Lidia Rozman-Jones
Many people believe that affirmative action is all about quotas. This would be correct if they were living in the US, as the system there is about filling quotas. However, Australia's system is about removing systemic discrimination, and selection on merit.
The misunderstandings about affirmative action lead to a lot of controversy and often make life difficult for female engineers, particularly recent graduates. Their male peers, who do not understand the Act, often come out with comments such as, 'The only reason you got the job is because you're female' or 'Of course you're going to get a job, that company hasn't got enough female engineers'. These comments are very demeaning and damaging to self confidence. After hearing so many of these comments, female engineers sometimes start to wonder if they really did get the position on merit, or if it was just their gender that got them there.
The Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act was introduced in 1986. It is administered by the Affirmative Action Agency. Under the Act employers with over 100 employees are required to set up a program consisting of eight steps, and provide an annual report to the Affirmative Action Agency. Failure to prepare a report results in the company being ineligible for government contracts and specified forms of industry assistance.
Affirmative action is the name given to a wide range of programs undertaken by organisations to achieve equal employment opportunities for women. These can range from reviewing all employment practices to ensure they don't directly or indirectly discriminate against women, to introducing special programs to encourage women to apply for a wider range of positions within the organisation. Affirmative action programs are designed to ensure the organisation's employment practices-in particular recruitment, selection and promotion- will be based on merit without regard for such factors as sex or marital status.
The eight steps to an affirmative action program, designed to address all areas to ensure discrimination in the workforce is effectively dismantled, are:
By following these steps, employers will understand how people in their organisations are employed, promoted and trained. By evaluating recent appointments and promotions they can establish if there are ways in which women face hidden discrimination.
Some of the typical indirect (sometimes direct) discriminations occur because people make assumptions about people, ie: 'She's always dressed so neat, she wouldn't want to work in a remote location in the bush with no facilities', 'She's got a family, she wouldn't want to work afternoon shift or overtime', 'She's so petite, how could she be in charge of a gang of men?'
Affirmative action is not about putting women in jobs ahead of men, it's about opening up career paths, making the best use of talents, skills and abilities of the whole workforce, by giving everyone a fair go.
If you would like to find out more about how to start up your affirmative action program, or any other information about affirmative action, you can contact the Affirmative Action Agency.
Reproduced, with permission, from Civil Engineers Australia, November 1995.