| Issue 62 (WAIS 2) Contents
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Workshop 1A
Equality - Harassment and
Discrimination
Judy A. Raper
Session Chair
This workshop aimed at giving participants an overview of harassment and discrimination issues facing many women in Science & Technology. Areas covered included legislation and legal process; mediation, statistics and case studies as well as examples of typical outcomes and what could be expected.
Jodie Ball, from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, outlined the legislation and legal and mediation processes in place to combat harassment and discrimination. The statistics do not look good with 85% of complaints coming from women and 89% about employment. It appears little has changed for women in employment over the last thirty years. Despite having the legislation and clear complaint handling processes of investigation and conciliation; termination, discrimination and harassment remain major issues for women in the work-place.
Sandy Ross from the CSIRO Staff Association discussed his experience in helping women through harassment and discrimination complaints. He defined the differences between the two, with harassment concerned with subjective behaviour and the more subtle discrimination being legalistic and difficult to prove. He also, depressingly, pointed out the real risks involved when making a complaint; disruption to career, loss of workplace credibility and legal costs.
Pam Roberts from ANU reported on the Women in Engineering CREW Study, with no better news for the participants. Of the respondents to the survey, 50% of women reported harassment compared with 8% of men. Women qualitatively reported gender based discrimination, fewer opportunities for career - enhancing work, the prevalence of a boys’ club workplace and no account taken of family responsibilities. Outcomes from complaints were also rather negative; only 5% reported positive outcomes; whilst 20% reported negative outcomes, 70% left the organizations, 7% no change and 3% were personally blamed.
A lively discussion of these issues followed with several participants outlining case studies of particularly affected groups of women. It was generally felt that the areas to be addressed are education, culture change and critical mass.
The community at large needs to be aware of harassment and discrimination issues. In particular everyone in a workplace should be well informed about legislative requirements, procedures and the vicarious liability of employers for these issues. Legislation changes have been positive but these are not well understood. Hence there is a need for further education and community awareness-raising.
A further aspect of the education requirement is the need for culture change in the workplace. In particular the culture of “complaints are bad” must be changed to an attitude in which people see these complaints as an opportunity to improve their procedures.
Finally the need for a critical mass of women in any workplace was seen as vital. Many participants reported noticeable change in culture once critical mass had been reached.
Hence the major definitive recommendation from the session was that we should embrace Affirmative Action, at least until a critical mass is obtained.
J.A. Raper
Session Chair
WORKSHOP 1A PANELLISTS
Prof Judy Raper is Dean of Engineering at The University of Sydney and one of Australia’s outstanding chemical engineers. She has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Sheddon Pacific Award for the most outstanding young chemical engineer in Australia in 1992 and the Professional Engineer of the Year in 1998. She was Chair of the organizing committee for the World Congress on Particle Technology, Sydney, 2002.
Ms Pam Roberts
Pam Roberts is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods at the Australian National University and former Convenor of the National Women in Engineering Committee for the Institution of Engineers Australia (IEAust). Pam is a Chemical Engineer with 10 years’ experience working in petrochemical and materials industries and 12 years as an engineering educator. Pam’s research and professional interests include cultural change in engineering education and the profession and she actively promotes student-centred and inclusive education-al practices. Pam was the research manager on the recently completed Careers Review of Engineering Women (CREW) project. CREW investigated the issues surrounding women’s retention, satisfaction and progression in the professional engineering workforce.
Ms Jodie Ball
Jodie Ball is a Principal Investigation/Conciliation Officer for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Jodie has worked in the Complaint Handling section of the Commission since 1995. She is the team leader for complaints under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and complaints of human rights breaches and discrimination in employment under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986.
Mr Sandy Ross
As Secretary of the CSIRO Staff Association since 1999 and the CPSU’s Science Division, Sandy Ross carries major responsibility for advocacy for public sector science in Australia. In his 10 years working for the CSIRO Staff Association, Sandy has assisted a number of members with cases of discrimination and harassment.