NTEU WOMEN’S MAGAZINE

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Gender stats 2020 Bluestocking Week 2020: Women, Work & COVID Life in a pandemic for precariously employed Women bearing the brunt of women COVID pain in higher education We are Zoomed! Bluestocking women tell their COVID stories

ISSN 1839-6194 Volume 28, September 2020 Women’s Action Committee (WAC) The role of the Women’s Action Committee is to: • Act as a representative of women members, at the national level. • To identify, develop and respond to matters affecting women. • To advise on recruitment policy and resources directed at women. • To advise on strategies and structures to encourage, support and facilitate the active participation of women members at all levels of the NTEU. • To recommend action, and advise on issues affecting women. • To provide editorial advice on Agenda and the women’s website. • To inform members on industrial issues and policies that impact on women. • To make recommendations and provide advice to the National Executive, National Council, and Division Executive and Council on industrial, social and political issues affecting women. • Monitor and review the effectiveness of issues, policies and structures affecting WAC 2020 women. Aca Academic staff representative WAC is chaired by the National President and is composed of one academic and G/P General/Professional staff representative one general/professional staff representative from each Division plus one nominee of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee. National Officers Alison Barnes National President (Chair) Gabe Gooding National Assistant Secretary A&TSI Rep Anna Strzelecki UniSA ACT Aca Blair Williams UC G/P Jo Washington-King ANU NSW Aca vacant G/P Julia McConnochie UTS NT Aca Amanda Brain CDU G/P Sylvia Klonaris CDU QLD Aca Lee Barnett CQU G/P Gwen Amankwah-Toa QUT SA Aca Katie Barclay Adelaide READ ONLINE @ G/P Cécile Dutreix UniSA TAS nteu.org.au/agenda Aca Nataliya Nikolova UTAS G/P Jenny Smith UTAS

VIC Agenda ISSN 1839-6194 (online) Editor: Alison Barnes Aca Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe Production: Paul Clifton G/P Karen Lamb ACU Editorial Assistance: Anastasia Kotaidis All text and images © NTEU 2020 unless otherwise noted. WA Published by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). ABN 38 579 396 344 Aca Suzanne Jenkins Notre Dame Australia PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia G/P Corinna Worth Curtin Email: [email protected] Phone: 03 9254 1910 NTEU WOMEN’S MAGAZINE

Cover: Charles Deluvio/Unsplash

NTEU.ORG.AU/WOMEN

Volume 28, September 2020

Australian Gender & Higher Education Stats 2020 Editorial The average gender pay gap is now 14% a rise of 1.6% since 2019

MedianWomen undergraduate of starting letters salaries are 4.9% lower for women 2 COVID-19 TheAlison gender gap Barnes, in graduate medianNational salaries isPresident 9.4% Median superannuation balances at retirement are 21.6% lower for women Study & Qualifications Undergraduate gender pay gap by sector We are Zoomed! 15 Architecture & Built Enviro 15.4% 91.1% 88.8% Law & Paralegal Studies 9.3% Creative Arts 8.8% 44.5% 32.2% Psychology 7.3% A light-hearted look at the perils and pitfalls of working from News Agriculture & Enviro Studies 7.1% 58.7% Science And Mathematics 5.5% home during lockdown whilst caring for young children. Dentistry 5.1% Domestic students in Year 12 Bachelor degree higher education Median 4.9% or above Humanities, Culture & Soc Sci 4.8% Women are bearing the brunt of COVID pain Business & Management 4.0% All industries total renumeration pay gap is 24.2% Health Services & Support 3.8% in higher education 16 Computing & Info Systems 2.5% Full-TimeA sense 20.8% of Part-Time entitlement -4.2% Casual 10.3% Engineering 1.2% 3 Teacher Education 1.2% The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the many fault lines in EducationThe sexual & training harassment sector case of Peter Rathvan,Nursing 0.6% former University of total renumeration pay gap is 10.3% Medicine 0.5% our higher education system. It is of no surprise that women are Adelaide VC, whose actions reek of anRehabilitation entitled0.5% man. Veterinary Science 0.2% feeling the impact more acutely than their male counterparts. Full-Time 10.5% Part-Time 20.6% Casual 5.5% Pharmacy 0.0% Social Work -1.3% Gender stats & higher educationCommunications 2020-3.8% 4 Women in the university workforce Effect of COVID-19 on A&TSI females in WeAll staff takeTeaching our & annualResearch deepTeaching dive intoPostgraduate employment gender pay gap byand sector education full time equiv. Research Only Only precarious employment 18 Agriculture & Enviro Studies 17.4% statistics with a gender lens. AdditionallyHealth Services & Support this year, we 15.7%look at stats 44% 46% 59% Median 14.4% The Government and indeed universities are using COVID-19 showing58% how COVID-19 is affectingBusiness women.& Management 14.2% Communications 12.9% as an excuse to make the most vulnerable in our society more Science & Mathematics 12.2% ACADEMICS by level, excluding casuals Above Snr Lect C B A Law & Paralegal Studies 10.8% marginalised than ever before. LevelAnna D & E McCarron.Level C Level B DelegateLevel A & activistCreative Arts 10.3% 7 Psychology 9.8% 25% We talk32% to UniSA45% member52% Anna ArchitectureMcCarron & Built Enviro about her9.7% role as a Engineering 8.6% More than just gender equity for a better future 19 workplace delegate and NTEU activist.Rehabilitation 7.1% Humanities, Culture & Soc Sci 5.8% Social Work 5.3% As the coronavirus spread around the world, it was obvious that Vice-Chancellors Nursing 5.2% Teacher Education 3.5% women were expected to step up in the home and the workplace female 10 Computing & Info Systems 3.2% 39 male Medicine 2.5% and take on an even greater share of caring work. Pharmacy -9.0% Bluestocking Week Resilient worlds of care 20 A feminising perspective on belonging in capitalist spaces of 31 Aug–4 Sept nteu.org.au/bluestockingweek precarity. Bluestocking Week 2020: Women, Work & COVID 9 Just say No 21 The impact of COVID-19 on women in higher education was the theme for this year’s Bluestocking Week (31 August–4 September) Saying ‘No’ is an impossible task for a precariously employed now in its 8th consecutive year. woman.

Our women & COVID 11 During Bluestocking Week, a number of Queensland women members talked about the impact of COVID-19 on their lives. International

Women – the great illusion that we are invisible 14 We know that women’s work is double that of men in the usual Visualising women’s representation 22 course of life, then along came COVID-19, and women’s work UN Women have created animated visualisations that take a doubled again. closer look at gender imbalanced over time in various fields.

A country rallies to raise the number of women in science 24 The small African nation of Rwanda is working hard to encourage more women to study STEM subjects in higher education.

#ChallengeAccepted 26 What did the B&W photo Instagram challenge really mean? Editorial

Alison Barnes NTEU National President Women of letters

For Bluestocking Week each year, our South Australian Division hosts a dinner and fundraiser for the SA Working Women’s Centre, featuring guests speaking on topics ranging from climate change to educating workplaces about women’s need for support during periods of domestic violence. As the usual dinner couldn’t be held this year, we marked the week by inviting women to participate in a Women of Letters campaign, where union women write a short piece, or letter, talking about what education has meant to them, or their family, and how they see education as shaping their (or our) ability to respond to the environment created by COVID-19. Below is my personal contribution.

Dear Sisters, searing insights would haunt me throughout Unfortunately, COVID-19 is exacerbating my year of maternity leave as I took a these negative trends. As you may know, the Blue Stocking sleepless Madeleine for walks. Society began as an informal association of We are well on our way to the loss of more women with the ‘revolutionary’ aspiration I didn’t count on the way parenting – than 20 thousand jobs in higher education. of discussing ideas beyond needlework or mothering – completely envelops your And women are impacted more than men knitting. existence. when universities cut jobs. It was an early incubator of feminism. But of course it’s not about individuals. All Casual and contract positions always And while its participants never discussed of our structures – tax, welfare, workplace go first. And the emphasis is always on anything as gauche as ‘politics’ they certainly – are still built around the mother taking the professional/general areas. Of course supported each other in all manner of role of primary caregiver in the early years women are over-represented in all these intellectual activity. of a child’s life. categories. They were renowned for openness and And we know how this cascades through When you combine this with the increased informality. our professional lives. burden of caring duties in lock down and Hence the name – blue stockings were In universities, we also seem to take on higher economic stress, women are feeling considered informal ‘day wear’ in the more of the ‘caring’ responsibilities. the brunt of the pandemic. And we are of 1750s. course more exposed than ever to intimate Women, by and large, have larger teaching partner and domestic violence. I suspect they would turn in their grave if loads, and are in the majority in student they knew what informal wear was today support services. All of this comes as the latest data shows – in the age of COVID-19 lockdown. an increase in the gender pay gap to 14%, At peak moments such as exams and essays, Tracksuits probably wouldn’t cut it. with women earning $253.60 a week less we are deluged with requests. Dealing than men. But I digress. with the needs of students can become a minute to minute proposition. Yet even here, The experience of women working in higher Perhaps more interesting is what these early systemic sexism pervades our working lives, education is felt across the economy. More agitators might make of women’s progress with women academics trying to squeeze in Australian women than men have lost jobs today, more than 270 years on. research and publication while shouldering in this pandemic as feminised and insecure Whether their hopes and aspirations tally not only teaching and admin, but lives as areas such as retail, hospitality, cleaning and with the world of today. carers too. other services quickly shed jobs. I suspect not. The pressure is not unique though, with It’s also no surprise that the health women in professional, general and and safety of women has been more In fact I suspect that’s true of everyone technical roles squeezed by workload compromised serving as we do on the joining this discussion today. Women do pressures as well as a lack of opportunities frontline of ‘essential services’ – such march forward, but the pace of change is for career progression. as health, aged care, disability services, underwhelming. teaching and food retail. It is also women who most often bear the It’s certainly been my experience. brunt of redundancies. So while a crisis demands we triage our Prior to maternity leave I had my most concerns, we must not forget that the At the same time this collides with our successful year of writing articles for progress of women is also essential. It’s caring responsibilities outside the workplace. journals. not a luxury or some sort of expendable Small wonder that we are published less frippery, but a core principle that must be at And I naively assumed this could continue often, earn smaller incomes, and receive the very centre of political and social debate while I seamlessly incorporated care for an fewer promotions. Indeed, both academic and struggle. infant into my busy life. and professional/general staff women Alison Barnes is NTEU National President and I thought I could bash out some fresh dominate the lower levels, even though editor of Agenda. [email protected] research while the baby was sleeping. That higher education is a feminised industry.

