One of the highlights of Day Two for me was spending two hours with a group of remarkable young women brought together by the YWCA of Adelaide.

These young adults came from all walks of life and included women originally from Sierra Leone and Iraq, young women with babies, young women looking after their grandparents, and women of diverse gender identity. It was clear to me that they did identify with the themes of the Tour.

Their ideas for what could be done were surprising and exciting.

We had a long discussion about dealing with sexual harassment at work - yes, it’s still happening! They talked about their particular vulnerability as young workers and they suggested using ’social networking’ websites like Facebook to get the message out about preventing sexual harassment at work. (If you haven’t heard of Facebook, check it out at www.facebook.com).

One idea the women suggested was that when small businesses apply for an ABN, they also receive information about rights and responsibilities in the workplace, particularly relating to bullying and harassment.

When I first came into the job, one of the things that struck me was  the absence of objective benchmarks to measure the equality of women and men in Australia.  South Australia is the only government to make publicly available a toolkit for measuring gender equality - check out the Gender Indicators Online (http://www.aisr.adelaide.edu.au/gio/).

The South Australian Government has also set itself some serious targets for getting more women into leadership positions - e.g. 50% of board positions within government. It would be great to hear from South Australians about the impact this is having.  It seems like a good idea to me.

Well, that’s all for now.

Liz

I have now kicked off the national Listening Tour here in Adelaide. My team and I flew in yesterday morning to a beautiful sunny day and a warm welcome from the Committee for Economic Development in Australia (South Australia). CEDA (SA) organised a Business Roundtable hosted by the Equal Opportunity Commission of South Australia. We discussed some of the well known barriers to women and men balancing their work and caring responsibilities. It was heartening to hear from small business representatives that it is sometimes easier to change work practice in smaller organisations where you have more control.

We had wide ranging discussions about what work means in 2007 and the difficulty of re-designing jobs to fit that redefined concept of work. For example, a number of people told us about part-time solutions that were simply five day a week jobs squashed into three days.

In the afternoon we met with the South Australian Working Women’s Centre. We heard about the important work that they do in advising women about their rights in the workplace. Drawing on their experience with clients, they shared some of their concerns, particularly about habitual discrimination that women face in the workplace. With an ageing workforce, one of the interesting challenges is how to manage employee health in a way that works for individuals and the business. Menopause is one area that pertains only to women that is often overlooked.

The centrepiece of my day yesterday was a community consultation attended by approximately sixty members of the public. My three themes resonated with people. A key message was that paid maternity leave was definitely a priority although people also raised the importance of fathers being able to have paid leave as well so that they too could spend time with their new born children.

Some people commented on the embarrassment they felt that Australia is now only one of two OECD countries that does not have paid maternity leave, while they also highlighted that paid maternity leave is not enough on its own for women to achieve economic independence. Some women told us that they were not in a position to negotiate their pay, let alone family-friendly work conditions.

On the issue of sexual harassment, many people thought that Nadine’s story, in which management responded swiftly to address sexual harassment, was unrealistic - in one participant’s words a ‘fairytale’.

The general view was that when women did complain about sexual harassment, they were further victimized, a view shared by the Business Roundtable - labelling making a complaint as ‘career death’.  There were many more issues raised with us which will be reflected in our report in due course.

That’s all for now from me, as I head off on Day Two of the Tour.

Liz