express a social field generated by a culture (Boxer 2003a). Nippes (1994) has shown how electromagnetic flux can leave a residue that can interfere with or damage mechanical components. With prevention in mind, he goes on to suggest that the various causes of the electromagnetic fields need to be adjusted and tuned to neutralise inappropriate electromagnetic flux. Realism holds that there is a world beyond the cognition of any individual. In physics it is the material world, in the human sciences it is the human conversation, which occurs in ways that individuals are neither aware of nor can they influence. In this sense Positioning is about personal constructionism (not social constructionism); a realism paradigm. Building on the analogy, it is suggested that every culture suffers from residual social flux and that the components of the social order need to be adjusted and tuned to prevent inappropriate social flux. CEOs of well known large organisations have been observed adjusting the rights, duties, morals and actions of themselves, their subordinates and other stakeholders (Boxer 2003a). A FRAMEWORK FOR INDIVIDUALS TO APPLY TO THEIR SITUATION Figures 3 and 4 provide the foundation for a personal Positioning framework. Any person can understand their social situation in general and then manage each specific social encounter to their benefit. The data used to express the measure of all
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parameters of both the Social Constructionist Model and Tri-polar Discursive Action is qualitative: richly descriptive transcripts of what people say. To understand the social order it is helpful to listen to ordinary conversation and create transcripts of what is said. Deconstructing this into phrases that relate to rights, duties, morals and actions (Table 1) provides a description of the social order (Boxer 2003a, 2003b). An individual can then consider the implications of the social order on their aspirations in particular. With that in mind, each social encounter can be entered into in such a way that residual social flux that might obstruct ones aspirations may be neutralised. To do this it is necessary to alter one or all of the components of the social order. Table 1: Social Constructionist Model
1. Rights Each individual perceives that they have certain rights. In cases where these rights are inappropriate to the organisations goals the CEO must take steps to challenge people to realise and adopt more appropriate rights or depart from the organisation. Each individual adopts certain duties. In cases where people have not adopted those duties necessary for the Organisations goals the CEO must take steps to challenge people to realise and accept necessary duties or depart from the organisation. What is important to an organisation is defined by a system of morals. All system within organisations are the responsibility of CEOs to establish and subordinate leaders to implement. Everyone should engage in actions that are conducive to the culture of an organisation. If peoples actions are inappropriate then the CEO must correct those actions.
2.
Duties
3. 4.
Morals Actions
Each person in a social encounter is able to influence the tri-polar discursive action. They can do this by engaging in self-Positioning and other-Positioning so that there is an understanding that they are enabled to do what they aspire to do. They can also influence the story line through various speech acts in a way that favours their ambition (Table 2). Through various social encounters, one can progressively align the social order with their ambition. Appropriately aligned, the social order or culture will provide an environment for one to do what they aspire to do. If we want to establish a more equitable society we have to start with ourselves and then work with others on an individual basis. Table 2: Components of Tri-Polar Discursive Action
1. Position When people communicate they bring themselves to the conversation. A persons self is defined through the discursive action that takes place when they communicate. So, self is evolving all the time. It is important that people understand themselves and the others they are working with. If they do not then there is no chance of making quality happen. Each time people meet they follow some sort of story line. In formal terms this is an agenda. In business we meet to accomplish goals. It is important to ensure that agendas whether formal or informal relate to the issues that need to be dealt with. Every utterance people make is a speech act. It is important to align these speech acts with the story line in such a way that issues are dealt with. 70
2.
Story Line
3.
Speech Acts
A LITTLE SELF REFLECTION While it may appear that the author is a converted feminist, he remains biased. Influenced by the society in which he was raised. For example, he still looks twice when boarding a bus driven by a woman. However, he realises that the most satisfying employment he has experienced has tended to be when his direct superior was a woman (although he has observed some unpleasant female leaders and some very effective male leaders). With the benefit of his research (Boxer 2003a) he realises that those superiors whether male or female he has been most impressed by have in one way or another dealt with the four components of the social order and in doing so Positioned themselves and others appropriate to each situation. He notices that many of his male peers even those committed to explore their own sensitivities are obstructed by the paternalistic culture that invisibly envelops all social encounters. Furthermore, institutions that are in principle devoted to exploring mens sensitivities are bound up in those trappings, practices and correct form that men do enjoy of paternalism. The problem is men not knowing how to deal with the changes in their lives, the workforce and womens Position (McNicholas 1994). If an individual cares about changing society they must begin by changing themselves. How they engage in self Positioning will effect those they come in contact with and perhaps will lead to greater change in society and their own ability to do what they aspire to do. Each person needs to sort that out for themselves. In conclusion, the social flux model provides a representation of the relationships of the various components of discursive action with the various components of culture. It follows that components of culture could be altered by components of discourse. Hence, in the case of women and work, a woman who is dissatisfied with her opportunities to achieve senior leadership appointments can alter her Position, engage in storylines, and use speech acts that relate to her being a senior leader in the organisation. Perhaps this is simply a display of self-confidence, but perhaps self-confidence has never been broken into components as simple as the three components of discursive action. Furthermore, perhaps the impact of a self-confident person has never been mapped onto organisational culture in such a clear way. It would be interesting to observe the discursive action of women senior managers to test this theory. Perhaps a doctoral student will pursue such a study using this framework. Another opportunity for further research would be to consider the framework from another perspective of self, such as that put forward by Jacques Derrida or other continental philosophers.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Bacchi, C (1993) The brick wall: why so few women become senior academics, The Australian Universities' Review, v.36, no.1: 36-41 Bacchi, C (2000) The seesaw effect: down goes affirmative action, up comes workplace diversity, Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, v.5, no.2: 6483. Boxer, LJ (2003a) Using Positioning Theory to Understand How Senior Managers Deal with Sustainability Issues. PhD Thesis, RMIT University, Melbourne Boxer, LJ (2003b) Assessment of quality systems with Positioning Theory, in R Harr & FM Moghaddam (eds), The self and others: positioning individuals and groups in personal, political, and cultural contexts. Praeger: Westport. Burton, C (1985) Subordination: feminism and social theory. Sydney: George Allen and Urwin. Burton, C (1988) Redefining merit. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Davies, B and R Harr (1991) Positioning: the discursive production of selves, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, v.20, no.1: 44-63, http://www. massey.ac.nz/~ALock/Position/Position.htm, accessed 11 Sept 1999 Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (2004) EOWA Australian women in leadership census, http://www.eowa.gov.au/Australian_Women_In_ Leadership_Census/2004_Australian_Women_In_Leadership_Census.asp Foucault, M (1972) The archaeology of knowledge, (trans.) AM Sheridan Smith. London: Routledge. Foucault, M (1973) The birth of the clinic: an archaeology of medical perception, (trans.) A.M Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon Books. Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison, (trans.) AM Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon Books. Foucault, M (1978) History of sexuality vol 1. New York: Random House. Foucault, M (1994) Dits et ecrits: 1954-1988. Paris: Gallimard. Gillman, SL (1982) Seeing the Insane. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Halperin, DM (1995) Saint Foucault: towards a gay hagiography. New York: Oxford University Press. Hollway, W (1984) Gender differences and the production of subjectivity, in J Henriques, W Hollway, C Urwin, L Venn and V Walkerdine (eds), Changing the subject: psychology, social regulation and subjectivity. London: Methuen, pp. 227-63. Johnson, G (1990) Managing strategic change: the role of symbolic action, British Journal of Management, v.1, no. 4: 183-200. McNicholas, B (1994) Women and the glass ceiling. Unpublished proceedings of Women in Management, Public Relations Institute of Australia State Superannuation Board Seminar, Melbourne: 14 Jun 1994. Murphy, CC (1994) An introduction to Christian feminism. Dublin: Dominican Publications. Nippes, PI (1994) Principles of magnetism and stray currents in rotating machinery, P/M Technology, v. 7, no. 3: 14-20. Ross-Smith, A (2000) Managerial work and behaviour: do women do it differently?, in S Clegg (ed), Organising knowledge economies and societies the Eighth APROS International Colloquium. Sydney.
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Sinclair, A (1998) Doing leadership differently: gender, power and sexuality in a changing business culture. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Sinclair, A (2000) The death of discrimination in the new economy? Not likely! Resurrecting EEO and Diversity dot.com. Delivered at the 12th Women, Management and Employment Relations Conference, MacQuarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney, 26 Jul 2000, http://www.gsm.mq.edu.au/ msf/content/amanda-sinclair.htm Warner, M (1993) Fear of a queen planet: queer politics and social theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Weedon, C (1987) Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
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Processes for Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace: Meeting Feminist Concerns Regarding Mediation.
Kathy Douglas School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT University Workplace mediation is one way of dealing with conflict. Research has shown that workplace mediators may practice neutrality in a manner that can prejudice some participants. Women in particular can be vulnerable in a mediation setting where the mediator is not reflective regarding the issue of neutrality. Generally, the traditional feminist literature relating to mediation has criticised the widespread use of this alternative dispute resolution mechanism as some women do not have the same opportunity to participate equally in the mediation process. However, this inequality may be due to the method of practice utilised by large numbers of mediators, the problem solving model. This model allows mediator bias to operate, does not assist women with their negotiation style or with power imbalances and does not address issues that arise when violence is a part of the workplace relationship. This paper advocates the adoption of new models of mediation practice, the storytelling, narrative and transformative models. Collectively we could describe these approaches to mediation as second generation practice. These models reject the problem solving approach and acknowledge that a mediator cannot be truly neutral in the mediation process. These approaches arguably better meet the needs of those women who require assistance in negotiation and could allay some of the traditional concerns feminists have expressed regarding the practice of mediation.
INTRODUCTION Conflict in the workplace can arise in a number of forms and may lead to the need to employ a conflict resolution mechanism. A popular alternative dispute resolution (ADR) option is the use of mediation. Mediation can be used in a range of situations in the workplace, for example from a formal grievance process to the informal resolution of interpersonal issues in teams (Bloom 2002). Women in the workplace will therefore sometimes experience mediation, but is this conflict resolution option beneficial to women or does mediation pose particular difficulties for some women? There is evidence to suggest that the way mediation is practiced in the workplace does not necessarily provide just outcomes for employee participants. Mediators in the workplace may not practice mediation in a way that avoids conflict of interest or is reflective of notions of neutrality (Van Gramberg 2003a). Gender poses an additional concern in relation to mediation outcomes for employees. Gender issues and mediation in the workplace have not been researched in Australia, but traditional
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Douglas K (2004) Processes for Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace: Meeting Feminist Concerns Regarding Mediation in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 74-91.
Processes for Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace
feminist concerns regarding mediation can be raised when considering whether mediation in the workplace is fair to women. For those women in the workplace who struggle when placed in a position where they must negotiate for themselves, who experience power imbalances due to their position in an organisational hierarchy and for those women who experience organisational violence, arguably mediation is not the best option. However, it may be that recent innovations in mediation practice will assist those women who may be vulnerable in a mediation setting, to feel secure that they will have an equal opportunity to bargain effectively. The use of second generation practice, an approach to mediation that incorporates critical theory and eschews a problem solving approach, might better meet the needs of some women in the workforce. This paper will explore traditional feminist objections to mediation and consider whether new innovations in practice meet these concerns. Firstly, I will explore the use of mediation in organisations generally and then consider the kinds of issues that affect some women when facing conflict in the workforce. I will use a case study to demonstrate the differences in approach between mediators who employ a problem solving approach and those mediators who utilise second generation practice such as narrative mediation. WHAT IS MEDIATION? The term mediation has been given many definitions. A report by the National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (NADRAC), into alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, attempted to define a number of forms of alternative dispute resolution. In relation to mediation it defined the process as follows (NADRAC 1997a): Mediation is a process in which the parties to a dispute, with the assistance of a neutral third party (the mediator), identify the disputed issues, develop options, consider alternatives and endeavor to reach an agreement. The mediator has no advisory or determinative role in regard to the content of the dispute or the outcome of its resolution, but may advise on or determine the process of mediation whereby resolution is attempted. THE WORKPLACE CONTEXT Mediation can occur in a number of ways in relation to workplaces. There may be private mediation, which is mediation generally initiated in the workplace to deal with disputes either informally or as part of a formal grievance procedure. Workplace negotiation of wages bargaining can include facilitation of the negotiation by a third party (Van Gramberg 2003, p. 53). The Workplace Relations Act 1987 provides a statutory scheme that allows workplace agreements to include a dispute settlement clause: section 170T(1) and (8). The section allows for the design of dispute resolution mechanisms which may include mediation and may also include the Australian Industrial Relations Commission having a role in private arbitration (Johns 2004).