2 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 News

Kelly Thomas Senior Legal Officer A sense of entitlement

Earlier in 2020, we heard of the shock departure of the University of Adelaide’s Chancellor, Kevin Scarce, as well as the absence of its Vice-Chancellor, Peter Rathjen, due to illness. With the release of The Hon. Bruce Lander’s Statement about an Investigation, the actual events have now been unveiled.

Rathjen’s actions reek of an entitled man. He engaged in sexual 50s – showing that sexual harassment can happen to anyone. The harassment against two women at the same work function – a Court, horrified, stated: University function – which had lasting consequences for those ‘He now appeals to this Court. His points are three. First, the two women. The Independent Commission Against Corruption evidence did not support the conclusion that he had sexually (ICAC) found that he deliberately engaged in this conduct, harassed the Respondent because he was to be seen as being – and which was of a sexual nature and to which the women did not this was the actual submission – like Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.’ consent. Imagining his behaviour is sickening: because so many women have experienced that entitled, privileged and uninhibited My skin is crawling again with the idea that men – and it is mainly behaviour by men. The kind where they act with disregard for men – have this sense of entitlement not only over women, but also anyone else’s feelings because they can. Because the power when dealing with allegations like these. Rathjen felt like, imbalance that so often appears in workplaces, in work and did, lie to the Chancellor and to the ICAC. He relationships, undercuts the notion of consent. did that because he thought he would get away with it. As we found out through the ICAC’s Statement, “I have found the Rathjen apparently has form in this area. Vice-Chancellor lied Which is why the other element of the ICAC’s While the University of Adelaide was to the Chancellor on three report is most troubling. As was reported undertaking its investigations, Rathjen in relation to Heydon, there seems to be received allegations of sexual harassment or occasions. a protection racket going on around this abuse that allegedly occurred while he was He lied in his evidence to me. behaviour. In Rathjen’s case, one of the employed at the University of Melbourne. victims made a complaint and the University The University of Melbourne has now I have found that he has sought external legal advice. That legal passed the report into those allegations to the lied when it suited him advice was in effect driven at protecting ICAC, and Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell to do so.’ Rathjen’s reputation. The advice was for the announced to staff that he remained ‘determined Chancellor to have a chat with Rathjen. That to stamp out sexual assault and harassment’, all but occurred, and Rathjen admitted his behaviour. confirming that Rathjen’s latest complainant was right in But it was never reported to the University Council coming forward. – Rathjen’s employer – giving rise to circumstances where victimisation could flourish. The ICAC’s report is not critical of the The University of Tasmania, another of Rathjen’s former employers, Chancellor – he was following legal advice – but it is critical of the has reached out as well – advising that any complaint would be legal advice given. investigated. Because that is so often how a culture of sexual harassment At this point, all of Rathjen’s victims have wanted to remain continues. When a brave woman stands up, she is embroiled in a anonymous. And that is entirely understandable. No doubt the secretive investigation where she must suffer humiliating questioning women are keen to ensure that they have ongoing careers in their and attacks on her character while the perpetrator continues at chosen fields and don’t want to be associated with such events. large. All the while employers hire top gun lawyers so they can They no doubt wished it never happened to them. I have a message rely on legal professional privilege and non-disclosure agreements for you, if you’re reading this: good on you. Good on you for to never let this culture and conduct see the light of day. I’m not stepping forward, at great personal risk and at great personal suggesting we disregard procedural fairness, but the structures expense. Thank you for reporting this so that no one else will undoubtedly support perpetrators. experience his behaviour. Thank you for once again shining a light on sexual harassment which is, unfortunately prevalent in every Fortunately, there is good work happening. Kate Jenkins, the Sex industry, but shouldn’t exist in the higher education sector. Discrimination Commissioner released her Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report earlier this year – unfortunately And it isn’t just higher education: it is everywhere. Former High losing airtime to the global pandemic, but which requires closer Court judge Dyson Heydon has fallen from grace following an attention. The ACTU has also joined up with the AHRC and ACCI to investigation into his conduct which spanned many years during release the Know the Line campaign. Because it is too important for which he traded on his powerful role. His actions cost the futures of all women to have the greatest chance at success at work and for young women who entrusted him with guiding them into the legal men to stop thinking it is okay to harass women. profession. The Federal Court also recently threw out an appeal by a lawyer who sexually harassed his paralegal – a woman in her Above: Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (2005)

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 3 Stats Australian Gender & Higher Education Stats 2020 Terri MacDonald Policy & Research Officer Gender & higher The average gender pay gap is now 14% a rise of 1.6% since 2019 Median undergraduate starting salaries are 4.9% lower for women

The gender gap in graduate median salaries is 9.4% education stats 2020 Median superannuation balances at retirement are 21.6% lower for women According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Australia’s national gender pay gap as of August 2020 is 14%, reflecting that, on average, women need to work an additional 59 days to earn Study & Qualifications Undergraduate gender pay gap by sector the same as male counterparts. The gender pay gap (GPG) favours men across all industries and all levels Architecture & Built Enviro 15.4% 91.1% of the workforce (highest in financial services, real estate and construction), and the full-time average 88.8% Law & Paralegal Studies 9.3% Creative Arts 8.8% weekly earnings for women are $253.60 less than for men. 44.5% 32.2% Psychology 7.3% Agriculture & Enviro Studies 7.1% Education and the gender Graduate gender pay gap 58.7% Science And Mathematics 5.5% Dentistry 5.1% pay gap The 2020 Graduate Outcomes Survey Domestic students in has found that high level undergraduate Year 12 Bachelor degree Of all women aged 20-24, 91.1% have higher education Median 4.9% labour market outcomes are broadly similar or above attained year 12 qualifications or above, Humanities, Culture & Soc Sci 4.8% for males and females, with the notable compared to 88.8% of men in the same Business & Management 4.0% exception that female graduates earn less age bracket. Of all women aged 25-29, All industries total renumeration pay gap is 24.2% than male graduates. Health Services & Support 3.8% 44.5% have achieved a bachelor degree Computing & Info Systems 2.5% or above, compared to 32.2% of similarly- In 2017, the gender gap in graduate Full-Time 20.8% Part-Time -4.2% Casual 10.3% Engineering 1.2% aged men. median salaries was $2,600 or 4.3%. In 2020, for the same cohort of graduates Teacher Education 1.2% Women represent 58.7% of domestic three years later, the gender gap in Education & training sector Nursing 0.6% students in universities or other institutions. graduate median salaries had increased to This has risen from 57.6% in 2007. total renumeration pay gap is 10.3% Medicine 0.5% $6,900 or 9.4%. Rehabilitation 0.5% Higher education Previous research suggests that one of the Postgraduate gender pay Veterinary Science 0.2% key factors contributing to the gender gap gap Full-Time 10.5% Part-Time 20.6% Casual 5.5% Pharmacy 0.0% workforce in salaries is that females tend to graduate Social Work The gender gap in salaries is more -1.3% For those working in tertiary education the from fields of education that achieve pronounced at postgraduate coursework Communications -3.8% total remuneration pay gap is half that for lower salaries (e.g. Creative Arts) whereas level than for undergraduates. Women in the university workforce all industries. males tend to graduate from more highly remunerated fields (e.g. Engineering). In 2017, four to six months after Our sector is 58% women and 42% men, All staff Teaching & Research Teaching completion of their studies, the median Postgraduate gender pay gap by sector compared to 50/50 for all industries. However, female graduates often earn less full time equiv. Research Only Only than male graduates within the salary of male postgraduate coursework Agriculture & Enviro Studies 17.4% graduates was $15,900 or 16.9% higher While higher education is same field of education. For Health Services & Support 15.7% feminised, the more senior example, undergraduate than females. Median 14.4% the level, the greater the 44% 46% 59% study areas with large In 2020, this gap has increased to $17,200 proportion of men, with 58% Business & Management 14.2% gender gaps in salaries in dollar terms, which represents 15.8% of only 25% of women The gender gap Communications 12.9% three years out include the full-time median female salary, three at a level above senior in salaries among Architecture and Built Science & Mathematics 12.2% years after graduation. ACADEMICS by level, excluding casuals lecturer. postgraduate coursework Environment, Health Above Snr Lect C B A Law & Paralegal Studies 10.8% Services and Support, The gender gap in salaries among WGEA headcount graduates persists across Level D & E Level C Level B Level A Creative Arts 10.3% Social Work, Nursing, postgraduate coursework graduates persists figures reveal that all study areas... and Business and across all study areas, in particular, in Psychology 9.8% 51% of Level A staff are 25% Management. Medicine, Business and Management, Architecture & Built Enviro 9.7% women. However, this is 32% 45% 52% Health Services & Support and Science likely to be under estimated, Engineering 8.6% There are some exceptions and Mathematics, with gender pay gaps as casual/sessional staff are Rehabilitation 7.1% where females are paid more in excess of 15% three years after course usually appointed at Level A, and are Humanities, Culture & Soc Sci than males such as in Creative Arts, completion. 5.8% not included in the Government’s FTE data at 4%. There are also some study areas with Social Work 5.3% on levels. This is likely due to a range of factors such Vice-Chancellors no, or very little gender gap in salaries such Nursing 5.2% as Computing and Information Systems, as occupation, age, experience, personal The number of women Vice-Chancellors Teacher Education 3.5% where salaries are equal; Engineering, factors and possible inequalities within at Australia’s 39 public universities has female 10 where males are paid 1% more than workplaces. Computing & Info Systems 3.2% dropped by one since last year, to ten in 39 male females three years after graduation. Medicine 2.5% 2020. continued on p.7... Pharmacy -9.0%

