South Asia | Australia | Business

50 years after Australia’s historic ‘equal pay’ decision, the legacy of ‘women’s work’ remain

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June 19, 2019 is the 50th anniversary of Australia’s industrial relations system endorsing the principle of “equal pay for equal work”. Yet, five decades on, a gender pay gap remains. The 1969 decision was a breakthrough, but also highlighted the problem of putting principle into practice, given a legacy of past decisions being based on clear notions of “male” and “female” jobs. While various factors contribute to the overall gender pay gap, about 30% is due to gender concentrations by industry and occupation.
International | Business

Media fawns over Nike ‘empowering’ women ad, forgets about abused women in its factories

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A new Nike ad which busts stereotypes about women in sport is receiving wide praise in the media for “empowering” girls to be the best they can be — but the adoring coverage of the sports giant is missing something crucial. While reaction to the ad has been mostly positive, some have been pointing out some major double standards — most notably, Nike’s treatment of women in its factories across the world. A report released by the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) in 2016 about a Vietnamese Nike factory employing 8,500 people, found that the vast majority of workers are young w
Africa | South Africa | Business

Women engineers quit over men’s attitudes

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The South African engineering sector has evolved to become more gender-balanced, as employment equity measures increasingly ensure equal opportunities for men and women. That might be the long-term goal of the engineering sector, but it is certainly not the current reality. In 2013, the Engineering Council of South Africa said almost 11% of the total number of engineers registered with the council were women, but that professional women engineers totalled only 4%. Is it that women aren’t pursuing careers in engineering, or is there an underlying issue that challenges the opportuniti