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Kathy Douglas and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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There may be court connected mediation as part of litigation relating to the workplace. In this context a worker may experience mediation as part of an action brought under various kinds of legislation. For example a worker may experience an ADR mechanism of conciliation when making a claim under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth). If dissatisfied with the outcome under the legislation at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission the worker may take the matter to the Federal Magistrates Court or the Federal Court. Both courts provide for the use of mediation prior to the hearing of a matter (Mack 2003). It is difficult to quantify the amount of private mediations occurring relating to workplace mediations. In its recent report regarding ADR statistics (NADRAC 2003a) the Federal Council did not specifically quantify workplace mediations. This category was arguably subsumed into the category dealing with commercial disputes. Although NADRAC does not provide data on this area the Council recently promoted workplace mediations and conflict management systems as part of a conference showcasing ADRs use in the business world; ADR-A Better Way to Do Business(2003b). In an effort to establish the use of private ADR in the workplace Van Gramberg (2003a) surveyed both employers and ADR practitioners. She found slow but continuing growth in this field with the greatest trends upwards occurring in the areas of facilitation, mediation and conciliation. Greatest use of ADR was in the areas of personality conflicts, disciplinary matters and facilitating enterprise negotiations. Van Gramberg identified the decentralisation of industrial relations and the individual focus of HRM policies and practices, with less utilisation of unions, as reasons why there has been steady growth in private ADR (2003a, p. 53). The types of conflict that occur in organisations are of two main types: interpersonal and systemic conflict. Interpersonal conflict largely comes from miscommunications and misunderstandings. It is the type of conflict that responds to third party interventions like mediation. Systemic conflict can be more problematic and may indicate the need for an organisation to address change issues. Complex issues about the organisations mission and future direction may be a part of this kind of conflict. Third party interventions may be appropriate, but it may be that a range of conflict resolution techniques are required (Cloke and Goldsmith 2003). Van Gramberg notes that in her Australian survey of employers, internal mediation by the HR manager was seen as the most common use of ADR in the workplace. This kind of mediation was conducted by the HR manager in nearly a third of the mediations that occurred (Van Gramberg. 2003a, p. 55). External ADR practitioners were also utilised by those employers surveyed including lawyers, employer association representative, former tribunal members, union representatives, academics and others (Van Gramberg 2003a, p. 55). WORKPLACE MEDIATIONS: SOME ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES Like mediation in other contexts mediation in the workplace has a number of benefits. It is an informal process that encourages party participation. In a workplace this may
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mean the attendance of the mediator at the organisation to speak with parties and try to facilitate the dispute. It gives the organisation the benefit of dealing with conflict early. Employees have the chance to map out their own solutions to problems and be creative in their response to conflict (Cloke and Goldsmith 2003). Mediation has been seen as valuable because parties have the opportunity to personally put their perspectives on a dispute, rather than through a third party such as a lawyer (Bloom 2002). The focus in mediation will generally be upon the relationship between the parties rather than the rights that parties perceive themselves to have. The disadvantages of mediation relate largely to the private nature of this dispute resolution mechanism. A public hearing of a dispute in a court allows for parties to air a grievance. This allows for issues to come out into the open and may force organisations to address systemic conflicts (Astor and Chinkin 2002, p. 65). ADR and mediation may be said to be pushing workplace concerns into the private sphere where unjust outcomes can be hidden from view (Van Gromberg 2003b). Additionally, a court has coercive powers to help equalise power between parties (Astor and Chinkin 2002, p. 73). In a mediation a mediator has no such power and his ability to intervene upon the side of one party is usually restricted by the philosophical position of neutrality that is commonly adopted. In a workplace there are clear power imbalances between employees and management that may provide particular cause for concern when analysing the advantages and disadvantages of mediation. There is usually a hierarchical relationship between the parties at a workplace and ADR processes, including mediation, may be used by management to further managements own agenda. Van Gromberg found in her research that employers can use the processes of ADR to disempower employees. Through the analysis of three case studies Van Gromberg (2003a p. 66) pointed to occasions where external consultants employed to facilitate agreements confused their role and drifted into the role of advocate for management. Employees still trusted the process, even if unhappy with the outcome, due to the rhetoric of neutrality: Finally, why do these weaker parties accept unfavourable outcomes? Early evidence points again to the powerful symbolism of neutrality of the ADR practitioner and the unquestioning acceptance by all disputants of ADR rhetoric which holds it to be a more peaceful means of dispute resolution than the formal adversarial system of tribunals and courts. Research which finds a confused notion of neutrality is of interest to this discussion as neutrality is a major issue when considering traditional feminist concerns with the practice of mediation. THE VALUE OF MEDIATION FOR WOMEN When mediation began to be used routinely as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism many hailed the process as an opportunity for a more female approach to conflict. Some feminists, critiquing dispute resolution, saw mediation as an
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opportunity to introduce a female ethic of care into conflict resolution (MenkelMeadow 1984). However, this initial glow of confidence subsequently faded. Concerns regarding the practice of mediation were raised and doubts expressed about womens ability to equally engage in the process (Grillo 1991). Should feminists continue to be concerned about the use of mediation? There have been developments in the literature and practice of mediation that might now address many of the fears feminists have held regarding mediation. Second generation practice, a term being coined by some mediators (Cobb 2001, p. 1029), approaches the practice of mediation in such a way that some of the promise of mediation that was initially envisaged might now be said to have come to fruition. The key is the idea of neutrality, a core concept for many when discussing mediation practice. Traditionally a problem solving approach to mediation, a model routinely used in workplace mediation, values the concept of a neutral mediator who facilitates consensual agreement between parties. A neutral mediator does not influence the content of the mediation. The mediator is limited to influencing the process of the mediation itself and does not seek to actively assist parties (Bush and Folger 1994, p. 16). Alternative models of mediation such as mediation as storytelling, narrative mediation and transformative mediation have a critical approach to the concept of neutrality (Cobb and Rifkin 1991, Winslade and Monk 2001, Bush and Folger 1994). This critical approach arguably allows the concerns of women to be heard. The possibility of a neutral mediator is rejected and the mediator actively helps those women who require support in a mediation to articulate their stories and positions. Some of the ways that women are at risk in mediation centre around the concept of neutrality and the possible exposure to bias. By seeing themselves as neutral, without any reflection regarding their own biases, mediators can fail to see that they are constructing women in a certain way throughout the mediation process. Key issues for feminists relate to issues of bias in the process and these concerns are linked to issues regarding the ability of women to effectively negotiate on their own behalf, power imbalances and the use of mediation in relationships that have had a history of violence. A FEMALE ETHIC OF CARE? When the practice of mediation first enjoyed a resurgence of popularity and interest in the western systems of dispute resolution many saw mediation as a much needed change of approach (Menkel-Meadows 1984, p. 795). Commonly, disputes were dealt with by negotiation or litigation. Mediation was seen as a welcome alternative that could, through the presence of a neutral third party, provide a process where a rightsbased discourse could take a back seat to an exploration of partys needs and a creative approach to problem solving. Some feminist scholars categorised mediation as a female approach to conflict resolution. Basing their analyses on the work of the psychologist Carol Gilligan they highlighted the adversarial nature of litigation and saw mediation as an opportunity to move away from a focus upon the legalistic rights of participants. Mediation provided the opportunity for the direct participation and involvement in dispute resolution of the parties (Menkel-Meadow 1985, p. 39, Rifkin 1984, p. 21).
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The view that mediation involves a particular female approach was based upon the convergence of two important works: Gilligans (1982) writings in relation to psychological research and Harvard negotiators Fisher and Urys (1981) facilitative model of negotiation that included a win/win dichotomy. Gilligans influential thesis posits that the women and men have a different approach to problem solving. Working with children, Gilligan used a case study approach to explore the way the two genders solve moral dilemmas. The case study involved a wife dying of cancer and a husband who needed to purchase a drug from a pharmacist in order to assist her. However, the husband is not in a position to buy the drug and hence the children in the study are presented with a dilemma. The responses that Gilligan received led her to a theory of women in our society having a distinct voice from men. The female child in the study, eleven year old Amy, responds differently to the male eleven year old child Jake (Gilligan 1982, p. 17). When faced with the dilemma in the case study Jake responds with a view of how to solve the problem. His approach is categorised by Gilligan as a rights ethic. He balances the rights of the pharmacist with that of the wife. Life is the more important, he concludes, so he determines that the husband should steal the drug. Amy, in contrast, states that the husband should not steal the drug because that would affect the relationship of the three people involved and instead she asks for more information. She wants to know if the two have discussed the importance of the drug to the wifes health. What she proposes is an exploration of options. Gilligan categorises this approach as the care ethic. Both men and women can exercise the rights and care ethic, but it would appear that the two different approaches spring from gender socialisation. Society values the male approach above the female approach, but we need to value the female approach as a different voice (Gilligan 1982, p. 25). PROBLEM SOLVING MODEL The contribution of Harvard negotiators, Fisher and Ury, to the mediation industry has been significant. A model of mediation that is widely practiced, both in the courts and in workplaces, is the problem solving model. Fisher and Ury (1981) developed an approach to negotiation that attempts to explore options in such a way that parties are able to negotiate a win/win solution. This approach rejects the adversarial method of negotiation where competition results in win/lose outcomes. Using four concepts to inform the negotiation Fisher and Ury try to move away from the more traditional models of negotiation, particularly the win/lose approach. By separating the people from the problem, focusing on interests rather than positions, inventing options for mutual gain and using objective criteria, Fisher and Ury encourage a more creative interaction. This approach, described as a principled approach to negotiation, can result in a consensual outcome that benefits all of the parties (Fisher and Ury 1981). The principled approach was adopted widely in the mediation movement. It is the foundation of the problem solving model of mediation which allows for the exchange of information, a search for the interests behind demands and a creative exploration of solutions (Bush and Folger 1994, p. 63). The mediator would generally see him/herself as a neutral facilitator in charge of the process, not the content, of the mediation (Astor and Chinkin 2002, p. 149).
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Initially, some feminists saw this kind of negotiation as incorporating the female ethic of care as espoused by Gilligan (1982). The prominent legal writer Carrie MenkelMeadows was one of the scholars who advocated a change of direction. She saw mediation as the opportunity to alter the legal discourse and include the voice of women in dispute resolution. By abandoning the win/lose dichotomy the potential for the female voice to be heard seemed possible. The female approach of valuing relationships, of concentrating on the particulars of a situation rather then upon abstract notions of justice, of searching for options and creative solutions (as Amy did in the Gilligan study) of utilising empathy and of allowing people to be heard could all be incorporated in a model of mediation that utilised the Fisher and Ury approach to negotiation (Menkel-Meadow, 1985, p. 39). However, other feminists saw mediation as problematic for a number of reasons and cautioned against its use. TRADITIONAL FEMINIST CONCERNS WITH MEDIATION: SELECTED ISSUES Bias One of the key concerns that feminists have raised relates to the potential bias that women may be exposed to during the mediation process from the mediator or mediators (Grillo 1991). Poststructuralist theory has identified the inability for those in power, such as mediators, to be truly objective. Truth or reality is socially constructed so that the perceptions that mediators bring to the negotiating table are shaped by the influence of cultural, historical, political and economic norms (Bagshaw 2003, p. 131). Feminists have long maintained that women, due to the nature of patriarchal society, are constructed in such a way that they cannot equally engage in our society. In the law, and in all walks of life, women are disadvantaged by the assumptions that operate about their experience (Graycar and Morgan 2002, p. 28). One of the attributes of the problem solving model is the view that mediators can be neutral in the mediation process. The practice of mediation has relied heavily on this attribute in order to convince the public, business and government alike that mediation is as unbiased as the court system. The acceptability of mediation as a dispute resolution option has arguably centred around the neutrality factor. However, mediators cannot be neutral. A mediator can be even-handed in their approach to the parties, i.e. by giving equal time and attention throughout the process, but their own view of the world will affect how they see the parties and how they conduct the mediation (Cobb and Rifkin 1991, p. 37). At times this may disadvantage women as mediators either overtly or covertly influence the mediation and silence womens concerns. Mediation practice can vary widely and some mediators actively intervene in a mediation to bring about settlement. Other mediators eschew this directive practice, but also affect the outcome of the mediation through subtle influence upon the interactions of the parties (Astor and Chinkin 2002, p. 150).