4 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 Stats Australian Gender & Higher Education Stats 2020

The average gender pay gap is now 14% a rise of 1.6% since 2019

Median undergraduate starting salaries are 4.9% lower for women

The gender gap in graduate median salaries is 9.4%

Median superannuation balances at retirement are 21.6% lower for women

Study & Qualifications Undergraduate gender pay gap by sector Architecture & Built Enviro 15.4% 91.1% 88.8% Law & Paralegal Studies 9.3% Creative Arts 8.8% 44.5% 32.2% Psychology 7.3% Agriculture & Enviro Studies 7.1% 58.7% Science And Mathematics 5.5% Dentistry 5.1% Domestic students in Year 12 Bachelor degree higher education Median 4.9% or above Humanities, Culture & Soc Sci 4.8% Business & Management 4.0% All industries total renumeration pay gap is 24.2% Health Services & Support 3.8% Computing & Info Systems 2.5% Full-Time 20.8% Part-Time -4.2% Casual 10.3% Engineering 1.2% Teacher Education 1.2% Education & training sector Nursing 0.6% total renumeration pay gap is 10.3% Medicine 0.5% Rehabilitation 0.5% Veterinary Science 0.2% Full-Time 10.5% Part-Time 20.6% Casual 5.5% Pharmacy 0.0% Social Work -1.3% Communications -3.8% Women in the university workforce

All staff Teaching & Research Teaching Postgraduate gender pay gap by sector full time equiv. Research Only Only Agriculture & Enviro Studies 17.4% Health Services & Support 15.7% 44% 46% 59% Median 14.4% 58% Business & Management 14.2% Communications 12.9% Science & Mathematics 12.2% ACADEMICS by level, excluding casuals Above Snr Lect C B A Law & Paralegal Studies 10.8% Level D & E Level C Level B Level A Creative Arts 10.3% Psychology 9.8% 25% 32% 45% 52% Architecture & Built Enviro 9.7% Engineering 8.6% Rehabilitation 7.1% Humanities, Culture & Soc Sci 5.8% Social Work 5.3% Vice-Chancellors Nursing 5.2% Teacher Education 3.5% female 10 Computing & Info Systems 3.2% 39 male Medicine 2.5% Pharmacy -9.0%

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 5 Stats

Gender & higher education stats 2020

...continued from p.5 Women are over-represented in the Gender impact of COVID industries most affected by the COVID- The super gap gets worse Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 19 pandemic including food and The Morrison Federal Government’s workforce figures show that, to date, job accommodation services, the arts and response to COVID-19 controversially losses have impacted men and women quite recreation fields, education and health included allowing workers to withdraw differently. services. Three-quarters of health up to $10,000 from their superannuation professionals, including pharmacists and accounts in the June quarter 2020 and Overall employment was down by 7.5% medical scientists – many of whom were a further $10,000 during the September between 14 March and 18 April. Female deemed to be essential services – are quarter 2020. employment dropped by 8.1%, male women. employment dropped by 6.2%. According to preliminary data, women Women are over-represented in casual and have eroded their superannuation balances In terms of working hours, women lost short-term contract employment, especially more than men, the ramifications of which 11.5% of the hours worked in March, in higher education (1.5 times more likely will compound over time and seriously compared to men who lost 7.5% to be insecurely employed). Women are undermine their financial security in In June, the labour force participation rate more likely to be over-represented in those retirement. fell by 2.5 percentage points. The impact ineligible to receive JobKeeper as they often work in short-term roles for less than 12 Sources: Women in University workforce 2018 has been greater on women with an extra (Dept of Education and Training); NTEU analysis 2.9% of women out of the labour force months. from Dept of Education and Training Data cube compared to an extra 2.1% of men. In higher education, the impact is two-fold (2019); QILT survey program, including the as university workers are ineligible for the 2020 Graduate Outcomes Survey – Longitudinal Younger women have been (GOS-L), reported in 2020 Graduate Outcomes JobKeeper subsidy. Women are also over- disproportionately affected in terms of job Survey – Longitudinal (GOS-L) Medium-term losses. ABS data on payroll shows that represented in job losses in non-academic graduate outcomes report, Aug 2020. Social employment fell by 18% for women under areas. Research Centre (funded by DESE); Financial the age of 20 years, compared with 13% of Standard, Super release widens gender gap: AMP, men under 20 years. Ally Selby, 29 May 2020; Covid-19 early release scheme, 11 May 2020, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

Between March & April 2020, In June, the labour force Australians who have accessed overall employment was down participation rate fell by their superannuation 7.5% 2.5% 19% 21% 8.1% 2.9% 17% 6.2% 2.1%

Overall employment reduction Labour force participation Withdrawn starting superannuation balances

18% 11.5%

14% 13% 7.5% 12%

Employment reduction for people Working hours lost in March Emptied total superannuation savings under 20 years old

6 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 Activism

Anna McCarron. Delegate & activist

Anna McCarron is an NTEU workplace delegate and activist at the University of South Australia (UniSA). Agenda spoke to her about her role in 2020.

Where do you work and what do you do? I commenced work at UniSA in 2009 as part of the graduate program. Since then I have worked within Academic Units, the Student Engagement Unit and the Hawke Centre in varying marketing roles. For the last four years I have worked in Digital Marketing within the International Unit. I am an alumnus of UniSA having graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Communication and Media Management) in 2008. I also obtained a Master of Public Relations from USQ in 2012.

Why did you become an NTEU delegate/ activist? It is really in my genes! My grandfather was on elected union committees for at least 35 years and instilled in me many of the values that unionists hold dear. My brother has also acted within What do you enjoy most about being an various positions at the NTEU and, after learning about all the NTEU delegate/activist? valuable work that is being done within the movement, I felt the need to do more. In my day to day work I rarely interact with the academics that teach our students. My involvement with the Union allows me to build closer relationships with them. It allows me to learn about What campaigns are you involved with at the issues that affect them as I only see the university from one the moment in your Branch? And why is it perspective. important? In addition, it is very rewarding to hear the stories of how we have made a difference to people’s lives through our activism. I have recently been working with our campaigns committee on a strategy to encourage UniSA leadership to partner with the Union and put pressure on Dan Tehan and the Federal Government to not What would you say to others looking at cut university funding. In addition, our local Branch is continuing to possibly nominating as a delegate/activist lobby local MPs and pressure them to block this bill. and becoming active in their Branch? I feel that this is such an important campaign. Universities around Australia are financially struggling thanks to the Government’s lack I would say it is a worthwhile experience and a fantastic way to of support during the COVID-19 pandemic and to put further meet people who are so passionate. If there is a time to become an pressure on us is wrong. activist, it is now. On a personal level, I don’t want to imagine a future where my As Australia enters its first recession in decades, we need to work children have to choose a degree because it is affordable instead of harder than ever to protect our rights and protect our jobs as choosing one they have an interest in. universities continue to be neglected by the Government!

NATIONAL TERTIARY EDUCATION UNION Delegates Delegates are a vital part of the NTEU, maintaining visibility, Become an NTEU supporting recruitment & building the strength of the Union. Delegate! If you’re interested in becoming DELEGATES.NTEU.ORG.AU a Delegate in your work area, contact your Branch today.

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 7 Bluestocking Week

WOMEN WORK & COVID

31 Aug–4 Sept nteu.org.au/bluestockingweek

8 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 Bluestocking Week

Helena Spyrou Education & Training Organiser Bluestocking Week 2020 Women, Work & COVID

The impact of COVID-19 on women in higher education was the theme for this year’s Bluestocking Week (31 August–4 September) now in its 8th consecutive year.

The Australian higher education sector has been and is in crisis. The high level of insecure employment and the inequalities that women in particular experience were there long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The challenges faced by women right now are intensified as our work, community and caring responsibilities collide in this time of crisis. With mass redundancies, a growing gender pay gap, insecure work, and an antagonistic Federal Government, Bluestocking Week 2020 has focused not only on recognising, applauding and celebrating women in higher education but also on encouraging all members to work together to build a better working life on the other side of the crisis for women in higher education. This year, in the time of coronavirus, has been challenging for all in the sector with the vast majority working off-campus for months and many, Above: Former federal ALP MP for Longman, former official with the United like our colleagues in Victoria, still doing so. Workers’ Union, and now Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at QUT, Susan Lamb, spoke at the Qld Bluestocking Week event on why ‘Politics Matters’, how Despite the limitations presented, Branches and Divisions still held unionism and politics has improved the lot of women workers in Australia. Bluestocking Week events – some small, some not so small, some on Below: Traditional Bluestocking cupcakes on offer in Darwin this year. campus, most online. There were petitions, songs, discussions and cupcakes. Here are some highlights of the events held across the country.

SA Division Acknowledging how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected women and how the Federal Government’s funding proposals will have a negative impact on vulnerable and insecure workers at universities, the SA Division ran a number of small events during Bluestocking week. Together with the student union, members participated in feminist conversations and cupcakes. Being able to congregate on campus, the Division also saw this week as an opportunity to talk with members about the importance of blocking the Tehan Higher Education Support Amendment (Jobs-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020. The Division also initiated a Women of Letters project asking 30 women to write a letter about what education means to them and how COVID-19 has affected their lives and their work. The letters will be collated in a PDF and will be posted on the NTEU SA Division page in early October, so keep an eye out at www.nteu.org.au/sa. In mid-October, the SA Division WAC, are planning a cocktail hour/ seminar in honour of Bluestockings and will include women from the Australian Black Lives Matter/Deaths in Custody movement as speakers. This event will also be a fundraiser for SA women’s support services. continued overpage... VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 9 Bluestocking Week

Above: Cheryl Baldwin, Cécile Dutreix, Juliet Fuller and Jess Jacobson on the Barr Smith Library stairs at the University of Adelaide.

