Lindy Henderson

Equal employment opportunity legislation and policies: the Australian experience

Purpose – Organisations have to respond to a range of legislative and policy initiatives intended to promote equal employment opportunity for women. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the mix of legislation and policies in Australia: anti‐discrimination and equal opportunity legislation, equal pay, work and family and managing diversity policies.Design/methodology/approach – Legislation, industrial relations changes and policies relating to pay equity, non‐discrimination on the grounds of sex, affirmative action and equal opportunity, including work and family policies and managing diversity approaches are reviewed in the context of changing labour conditions and social trends.Findings – Organisations are presented with a range of policies from which to choose and the result is variety in the extent and type of equity programs which produce variable outcomes for women in the workplace.Practical implications – While this paper deals in particular with Australia, the pattern of multiplicity of approach...

Work and family balance through equal employment opportunity programmes and agreement making in Australia

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to assess the ability of formal equal employment opportunity (EEO) programmes and workplace agreement making to facilitate work and family balance for women workers in Australia.Design/methodology/approach – This article uses documentary analysis and semi‐structured interviews in six Australian organisations that are required to develop formal EEO programmes.Findings – Formal EEO programmes and agreement making are limited in their ability to promote work and family‐friendly arrangements at the workplace. Informal arrangements and managerial discretion are important in realising work and care balance.Research limitations/implications – The paper is Australian based, and the case studies were confined to six organisations, which restricts the findings.Practical implications – Leave and work arrangements need to be required within agreements and EEO programmes. Most programmes gravitate towards minimum requirements, hence, it is important to ensure that these minimum...

Surviving widowhood: life alone in rural Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century

In the second half of the nineteenth century in the remote farming district of Dungog in the colony of New South Wales on the Australian continent, widows faced harsh economic realities. Using civil registration records, census data, newspaper reports, statistical returns, family histories and other sources, we have, where possible, reconstructed the lives of these widows, particularly those with dependent children. This paper discusses the range of survival strategies used. It presents statistical evidence from official records, and adds vignettes of the lives of a handful of widows whose strategies can be explored more completely using additional historical sources.