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Problem Solving and Selective Facilitation Mediators tend to see the conflict in the dispute as a problem that requires a solution. From the opening statements of the parties they search for the parameters of the problem and the best way to find a fix (Bush and Folger 1994, p. 65). Mediators may then pursue an outcome during the mediation process. By use of selective facilitation mediators can ensure that outcomes they perceive as preferable are given more time in the process. Mediators steer participants towards these outcomes by cutting short discussion of other options and returning to preferred options (Greatbatch and Dingwall 1989, p. 613). Due to the nature of patriarchy mediators may see women as the party who should make compromises or who, due to her gender, should accept a particular outcome (Astor and Chinkin 2002, p. 167). Mediators may have a view of the ways that they expect and would like participants to behave in the mediation process. If a participant acts in a manner that does not suit the mediators view of the world she may be quelled. Cues work as messages of approval and disapproval. A woman in a mediation who is angry and demanding may be asked to modify her behaviour because it does not match the way the mediator sees appropriate female behaviour. She is categorised as strident, but a man in the same circumstances may be given much greater latitude and be categorised as assertive (Trillo 1991, p. 1556). During the process of mediation many mediators will call a private meeting or caucus. This is the opportunity to speak with the participants privately and discuss issues more frankly. Options are frequently explored during this part of the mediation. The opportunity for a mediator to pressure a participant is expanded during the private session (Moore 1996, p. 325). Ability to Negotiate This last point raises one of the major concerns with the Fisher and Ury model of negotiation and its utilisation in mediation. Some women do not fare well in mixed gender negotiations (Astor and Chinkin 2002, pp. 130-132). Gilligans analysis of gendered socialised approaches to moral quandaries is relevant here. Studies relating to women and the way that they negotiate suggest that women have a different orientation to men. Women have a preference for harmony and a focus upon the relationship dimension of the interaction (Kolb 2000). When pitted against men who adopt a more aggressive, positional bargaining approach, women may not be as successful in the negotiation. Many women are not traditional bargainers. Their commitment to relationships may mean that they sacrifice other issues. Their ethic of care may mean that they are not able to bargain effectively for themselves (Astor and Chinkin 2002, pp. 128-129). One of Fisher and Urys premises is the need to separate the people from the problem. Women do not generally wish to disassociate the people from the problem (Menkel-Meadow 198384, p. 841) because one of their main focuses is the relationship dimension.
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Additionally, gender is not the only issue to consider in relation to womens ability to negotiate. Race, ethnicity and sexuality are some of the aspects of identity that will affect women in the negotiation parts of the mediation. The issue of identity will vary from mediation to mediation according to who is involved in the process. Fisher and Ury in the second edition of their book addressed issues of identity by advocating that negotiators be sensitive to these issues and reflective of their own assumptions (Astor and Chinkin 2002, pp. 133-134). The question remains though whether fundamentally the problem solving model of mediation can really address some womens needs as the emphasis upon neutrality does not allow a mediator to actively intervene on behalf of women? Power Imbalance Power imbalances were also not sufficiently addressed in the Fisher and Ury original model. Power is a difficult matter in mediations as stereotypical assumptions can be made by both mediators and participants which may not apply in a given situation. For example a manager in an organisation would be likely to have more power than a clerk or a receptionist, but the manager may not choose to exercise that power (Astor and Chinkin 2002, p.149). However, it is clear that many women do suffer power imbalances in mediation. Traditionally they do not have access to the financial resources, positions in society and the kinds of employment that men are able to access (Mack 1995, p. 126, Graycar and Morgan 2002, p. 85). Some men have a sense of entitlement over women and this can lead to conflict. Exaggerated entitlement contributes to a large number of conflicts within families and in the workplace (Winslade and Monk, 2001 p. 101). Violence Lastly, one of the major concerns feminists have expressed regarding women and mediation deals with the issue of violence. A history of violence in a relationship may mean that the recipient of that violence cannot negotiate effectively with the perpetrator (Astor and Chinkin 2001, p. 351). Many feminists have commented upon the issue of violence in the context of family law, but these concerns can be extrapolated to the workplace context where violence also occurs (Larsen n.d.). NEW APPROACHES: NEW OPPORTUNITIES By moving away from the problem solving approach to mediation are we able to better meet the needs of women? Arguably, by adopting new models of mediation, which reject the premise of neutrality and encourage interventions by the mediator, the promise that Menkel-Meadow and others saw in mediation can be achieved. The explicit use of critical theory in place of the illusion of neutrality allows mediators to intervene where issues of gender arise. New models of mediation acknowledge the impact of the mediator on the content of the mediation and ask the mediator him/herself to reflect upon their own biases. The mediator is therefore more aware of the potential for gender stereotyping in the mediation.
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Collectively, I would regard these new kinds of mediation models as second generation approaches. Sara Cobb (2001, p. 1029), one of the most influential writers in the area of mediation, has coined this phrase to differentiate new, reflective practice from the efforts of early practitioners of mediation: This is a radical departure from what could be called first-generation mediation practice, where the mandate not to impact the content of the dispute is thought to be essential to preserving the privilege the parties have to define their own problems and build their own solutions. However, once we adopt an interactionist or social constructionist perspective, the mandate to separate content from process dissolves, as mediators recognize the inevitability of their impact on the content of the dispute. This attention to the evolution of the content calls for a second-generation mediation practice in which mediators interact with disputants so as to evolve the conflict stories, reformulate relationships, reframe the past and rebuild the future. Cobb (2001) advocates a model known as mediation as storytelling. Critiquing the mediation process Cobb expounds an approach to mediation which facilitates story telling. She rejects the problem solving approach and engages with the issue of neutrality. Cobb and Rifkin (1991) have been influential in raising the issue of the lack of mediator neutrality and the false distinction made by many mediators that they control the process and not the content of mediation. The effect on practice of the realisation that mediators cannot be neutral is that mediators can more explicitly intervene in the way that the mediation unfolds. The mediator can use the process of mediation, such as opening statements, private meetings and questioning techniques to co-construct a story that may lead to the parties being empowered. Disputants participation is enhanced and their original narratives destabilised allowing each story to contribute to the construction of a new narrative (Cobb 1993, p. 253). In a similar manner narrative mediation constructs mediation as a storytelling experience. Like Cobb narrative mediation practitioners do not make the distinction between the process of the mediation and the content of the mediation. The mediator is an active participant and he/she makes the party aware of their role. The conflict stories that many parties bring to mediation often consist of scenarios of mutual blame. The mediator does not seek to establish the facts of the dispute, believing there is no independent truth to be found, but instead validates each parties perspective. The mediator then seeks to destabilise the stories of blame, using questioning and private meetings to open up the story that the participant brings to the mediation. By the use of various techniques the mediator attempts to loosen the convictions that parties have and assists them to map the history and effect of the conflict. The mediator then actively works to find a solution to the dispute. There is no pretence of neutrality and the mediator is explicit in his/her co-authoring role in finding a new more co-operative story for the parties (Winslade and Monk 2001). This approach differs from Cobb in that the emphasis is upon larger societal stories and their effect upon the stories of the particular mediation. The stories brought to the mediation table are influenced by the themes of the cultural contexts in which they were formulated. The mediator makes clear his/her use of postmodern theory to deconstruct and then reconstruct the disputants stories during the mediation. This
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kind of approach has much in common with narrative therapy and has been used extensively in family law disputes. However, this approach can be applied to all types of disputes (Winslade, Monk and Cotter 1998, p. 24). I will consider this kind of practice in more detail in the case study that follows in the next section of this paper. Transformative mediation also rejects the problem solving approach and replaces it with the aim of participants achieving moral growth. Growth occurs through mediator interventions designed to increase both empowerment and recognition amongst the participants. Empowerment refers to the fact that in each mediation participants have the potential to increase their own feelings of self worth and their capabilities in relation to the difficulties they face. Recognition deals with the opportunity to experience a greater empathy with other parties in the dispute; to acknowledge and respond to the concerns and difficulties that other parties face and to feel a common bond of humanity (Bush and Folger 1994). Again, mediator neutrality is crucial in the approach adopted by practitioners of the transformative model. There is an understanding that mediators cannot be neutral and that they impact upon the mediation as it unfolds. Specific mediator interventions are advocated as a method of achieving empowerment and recognition for disputants (Bush and Folger 1994, p. 261). Each of the above approaches fits Cobbs definition of second generation practice. Through a rejection of problem solving and a realisation of their own lack of neutrality mediators can move away from the dominant mode of practice and adopt new approaches which incorporate critical theory. To illustrate the differences in the problem solving approach and the second generation models of practice I include a case study of mediation in the workplace. The case study incorporates a problem solving approach to mediation. I contrast this approach with the way that a second generation practitioner, using the narrative approach, would have mediated the dispute. CASE STUDY Liz worked as an administrative assistant in a large organisation. She was new to the company having worked for three years at a university. Initially, she enjoyed her work providing administrative support to four sales managers. However, early on in her new job she noticed that one of the managers, Thomas, was more demanding than the rest. He wanted her to do all his typing, photocopying, make all of his appointments and cover for him with customers when he was late to meetings. Liz knew that it was not part of her role to be this managers personal assistant, but she knew she was expected to provide some level of assistance to all the managers. As time passed Thomas started to ask for her help more forcibly. He would be at her office on the dot of 9.00 am. If she did not immediately address his needs he became belligerent, complaining that the support he got from administrative staff was not like the old days. Liz tried to explain the competing demands of her job, but he would become angrier, raise his voice and sometimes shout at her in another language. Thomas sometimes spoke in Russian, his language of birth, when under stress. Liz started to dread going to work. She would arrive early and lock her door, but he would knock until she
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answered. She heard Thomas whispering to other staff about her. Liz spoke to her supervisor who described the manager as difficult and told her to do her best to get along with him. Then one day she said to Thomas that his work would have to wait and he screamed at her that she was a disgrace and slammed her door as he left the room. She decided to put in a formal complaint and after some time the processes of the organisation led to mediation. Now Liz was happy about this. She had heard about mediation. She understood it to be talking things over in an informal setting and she readily agreed to participate, although she was nervous about facing the manager. She had been told that he refuted her version of events and had accused her of being a racist. His view was that the trouble between them came from her inability to tolerate his cultural heritage. It was decided that both parties should bring union representatives as support people. At the mediation each person was given the opportunity to make an opening statement and Liz did so, stating that she hoped for an apology as an outcome of the mediation. When Thomas began his statement, he said, I will never apologise. Nothing you can say will make me apologise as I did nothing wrong. As the mediation unfolded it seemed to Liz that the mediator spent a great deal of time establishing the details of her position description. She felt that the events leading up to her complaint were skimmed over. The mediator said on several occasions that she wanted to ascertain the facts of what happened. She told Liz and Thomas that it was important to deal with the problem and not the emotional baggage associated with the problem. After some time it became evident to Liz that the mediator wanted her to compromise. She wanted Liz to forgo the apology in order to work out ways that she and the manager could continue working together. She asked Liz Is it a good idea to shut your door and lock it if you want to do your job properly? Later the mediator talked about the need to put the past behind them and look to the future. She looked pointedly at Liz and asked, How can we get along? During the mediation Liz could see that the mediator was also trying to get Thomas to see the events from Lizs point of view. It was clear to Liz that the mediator was pressing Thomas to consider work place behaviour. However, she felt that most of the compromises were coming from her. In the private meeting phase of the mediation the mediator asked her to be big about the experience. You can see what kind of man he is. He is stubborn. The union representative was largely silent throughout the mediation. Liz was persuaded to give up the need for an apology. At the end of the mediation she was surprised to realise that the disturbing allegation of racism had been skated over by all the other participants.