NT Division Charles Darwin University (CDU) celebrated Bluestocking Week with a live stream seminar. It highlighted the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of many women in higher education who have been simultaneously working from home, caring for children (and, for many, their partners) and dealing with excessive workloads, all whilst undergoing university restructures and mergers. Speakers Amanda Brain and Sylvia Klonaris highlighted the challenges women are facing, and how we can stay healthy. This was followed by a light lunch (and cupcakes).

Queensland Division During Bluestocking Week, Queensland Division invited NTEU woman members to write a short piece on the impact of COVID- 19 on their lives (see pp.11–13) which were sent in a daily Meet a Member email to all Qld members. The Division also held a trivia quiz and an eclectic Division-wide Zoom event called ‘Politics Matters’. This event was an information session and celebration of why women join unions. Susan Lamb (Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at QUT) provided the key note address. The event was bookended by a group sing along, lead by Sue Monk, of the famous suffragette political slogan and consequent Above: National President Alison Barnes Zoomed into the CDU Bluestocking poem and song, Bread and Roses and Helen Reddy’s iconic 1970s Week live seminar from lockdown in Melbourne. Janine Oldfield from anthem for the feminist movement I am Woman. Batchelor, a member of the Women’s Network Group of the NT Division, opened the event with acknowledgment to Traditional Custodians of the region, the Larrakeyah People. National Seminar Bluestocking Week culminated in a national seminar on Women, Work & COVID-19. Over 300 members attended via Zoom. NTEU National President, Alison Barnes, set the context and introduced the two special guest speakers Professor Rae Cooper (Gender, Work and Employment Relations and Co-Director of the Women, Work & Leadership Research Group) and Sarah Mosseri (Postdoctoral Research Associate in Work and Organisational Studies). Rae and Sarah, both from the University of Sydney Business School, spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on women. They highlighted how many of the gendered inequalities that existed in the pre-COVID-19 world of work have now been exacerbated by the pandemic and how, in both paid and unpaid work, women Above, L–R: NTEU Industrial Officer, Noeline Rudland, Retired NTEU Griffith are disproportionately experiencing the impact of the pandemic, member and Emma Miller Award recipient, Sue Monk, and USQ Organiser, resulting in a widening of the economic gap between men and Patsy O’Brien started the Bluestocking Week meeting with a rendition of ‘Bread women. & Roses’, a song inspired by a quote from women’s suffrage activist Helen Todd. 10 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 Bluestocking Week Our women & COVID

During Bluestocking Week, our Queensland Division sent members a daily email featuring one member a day talking of the impact of COVID-19 on them. COVID-19 has turned the world as we knew it on its head; the impact on women and on work has been immense. The NTEU recognises, applauds and celebrates all women employed in higher education and never more so than in these turbulent and uncertain times. You might see yourself reflected in their stories.

Ashleigh McGaw Tessa Rixon University of Southern Queensland Queensland University of Technology

As a professional staff member, the idea of working from home I lecture into the BFA Technical Production course had always appealed to me but I had never had the opportunity or within QUT’s School of Creative Practice, and the need to. I returned to work from maternity leave in the middle of reduction of face-to-face teaching has been a huge lockdown and started working from home straight away. hurdle for my students and me over this past year. Our students usually go through a range of hands-on While there were initial teething problems – daily frustration with workshops and labs, all of which had to shift online using collaboration software like Microsoft Teams; the uncertainty of in Semester 1. just what, exactly, has changed or stayed the same during my time away; virtually supervising a team, most of whom, I have never met We managed to come up with some innovative in person before; and the constant internal dialogue around keeping ways of keeping their training going – making use away from the fridge and pantry – I slowly got into the ‘swing’ of of visualisation software, 3D designs and more – working from home. but it’s been difficult to stay true to the experience and the learning we want to give the students. I am now at a point where I love it, and I have been much more Fortunately due to our smaller sizes we’re mostly back productive and focussed. Working from home has allowed me to in the studios this semester, but the restricted hours, easily transition back into the workforce after extended leave. budgets and workloads we’re all experiencing adds It also allows me to spend more time with my family and to the strain of teaching whilst also trying to doing the things that I love. Many of my colleagues catch-up on the first half of the year. have also experienced positive benefits from working from home. Working from home Overall, we’re trying to offer the best has allowed me to easily experiences we can in the limited time I have since returned to campus, with mixed we have, and provide support and feelings. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, transition back into the inspiration to the students as they slog it is that we, as professional staff, can perform workforce after extended their way through 2020. our job from home, and keep the tertiary sector leave. It also allows me to humming along. So why not make it a more spend more time with my permanent option for professional staff across the sector? With the support of the NTEU and family and doing the things its members, we can prove that we can work that I love. productively, efficiently, and safely from home.

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Debbie Woodbridge Griffith University Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee Member

Much like all women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women work. For a long time, this work has gone underpaid or unpaid. Much of the unpaid work for Aboriginal women is similar for all women. However, Indigenous women have this added layer because of their cultural identity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are parents, they are rearing their children, managing households, families and in ever- increasing instances they are also in paid employment. On top of this Aboriginal women are working to care for their extended families, they are providing unpaid care to community members and unpaid community work to preserve culture. Over the past hundred years, Aboriginal women have had growing involvement with unions in the fight for their rights. Before the 1967 referendum, Aboriginal women were pushed into unpaid employment or had their pays held in trust which were often never paid. These arrangements For those who have been much like indentured servitude as part of the assimilation policies of the day. remain in work, working From around the 1930s, Aboriginal women joined various democratic unions. The union movement provided us with a platform to fight for our rights and a better deal for from home results in less Aboriginal women generally. These include Aboriginal women having the right to work demarcation between work and earn a living wage, provisions which allowed for cultural obligations, the right to and family/home life for women take on more meaningful and professional work, and the right to have a voice and lead generally but for Aboriginal and workplaces and communities. Torres Strait Islander women there Some Indigenous communities are matriarchal, and the women are the power brokers is even less separation between such as with the Wiradjuri where I come from. Unions have played an important role work, family, community in supporting Aboriginal women in this fight, especially the NTEU which has one of the highest memberships of Indigenous peoples in the country. Aboriginal women are also well obligations and cultural represented in this data. obligations. From early March, my colleagues and I started preparing to work from home. Then Queensland schools ‘closed’ to children except those whose parents were deemed to be essential workers. The Prime Minister then announced that any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person who is over 50 years of age and can work from home, should work from home. The day after this, the 31st March, was the first day of working from home for my workplace. It was a foreign concept and not the way Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people interact which is generally face-to-face. Many of us did not know how some of the students would cope with this change. Many casuals and workers on fixed-term contracts lost their jobs including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are more likely to be in casual and fixed-term employment. For those who remain in work, working from home results in less demarcation between work and family/home life for women generally but for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women there is even less separation between work, family, community obligations and cultural obligations. Aboriginal women have this extra layer of responsibility due to this intersection between race and gender. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are the carers, they are also the ones at the front line insuring that COVID-19 does not spread throughout Aboriginal communities across the country. Many have to make the decisions about closing communities and keeping COVID-19 out. Another impact is having to work from home. Many Indigenous women were already working at home because of family commitments and cultural obligations. Many also have the care of their grandchildren and /or children from their extended family. In many instances, these children would go into state care if it wasn’t for the tireless efforts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s work. Now, I am in the process of preparing to return to campus and hope that from here we keep moving in a positive direction so we can get back to face-to-face service delivery.

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Gabriella Wilson Kerry Taylor-Leech Griffith University Griffith University

There is a child who needs their mum’s constant attention, Like many people, I now see I was simply sleepwalking at the start there are two demanding rescue dogs, one of which has of this pandemic. I underestimated the nature of the COVID-19 been diagnosed with cancer. There is a husband who also virus and was quite ignorant of the implications of a lockdown. works in the higher education sector and is slowly sinking As I watched in horror at developments in China, Italy, Brazil, the into depression, a mother over seventy who works in the US and UK, and two of my friends lost parents, the reality started higher education sector and lonely in isolation. Immuno- to sink in. With an ageing mother locked down in the UK and compromised in-laws, a PhD which is very anxiously my three adult children all working in precarious jobs in different neglected, a casual job that’s looking even more precarious, Australian states, I feel pulled in multiple directions as I try to gruelling online daily tutorials and meetings, and mental support them. Social isolation is the worst possible thing for my health that just seems to be deteriorating. In the background mother, who has dementia. of all of this is climate change and the onset of the sixth When lockdown was announced, my mass extinction. These are the things that have surrounded sessional tutor and I worked frantically to (drowned) me during COVID-19. get our course materials into an online Working at Griffith during this time has been both My tutor is a shining format and we did it in a matter of pleasurable and painful under these circumstances. example of the value days. We attended workshops but I know millions of other Australians have been basically trained each other in the balancing the extreme pressures of life in lock sessional staff bring to the use of Collaborate and Teams. My down too. The pleasure of my work comes university. I could not do the tutor is a shining example of the from dedicated colleagues, eager students, the work I’m doing without her help value sessional staff bring to the knowledge we craft and the minds we inspire. and the goodwill of my loyal university. I could not do the work That’s why we’re there right? Because of the I’m doing without her help and the importance and pleasure of research, teaching and sessional tutors, all of whom goodwill of my loyal sessional tutors, relationships. And to receive fair pay for fair work. are women. all of whom are women. My disappointment and pain has come from watching On the research side, I battled on with senior staff experience increasing levels of pressure writing papers and an external grant and stress, with often no way to help them because of application, telling myself that if everything my own workload and precarity. To add to my dismay, comes good next year, we’ll be able to make the I have watched management chip away and then cease research happen. negotiations with the Union. Vital negotiations carried out to I’ve worked through my leave to keep up with my research and save jobs, and people’s livelihoods. I’ve also been devastated teaching. Recently, I have found myself showing symptoms of to watch the current Federal Government completely gut our burnout and sitting in meetings stuck on mute, restricted only to sector. Higher education in Australia is the lifeblood of this asking questions on the chat function, is very disempowering. On nation and a leader in innovation and critical thinking. the plus side, my students have been amazing. I truly appreciate I was protesting funding cuts to universities in the 90s. their humour, patience, tenacity and resilience. Perhaps the time has come to stand together, united once And I’m proud to belong to a union that is fighting to present more in our common goal for a well-funded sector, job an alternative to divisive management decisions and the heavy security, and accessible education for all. As my sign said at handedness of the Morrison Government. It is helping me make it those protests. through. I know I’ll come through this a stronger person. ‘Only the Educated are Free’ – Epictetus. To end on a cheerful note, Zoom cocktails with family and friends have been a godsend and will probably stay on as a fixture in my household.

