Gender Inclusive Workplaces on 3AW 693 AM Radio Melbourne
Topic: Gender Inclusive Workplaces
Date: 9 May 2023
Media Outlet: 3AW 693AM Melbourne https://www.3aw.com.au
Broadcaster / Interviewer: Dee Dee Dunleavy
Producer: Joseph Campbell
Duration: 00:05:18
Time: 12:15
Audio Recording: 5MB
YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkWN5fXyq9c
Topics Discussed:
✔ industries where there are more men and women and more women than men
✔ workplace environments and making them more inclusive for all genders
✔ increase in participation of women in the workforce since 1966 and the slight decrease in participation of men
Transcript:
Well as I said the Labour party has made a bid to end male and female dominated jobs um It’s all under this new budget approach it’s looking at how every taxpayer dollar that’s spent impacts the way that people take up jobs like engineering teaching and health care our finance and women’s Minister Kate Gallagher okay Katie Gallagher who’s uh uh and we did reach out to her today she’s unavailable to come on the show today but she has said that Australia has one of the worst gender divided labor markets anywhere is that true do we separate too much into genders at work one double three six nine three and does it need to change or is that okay with you are there are some industries that need to become more inclusive your thoughts one double three six nine three joining me now Sue Ellson is a career expert and author
Good afternoon Sue
Hi Dee Dee do you have any idea which Industries would be the worst for skewing towards one gender or the other I’ve got some data from the ABS 2021 Census that says that they’re significantly more women than men in areas like healthcare and social assistance education training retail trade and accommodation and Food Services where there’s a bigger skew for more men than women in construction manufacturing transport and Mining so I I guess the average person in the street would probably be well aware of that as well
And the other question that goes with that is is there any particular professions or workplaces that are better suited to either men or women?
Look the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this particular question is the state of the toilets and I know that’s a really bizarre thing uh but having worked in many different locations I’ve noticed in those that are heavily male dominated there isn’t quite so much care and attention put on them but to actually say that one job or type of skill is more suited for men than women and he obviously if it was physical ability I spoke to a firefighter once and he said no amount of training a female firefighter and technique and assistance whatever would help that female carry out an overweight person from a building burning building than a male so you could potentially say just based on physical strength there might be some roles that are more suited but I’m quite sure that most workplaces work better if there is a mix of male and female and in that mining sector it’s actually being proven that women are the better truck drivers in the mining site than blokes because a lot of blokes will go you know yeah bang bang and whereas with women apparently the trucks last a lot longer if there’s female drivers there so yeah it’s hard to generalize and say one particular gender is specifically unless it was perhaps based on that physical strength
That’s not so silly what you say about the toilets my husband works in the building industry and I asked him once you know why why are they not more female tradies and I have to say from what I’ve heard female trades people are warmly welcomed they often have um better skills better organizational skills and often attention to detail is much better and there’s other attributes they’ve got but it’s the it’s the kind of off-field area maybe the lunchroom or the facilities provided for them where things can be lacking um so the finance and women’s uh Minister Katie Gallagher she says Australia has one of the worst divided labor markets anywhere would that be right are we worse in Australia
Well I don’t have the stats for obviously every country worldwide and hopefully Katie Gallagher has got those details and is basing it on facts I definitely know that I grew up with a grandfather who said he never wanted his wife to work even though she did a lot of voluntary work and that in that era women were either nurses secretaries or teachers until they got married and then they were out but if you look at the ABS data back in 1966 on his 30 percent of women were in the paid work and now we have nearly 64 percent
Back then there were 80% of men employed and now that’s dropped down to 71 so there’s the best news is that obviously there’s more people of both genders participating in the workplace but that said there’s still a lot more women in some Industries than men and a lot more men in some Industries than women so I think there’s a long way to go and that common you made about building sites and so on I regularly walk with my next-door neighbour who was a builder and he said that the swearing and the language and you know the uh teasing a lot of those aspects made it very difficult even for young men in in the building industry so I still think there’s a lot of ways we could improve all workplaces not just based on gender
okay so it’s been interesting talking to you thank you uh Sue Ellson there career expert and author all right your thoughts is it perhaps not the job itself but the environment in which you have to work with some improvements need to be made and if so if the federal government is looking at improving this via the way it spends its budget is it something that money can change maybe it is a simple thing like providing toilet facilities for women to be on some particular areas like building sites or providing different things so the different genders can be part of a particular workplace one double three six nine three
Further information:
3AW 693 News Talk Afternoons with Dee Dee Dunleavy
https://www.3aw.com.au/show/afternoons-with-dee-dee
Podcast Recording of the Show
https://omny.fm/shows/afternoons-with-dee-dee/3aw-afternoons-with-dee-dee-9th-may-2023
Australian Bureau of Statistics Reports
Changing female employment over time
https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/changing-female-employment-over-time
Gender indicators
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/gender-indicators
Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation, Australia
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/barriers-and-incentives-labour-force-participation-australia/latest-release
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