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During the final phase of the mediation she and Thomas agreed on the amount of assistance she could give him and the times of the day he could ask for help. The mediation finished with the mediator congratulating them all on a job well done. After the mediation Liz was very dissatisfied. In time the same kinds of problems surfaced and she put in a claim for stress. We are left then with a mediation that had a successful conclusion but one which later unravelled. How would adoption of any of the models earlier describe alter the way that the mediation unfolded? By focusing upon one of the models of mediation, the narrative model, I will seek to highlight the way that second generation practice might better meet the needs of some women. AN EXAMPLE OF SECOND GENERATION PRACTICE: NARRATIVE MEDIATION Firstly, a practitioner of the narrative model of mediation would have considered the issue of violence in the relationship between Liz and Thomas. He would have questioned Liz prior to the mediation, asking whether Liz felt confident to negotiate with Thomas given their history. The mediator would have utilised the support person from the union by briefing the representative before hand, alerting them to the issue of violence and devising strategies to support Liz in the mediation process. The mediation would only have occurred if the mediator was satisfied that Liz was confident enough to proceed. Thomas too would have been briefed before hand in relation to the mediation process in order to ensure an even handed approach to the parties. A mediator that practices a narrative approach to mediation would have recognised that parties to this case study had constructed stories of their experience. The mediator would not try to establish the objective truth of what occurred, but instead would focus upon perceptions of what occurred. The mediator would understand that events are socially constructed and are not independently known. Parties, such as Liz and Thomas, generally come to mediation with a rehearsed story. Often they have constructed a narrative that paints themselves as the victim and the other party as a villain. Liz has constructed her story to reflect her sense of frustration with Thomas. While Thomas has constructed a story that portrays Liz as racist in being unable to understand his cultural heritage and his likely emotional response to stress (Winslade and Monk, 2001 p. 3). Using a narrative technique of externalising the conversation the mediator would have actively intervened in the way the parties were storying the dispute. The mediator would have attempted to give the dispute a name external to the participants. As mediators externalize a problem, they speak about it as if it were an external object or person exerting an influence on the parties but they do not identify it closely with one party or the other (Winslade and Monk, 2001 p. 6). In this case study the dispute might have been called the breakdown of communication. Use of the externalising technique may have meant that Thomas felt less blame about the way he behaved in the workplace and he may then have been more open to apologising.
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The mediator would have sought to destabilise the stories that Liz and Thomas have constructed. By speaking about the history and effects of the dispute he would have attempted to create space in the stories that the participants brought to the mediation (Winslade and Monk, 2001 pp. 147-156). This approach might have helped Thomas to understand the effects of his behaviour upon Liz. Similarly, Liz may have come to understand the kinds of pressures that Thomas felt he was under and his need for administrative support. The mediator would have attempted to deconstruct the dominant story lines that have emerged in the mediation. The mediator would have, in private the meeting, mapped with Thomas and Liz the dominant societal discourses that affect their dispute. Through the technique of curious questioning (Winslade and Monk, 2001 p. 123) the mediator would have asked a series of questions aimed at helping the participants tease out the assumptions that underlined their expectations in this workplace. Curious questioning asks the mediator to utilise a naive stance that questions the meaning of terms used in the mediation (Winslade and Monk, 2001 p. 80). Issues of gender and race would have been addressed by the mediator. The issue of race would not have been selectively deleted from the discussion by the mediator. The narrative mediation approach asks mediators to reflect upon issues such as gender, race and other identity issues that affect a mediation and parties ability to negotiate (Winslade and Monk, 2001 pp. 96-103). Liz and Thomas would have been asked to consider the societal discourses relating to Thomas ethnicity and the effect upon their workplace relationship. Thomas may have come to see that his view of the tasks that Liz should perform come from an exaggerated sense of entitlement. The mediator would have deconstructed the view that Thomas brought to the mediation that Liz was not sufficiently supporting him. By being attentive to how systemic patterns of entitlement are featured in conflict, the mediator can make efforts to assist those whose voices are often silenced or marginalized. This assistance needs to be approached by the mediator in a manner that does not alienate the party who appears to be the most advantaged as the mediation begins (Winslade and Monk, 2001 p. 101). As the narrative mediation approach does not subscribe to the problem solving view of neutrality the mediator would have been free to actively support Liz. This would have occurred in the pre-mediation session (intake) and in the private meeting stage of the mediation so that Thomas would not feel that the process was uneven. Liz would have been helped to understand the nature of the conflict, including the issues of gender, ethnicity and organisational hierarchy. Liz may have come to reflect upon issues of cultural difference and the need for communication. The mediator would have sought to engage the union representative to help Liz to articulate her position. Both parties, through out the mediation, would have been asked to consider workplace behaviour and what it means to work in a team. Importantly, the approach of narrative mediation, asks that each mediator be reflexive about their practice. This requires the mediator to take account of the effect that he has upon the other people in the mediation. It requires the mediator to be reflective of his biases and the power that he wields in mediation. Thus a narrative mediation
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practitioner would not have stereotyped Liz as he would have been reflective of his own gender biases (Winslade and Monk, 2001 pp. 120-123). Lastly, the mediator would have helped to construct a solution bound narrative with the parties. The mediator would actively work with the parties to explore ways to move forward in the future. He may have used the written word to assist in this process (Winslade and Monk, 2001 p. 239). This may have included detailed ideas of how Liz and Thomas would work together in the future, including communication and emotional responses to each others behaviour. The mediator would have co-authored, actively contributed, to the agreement between the parties. There would have been no pretence of neutrality. Ultimately, I would argue that the narrative approach would have meant a very different kind of mediation experience for Liz. This kind of mediation experience would have been more likely to result in a lasting agreement between the parties. In the context of this papers discussion the different approach of narrative mediation, and second generation practice, would have addressed the traditional feminist concerns that have been raised regarding mediation. CONCLUSION: ALTERING THE MINDSET Second generation practice that rejects problem solving mediation and acknowledges a mediators inability to be neutral can work to better meet the needs of women in workplace settings where conflict occurs. However, these kinds of models will not be used unless employers and human resource workers come to know about the issues concerning women and the possible alternatives to problem solving that are available. The problem solving model has wide acceptance in the mediation community (Bush and Folger 1984, p. 59). Mediators need to be alerted to different models of practice and the benefits that may flow from adoption of these second generation models. How can we alter the discourse so that second generation practice becomes widely known and accepted? In Australia important influential groups looking at issues of ADR and mediation, such as NADRAC, must articulate the limitations of the problem solving approach and the contentious nature of neutrality. At present these kinds of issues are given only lip service. A recently released major report into standards in the practice of ADR (NADRAC 2001) does not adequately address concerns regarding the problem solving model and neutrality. These issues have been canvassed in an earlier discussion paper that preceded the final report (NADRAC 1997b), but more recently they seem to have received scant attention. Similarly, gender issues in mediation are not given detailed attention in the final report, except in relation to violence. The key is to encourage the undertaking of research in this area. There is limited research available in relation to workplace mediation (Van Gramberg 2003a and 2003b) and even less available in relation to gender and mediation in the workplace. NADRAC (2004b) is presently encouraging the use of research to expand understanding of ADR. Earlier in this paper I commented that NADRAC was also promoting workplace mediation as part of its showcasing of ADR mechanisms for business. Before government moves further along the path of privatising disputes in
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workplaces we should conduct research into the context of workplaces. Funding needs to be made available to test issues relating to workplace concerns and these concerns should include neutrality and gender issues. There are a number of academic writers who are engaging with the perplexing problems of neutrality (Astor 2000, Mayer 2004). Importantly, Van Gromberg (2003a, p. 66) identified neutrality as an issue for training and accreditation in the context of the workplace. More research needs to be undertaken and that research needs to include gender issues. Too easily gender issues in mediation seem to slip from NADRACs agenda and womens concerns are not addressed in the current debates. Issues relating to accreditation of mediators should explicitly deal with gender education and second generation practice. Accreditation in Australia is still being considered (NADRAC 2004a) and some form of accreditation seems likely to occur in the near future. Accreditation must not be limited to the problem solving model. Issues relating to neutrality need to be engaged with by the mediation industry and the philosophy underpinning accreditation needs to abandon the concept of the third party neutral. Second generation practice must be brought into the mainstream. This requires that short course providers, TAFE colleges and universities teach second generation practice models. Research should be undertaken to ascertain what models are being taught by these groups and in particular to explore whether the problem solving model is the dominant model (Douglas 2002). If workplace mediators are to understand and reflect upon the need to address womens issues we require more public debate in the mediation industry. Second generation practice needs to be engaged with by the community of mediators so that women can confidently be involved in the mediation process. Only then will mediation be a dispute resolution option in the workplace that all women will be able to trust. BIBLIOGRAPHY Astor, H and Chinkin, C (2002) Dispute resolution in Australia.2nd ed. Sydney: Butterworths. Astor, H (2000) Rethinking neutrality: a theory to inform practice- part 1, Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, v.11: 73-83. Bagshaw, D (2003) Language, power and mediation, Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, v. 14: 130-141. Bloom C, (2002) Mediation-the best way to work it out, www.mediate.com (accessed August 18, 2004) Bush, RB and Folger, J (1994) The promise of mediation: responding to conflict through empowerment and recognition, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cloke, K and Goldsmith, J (2003) The art of waking people up: cultivating awareness and authenticity at work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cobb, S (2001) Dialogue and the practice of law and spiritual values: creating sacred space: toward a second-generation dispute resolution practice, Fordham Urban Law Journal, v. 28: 1017-1031.
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Cobb, S (1993) Empowerment and Mediation: A Narrative Perspective, Negotiation Journal, v. 9: 245-259. Cobb, S and Rifkin, J (1991) Neutrality as a discursive practice: the construction and transformation of narratives in community mediation, Studies in Law, Politics and Society, v. 11: 69-91. Douglas K, (2002) Mediation as part of legal education. Paper presented to the 6th National Mediation Conference, Canberra. Fisher R, and Ury, W (1981) Getting to yes: negotiating agreement without giving in. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Graycar, R and Morgan, J (2002) The hidden gender of law. 2nd ed. Sydney: Federation Press. Greatbatch, D and Dingwell, R, (1989) Selective facilitation: some preliminary observations on a strategy used by divorce mediators, Law and Society Review, v. 23: 613-641. Grillo, T (1991) The mediation alternative: process dangers for women, Yale Law Journal, v. 100: 1545-1610. Gilligan, C (1982) In a different voice: psychological theory and womens development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Johns, L (2004) The exercise of arbitral powers, Law Institute Journal v. 75: 50-53. Kolb, D and Williams, J (2000) The shadow negotiation: how women can master the hidden agendas that determine bargaining success. Simon & Schuster. Larsen, K (n.d.) Workplace violence: paranoid or prepared? www.mediate.com (accessed August 18, 2004) Mack, K (1995) Alternative dispute resolution and access to justice for women, Adelaide Law Review, v. 17: 123-146. Mack, K (2003) Court referral to ADR: criteria and research. Canberra: National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council and Australian Institute of Judicial Administration. Mayer, B (2004) Beyond neutrality. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Menkel-Meadow, C (1984) Toward another view of legal negotiation: the structure of problem solving, University of California LA Law Review, v. 31: 754-842. Menkel-Meadow, C (1985) Portia in a different voice: speculations on a womens lawyering process, Berkeley Womens Law Journal, v. 1: 39-63. Moore, C (1996) The mediation process: practical strategies for resolving conflict. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (1997a) Alternative dispute resolution definitions. Canberra: NADRAC. National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (1997b) Issues of fairness and justice in alternative dispute resolution, Discussion Paper, Canberra: NADRAC. National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (2001) The development of standards for ADR: Report. Canberra: NADRAC. National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (2003a) ADR statistics: published statistics on alternative dispute resolution in Australia. Canberra: NADRAC. National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (2003b) ADR-a better way to do business Conference, Sydney. http://www.nadrac.gov.au/internet/nadrac/ conference/index.htm (accessed April 24th 2004).
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National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (2004a) Who says youre a mediator: towards a national system for accrediting mediators. Canberra: NADRAC. National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (2004b) ADR research: a resource paper. Canberra: NADRAC. Rifkin, J (1984) Mediation from a feminist perspective: promise and problems, Law and Inequality, v. 2: 21-31. Van Gramberg, B (2003a) The emergence of private ADR in Australian workplaces, The Arbitrator and Mediator, v. 22: 53-66. Van Gramberg, B (2003b) ADR and workplace justice: just settlement? Australasian Journal of Dispute Resolution, v. 14(3): 233-242. Winslade, J and Monk, G (2001) Narrative mediation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Winslade, J, Monk, G and Cotter A (1998) A narrative approach to the practice of mediation, Negotiation Journal, v. 14: 21-41.
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(In)Visible Women: Representation of Women in an Australian Business Publication