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 13 Bluestocking Week

Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe University Women & the great illusion that we

are invisible

Bluestocking Week is always a time for us to re-connect with our roots and to think about the women who went before us and the difficulties they faced in being able to access a university education. For many, their finished work was taken from them and credited to their male counterparts, which must have been so frustrating. Even with this being an artefact of higher education they never gave up.

I am immensely proud of what they did, The number of students that I teach who What all of this does is to drive inequality, it created a lasting legacy for all of us. I dropped subjects so they could continue that entrenches disadvantage for those am a first in family that happily was able their caring responsibilities as well as add already in the workforce and ensures that to access higher education because of the new and more problematic elements to those wanting to enter face a series of Whitlam changes to fees – an unintended their lives was really noticeable. Again, barriers (mostly artificial) that won’t go away. consequence that still brings a smile to my it will be women who will take longer to For young women hope for a future face. complete their qualifications and continue to in which they are able to determine be engaged in lower paid work with fewer The panel for our Bluestocking Week event where and how they work must seem opportunities. was stimulating and hearing of the research unattainable. As our panellists pointed out, being undertaken around all aspects of As unionists we must ensure that this does the future of work is consistently framed women in the workforce was certainly not mean that our students are unable to around the use of robots and never around thought-provoking. So much has been done graduate. Graduation will offer them both women and work. The next part of our with so much still to be changed would be opportunities, as well as certainty in their struggle must then focus on how we can the take-out from the panellists’ combined working lives, and we must make every have women work front and centre, so that discussion. effort to support them through challenging our combined invisibility takes a permanent university hierarchies to take account of back seat. Join us to stop the illusion that Perhaps most telling was the under- their circumstances. we do not exist in the eyes of those who representation of women because of the make decisions about us, not for or with continued occupational and industry Throughout the pandemic women have us. In union we will fight. United we will segregation our country faces. Even more been (as they always do) diversifying win. irritating is that, although Australia in 2020 their talents to ensure that everything had the highest representation of women continues to run as smoothly as is possible. Image: Bench Accounting/Unsplash in the labour market, it did not mean what Disappointingly, women it could/should have and demonstrates that again are missing out we have a long way to go before there is as many areas that are parity for women so they do not have to considered women’s engage in precarious and/or low paid work. work have not been allowed to open back When will we experience the world of work up so they can begin to where there would be mandated ways in operate. which family, caring responsibilities become an integral part of the working day and not Once again men’s work an add on at the behest of a benevolent has been opened up employer? disproportionately to that of women. This simply is We know that women’s work is double unacceptable, how will that of men in the usual course of life, then there ever be significant along came COVID-19, and women’s work change to the lives of doubled again. Hard to imagine that is even working women, when possible, but it is and that in and of itself even a pandemic was demonstrates that women provide the ‘glue’ able to close the door on that holds so much of our society together. them?

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We are Zoomed!

As I dash down the hallway holding my laptop out of reach of sticky little fingers, I think how I used to spend the ten minutes between 1pm and the tutorial start time of 1:10pm casually chatting to students about their weekends and answering assessment questions.

This ‘normal’ tutorial life feels like a distant I fumble with the remote trying to find tidying it while kicking some toys out memory. Three weeks into a pandemic Bluey on the ABC iView app. of view of the camera. I untangle my lockdown, and tutorials now resemble headphones while plugging them into my ‘Not that episode! The one where they go a Brady Bunch collage. That’s if I can laptop and opening the Zoom app. to the dump! The other one! The other one!’ convince them to please turn their videos My tired, anxious reflection stares back on. Otherwise I’m teaching rows and My younger child starts swiping at the TV, at me, giving me half a second to run columns of broken TV monitors, a muted wailing because I’ve turned off Paw Patrol. I my fingers through my unbrushed brick wall of grey non-responses. We’re not can sense a meltdown about to begin. hair before my students see doomed, we’re Zoomed. Mine, not hers. me entering the Zoom I shut my spare bedroom door behind I take a deep breath. There classroom. I paste a smile me, grateful my toddlers can’t reach the are people far worse My younger child on my face which feels handle. My heart aches for childcare, off than me. There are more like a grimace. blissful childcare. As I plug my laptop into people sick, or with starts swiping at the One of my students the charger and position my webcam, I health conditions who TV, wailing because I’ve has children realise my headphones are missing. I have are scared to get sick. turned off Paw Patrol. I wandering around three minutes before the tutorial begins. I There are people dying. can sense a meltdown in the background. see my email ping to let me know there are I still have a job. Many about to begin. Mine, She starts talking but students waiting in the Zoom room. aren’t as lucky as me. I I can’t hear her. ‘Turn can work from home. Sort not hers. Do I have time to look for my headphones your microphone on!’ I of. I take a deep breath. or should I just start without them? I take laugh. She facepalms and the risk and go back out into the chaos of ‘There, Bluey is on. Now, apologises that her kids are the living room, sneaking past children who Mummy has a class starting. I am distracting. I tell her not to worry. are watching their fifteenth episode of Paw going to shut the door and I don’t want any We all know what each other is going Patrol since lunchtime. I scramble through interruptions. If you’re good for the next 1 through. my handbag looking for my headphones. hour and 50 minutes, Daddy will bring you ‘The show must go on’, I say. And the show home a Kinder egg from the supermarket’. ‘Mummy! I want another rice cracker!’ does go on. Daddy works for an essential business so I spot a half-chewed rice cracker sitting on a This article was written by an NTEU member. lucky Daddy has to go to work. Grandma pile of Lego. I lob it in the child’s direction. It was originally published in the September can’t help as we can’t risk her getting sick. 2020 issue of Connect (vol. 13, no. 2), NTEU’s ‘Not that one! That one’s slobbered on! The children weigh up the bribe and shrug magazine for casual members. Mummy! Can you put Bluey on instead!?’ in acceptance, eyes glued to the TV. Image: Charles Deluvio/Unsplash ‘Mummy has a class! They’re waiting for I bolt back into my semi-soundproof me right now! You know where the rice sanctuary and notice the bed is unmade. I crackers are!’ spend the last 10 seconds I have hurriedly

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 15 COVID-19

Terri MacDonald Policy & Research Officer Women are bearing the brunt of COVID

pain in higher ed

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the many fault lines in our higher education system. An inadequate funding system has left universities overly reliant on international student fee income, whilst at the same time creating a culture of corporatisation. University Vice-Chancellors and senior executives – roles dominated by men – are earning exorbitant incomes, while much of lower level teaching and research is undertaken by insecurely employed staff, most of whom are women. As the COVID-19 crisis lays bare inherent structural gender inequalities, it is of no surprise that women in higher education – just as in the broader economy – are feeling the impact more acutely than their male counterparts.

According to Universities Australia, women Feminised & precarious are 1.5 times more likely to be in insecure Career stalling Universities are a feminised work sector jobs in the university workforce. NTEU is concerned that COVID-19 is being where women now make up around 58% used as a smokescreen by management of staff. Consequently, women experience Women in STEM who want to performance manage staff high levels of insecure employment. The or block career progression. As well as NTEU has projected that around 30,000 The impact of the COVID-19 crisis is also hindering women’s career progression in jobs are at risk in higher education, with concerning for areas where women are STEM due to reduced career opportunities the majority of these being casual/sessional not the majority, such as in STEM research. and the high proportion of women in teachers, professional/general staff, and A recent Campus Morning Mail article precarious employment, the RRIF report researchers on rolling contracts. suggests gender equity gains will be most has also found that university management certainly undermined in STEM and the flow is also likely to wind back equity programs These massive job losses are a result of on effects are likely to persist for years. that promote STEM workforce diversity. both the COVID-19 crisis and the refusal of the Federal Government to assist in A submission to the Federal Government The report also found that women any way. Indeed, the NTEU’s analysis has on the effects of COVID-19 on Australia’s from diverse backgrounds will face found that the Government’s Jobs-Ready research capabilities from The Rapid additional barriers to entry, retention, and Graduate package will not save one single Research Information Forum (RRIF), progression, particularly in STEM areas, as a job or provide the sector with any additional chaired by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, result of COVID-19. funding, even though we are currently reported projected university job losses In addition to job losses, the fallout from faced with the greatest crisis the sector has of up to 21,000 full time equivalent (FTE) the COVID-19 crisis also has workload seen. Instead, the Government’s plans will positions. The report notes, ‘concerns that implications, both for academic and increase the financial burden on students, women, early-career researchers and professional/general staff. The RRIF report require universities to teach more students recent graduates will disproportionately found that loss of income during COVID- for less funding per student overall, and experience negative impacts’ and that ‘job 19 has already led to a rapid reduction drive up even further insecure employment insecurity is emerging as an even more in casual teaching staff, and subsequently and workloads. troubling issue for women in STEM than for men [due to] high proportions of women increased teaching workloads for traditional While this will be felt across that sector, the employed in short-term contract and mixed teaching-research academic staff, NTEU’s experience is that women in higher casual jobs’. thus reducing research capacity. education are impacted disproportionally We know already that women academics when universities cut jobs. Moreover, with While vulnerability to job losses will vary often carry more of the load for teaching many universities targeting professional and from discipline to discipline, in some areas than their male counterparts, either because sessional staff where women dominate, the proportion of women in insecure they are seen to ‘be so good with the precarious employment is also a go-to lever employment is exceptionally high – for students’ or – especially in the case of early for university management who want to example, in mathematics, 64% of all career academics – because they may not reduce staffing expenses. women in academic positions are in casual jobs. feel confident in challenging decisions that