Maureen Fastenau School of Management, RMIT University The media both reflect and create reality. What journalists and their editors present--what they choose to present and what they choose to omit--about the world contributes to our individual and collective perceptions of the world, including our views about the appropriate roles of men and women in the workforce. Their choices can have the effect of maintaining and reinforcing the status quo, of reasserting old or dated realities, or of alerting us to new possibilities or to new or emerging realities. This paper discusses how women have been and are represented in the leading Australian business magazine, BRW (Business Review Weekly) and discusses the implications of this representation on women's opportunities for recognition of professional expertise and for accessing senior positions in organisations, including positions at the highest levels of management and on Boards of Directors.
INTRODUCTION The media both reflect and create reality. What journalists and their editors present-what they choose to present and what they choose to omit--about the world contributes to our individual and collective perceptions of the world, including our views about the appropriate roles of men and women in the workforce. Their choices can have the effect of maintaining and reinforcing the status quo, of reasserting old or dated realities, or of alerting us to new possibilities or to new or emerging realities. This paper discusses how women have been and are represented in a leading Australian business magazine, BRW (Business Review Weekly) and discusses the implications of this representation on womens opportunities for recognition of professional expertise and for accessing senior positions in organisations, including positions at the highest levels of management and on Boards of Directors. The Role of the Media Norman Fairclough (1995, p. 2) in Media Discourse comments that the media has the power to influence knowledge, beliefs, values, social relations, [and] social identities through its power to represent things in particular ways. This power is exercised through decisions about what to include or exclude and how what is included is presented (Courtney and Whipple 1983, p. 4). The media, Fairclough (1995, p. 5) also suggests, exercises its power to represent reality through decisions
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Fastenau M (2004) (In)Visible Women: Representation of Women in an Australian Business Publication in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 92-108.
Representation of Women in an Australian Business Publication
about who is involved in the story (interviewer, interviewee, third parties, audience, etc.) and how they are represented and also by the relationships established between the parties involved (e.g. between the interviewer-interviewee, interviewer-audience, interviewee-audience, etc.) How has the media chosen to represent women? There is a significant body of research on how women, including women in work roles, are represented in the media, particularly in magazines and newspapers and on television and often with regard to advertisements and the impact of these representations on women and men (see, for example, Wiles, Wiles, and Tjernlund 1995; Ford, Latour, and Lundstrom 1991; Krefting 2002; Shugart 2003; LaFollette 1988; King and Multon 1996; Courtney and Whipple 1983; Christiansen 1979; and the seminal work by Goffman (1976) which considers how women are represented in advertisements, including how they are represented in work roles). The research also indicates, as noted by Courtney and Whipple (1983, p. 4) that the way the sexes are portrayed in the media can have a cumulative effect on the way women and men perceive themselves and how they perceive each other. Women in Australian Management and the Professions Women today make up over 43 per cent of the Australian workforce, and are increasing their representation in a number of professions and occupations. Over the past 25 years, Australian women have increased their workforce participation significantly (ABS 1994, 2003). In 1983, the female workforce participation rate was 44 per cent, and women made up 37 per cent of the workforce. By 2002, the female participation rate had risen to almost 65 percent. Although Australian women have increased their workforce participation, the vertical and horizontal segregation which has historically characterised womens participation in the Australian workforce continues today. Approximately 50 per cent of women workers are employed as clerical workers or in sales and personal service occupations (55.6 per cent in 1986 and 47.3 per cent in 2001), while men in the paid workforce continue to be more evenly distributed across occupational categories, with between 12-20 per cent employed in each occupational category (see ABS 1993; Women at work 1995; Commonwealth Office on the Status of Women 1999, 2003). In 1986, the year the Australian Affirmative Action legislation was enacted, only 22.5 per cent of managers and administrators were women. By 2001, fifteen years after the enactment of the legislation, it had increased to 28.0 per cent (ABS 1993; Office of Status of Women 2003). This increase has, however, largely been at the supervisory and middle management levels. The Affirmative Action Agency (1995, p. 20) now the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) reported that women were under-represented at all levels of management, even in those industries dominated by women. Overall, only 8 per cent of Australian executive managers were women in 1995, and women held only 15 per cent of senior management positions. In Education, an industry in which women made up 65 per cent of the workforce, only 7 per cent of executive management positions were held by women. In Hospitality, women held 48 per cent
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Maureen Fastenau and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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of the junior and middle management positions, but only 29 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, of the senior and executive management positions. In the Retail industry, where women make up 53 per cent of the workforce, women held only 12 per cent of executive management positions. The higher the levels of management, regardless of industry and regardless of the level of participation of women in that industry, the fewer the women. The Agency has recently completed a census of Australian women in leadership positions in publicly held companies (EOWA 2003). It reported that of the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, women held only 8.8 per cent of executive management positions, and almost 50 per cent of the companies had no women executive managers. The census noted that holding line management positions provides one avenue to CEO and Board appointments, but women hold only 4.7 per cent of line management positions (EOWA 2003, p. 4). Women, however, held 43.0 per cent of managerial and professional specialty positions in these companies, and were more likely than men (62 per cent cf. 26 per cent) to be in staff, rather than line, management positions (EOWA 2003, pp. 1, 4). The census (EOWA 2003, p. 1) reported similarly disappointing data for women on Boards of Directors. Women in 2003 held only 8.4 per cent of board directorships, and 47.3 per cent of companies had no women directors (up from 46.7 per cent of companies in 2002). At the present rate of womens participation in management, it is estimated that it will not be until late in the 22nd century that women will achieve parity with men in attaining management positions (Fagan 1996). In other words, approximately another 6-10 generations of women will struggle to achieve equitable employment and career opportunities in management. This data should not, however, be allowed to obscure the fact that there are a number of women who have achieved pinnacle positions in their professions and reached the highest levels of management. And, as professional expertise can often be the foundation for managerial careers, consideration of the data about women's participation in the professions is useful. The data for women in professional positions is more promising than that for management: in 2001, women held 52.5 per cent of professional positions (an increase from 38.9 per cent in 1986) (ABS 1993; Commonwealth Office on the Status of Women 2003). While at least some of this increase is attributable to the reclassification of Teaching and Nursing from para-professional occupations to professional status by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), it also reflects womens increasing attainment of professional qualifications in male-dominated occupations (ABS 1997, 1998). For example, in 1983, 29.5 per cent of students (18,539 of 62,821) in Business-related post-secondary courses were women, increasing to 48.9 per cent in 2000 (88,208 or 80,503). And, 40.1 per cent of law students (4,168 of 10,391) in 1983 were women, increasing to 54.4 per cent (19,779 of 36,331) in 2000 (Department of Education, Training, and Youth Affairs, 2001, Table 7, pp. 17-19). In other words, today there are significant numbers of women who have attained the professional qualifications which can often be the foundation for managerial careers. More significantly, there are thousands of women who attained their qualifications five, ten, or twenty years ago who have developed high levels of professional expertise through workplace experience as well as education; these women have attained professional expertise and
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standing which should draw journalists to them for professional commentary and insights. The Role of Media in Womens Advancement into Senior Management The media can influence the perceptions about womens capabilities as managers and their opportunities to access positions in senior and executive management and on Boards of Directors in three areas: increasing the visibility of women as professional experts and competent managers, altering perceptions of manager (think manager, think male), and offering role models of women in leadership roles to other women and to men. (a) Visibility
One factor which has been identified as hindering womens advancement into executive management positions and directorships has been their lack of visibility. As the newly appointed (first woman) Chief Justice of an Australian state (Victoria) Supreme Court, the Hon. Justice Marilyn Warren (2003), recently noted when asked why there were apparently so few women barristers and solicitors appearing before the courts: The best way of advertising womens competence is for them to be seen meaning that for women to gain career opportunities and advancement, they need opportunities to be seen doing their jobs and doing them competently. And, women need to be seen not as tokens or as oddities, but as accepted and natural members of that profession or occupation. The media can play a significant role in normalising the participation of women in a particular industry or occupation by whether, to what degree, and how women are presented and represented. Two of the three roles identified for those people operating at the highest levels of management (resource dependence and service expertise; the third role is monitoring/controlling) require person visibility (Daily, Certo, and Dalton 2002, p. 14). Women have particular difficulties establishing their competence in fulfilling the resource dependence and service/expertise roles encompassed in senior and executive management positions because they often lack person visibility. Resource dependence is defined as providing links between the firm and its environment. This involves not only provid[ing] access to critical resources in the firms environment, butalso provid[ing] legitimacy to the firm as a function of their reputation (Daily, et al. 2002, p. 14). In other words, for women to be identified as suitable candidates and appointed to senior and executive management positions and directorships, they need to be visible and networked and to have recognisable and respected profiles in the business community generally and in their industry particularly. Similarly, women may have difficulty establishing their competence with regard to service/expertise. The lack of line management experience can limit their access to executive management positions and thus to the experience required for directorships. The lack of visibility of their expertise outside their own organisations (and
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sometimes even within it) can also serve to limit womens access to the most senior management positions. In other words, because women, personally and collectively, often lack visibility inside and outside their organisations, they are hindered in their efforts to rise to the highest levels of management. The media, by providing a public profile for women professionals and managers, can offer another avenue for women to attain the recognition and visibility often denied them because they are unable to participate in old boy networks to foster their career development and enhance their promotional opportunities (see, for example, Stephenson and Krebs 1993; Dalton and Daily 1998, p. 18; EOWA 2001). Research Question 1: Has there been an increase in the representation of women professionals and managers in BRW in 2003 from 1988? (b) Think Manager, Think Male
Another factor which can hinder womens efforts to enter the highest levels of management is the disjuncture between the characteristics usually associated with managers (and men) and those usually associated with women. Think manager, think male has been repeatedly noted as a problem for women seeking management positions (see, for example, Schein 1973, 1975, 2001; Heilman, Block, and Martell 1995; Powell, Butterfield, and Parent 2002; Fernandes and Cabral-Cardoso 2003). Although over time, the association of male behavioural characteristics with management has become less powerful, particularly for women, this association remains strong (see, for example, Sczesny 2003; Willemsen 2002; Lane and Crane 2002; Martell and DeSmit 2001; Deal and Stevenson 1998); Schein, Mueller, and Jacobson 1989; Brenner, Tomkiewicz, and Schein 1989; Foster 1994; Yim and Bond 2002). How the media represent women, when it does represent women, can either reinforce the link between manager and male or widen the perception of the characteristics and styles defining managers and the nature of professional and managerial work lives. How the media deals with (and whether it deals with) organisational issues which affect womens workforce participation also can affect whether women are perceived as suitable for holding managerial positions, particularly at senior and executive levels. For example, do stories about women include references to their marital and parental status while they remain unmentioned in articles profiling men? Are worklife and work-family issues presented primarily or solely as womens issues? Research Question 2: Does the coverage of women and womens issues in BRW challenge or minimise the think manager, think male association? (c) Role Models
The representation of women in the media is also important as women profiled can serve as role models to men as well as women. Female role models make nontraditional careers appear more feasible, which may encourage more women to prepare and apply for [them] [and also serve as a way] to change and improve the profession (Gould 2001, p. 14) In addition to encouraging other women, female role
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models also can serve as examples to men who are or may become decision-makers that women can capably and suitably hold positions and work in industries where they have traditionally been under-represented (Gould 2001, p. 16). How the media present women professionals and managers, in effect, offering them as role models, can affect the decisions of other women about whether to aspire to similar positions and can affect the receptivity of male decision-makers and male colleagues about whether to accept women as appropriate candidates for management positions and as colleagues. How the media addresses the significant issue of work-life balance and presents managers work and private lives (or fails to address these issues) can also help or hinder women in aspiring to and achieving senior and executive management positions. Research Question 3: Does BRW provide both women and men with role models of successful and accomplished women professionals and managers which can encourage young women in pursuing managerial careers and encourage organisational change which will make women more readily recognised as suitable for managerial roles and able to balance work and private life responsibilities? METHODOLOGY This study is based on a review of issues of BRW (Business Review Weekly), a leading Australian business publication, from 1988 (two years after the 1986 enactment of the Australian Affirmative Action legislation) and from 2003 (15 years after 1988 and 17 years after the enactment of the legislation) to determine whether womens representation in BRW changed under the stimulus of the legislation and the increasing participation of women in business and the professions. In other words, did BRWs representation of women in business and management in 2003 work to maintain dated perceptions or reflect changes to women's altering workforce participation. Data was collected by the author for the number of photographs of men and women in each issue (not including advertisements), the number of by-lined articles by male and female journalists, the number of profiles of male and female business leaders and professionals, the number of cover stories featuring men and/or women and written by men or women. The process was a simple counting tally. The author also considered how men and women were presented in photographs and in profile articles. Articles about work-life issues and specifically about women were also reviewed to determine how these issues were presented. BRW is published on a weekly basis. It is readily available through news agents and by subscription. BRW articles are frequently referred to in other publications and on radio and television programs, both general and those specifically dealing with business issues. In September 2003, BRW estimated its readership at over a quarter of a million people, with women making up 35 per cent of its readership. BRW proudly proclaims that its readers include business decision-makers, CEOs, and people employed in the professions (BRW Circulation and Readership 2003). From the authors experience teaching over the past ten years in Management subjects in three Victorian universities, BRW is a familiar publication to both male and female undergraduate and graduate students in Business programs and frequently cited as a source in assignments.
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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN BRW (a) Visibility of Women in BRW Visibility of women in professional and managerial capacities in business publications such as BRW is important for several reasons. These include: normalising and validating the status of women, individually and collectively, as managers and professionals; raising the profile of individual women; and providing role models to younger women as well as emphasising workforce diversity and alerting male managers to the need to explore and implement organisational culture change. Women can appear in BRW in several capacities: they can be the subject of articles, they can be expert sources cited or referred to in articles about various business issues and topics, they can appear in photographs accompanying articles, and they can appear as journalists and/or columnists (women may also appear in advertisements, but in this review, advertisements were not considered). As the discussion below demonstrates, while womens visibility in BRW increased between 1988 and 2003, they remain seriously under-represented as subjects, sources, and as senior journalists even though significant numbers of women have attained considerable standing in business and the professions. In 1988, all nine members of BRWs Editorial Board were men, and none of the regular columnists was a woman. By 2003, a woman had made it on to the smaller (six-member) Editorial Board: the Chief Business Commentator, Adele Ferguson (The BRW Team 2004). Seven Section Editor positions had been created, and women were listed as holding three of these (Emerging Companies, Lifestyle, and Accounting); men were the editors of the sections on Marketing, Investments, Rich Business, and Managing. Thirteen Staff Reporters were listed, with women holding four of these positions. While almost all articles in BRW are signed, only those articles with by-lines (where the names of authors are indicated at the head of the article) were counted. A study of the first six issues of 1988 revealed that only 20 per cent (17 of 68) of by-lined articles were written by women. In 2003, this had risen to 26 per cent (137 of the 528 bylined articles published in the issues from January - July 2003). In 1988, female journalists were credited with the authorship of four (11 per cent) of 38 cover stories as well as being joint authors with male colleagues in another five (13 per cent) cover stories. Female journalists were able to claim authorship of 23 per cent (6 of 26) of the coveted cover stories for the period January - July 2003, and of one cover story jointly authored with a male journalist. So, although women appear to have improved their professional standing at BRW between 1988 and 2003, they continue to be under-represented in securing authorship recognition and status given that they hold 32 per cent of Staff Reporter positions. While it appears that women journalists and business commentators have somewhat breached the walls of the still largely male preserve of business journalism at BRW between 1988 and 2003, the next question is whether this has been accompanied by changes in the representation of women as identified sources for and subjects of