16 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 COVID-19

the capacity to work from home. They are The NTEU views domestic and family Impact of COVID-19 particularly vulnerable to the threat of being violence as a workplace issue, noting this stood down or to being targeted in future violence does not stop once the victim on women in the sector redundancy rounds. leaves home. However, in an environment where the target of the violence is working • ABS data (released 13 August 2020) During COVID-19, for those women who from home, the risk to that person from shows that the gender pay gap has have been working from home, the RRIF their perpetrator increases dramatically. increased to 14%, with women report cites evidence that ‘suggests women earning $253.60 a week less than face disproportionate increases in caring There is also evidence that the COVID-19 men. This is only an increase of responsibilities and disruptions to working crisis has seen rates of alcohol consumption $10.70 a week since the November hours, job security and paid work capacity’. increase. ANU research has found 2019 data. that while men had increased alcohol Additionally, recent research by Vincent- • Between February and July 2020 consumption slightly, women increased Lamarre, Sugimoto, and Lariviere on the more Australian women than men substantially. For women, the research decline of women’s research production have lost jobs and female workforce found that stress was a significant driver. participation has dropped by 1.5%. during the coronavirus pandemic, notes that male academics are four times more • COVID-19 job losses are being felt likely to have a partner engaged in full time Pandemic as opportunity in feminised areas – retail, hospitality, domestic care than their female colleagues cleaning and services – where job The COVID-19 crisis has presented many insecurity and irregular hours is the managers in universities with an opportunity norm. Women in research to attempt widespread industrial relations changes. This may in the long-term result in • Women are also at the forefront of Not surprisingly, there has also been a wider restructures, less protections around ‘essential services’ – nursing and reduction in research production by women redundancies, and increased casualisation health/medical care (especially as researchers. A preliminary analysis of through ‘flexible employment’ models. carers in aged care and disability), publications during the COVID-19 period Union experience has shown that these teaching, food retail, supermarkets. has shown a reduction in the number practices disproportionally impact women. of papers produced with women as first authors, and this has also affected early Unfortunately, this Government has effectively overload them with teaching career women researchers. shown that it is more than happy to use hours, particularly given that women COVID-19 to push its own agenda for the predominate in lower level academic sector, seeing the deep crisis as a political structures. Domestic violence opportunity. We know from broader research that It is also no surprise that there are more The unfair and flawed Job-Ready Graduate women are also bearing the brunt of other women in the ‘teaching only’ academic package promoted by the Government COVID-19 related stress, mental health streams, where additional loads resulting will only create further incentives for problems and physical and emotional from reduction in casual and sessional staff management in universities to go down the violence. numbers are concentrated. track of undermining industrial protections, In an interview on the ABC’s The Drum, pay and most of all, job security – all of Higher workloads Julia Baird cited strong evidence that levels which will affect women more so than men. of domestic and family violence have In fact, in the absence of a real Federal Similarly, professional/general staff who increased during COVID-19 partly as a Government rescue package for the sector, survive mass redundancy are left to carry result of social isolation and added domestic and with the sector facing a funding crisis additional workloads, noting that the work stresses, such as all family members being that is likely to expand further, women are does not disappear when staff positions in the same environment constantly and/or in the firing line. do. However, unlike academic staff, unemployed. professional/general staff may not have Image: Marvin Meyer/Unsplash

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Sharlene Leroy-Dyer Acting Chair, A&TSIPC Effect of COVID on A&TSI females in precarious employment

I am in a fortune position to hold a full time ongoing appointment; however, this has only been a recent change in circumstances for me, having spent 18 years in precarious employment within the university sector. Having said this, I still hold casual positions at two other universities! Here I am drawing on the stories from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (A&TSI) casuals around the country, whilst attending A&TSI casuals forum in my capacity as Chair of the NTEU Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Policy Committee (A&TSIPC).

When COVID-19 hit we lost the ability to have face to face meetings with our A&TSI members across the country, so it was decided to hold a series of zoom meetings to ensure that mob felt supported by their union. This included having meetings in each Division as well as specific national casuals Zoom meetings, as we recognise that this group were affected very differently. From the responses received, we were not wrong in that assumption. A significant portion of A&TSI women were undertaking a research higher degree (HDR), and were casually employed, in addition to their family and community responsibilities. Worst of all, casual contracts were ‘drying up’, and fixed term contract were not being renewed due to the cost cutting measures enforced throughout the sector at various universities, putting household finances under stress, for a group which are already systemic issues faced by Indigenous peoples The Government and indeed universities the most socio-economically disadvantaged worldwide, we need to reduce structural are using COVID-19 as an excuse to make in the country. and systemic racism experienced by A&TSI the most vulnerable in our society more For those undertaking HDRs, the challenges peoples in this country, especially within the marginalised than ever before. There is of continuing research when travel higher education sector. a real fear around the country that our Indigenous centres will cease to exist. We restrictions are in place is impossible, For the last several rounds of bargaining, are seeing ISSP funding siphoned off into and particularly exasperated by our mob the NTEU has bargained for numeric other areas of universities, instead of being being in the highest risk category of targets in enterprise agreements around used for its intended purpose and this will COVID-19. In addition, the challenges of the country to ensure that A&TSI peoples only create a bigger educational gap than conducting research or any type of study are employed in the sector, which ensures what already exists. was impossible when you had a mob of that A&TSI students are attracted to higher kids at home, who you had to home school, education. Dr Sharlene Leroy-Dyer is an academic at the without any family support, due to COVID- University of Queensland, the Acting Chair of 19 restrictions and many mob who relied However, we have seen a dramatic loss NTEU’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy on family for assistance could no longer do in the last few months of so many A&TSI Committee, and an A&TSI National Councillor. so, for health reasons. peoples within the sector, especially from Image: Christina @ wocintechchat.com/Unsplash Indigenous centres of learning around the At a time when we see the rise of the country, and the fear I have is that we may Black Lives Matter movement, and the never recover from this. 18 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 COVID-19

Jeannie Rea Immediate Past President More than just gender equity for a better future

From when the coronavirus appeared in Wuhan last December and as it spread around the world, it was obvious that women were expected to step up in the home and the workplace and take on an even greater share of caring work.

Women were stood down from jobs or soldiers. Nurses though, Women are of the ‘call it out’ and sent home to keep doing them, as the work were at last visible and and girls are demonstrate equity culture. piled on at home with schools closed. As recognised as skilled So as we reel from the men acted shell shocked at losing their jobs, carers and life savers. literally cleaning up year of this pandemic, women had to also look after them. Women This arguably raised the climate mess at surely we must be have kept being there as frontline workers the status of nursing the grassroots level, focussed upon how do we in health and community care, and were towards the long road while it still mainly harness the momentum bemused as their humble jobs as cleaners to professional standing. men making the for change, as there is no and shop assistants became essential In a crisis people do get going back. How will we services. While they copped abuse from the to do things they usually do decisions. grab the good stuff and jettison frustrated, they were cheered on by most, not. Stereotyped gender roles, the bad? but their pay and job security is unchanged which are still remarkably strong in while conditions worsened on the COVID- 2020 Australia, could be getting a shaking, We have seen governments and their 19 frontline. even as women are more visible in essential agents act with haste to respond to an and emergency jobs, where they have been emergency, albeit far too often with intent Once the Australian data started coming quietly establishing careers. to also shore up other agendas. It remains in, it confirmed more women have lost dumbfounding that this understanding of jobs; but men stuck at home are doing a Children and young people, freed from haste is still not the response to the climate little more of the housework and care of school, are up to all sorts of interesting change emergency. their own children. The big question is things, as they grab the digital space. what will happen now. Will men keep up They are supporting their peers not just Unsurprisingly, we continue to watch the sharing household work and child care, across town, but internationally. They are consequences of climate change falling or will they escape as soon as they can? politicised, but it may not be as we know it. disproportionately on women. Women and Some women need to escape now as their girls are literally cleaning up the climate Last year, we saw young people connect homes are no haven, but sites of abuse. mess at the grassroots level, while it is still around the world in the School Strikes for Will women be stuck, as those career jobs mainly men making the decisions. But I Climate Action. Interestingly, while we they worked so hard for do not come back? have confidence that this will change – and focussed upon the young European girl Will the new jobs have security and career the change will not be about getting more speaking in English, the kids themselves paths, and decent pay and conditions? Will women into parliament and board rooms were linking up globally across language, the decades of struggle by women with (although of course there should be gender culture, religious, geographical and racial our unions for gender equity be wound equity), it will be about challenging the very divisions. The response of young women back? Researchers are already predicting it legitimacy of these forums making life and and men of colour to grabbing the could take a decade to get back to where death decisions. opportunity sadly sparked by the public we were. And yet where we were was police murder of George Floyd, is broad We cannot just knit, reduce consumption still tenuous for the majority of women. and global. And more white peers are or garden our way to climate and social Casualisation of the workforce, rampant in standing alongside – and also listening. justice, but we can certainly keep creating Australia over the last two decades, is now and caring for what we value and stop widely understood to also be deadly as a Young women are in the forefront of climate cooperating with what we do not want. Let cause of coronavirus spread. campaigns and on Black Lives Matter us hope that when students come back on frontlines. They are assuming gender equity But crises are also harbingers of change. campuses they demand more and better of and refusing to be sidelined – and more During the Spanish Flu pandemic a century their teachers and institutions. young men get this. But the reality is that ago, women then too picked up the sexism and male violence persist and must Associate Professor Jeannie Rea teaches in gender unpaid and undervalued caring, including not be downplayed. Young activists though studies, international community development and for the literally shell shocked returning are not of the so-called cancel culture; they planetary health at Victoria University. VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 19 COVID-19

Dr Elizabeth Adamczyk University of Newcastle Resilient worlds of care A feminising perspective on belonging in capitalist spaces of precarity

Inhabiting various roles; as a young(ish) woman, recently exiting a PhD, in the liminal spaces of casual academia, as the NTEU Branch casual representative, and now, experiencing another layer of insecurity encountering the unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wondered: how do we care for ourselves, while we care for our sector?