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articles in the publication. The most obvious and readily visible evidence of recognition of womens standing in business and the professions would be in the number of photographs of women accompanying articles and on the covers. In 1988, 45 per cent of the covers featured human beings. No cover featured only women; one cover, however, included a woman: the June 24 cover which was a cartoon of a man holding a door against a group of three men and one woman trying to break it down, illustrating a story on investors and investments. Of the 28 covers for issues between January and June 2003, again, there were no covers featuring only women (cf. 14 covers (50 per cent) featuring only men). There were only two (7 per cent) covers which included women: the June 12 cover featured one woman and seven men illustrating a story on the new generation of IT leaders, and the July 24 issue with its cover story on the rarity of women entrepreneurs featured photographs of four women and one man. All cover stories in both 1988 and 2003 were accompanied by photographs. Of the 43 cover stories reviewed for 1988, 34 (79 per cent) had not one photograph of a woman. None of the 1988 cover stories was accompanied by only photographs of women, and only four included a photograph of a woman. (In contrast, over 90 per cent (39 of 43) of the covers were illustrated solely with photographs of men, and photographs of men accompanied 100 per cent of the cover stories.) In 2003, of the 16 cover stories for the period January to May, twelve (75 per cent) were not accompanied by any photographs of women, and only one cover story was illustrated with a photograph of a woman (the March 6 cover story on the job exodus was accompanied by two photographs of men and one of a woman). Photographs of women were scarce in the remainder of the publication as well. Of 26 issues considered for 1988, there were only 74 (7 per cent of 1001) photographs of women. Almost a quarter (6 of 26) of the issues included only one photograph of a woman accompanying an article, and over three-quarters of the issues (22 of 26) had only between one and five photographs of women accompanying articles. The visual presentation of women had increased by 2003 but not markedly. Eleven percent (11 per cent) of photographs in the issues between January and July 2003 were of women, but of the 25 issues considered 68 per cent (17) included no more than five photographs of women accompanying articles. Photographs also serve as a reasonable proxy for womens appearance in articles as either a source or the subject. It appears both in 1988 and 2003 that a womans photograph only accompanied an article in which she was either the subject of or a source quoted in the article. Thus, the low number of photographs not only accords women low visual recognition, it also is a subtle marker of the lack of recognition accorded womens professional and managerial expertise. One might query whether the paucity of women subjects and sources reflects the difficulty journalists might encounter in readily identifying suitably qualified and experienced women professionals and managers from whom they might seek expert opinions and information. There are, however, a number of readily accessible resources which would allow journalists, male and female, to identify and contact women as sources and as subjects of articles. For example, Chief Executive Women (CEW), an invitation-only organisation, selects its members on the basis of their
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status as being a leader in their chosen field evidenced by three criteria (holding a CEO or senior role in their field of expertise, being highly regarded by peers and the business community, and demonstrating significant achievements and performance). Its website (www.cew.org.au) provides information about its members positions and areas of expertise as well as contact details. Other resources include The Australian Vice Chancellors Committee which maintains a register of 3000 senior women academics and management staff who have high levels of professional, management, and consultancy expertise as well as academic qualifications in a wide variety of disciplines, including Business, Law, Science, Technology, Engineering, Health, etc. (Australian Vice Chancellors Committee 1995, 2002). Many Australian professional associations and organisations for women in various professional and managerial occupations can readily provide names of women with significant professional and managerial experience and expertise; for example: Women Chief of Enterprise International (www.wcei.cm.au), a professional organisation of women entrepreneurs, and the Australian Businesswomens Network (www.abn.org.au), which provides a directory of women in a wide range of industries and occupations. The online Government and Business Directory (www.business.gov.au/BEP2002/GBDirectory/GBDirList) provides and extensive list of government and non-government organisations, including womens organisations such as the Australian Womens Pilots Association and the Business and Professional Womens Association. Even when BRW itself has identified women with high levels of professional and managerial expertise, they are rarely drawn upon. For example, the cover story for the October 3, 2002 issue was 20 of the most powerful women in Australian business which also included a related article identifying nine other women to watch (Gome and Ross 2002). Of the 20 most powerful women, a search of the BRW on-line index for 2003-2004 revealed only ten were quoted or referred to in one or more articles, and six of these ten women were only quoted or referred to in one article in 2003. Of the nine women identified as women to watch, only five were quoted or referred to in at least one article in 2003 and of these five, two were only mentioned in one article. In its October 16, 2003 issue, BRW included a three-part article entitled The Rising Stars, listing 20 women rapidly rising to the top and an additional eight women as ones to watch (Gome and Ross 2003). Of these 28 women, only seven (25 per cent) were quoted or referred to in an article other than the rising star article. Sadly, it appears that even though BRW journalists are able to identify women with significant professional and/or managerial expertise, they rarely seek them out for as expert sources. With regard to Research Question 1 looking at whether there had been an increase in the inclusion of women in the publication, the answer is that there has been an insignificant increase.
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(b)
Think Manager, Think Male BRW Focus
The relative paucity of womens photographs in BRW as well as the shadowy presence of women in article content which it signifies suggests that think manager, think male continues to characterise BRWs representation of management and the professions. This is suggested not only by the relatively small number of womens photographs, but is also evident in how women are represented in photographs. Most photographs in BRW, both in 1988 and 2003, were head and shoulder shots. Men were, however, much more likely to be photographed in a business context (for example, with an office or work setting in the background) and also to be photographed looking directly at the camera. Women, on the other hand, were often posed looking away from the camera in poses which could be characterised as thoughtful or pensive (and in several instances, apprehensive); the background rarely contextualised them in a work or business setting (and in one case, partially hid the woman behind a vase of flowers); and the focus was often soft. The decontextualisation and feminising photographs subtly suggest that women and management/business are not synonymous. Although few in number, several articles were illustrated with generic photos; almost all of these showed unidentified men at work (e.g., doing welding or at a construction site or a mine). In one of the rare photos which included anonymous women, women electronic technicians were shown at work behind the featured male businessman; the remaining pictures of unidentified women showed them in leisure pursuits (e.g., around or in a swimming pool). The way photos were used as accompaniments to articles could also be argued to marginalise women. The caption named the person and was often followed by a quote or a brief summary of the major point made by the person. The photographed person was never identified by profession or job title. Usually the person in the photograph, whether male or female, was mentioned fairly late in the article (usually two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the article). While this is true for both men and women, it has particular significance in the representation of women in BRW as, except for articles about women, no woman was mentioned early in an article. A result of this practice would be that women would be regarded collectively as marginal and individually could appear to lack stature. Photographs are not the only measure of BRWs limitations in recognising womens managerial and professional expertise and roles in business management. Most BRW issues in 1988 included a People section featuring stories on two or three businesspeople. Of the 39 People sections considered in 1988 issues, 25 (64 per cent) featured only men, and only one featured solely women. Of the 99 people featured in this section in 1988, only 15 (15 per cent) were women. In 2003 the People section had been replaced by a Profile section providing a one- to threepage article on an individual. Eleven of the 15 issues between May and July 2003 included profiles; of these profiles, ten were of men. The scarcity of women in both photographs and stories in 1988 suggest that management and business are the domains of men. It could be argued that while there had been some increase in the number of photographs and stories including women in
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2003, the increase did not significantly alter the perception that management and business were still male preserves. It is not only in the paucity of the presentation of women in photographs and articles, but in how they were presented when they were included which should be considered. The way women were presented could be seen to portray women and manager as contradictions. In 1988, when women were presented, they were frequently presented in ways which suggested tentativeness, indecisiveness, and weakness rather than professionally competent. For example, the January 22, 1988 issue featured a story on Australian small businesses operating in the Japanese market. Of the six businesses featured, one was run by a woman, and her photo (one of only three in this issue) was captioned I was saved by the fact I was nave (Lambert 1988 p. 87). The captions for two of the men featured in this article emphasised their capability, strength, foresight, and insight. Similarly, the August 12, 1988 article on the woman founder of Film World Research presented her as lacking in confidence, beginning When Eileen Nasby opened her companyshe was convinced it would fail. Additionally, unlike similar articles about male entrepreneurs and managers, this article included references to her husband and children. A short article on a woman lawyer taking up a position in Japan to link a major accounting firms Japanese and Australian operations included personal details and noted that she had pulled off the difficult trick of synchronising her career with her husbands when he was transferred to Tokyo. Although articles about women were few in 1988, they offered mix messages: on the one hand, they recognised the womens achievements, but then undermined their accomplishments by presenting them as weak or uncertain. Additionally, womens family responsibilities were usually mentioned, while mens private lives were rarely commented on. In 2003, there were a number of articles about women or focussing on what might be termed womens issues. These included articles such as Motherhood Statement (February 20, 2003); A modest master strategist (March 27, 2003), a profile of Catherine Livingstone; Business out of step on maternity leave (May 15, 2003); Missing in Action (July 24, 2003) about the scarcity of women entrepreneurs; and Rising Stars (October 16, 2003), which focussed on women identified as possible future business leaders. While this could be seen as a step forward, given the limited inclusion of women in general stories, this segregation of women to such special interest stories suggests and reinforces the idea of women as aliens in management and the professions. Further the discussion of work-life, and particularly work-family issues, almost exclusively was associated with women, thereby reinforcing womens status in business and the professions as other and alien and suggesting women in business, unlike their male counterparts, had divided loyalties and commitments. In answer to Research Question 2 which concerned whether the presentation of women professionals and managers in BRW challenged or minimised the association of manager-male, the answer is no.
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(c)
Role Models
Pru Goward, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, noted in an article on female entrepreneurs (Gome and Ross 2003, p.41) the importance of role models for women seeking business careers: One problem with older women being quiet is that not only do young women not have advice on how to deal with [work] issues, but it gives men permission to think that there isnt a problem. She highlights the dual importance of role models: (1) to provide young women with examples of success and important information about the means and costs of achieving it, and (2) to prod male managers to recognise that organisational cultures need to change not only to accommodate womens different life patterns but also thereby to recognise the need to for organisational practices allowing both men and women to achieve work-life balance. Su Olsson (2000) has pointed out the power of organisational stories and myths, noting how these have reinforced male forms of management. She has identified a sub-culture of female organisational tales, but these have often been difficult for women to access. As Judi Marshall (1995) observed, women in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s seeking to attain senior management and professional positions often were required to pay for professional success with silence about the difficulties they encountered; they were often forced to accept, or appear to accept, the masculine management culture of their organisations. This is captured by the comment made in a 1988 article about the first female partner in a major accounting firm. The newly appointed partner, Jan West, went to great pains to deny she was a feminist and that affirmative action had played any part in her appointment, stating that her success came from hard work, not political grandstanding. Younger women are less reticent about stating the difficulties they have encountered in developing their careers and their businesses. In Missing in Action, an article in the July 24, 2003 issue which explores why there are so few women entrepreneurs, four women entrepreneurs discuss the barriers they have confronted, including difficulties in securing finance because they are women, in balancing work and family responsibilities, and the lack of mentors and role models, and how they have surmounted these difficulties. While younger women are more willing than their predecessors to expose the sexism which hinders women in their careers, and BRW is to be commended for efforts to address such issues, the format adopted continues to present businesswomen and professionals as other. Most articles about women include some reference to their marital and parental status, while few articles about men give any indication of any aspect of their private lives. Further, there is no discussion in BRW, either in personal stories or in specific articles addressing work-life balance, which explore the difficulties men may have encountered in balancing competing work and family responsibilities. With regard to Research Question 3 concerning whether the representation of women in BRW offers positive role models of women to other women and to men, the answer is that while there are articles which do present women as high achieving professionals and managers, the coverage overall offers mixed messages and continues to represent work-life issues as essentially womens issues.
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CONCLUSION It should be noted that BRWs editors are not unaware that its coverage of women in business and management can be criticised. In an Editors Note in the October 16, 2003 issue with its cover story of twenty women characterised as rising stars in Australian business, the Managing Editor observed that BRW is occasionally criticised for being too blokey: that there are too many stories about men, and too many pictures of them; and that women and the issues that concern them are not adequately represented in the business media (Featherstone 2003). He then goes on, in effect, to blame women for the paucity of coverage in the magazine, noting that many of the established women in Australian business community are reluctant to be profiled or to discuss issues affecting women in business. While this undoubtedly can make it more difficult to profile women and to cover womens issues in the publication, it is also a blame the victim response which allows the editors to absolve themselves for failing to find other means of presenting information. For example, older women, who often needed to blend in or assimilate with male organisational cultures in the 1970s 1980s, and 1990s in order to establish their careers, could be reluctant, even today, to highlight their gender, especially when articles profiling their male counterparts continue to focus solely on their professional lives. BRWs male editors are not alone in their reaction to womens responses to how they and their issues are reported in the business press. The editor of Fortune, John W. Huey, Jr. (1998), several years earlier similarly commented on the debates unleashed when articles about women and womens issues were discussed. When commenting on a forthcoming issue that would focus on powerful American businesswomen and include articles such as Is Your Family Wrecking Your Career?, he observed that he was looking forward to the spirited debate on how Fortune approached the coverage of women. It might also be suggested that he looked forward to enjoying a ringside seat to observe cat fights amongst women journalists and readers over how women are covered in the publication. It could be suggested that both he and the editors of BRW failed to ask questions about how accomplished women professionals and managers might be presented so as to both to ensure recognition of womens professional and managerial competence and successes and to challenge and minimise the perpetuation of gender stereotypes. Krefting (2002, p. 107) observes that the medias coverage of women often either engages in symbolic annihilation of women by the infrequency with which it covers women and issues important to women or gives fractured portrayals of women professionals and managers, which include, unlike articles on their male counterparts, discussions of their private lives, and particularly family responsibilities, thereby perpetuating gender stereotypes and the link between manager-male. If BRW, and other business publications, wish to more accurately reflect the face of Australian professions and management, it must recognise the increasing participation of women by increasing its representation of women as subjects and sources for its articles. It is not, however, sufficient to merely increase the number of women featured in the publication. How women - and men - are presented is equally important. Family and private live issues are not only womens issues. By exploring the complexities of the work and private lives of managerial and professional men as well as women, the
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perpetuation of gender stereotypes which undermine acceptance of women in managerial and professional roles is challenged. Additionally, by exploring the issues of managing diverse workforces, including issues of gender, work-life and workfamily issues are recognised as the organisational and managerial issues they are, not as exclusively womens issues. Increased coverage of women professionals and managers and coverage of work-life issues, both in articles profiling individual managers and professionals males as well as females and in ensuring that these issues are explored with regard to their impact and significance for men as well as women, can not only reflect the realities of 21st century workplaces and their employees and managers but also recognise that women are not peripheral and transitory figures in Australian business and professions. BIBLIOGRAPHY Affirmative Action Agency (1995) Annual Report, 1994-95. Canberra: Australian Government Printing Office. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (1993) Women in Australia. Canberra: ABS. Australian Bureau of Statistics (1994) Australian social trends 1994: Work national summary tables. (Accessed September 16, 2004, http://www.abs.gov.au/ Ausstats/) Australian Bureau of Statistics (1997) Womens year book 1997 (Media Release) (Accessed February 2, 2004, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@nfs/0/27F842D CC8B34FC7CA2568A9001322A?Open Australian Bureau of Statistics (1998) Australian social trends 1988: Education-educational attainment: gender differences in education attainment. (Accessed February 3, 2004, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/) Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003) Australian social trends: work national summary tables. (Accessed September 16, 2004, http: //www.abs.gov.au/ Ausstats/) Australian Vice Chancellors Committee (1995) "AVCC Register raises profile of senior university women, Media Release, November 7, 1995 (accessed February 6, 2004 from http://www.avcc.edu.news/public_statements/publications/rsuw/ RSUV_June_02_expertise.pdf) Brenner, C; Tomkiewicz, J; and Schein, VE (1989) The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics revisited, Academy of Management Journal, v. 32: 662-669. BRW Advertising Centre (2004) (Accessed February 12, 2004 from http://adcentre. fairfax.com.au/brw/reader.htm) BRW Team (2004) (Accessed January 29, 2004, http://brw.com.au/team/index. aspx) Christiansen, JB (1979) Television role models and adolescent occupational goals, Human Communication Research, v. 5, no. 4 (Summer): 335-337. Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women (1999) Women in Australia 1999. Canberra: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women (2003) Private correspondence providing ABS 2001 census data. Courtney, AE and Whipple, TW (1983) Sex stereotyping in advertising. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books.
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European Journal of Marketing, v. 29, no. 11: 35-49. (Accessed from Emerald database, RMIT University, December 16, 2003) Willemsen, TM (2002) Gender typing of the successful manager: a stereotype reconsidered, Sex Roles, v. 46, nos. 11-12(June): 385-39. Women at work: facts and figures (1995) Women & Work, v. 16, no. 2 (July October). Yim, PC-Y and Bond, MH (2002) Gender stereotyping of managers and the selfconcept of business students across their undergraduate education, Women in Management Review, v. 17, no. 8: 364-372. (Accessed from Emerald database, RMIT University, January 21, 2004).
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Handwork, Foodwork and Small Commerce: Reflections on Gendered Microenterprise in Bolivia