The cheers, prosaic advice, props and As the day went on, we shared experiences Self-care check-ins, interjected into the anonymised of employment in the higher education In 2019 I met three union women. and de-humanised experiences of being a system in the U.S., Australia, and the U.K., We have each campaigned at our own casual academic in this sector, as inclusive with union comrades from within and institutions and together in union, to bring interventions of feminised relations of care. outside the NTEU. visibility and dignity to the work of casually- I now look forward to when I finish And on our zoom-time COVID-19 employed university staff systemically teaching a class to a WhatsApp notification continuums, after more than 10 hours, we bracketed out of many basic representations that I have 46 unread messages in our sat sharing solidarity drinks in our (virtual) and recognitions of human rights. group chat. room, and I found it hard to pull myself It was in our shared experiences of away from the energising spirit that I found seemingly unending union work in 2020, Collective-care in the on-screen collective, knowing that that I have found significant relationships lecturing undergraduate students beckoned. with these women. In daily class struggle, The creative spaces of union organising that melees with neoliberalising university have been opened up by this pandemic Future-care managers, and patriarchal interactions in means I have had the opportunity to our white colonised institutions, we built connect with new and familiar comrades In these everyday lived experiences, forging friendships through shared union hopes, from within my institution, around the political sites of belonging outside of the beliefs, industrial questions, rules, policy, country, and across the world. subjectivities of the neoliberal university, I am reminded of J.K. Gibson-Graham’s motions, tactical observations, and dreams One weekend recently, with the women feminist political imaginary as ‘the vision of of life outside of the violences of this sector. above and with other union comrades, a decentralised movement that connects I helped organise a seminar day In our myriad interactions, I globally dispersed subjects and spaces … for casually-employed union found accidental spaces as sites of becoming and opportunities for members, as a purposive that are more than belonging’. quotidian. Beyond the attempt at creating shared and divergent I have had the spaces of belonging, In union with comrades joined in the desire economic and social opportunity to connect to skill-share, learn, to build back tertiary education, better, by marginalisations, we with new and familiar and connect in creating resilient worlds of care; not for our shared our everyday comrades from within my union. selves, but for our higher education sector.

lives; gardening institution, around the When we began the photos, encouraging country, and across the first of a number of Dr Elizabeth Adamczyk is a casual academic at the emojis, music, sessions at 9am, I was University of Newcastle and Macquarie University. laughter, weariness, world. already looking forward She is on the NTEU Newcastle Branch Committee where she is convenor of the Newcastle Casuals animal memes, and to the remainder of my ideas for a plot line for a Caucus, and a member of the NTEU National Saturday. I had two new Tertiary Casuals Committee. casual staff blockbuster. lectures to write by Monday.

20 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 COVID-19

Ellyse Fenton University of Queensland Just say No An impossible task for a precariously employed woman Teaching is difficult and demanding work. Combining intellectual, administrative, and caring labour, it is gendered in complex ways. It is also undervalued, a problem affecting teachers everywhere but taking particularly pernicious form in higher education.

I have been teaching in universities, on and shepherd my students through this very students engaged, colleagues connected, off, for thirteen years. All of my teaching challenging semester. Course design and and the whole institution running smoothly. has been casualised. I have had only development work is never considered Discussing the additional work generated limited control over what and how I teach, required of casualised teachers, despite by the pandemic with a sympathetic male shifted from course to course as a more or the fact that many courses are taught colleague, he said to me, ‘You just have less permanent resource to fill ‘temporary’ exclusively by precarious staff for years on to learn to say no.’ He was trying to help, gaps in teaching schedules. My labour has end. but his comment assumes an agency that been paid using highly exploitative piece The labour of care is devalued at the best of simply is not available to a worker like me – rates that do not reflect the amount of times, considered the purview of the naively to ‘just say no’ as a precariously employed time it takes to do the work, and access to dedicated few who sacrifice research woman is a far riskier endeavour than to do professional development and administrative careers to toil in what philosopher Robin so from a position of secure employment support is highly attenuated for precarious Zheng refers to as ‘academic housework’1 and masculine privilege, a position in which workers, some of whom do not even have – the invisible supportive labour that keeps no one expects you to do the care work, access to a desk. anyway. When COVID-19 hit, I was More than this, his comment coordinating a compulsory makes exploitation an individual first-year undergraduate problem, a deficiency of course. The majority of my workers themselves – of timidity, 230-student cohort were in credulity, generosity – instead their first semester at university of seeing it for what it is: the and, understandably, needed structural inevitability of a for- considerable support to make the profit educational system. transition to online learning. The pandemic has reinforced They needed help learning new the extent to which universities technologies. They needed clear rely on the devalued labour of and regular communication casualised workers, a system about the changes happening in in which gender and precarity the course. They needed access intersect to sustain exploitation. to additional learning resources The only way to challenge when internet connections this system is to build the proved too unstable to support solidarity necessary for all of us, reliance on video conferencing collectively, to say no. technology. Dr Ellyse Fenton has been a casual Perhaps more than anything else, academic at the University of they needed human contact – Queensland for thirteen years. She is careful and caring responses the casual staff representative on the to their queries and concerns, UQ Branch Committee, convenor to be treated as people whose of the UQ Casuals Caucus, and a perspectives and experiences member of the NTEU National Tertiary mattered to the institution to Casuals Committee. which they were paying such 1. Zheng, R. (2018). ‘Precarity exorbitant fees. is a Feminist Issue: Gender and Contingent Labor in the Academy’. Like precarious workers across Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist the sector, I knew I would never Philosophy 33(2): 235-255. be paid for the work I did to Image: STIL/Unsplash

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 21 International

Visualising women’s representation

Women’s full and equal participation in all facets of society is a fundamental human right. Yet, around the world, from politics to entertainment to the workplace, women and girls are largely underrepresented. UN Women have created a number of visualisations that take a closer look at this gender-imbalanced picture over time, revealing just how slow progress is. Click on an image to view the animated version Rooted in patriarchal norms and traditions, the consequences are far-reaching with Culture and detrimental, negative consequences on the sciences personal, economic and future well-being of women and girls, their families and the Bestowed annually to community at large. recognise intellectual achievement and Building a sustainable future for all, means academic, cultural and leaving no one behind. Women and girls scientific advances, the are critical to finding solutions to the biggest Nobel Prize has been challenges we face today and must be awarded to more than heard, valued and celebrated throughout 900 individuals in the society to reflect their perspectives and course of its history choices for their future and that of the from 1901 to 2019. advancement of humanity. Only 53 of the winners have been women, How many more generations are needed 19 in the categories for women and girls to realise their rights? of physics, chemistry, and physiology or Politics medicine. Marie Curie became the first female Women’s political representation globally laureate in 1903, has doubled in the last 25 years. But, when she and her this only amounts to around 1 in 4 husband won a joint parliamentary seats held by women today. to shift deeply entrenched occupational Prize for physics. Eight years later she was segregation in developed and developing Women continue to be significantly solely awarded the Chemistry Prize, making countries. Women continue to carry out a underrepresented in the highest political her the only woman in history to win the disproportionate share of unpaid care and positions. In October 2019, there were Nobel Prize twice. domestic work. In developing countries, only 10 women Head of State and 13 Although women have been behind a that includes arduous tasks such as water women Head of Government across 22 number of scientific discoveries throughout collection, for which women and girls are countries, compared with four Head of State history, just 30% of researchers worldwide responsible in 80% of households that do and eight PMs across 12 countries in 1995. and 35% of all students enrolled in STEM- not have access to water on the premises. related fields of study are women.

Work In June 2019, the Fortune 500 hit a milestone with the most women CEOs on record. While every gain is a win, the sum as a whole is a bleak picture: Out of the 500 chief executives leading the highest- grossing firms, just under 7% are women. When looking at the workforce as a whole, the gender gap in labour force participation among working age adults (25 to 54) has stagnated over the past 20 years. Improved education among women has done little

22 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 International

of traditional news and Today, women are far more visible in digital news stories sports than ever before: The Tokyo 2020 clearly challenge gender Olympics were projected to have close to stereotypes. Among equal representation of women and men other factors, stereotypes competing for the first time in its history. For and the significant comparison, only 22 women (2.2%) out underrepresentation of of a total of 997 athletes competed in the women in the media modern Olympics for the first time in 1900. play a significant role in Women and men will compete in almost shaping harmful attitudes all sports categories with an exception: of disrespect and Rhythmic gymnastics and artistic swimming violence towards women. are women’s-only events and Greco-Roman wrestling is a men’s-only event – although Entertainment women can compete in freestyle wrestling. Despite progress, women still continue to Like other forms of be excluded in certain sports in parts of media, film and television the world and are paid far less than men have a powerful in wages and prize money globally. UN influence in shaping Women is working to level the playing field cultural perceptions and for women and girls, including through attitudes towards gender partnerships with the International Olympic and are key to shifting Committee, and UN Women Goodwill the narrative for the Ambassador and all-time top scorer of the gender equality agenda. Yet, an analysis Journalism FIFA Women’s World Cup Marta Vieira da of popular films across 11 countries found, Silva. When it comes to equality of men and for example, that 31% of all speaking women in news media, progress has characters were women and that only 23% virtually ground to a halt. According to the featured a female protagonist – a number largest study on the portrayal, participation that closely mirrored the percentage of and representation of women in the women filmmakers (21%). news media spanning 20 years and 114 countries, only 24% of the persons heard, The gross underrepresentation of women read about or seen in newspaper, television in the film industry is also glaringly evident and radio news are women. in critically acclaimed film awards: In the 92-year history of the Oscars, only five A glass ceiling also exists for women women have ever been nominated for the news reporters in newspaper bylines and Best Director Award category; and one newscast reports, with 37% of stories woman – Kathryn Bigelow – has ever reported by women as of 2015, showing won. And, Jane Campion remains the only no change over the course of a decade. woman director to have won the Cannes Despite the democratising promise of digital Film Festival’s top, most prestigious prize, media, women’s poor representation in the Palme d’Or, in its 72-year history. The traditional news media is also reflected only other women to have received the in digital news, with women making up prize – but jointly – were actresses Adèle Culinary arts only 26% of the people in Internet news Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux with the stories and media news tweets. Only 4% movie’s male director Abdellatif Kechiche. If Despite women being prescribed a picture is worth a thousand stereotypical roles in the kitchen at home, words, the message is worth the upper echelons of the restaurant a million: If we are to shift industry have remained relatively closed to stereotypical notions of female chefs. gender and reflect women’s As detailed in the documentary A Fine realities, we need more Line, women must often overcome active women in film, on-screen and discrimination and navigate a culture off-screen. that both glorifies masculinity and tacitly condones harassment. Paired with long, Sport unpredictable and inflexible working hours, unfriendly family and childcare policies Sports has the power to and lower salaries, women face enormous inspire change and break challenges when entering the restaurant gender stereotypes – and business. The numbers match the story: women have been doing just Today, just under 4% of chefs with three that decade after decade, Michelin stars (the highest rating you can showing that they are just as get) from the prominent restaurant guide capable, resilient and strong are women. as men physically, but also strategically, as leaders and View all the animated visualisations here game changers

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 23 International

Jean d’Amour Mbonyinshuti University World News A country rallies to raise the number of women in science

Fauste Ndikumana’s dream was to defy all odds stacked against her gender and become either a pilot or an astronaut. ‘I was committed. I wanted my dream to become a reality and my family was also supportive,’ says the 29-year-old from the rural area of Nyamasheke district in Rwanda’s Western Province.