Dr Robyn Eversole Centre for Regional and Rural Development, RMIT University Over several years of working with microenterprises and the microenterprisedevelopment sector in Bolivia, the author has observed strong patterns in the kinds of businesses women start and how these differ significantly from mens businesses. Women business owners comprise a large part of the Bolivian microenterprise sector, independently managing their own businesses in many cases, yet the range of types of womens businesses is surprisingly limited. The great majority of these businesses draw on common domestic skills (sewing, knitting, cooking), or the cultural institution of female-dominated market vending. While earnings vary widely, in general womens businesses earn less than mens businesses, generally operating in saturated and pricecompetitive markets. This paper reflects on the reasons Bolivian women confine themselves to a narrow range of business activities, often those with limited potential, and explores some exceptions to the rule, in which women have taken leading roles in less-traditional enterprises (such as computing and carpentry). In each case, it is seen, a male immediate family member (husband, father) has played the role of linking women entrepreneurs into a business sector other than those where women are typically found.
INTRODUCTION: MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT AND WOMENS WORK Microenterprise development as a field emerged in the 1980s. It came in the wake of the discovery of the so-called informal economy by the International Labour Office and others (Hart 1973, Peattie 1987), and in the midst of a neoliberal international development climate that was shifting from providing social services to poor people, to promoting self-help development and market integration. Observing the existing, entrepreneurial capacity of ordinary people in poor countries to employ themselves and to create local jobs and wealth, development practitioners seized upon a vision of poor people as entrepreneurs (albeit micro entrepreneurs). Helping microentrepreneurs navigate more effectively in markets became a central orientation for local economic development and poverty reduction efforts. And, given the success of Muhammad Yunus experiment with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (e.g. Yunus 1982, Yunus 1991, UNESCO 2001), microenterprise credit and particularly, microenterprise credit focused on women microentrepreneurs became a key strategy (see e.g. Johnson and Rogaly 1997, Hulme and Mosley 1996).
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Eversole R (2004) Handwork, Foodwork and Small Commerce: Reflections on Gendered Microenterprise in Bolivia in Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fastenau, eds. (2004) Women and Work: Current RMIT Research. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing. pp. 109-118.
The Grameen Bank began in 1976, and its model of women-focused, enterprisefocused microcredit is now known worldwide. In this model, Bangladeshi village women organised into solidarity groups were given small loans for businesses, as well as coaching in self-help behaviour (via the so-called 16 decisions). As at 2003, the bank had 2.6 million borrowers, 95 per cent of whom were women (Yunus 2003), as well as a range of replication projects around the world. Its lending methodology has provided the inspiration for a range of other microfinance or microenterprise finance programmes in many countries. These programmes are similar in that most provide credit, often to women particularly, for business activities, as a way to stimulate local economic development, decrease poverty, and increase womens empowerment. As the international organisation Womens World Banking puts it: The Womens World Banking network aims to have a major impact on expanding the economic assets, participation and power of low income women as entrepreneurs and economic agents by opening their access to finance, knowledge and markets. (Womens World Banking 2003) The wide range of other international microfinance organisations (such as Opportunity International, Accion International, BancoSol and many others, including a range of more recent programmes in wealthy countries such as the U.S.) echo this focus on enterprise development and entrepreneurship for economically disadvantaged women. Given the widespread interest in the ability of very-small businesses to make a significant difference in womens livelihoods, and the consequent financial resourcing of these businesses, it is surprising how little these businesses are actually studied. What quality of work do such businesses actually provide? What level of income, and income security? What real opportunity for accumulation and investment? How do such businesses fit into their broader social and economic context? It has been argued, for instance, that womens microenterprise development programmes in the US do not really provide an opportunity for most low-income women to transform their situations, because these programs tend to steer women into so-called pink collar jobs with limited earning opportunities; nor do they take into account many of the constraints that prevent these women from becoming successful businesspeople (Ehlers and Main 1998). In the international literature of microenterprise development, such a critical perspective is unfortunately lacking. Some authors have questioned the extent to which women actually control the womens businesses that development programmes fund (see e.g. Rahman 1999 for Bangladesh). And some authors from outside the microenterprise development field have argued that womens market activities are in a structurally disadvantageous position, thus limiting womens ability to improve their livelihoods (e.g. Babb 1989). But the microenterprise development field itself tends to assume that if women are running their own businesses, all is well. The literature of microfinance is scattered with anecdotal stories of impoverished women with hungry children who started fruit stalls (or sewing workshops, or hamburger stands), and now successfully feed their children and send them to school. Such stories are clearly inspiring, and not untrue. Yet we are left with unanswered questions, not just about the actual role of microfinance in these womens success, but even the extent to which this can really be claimed as success. Upon closer look, it
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. Robyn Eversole and the School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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often transpires that such businesses generate profits (including uncalculated salary) of perhaps $1-$2 dollars a day, at most. Income is often highly variable. Working hours are often long. And while it can certainly be argued that these women are better off than before, why does no one ask the question: Are there better options? The purpose of this paper is to raise this question, and to reflect on it in the context of the status of womens microenterprises in one particular context the small city of Sucre, Bolivia in the late 1990s. The data on womens microenterprises presented here come from a larger ethnographic research project carried out between 1996 and 1998, dealing with various aspects of microenterprise development, the household economy, and local economic development in Sucre. This project involved fieldwork in Sucre from August to December 1996, from January to May 1997, and again in May-June and August-November 1998, a total period of about fourteen months. During these periods the researcher lived in the city of Sucre, visited a large number of local microenterprises as both researcher and as customer, and conducted semiformal open-ended interviews and informal conversations with local women and men who owned microenterprises and larger businesses. These interviews and conversations enquired about the nature of Sucres economy, peoples experiences with their own businesses (business history, ownership, labour arrangements, customer base, potential, obstacles, and plans for the future), the relationship between microenterprises and households, and experiences with microenterprise development institutions. This project started with open-ended interviews with 50 microentrepreneurs (both women and men) randomly sampled from the approximately 250 microentrepreneurs on the client list of a major local microenterprise development institution (as at 1994). The author conducted interviews on-site at the entrepreneurs places of business (generally market stalls, small shops or street posts) two years later in 1996 and early 1997.1 Other sets of semi-formal interviews, covering similar themes, followed: focusing on residents of a peripheral neighbourhood (25 randomly selected households in a neighbourhood of about 125 households), local carpentry business owners (30 randomly selected carpentry microenterprises of about 150 identified in the city),2 and owners of chocolate-making enterprises (about 16 different enterprises, comprising the total identified population). This study did not focus specifically on women, but its findings indicate clear patterns in terms of the kinds of enterprises women in Sucre run and the level of earnings that such businesses are likely to attract. Follow-up work in 1998, involving a small study of microenterprise consortia and a number of follow-up interviews from the earlier samples, confirmed earlier observations and findings. Overall, these data indicate that womens businesses face important limitations, and that any serious effort to promote microentreprise to improve womens livelihoods, must take the economic and social context more thoroughly into account.
By the time of the interviews, some were still clients of this institution, and some were not. A master list of about 150 carpentry microenterprises was compiled from various organisations as part of the larger research project.
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WOMENS BUSINESSES IN BOLIVIA: HANDWORK, FOODWORK AND SMALL COMMERCE In Bolivia, women are more likely than men to be self-employed in their own businesses. According to Bolivian national statistics published in 2002, 48 per cent of urban Bolivian women were self-employed, compared with 32 per cent of men (INE 2002). While it could be hypothesised that the strong presence of self-employed women in the Bolivian economy is attributable to the large number of microfinance programs in that country promoting microenterprise development for women, there is a stronger argument that recognises womens longstanding presence as retailers in Andean economies. Market vending in Bolivia is considered a predominantly female role. Thus, while men are also involved in market vending, as well as other kinds of retail sales, many retailers (especially in marketplaces) are women. Women are also involved in long-distance small-scale commerce and to a lesser extent, in other kinds of businesses such as manufacturing. Observing the businesses of self-employed people in Sucre, a small regional city of about 220,000 people, over a period of several years, has indicated clearly that many women are involved in microenterprise. Nevertheless, women carry out a surprisingly limited range of business activities here. Whether discussing with women their current businesses, their past businesses, or their aspirations for businesses they would like to start in the future, the conversations touch upon only a handful of different activities and sectors. Most self-employed women in Sucre run microenterprises which involve artisan handwork, food production and sale, or market-based retail commerce. As with mens businesses, the great majority of womens businesses in Sucre are microenterprises that is, according to the most common definition, they employ no more than five people. Many, in fact, employ no labour but the owner herself (who may be assisted informally by other household members). Of the fifty microenterprises in the first sample, only one womans business did not fit into the categories of handwork, food service, and small-scale commerce; this was a hairdressing business. The sample confirmed everyday observations of womens business activities in Sucre: most women were selling goods in the citys markets, running small neighbourhood convenience stores, manufacturing clothing (often by hand) or foodstuffs, or serving food out of snack carts, market stalls or cafes. In a separate survey of households in one peripheral neighbourhood of the city, all of the women who ran businesses fit this profile. The majority of the women resident in this neighbourhood were, or had recently been, self-employed in their own businesses. Generally, these businesses involved selling food, drink, or clothing in a city marketplace, or running a neighbourhood convenience store. A few made handmade traditional textiles or did other forms of handwork. Obviously, commerce is a broad field; women retail merchants in Sucre sell a wide range of items from meat to toiletries, school supplies to shoes, and so interact with a range of business sectors. They may travel long distances to bring goods for sale, developing a good knowledge of markets; and a few wholesale goods to market vendors. Where the scope of womens businesses is most limited, is in the areas of manufacturing and services. While men run a wide range of manufacturing and service businesses (making and/or repairing shoes, furniture, jewellery, metal gates, clothing, and a range of other items), womens businesses in these areas nearly always
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comprise sewing or jumper-knitting, or alternatively, food manufacture (e.g. chocolates, sausages) or food service. Many women, planning a future business, thought of tea rooms or corner stores. There is clearly a gendered division of labour here. A study of Sucre carpenters, also carried out 1996-1997, indicated that women almost never run carpentry microenterprises (Eversole 2003). From observation around the city, it is clear that the same generally holds true for most trades (metalworkers, jewellers, mechanics, etc.). Most of these businesses are run by owner-operators, and women do not generally train in these male-dominated trades. Womens business opportunities are, rather, found in the areas of so called pink-collar businesses work that relies on common womens skills. Nearly all Bolivian women have skills in knitting, sewing, cooking and baking. This, however, makes it difficult for women running businesses in these areas to charge much of a premium for their work unlike male microentrepreneurs who can often trade on a specialised skill. Thus, not surprisingly, women tend to earn very little: according to this study, an average of US $69 per month for womens manufacturing businesses, compared with US $338 for mens manufacturing businesses. And while womens commerce businesses do better overall than their manufacturing businesses earning an average of US $193/month stiff competition in the citys markets still makes for low earnings.3 WOMENS BUSINESSES IN BOLIVIA: REASONS AND ALTERNATIVES In general, women who start businesses in Sucre face a limited range of options. Part of the reason for this may be that the city is isolated from the countrys economic hubs, without as many economic opportunities. Nevertheless, some opportunities are certainly available. There is a large influx of university students; the city is home to four universities, including the well-respected San Francisco Xavier University, which attracts many international students. The city also has important colonial history and architecture, which are important tourism resources. Part of the reason for womens limited options, on the other hand, may be that women are not receiving training in specific technical areas that could form a basis for a business. Nevertheless, such training was increasingly being offered by the mid-to-late 1990s; for instance, a womens carpentry course was being offered by the local institution Infocal. There was some uptake of such courses; nevertheless, they stand outside the traditional apprentice system for the trades, which is clearly male dominated. It seems that the most convincing reason why womens businesses in Sucre are concentrated in a limited number of areas is these are the kinds of activities people expect women to do. There is a gendered division of labour here that affects womens business choices. Women themselves do not articulate this specifically, but when they were asked about the history of their businesses, their replies indicated what kinds of work are the accepted norm. Women involved in small-scale commerce generally explained the start of their businesses in terms of a need for money commerce was simply
Data on income are drawn from the random sample of 50 microentrepreneurs (current or former clients of a local microenterprise-development institution, comprising approximately 20 per cent of the total client population) who were interviewed in 1996-1997, as described in the Introduction to this article. Visits to these enterprises confirmed that they were broadly representative of the size and range of microenterprises generally seen in Sucre.
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assumed as a money-making strategy for women. One Sucre resident began bringing goods from La Paz because the kids were growing up and there was need for more money. Another woman noted that, Ive sold just about everything (all kinds of products)since I was very youngmy father died, then my mother remarried, and I couldnt stay there. Rather than a general decision to become involved in commerce, women spoke in terms of the market opportunities they had identified for specific products, or their trial and error process of finding that some products sold well and others did not. There are some things that are cheaper (on the Peruvian border)and then there were the very thick blankets, they were very popular for awhile, they sold well. Or, jumpers didnt go well for me. If I sell a lot of shoes, I earn well. The choice of product generally depended on what went well. Meanwhile, in other kinds of businesses such as handicrafts and food service, women also explained their businesses as responses to particular opportunities (often established through personal contacts). A mother taught a daughter chocolate making; another learned from her aunts, and so these women made chocolates. A woman had the opportunity to sell jumpers to a childrens boutique in Santa Cruz via the sister of a friend; another jumper-knitter had a similar arrangement with a merchant daughter in La Paz and a daughter-in-law in Santa Cruz. Womens businesses in Sucre are generally characterised by flexibility: businesses that are easy to enter, use existing skills (which do not take a large investment to acquire), and are easy to exit or shift focus as necessary. This flexibility enables the women to be responsive to both market conditions and family demands. In terms of market conditions, womens explanations of their business histories clearly indicated their ability to shift activities in response to market demand until they found something that went well. Some even shifted location as necessary: leaving Sucre to pursue commerce in more promising spots such as the city of Sta. Cruz or the Brazilian border because sales werent going well here. Family demands also informed womens business choices. For instance, a merchant who travelled to La Paz to bring merchandise indicated that she was resting for two months while her children were doing exams. She explained that even though theyre big nowthey need someone to look after them... if no ones here they dont (study). She was able to leave off work when she felt she was needed at home, and pick it up again when market opportunities were particularly good, such as right before Christmas. Similarly, another woman had shifted from selling dishes in Central Market to running a small grocery shop in her home because its hard to go down (into the city) with the children. Although womens businesses in Sucre tend heavily toward handwork, food work and small commerce, there are some examples of non-traditional womens businesses as well. In a study of the carpentry sector in Sucre, it was found that while carpentry microenterprises were almost never owned or managed by women (see Eversole 2003), the citys largest carpentry enterprise is co-owned and managed by a woman. Another woman ran a carpentry microenterprise associated with a furniture shop. Similarly, a study of the Sucre chocolate industry showed that women were, predictably, often involved in the ownership and management of these food-producing microenterprises but they were also involved in the ownership and management of some of the citys larger chocolate factories. Other ethnographic fieldwork in the city revealed significant, though unquantified, involvement of women in the tourism sector, particularly tourist accommodation; the members of an incipient tourism
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business consortium were all women. Finally, there was at least one woman in Sucre who was actively involved in the IT industry as co-owner and manager of a computer business. The point here is that not all female businesspeople in Sucre are running low-yield microenterprises in the limited number of sectors identified above. Some are doing other things. They are entering non-traditional industries (such as carpentry and IT). They are involved in larger businesses, such as chocolate factories and a large carpentry enterprise. While most of these larger businesses in Sucre are still only small businesses, they have significantly higher turnover, and employ many more employees, than the more common microenterprises. Finally, women are also becoming involved in sectors with good future growth potential in this region, for instance tourism (given the areas historical resources) and IT/computer services (given the local university population). These exceptions are of interest in that they indicate other, broader and potentially more lucrative options for womens businesses in this setting. Here, a frequent pattern is that women involved in non-traditional and/or larger businesses have often done so through male intermediation. The owner of the citys largest carpentry enterprise, for instance, is the wife of the now-deceased founder. Both her daughter and her son are actively involved in the administration of this business, and it seems clear that she played an instrumental role in the business even while her husband was alive. Nevertheless, her husband founded the business (originally a lumberyard), in an industry sector that is almost exclusively maledominated. It is highly unlikely that she would have started such a business without her husbands involvement. Similarly, another woman co-owns and co-manages a carpentry enterprise/lumberyard with her husband, often taking charge of the wood merchandising end of the business while her husband travels. Finally, the one female owner of a furniture microenterprise told a similar story: she had once worked alongside her husband in his carpentry shop; when they divorced, she continued to have a carpentry business as well as a furniture retail shop. Women who ran businesses in non-traditional areas did not identify specific obstacles to their involvement in these businesses which were tied to gender. Rather, the key issue for womens involvement appeared to be entering these sectors in the first place. Carpentry, a growth sector in Sucre, and one in which training is traditionally through a male-only apprenticeship system, provides interesting examples of how a few women have become involved through male household members. Involvement through male household members is seen in other non-traditional industries as well. The female co-owner and manager of a computer sales and service business, for instance, was very confident and comfortable in her role, but she had only become involved in this sector because her husband had skills as a computer technician. Women in such non-traditional sectors are likely to learn their skills informally, onthe-job, rather than receiving formal training; and they will often involve themselves in the non-technical (sales, administration) aspects of the business where possible leaving the technical work to male family members and/or male hired employees.
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CONCLUSIONS: MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT AND WOMENS WORK IN BOLIVIA Whereas the general pattern in Sucre is that women run microenterprises in a limited number of sectors, there are clearly important exceptions. Yet in a sense these exceptions prove the rule. Women may be involved in non-traditional business, but only in a few cases, and usually through male intermediation. Women may also be involved in businesses which are larger than microenterprises, but they often co-own and co-manage these with men (generally, their husbands though sometimes with their fathers). Interestingly, in terms of involvement in larger businesses (with more than five employees), the same can be said of men: in many cases, men also co-own and co-manage these with their wives. There is evidence to suggest that as businesses grow and become more lucrative, the labour of both male and female household heads may be called upon; while smaller microenterprises are often the primary responsibility of only one household member (see Eversole 2002:594). What can this brief reflection on womens microenterprises in one Bolivian city tell us about microenterprise development as a strategy for improving womens livelihoods? The key message here is that, while microenterprise development may sound very promising in theory suggesting that women will be empowered and that their incomes will increase in practice, such impacts rely strongly upon the social and economic contexts in which these women and their businesses must work. In the case of Sucre (as elsewhere), women were running micro-businesses long before the advent of microenterprise development programmes. These women often work long hours in their businesses for very little pay. While it can be argued that they, and their families, are better off financially than they would be without the microenterprise (or the micro-loan that increases their working capital), it is very difficult to argue that successful development has been achieved. There are larger constraints here to womens ability to earn good financial returns for their work. Through a lack of attention to the sectors women are choosing to work in, and the financial opportunities and constraints of these sectors, microenterprise developers tend to paint an oversimplified picture of the road to prosperity. Social, as well as economic, constraints need to be taken into account. There is a clear gendered division of labour informing the kinds of businesses men and women run, and women tend to see themselves in only a limited range of business roles. The businesses women run often permit considerable flexibility, yet are limited in their earning potential. Microenterprise developers could possibly be of assistance here, helping women to think outside the box in terms of the business choices they make, to consider a broader range of options. This does not mean simply opting automatically to work in non-traditional trades these may not necessarily be more lucrative, would not necessarily add to the economic diversity of the area (men are already running such businesses), and would also involve considerable investment in skills acquisition. Rather, it would be a case of assisting women to identify good business opportunities in a wider range of areas even in areas where they would not automatically see themselves working. Even in non-traditional businesses sectors, there are aspects of a business that a given woman would feel comfortable running: for instance, marketing, administration, or customer relations. The key would be for her to assemble the other relevant skills:
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perhaps through male household members, children with university educations (not uncommon in this university city), and paid employees, as well as the option to invest in training for herself. Another key challenge would be to assemble necessary information about a business sector she may know little about. Networks of friends and acquaintances, as well as the current broad availability of Internet-based resources, are two good sources of information; microenterprise development organisations could also be of assistance here. Understanding the reasons why microenterprise financing and microenterprise initiatives often do not translate into good quality work and income for women, requires understanding the social and economic context of womens businesses. Some of these contextual factors, such as the geographical isolation and economic limitations of a city like Sucre, apply to men as well as women. Others, such as gendered expectations of what business sector people will choose to work in, and the need to accommodate particular family responsibilities, affect women more specifically. As a result, women may work long hours for low pay in unstable situations of self-employment, while microenterprise developers congratulate themselves on alleviating poverty. A growing literature internationally is pointing to the fact that the will to help women start businesses, and womens own determination to do so, does not necessarily result in lucrative work for these women (see e.g. Leach and Sitaram 2002 on an experience in India, Wilson 2003 on a case study from Ecuador). The context matters and so do developers expectations. Does good development, and social justice, demand more than US $1-$2 for a full days work? While prosperous businesses are not built from night to morning, doesnt it make sense to consider whether prosperous businesses are even possible, given the contexts in which these women work? This paper has suggested that the microenterprise development field, including microenterprise finance, needs to look more closely at the context of the businesses it supports, particularly for women, and realistically assess these businesses potential for providing good incomes and income security. Rather than continue to fund the usual suspects such as handwork, foodwork and small commerce businesses simply because they are there, business developers could be much more proactive in helping women identify more lucrative, innovative business opportunities, and then overcoming their blockages to involvement. This may not necessarily (as is often assumed) involve a major investment in technical skills acquisition for the women in question. Rather, it may be a case of simply assisting women to build on their existing skills and link with other individuals, organisations, and information sources to provide what is lacking. For innovative business ideas, microenterprise developers could also provide venture capital to decrease the investment risk for the households of entrepreneurs. In these and other ways, such organisations may be able to significantly expand the quality of business options available to women. BIBLIOGRAPHY Babb, F (1989) Between field and cooking pot: the political economy of market women in Peru. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Ehlers, T and Main, K (1998) Women and the false promise of microenterprise, Gender and Society, v. 21, no. 4 (August): 424-440.
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Eversole, R (2003) From the shop floor: microenterprise development in a Bolivian city, Urban Anthropology, v. 32, no. 3-4 (Fall-Winter): 377-426. Eversole, R (2002) Balancing act: business and household in a small Bolivian city, Development in Practice, v. 12, no. 5 (November): 589-601. Hart, K (1973) Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana, Journal of Modern African Studies, v. 11: 61-89. Hulme, D and Mosely, P (1996) Finance against poverty, Volumes One and Two. London: Routledge. INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadstica) (2002) Bolivia Area Urbana: Caractersticas del empleo en la occupacin principal por sexo segn categora en el empleo 1999-2000, (Table 3.05.07), viewed January 2004. <http://www.ine.gov.bo/ cgi-bin/piwdie1.exe/TIPO>. Johnson, S and Rogaly, B (1997) Microfinance and poverty reduction. London: Intermediate Technology Press. Leach, F and Sitaram, S (2002) Microfinance and womens empowerment: a lesson from India, Development in Practice, v. 12, no. 5 (November): 575-588. Peattie, L (1987) An idea in good currency and how it grew: the informal sector, World Development, v. 15, no. 7 (July): 851-860. Rahman, A (1999) Microcredit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development: who pays? World Development, v. 27, no. 1 (January): 67-82. Rhyne, E (2001) Mainstreaming microfinance: how lending to the poor began, grew and came of age in Bolivia. Bloomfield, Connecticut: Kumarian Press. UNESCO (2001) Grameen Bank, UNESCO, viewed February 2004. <http://www.unesco.org/ education/poverty/grameen.shtml. Wilson, P (2003) Market articulation and poverty eradication? Critical reflection on tourist-oriented craft production in Amazonian Ecuador, (Chapter 5) in R Eversole (ed.), Here to help, NGOs combating poverty in Latin America. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe. Womens World Banking (2003) What we believe, Womens World Banking, viewed February 2004. <http://www.swwb.org/English/1000/what_we_believe/index.htm Yunus, M (2003) Grameen Bank at a glance. Grameen Communications, Grameen Bank, Dhaka, viewed February 2004. <http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/ GBGlance.html Yunus, M (1991) The Grameen Bank: experiences and reflections, Dhaka: Grameen Bank. Yunus, M (1982) Experience in organizing grassroots initiatives and mobilising peoples participation: the case of Grameen Bank project in Bangladesh. Paper presented to the 25th World Conference of the Society for International Development, Baltimore, Maryland.
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List of Contributors
Key Note Speaker Professor Belinda Probert holds the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at The University of Western Australia and has responsibility for the portfolios of Teaching and Learning, and Staffing. Prior to her appointment in March 2004, Belinda was Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Design and Social Context Portfolio at RMIT University, where she previously held the positions of Dean of Faculty of the Constructed Environment and Head of the School of Social Science and Planning. She holds a PhD from Lancaster Universitys Department of Politics and in her career has worked extensively on research relating to employment policy, gender, equity, and work and welfare reform. Other Contributors Dr Lionel Boxer is a Research Fellow with the Centre for Management Quality Research. Lionel is qualified as an industrial engineer and has completed both MBA and PhD programs of study with RMIT Business. Since 1981, Lionel has consulted to government and across a wide range of industries to develop and implement productivity improvements. His work harnesses his industrial engineering training in facility planning, material handling, work methods, and quality management as well as his capabilities in leadership, sales, and occupational health and safety. Lionel's research interests focus on discursive practices and the way that these influence individuals, teams and organisational culture. Sheree Cartwright has a background in sociology and anthropology. She is currently employed as a sessional tutor in Qualitative Social Research and Men and Women: Love and Work in the School of Social Science and Planning and as a research assistant at Melbourne IVF. Sheree is in the first year of her PhD. Her doctoral research is exploring the key factors that influence the ways in which women make decisions about paid-work and family after childbirth. Her current research interests include gender, the work/family debate in Australia, motherhood, womens health and well-being, and qualitative research methods. Dr Sara Charlesworth is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Social Research. Sara has a background in social work, industrial relations and legal studies. She is currently an editor of Labour and Industry. Sara's research interests include gender equality, the practice of industrial and anti-discrimination law in the workplace, quality part-time work, and the intersection of work and family. She is currently working on a number of Australian Research Council funded grants in these areas. Kathy Douglas is currently Program Co-ordinator for the Bachelor of Social Science (Legal and Justice Studies) and the Masters of Social Science (Criminal Justice Administration). She also works as a mediator and has conducted mediation training for government and community groups. Kathys main research interests are in Alternative Dispute Resolution, including the practice of mediation, and issues relating to the criminal justice system. She is currently exploring the way that
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. The School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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different models of mediation affect practice, education and standards issues in the mediation industry. Kathy is also presently working on a book, with two colleagues from RMIT University, on the Sociology of Deviance for Oxford University Press. Dr Robyn Eversole is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional and Rural Development, Hamilton, Victoria. She is the editor of the book Here to Help: NGOs Combating Poverty in Latin America (ME Sharpe 2003), and co-editor of the upcoming Indigenous Peoples and Poverty in International Perspective, to be published by Zed Books. Robyn has written articles for various international journals and collections, based on research on regional economic and social development issues in South America, Western Australia, and currently in south-western Victoria. Originally from West Virginia, USA, she is the author of five books for children, and holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from McGill University, Montreal. Dr. Maureen Fastenau is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Management and the Program Coordinator for the Bachelor of Business (HRM/IR) degree. She has written extensively on equal employment opportunity issues as the EEO columnist for the HR Monthly. She has edited the publication Focus on Workplace Diversity and was the founding editor of the International Employment Relations Review. Maureens research interests include womens career development and gender culture in workplaces. Dr Judith Shaw is a Lecturer in the International Development Programme. Judith worked for several years in international development as a researcher and practitioner before joining RMIT University in 2002. In 2001 she completed a PhD on microfinance and the informal sector in Sri Lanka. Her main research interest is in household livelihoods in developing countries. Within this broad field, she is currently engaged in a number of research projects, including rural labour markets in Sri Lanka, and migrant remittances and microfinance in the Asia-Pacific. She is also conducting a major study in Bougainville focusing on microfinance in post-conflict environments. Dr Sallie Yea is Senior Research Fellow in International Development in the School of Social Science and Planning. Sallie holds a PhD in Human Geography/Asian Studies from Monash University. The paper in this monograph is part of an ongoing research project on women trafficked for prostitution in South Korea. Her current research interests include Gender and Development, Gender and Migration, Human Trafficking, particularly sex trafficking and mail order brides, Tourism and International Development, particularly gender and tourism, sex tourism and the impact of tourism on communities, and lastly, the impact of militarism on developing societies.
First published by RMIT Publishing, November 2004. The School of Management, Business Portfolio, RMIT and the Centre for Applied Social Research, School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT 2004.
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02 Womens Decisions About Paid Work and Family Life After Childbirth - A Critique of The Hakim Model

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02 Womens Decisions About Paid Work and Family Life After Childbirth - A Critique of The Hakim Model

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Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Sara Charlesworth and Maureen Fasteanu Co-editors

IF ONLY IT WERE A GLASS CEILING: GENDERED ACADEMIC CAREERS

BEING ABLE TO DO WHAT YOU ASPIRE TO DO

(IN)VISIBLE WOMEN: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN AN AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS PUBLICATION

HANDWORK, FOODWORK AND SMALL COMMERCE: REFLECTIONS ON GENDERED MICROENTERPRISE IN BOLIVIA

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Sara Charlesworth Maureen Fastenau Co-Editors September 2004

If Only It Were a Glass Ceiling: Gendered Academic Careers1

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Table 1: Male and female staff by level

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Table 9: Main carer of children by sex (column per cent)

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

If Only It Were A Glass Ceiling

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Table 5: Female wage rates in selected occupations

Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?

Table 7: Main reason for moving to EPZ

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?

Table 10: Mean composition of expenditure of monthly pay, Dec 2003

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Decent Work or Distress Adaptation?

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Being Able To Do What You Aspire To Do

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

Being Able To Do What You Aspire To Do

Women and Work: Current RMIT University Research

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