Ndikumana worked hard throughout school environment whether conducive or not,’ she there are countries where girls do much and secured a university scholarship to said, emphasising the need for support from better than boys in sciences in ‘A’ Level, but study electrical engineering rather than her family members and society in general. you will still find more boys in STEM courses first choice of electronics. in universities.’ She opted to pursue mathematics instead. Low enrolment in STEM She said there was a widespread belief that you are either born to do well in ‘I believed that with mathematics, I would In Rwanda, a majority of female students mathematics and sciences or you are not. have an option to pursue most science, shy away from STEM-related courses and ‘Which is wrong,’ she said. technology, engineering and mathematics the number pursuing STEM-related courses (STEM) courses into a masters and I could is still low compared to males. Otieno, who has a PhD in mathematics still pursue my dream,’ she said. education, said girls tend to learn in a The University of Rwanda, which is the different way to boys. ‘When people Today, Ndikumana holds a bachelor biggest higher education institution in the are learning, emotions are also involved degree in mathematics and a masters in country, aims to raise the percentage of and there has always been a tradition of mathematical sciences from the former STEM students to 90% in the next 10 years presenting mathematics and sciences in a Kigali Institute of Science and Technology from the current 52%, and to increase the very dry way … that actually works against and the African Institute of Mathematical female STEM enrolment to 33%, which the girls,’ she said. Sciences (AIMS). Her class consisted entirely would still be below the global average. of men, apart from herself and one other According to a UNESCO report, Cracking woman. Social goals the code: girls’ and women’s education in Rather than a pilot or astronaut, she is STEM, women represent 35% of all students She said girls ‘tend to identify more employed as a public servant and holds enrolled in STEM-related fields of study in strongly with social goals; they want to do a position as a product and technology higher education around the world. something or be connected to something development specialist (STEM) at the they see has benefit for the community’, she The report, released in 2017, notes that the National Industrial Research and said. Otieno said girls tend to do better in gender disparity is alarming, especially as Development Agency (NIRDA) where she biology which is connected to real life. STEM careers are often referred to as the has worked on several projects, including jobs of the future, driving innovation, social She said girls tend to disconnect with one focused on gridded data in Rwanda wellbeing, inclusive growth and sustainable sciences when they are presented in a and how it can help farmers become development. highly theoretical form with heavy emphasis resilient to climate change. on calculations rather than how it impacts In Rwanda, educationalists and experts She won a Women in STEM Rising Star life or how it is translated into something attribute the low enrolment of girls and Award from the National Council for else. women to a culture that discourages girls Science and Technology for the project. from pursuing sciences on the basis that ‘So when that happens, the boys are okay She believes more girls and women should STEM is ‘too hard’ for girls or is a male with looking clever. The fact that I can solve be pursuing careers in science. preserve. that question and I look very clever is okay. But girls tend to be drawn to something that ‘Girls are able and can perform well in According to Dr Herine Otieno Menya, is going to impact society,’ she said. sciences especially when they have goals. the director of the African Institute of But they have to overcome any sort of Mathematical Sciences’ Teacher Training Otieno said the African Institute of discouragement. They have to go beyond Program, Rwanda, the gender disparity in Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) works with the myth that there are tasks meant for STEM in Rwanda ‘has nothing to do with partners to mobilise students in secondary boys only. They also have to adapt to the the ability of the girls to do sciences. In fact, schools by sending role models who are in

24 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 International

universities or have graduated in science- ‘Some girls tend to pursue soft subjects FAWE Rwanda also boasts of a number related courses to share their experiences. after secondary, they prefer options such of female graduates in STEM-related fields as tourism and hotel management and shy such as health sciences. Others are software ‘The idea is for them to see fellow women away from sciences,’ he said. engineers, pilots and civil engineers, while in their context, like a Rwandan who could others are in ICT-related fields as well as in say: ‘I went to a school like this one and I education, according to Mutoro. am an engineer,’ and they will be able to Forum for African Women show not that they were so bright, but that Educationalists Despite these successes, there are still they worked hard,’ she said. challenges affecting female enrolment in However, he said that together with the STEM university study, said Mutoro. Lack of evaluation Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Rwanda chapter, INES has Calls for combined efforts Otieno said there was a lack of evaluation managed to increase the female enrolment of how sciences were being taught at in biomedical and biotechnical options to They include ‘cultural beliefs and gender university, the teaching and learning 48%. stereotypes, discouragement from peers environment, and how gender responsive and un-informed teachers as well as ‘At our university, we encourage girls it was. low self-esteem among some girls’, she and support them, female students are said, calling for combined efforts towards ‘There are people we lose at that level given priority and the majority stay in supporting girls in sciences. because the environment is not as gender campus hostels. We have a guidance and responsive as it should be and there are no counselling committee so that girls do not The Government of Rwanda is also playing deliberate interventions at that level.’ get disrupted, we organise a Miss Bright a role in addressing these challenges. Dr pageant where the brightest female is Rose Mukankomeje, Executive Director of She said there was room for more work, not recognised in a bid to encourage more to the Higher Education Council, said the only in Rwanda but in Africa, on how STEM do better,’ he said. Government is committed to increasing the could be better promoted and taught at number of science students in general and universities to include more women. According to Antonia Mutoro, FAWE female students in particular. Rwanda chapter coordinator, more efforts Dr Fabien Hagenimana, Vice-Chancellor of are being invested in supporting female ‘It is a government commitment to increase the Institute of Applied Sciences, a private students in education especially in pursuing the number of female students in science university in the Northern Province better STEM-related courses. disciplines. Gender parity is a priority in known as INES-Ruhengeri, confirmed that education especially in sciences.’ female students tend to shy away from Working with partners such as UNICEF and STEM courses especially where mathematics Plan International, FAWE Rwanda currently She said the Government works with FAWE and physics are involved. runs two secondary schools, one in Kigali, Rwanda, AIMS, the MasterCard Foundation and another in the Kayonza district in the and UNICEF Rwanda, among others, to ‘We have a small number of female Eastern Province. It also offers scholarships. promote the sciences. students in STEM especially where mathematics and physics are required,’ he ‘So far, we have offered scholarships to over This article was originally published 29 July 2020 said. ‘For instance we have 20% of female 20,494 in many schools and only 6,200 by University World News. students in civil engineering and 25% of are boys. Of those, 80% have gone to Above: Fauste Ndikumana (Credit: UWN) females in land surveying because there is a universities to study STEM-related courses,’ lot of mathematics,’ he said. she said.

VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 25 #Feminism

#ChallengeAccepted

Earlier this year, #ChallengeAccepted appeared on social media to ask women to post a flattering black-and-white selfie. At least 3 million posts accumulated under the hashtag, but what is #WomenSupportingWomen? What does it mean? Celebrities began posting well-lit B&W colleague, and which apparently resulted in This is much more than an opportunity photos of themselves in July, usually with a spike in social-media posts about feminism to post a nice pic of you. It’s much more a caption espousing the virtues of women and women’s empowerment. than supporting other women by asking in general and maybe two to three women them to do the same. Social media can do However, women in Turkey began posting in particular. The hashtag was ‘meant to so much good, but so often the intended B&W photos on social media in July to celebrate strength, spread love, and remind impactful message is quickly lost - it’s protest femicide and domestic violence and all women that supporting each other is kinda like playing that game where you to grieve the violent death of Pinar Gültekin, everything.’ But where did it begin? whisper something in someone’s ear and a university student who was reportedly then they pass it on to someone else and There are conflicting theories about how killed by her ex-boyfriend. The writer Mina so on, and the original message comes the challenge started. The New York Times Tümay explained in a post: out the other end completely different. So pointed out there have been previous ‘People in Turkey regularly see black and post your photo, but do if for Pinar and iterations of social-media users posting white images of women on the news, but all the other women, especially women of B&W pictures with #ChallengeAccepted, they are pictures of women who have colour, who have been lost to violence.’ including a 2016 campaign meant to raise been violently murdered; the country has awareness for cancer. The original accompanying one of the highest rates of femicide in the hashtags were #kadınaşiddetehayır It was speculated that the latest round of world. The photo challenge circulating #istanbulsözleşmesiyaşatır which translate B&W selfies could have been inspired by right now was in response to Pinar’s to say ‘no to violence against women’ and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s electric speech death. A way for Turkish women to stand ‘enforce the Istanbul Treaty/Doctrine’ (where in the US Congress in which she addressed in solidarity with those lost and shine a rights to protect women are signed.) being called a ‘fucking bitch’ by a male light on what is happening.

@minaonthemoon

26 VOLUME 28, SEPTEMBER 2020 Section

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