To make sure you don’t miss future episodes of Women at Work, subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts!
When you look up Professor Rae Cooper on Google Scholar, there are 2659 citations.
Rae is Professor at the University of Sydney, where she is the founding Director of the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work. She also has multiple fellowships, collaborations with groups like the Australian Human Rights Commission and the OECD, and is generally incredibly impressive and knowledgeable.
Rae is one of Australia’s leading experts on the many aspects of women’s working lives. She is an Order of Australia, a mother of two, and she says it like she thinks it. I am so excited to be learning from her today, thank you so much for joining me, Rae Cooper!
In this episode we discuss:
- The midlife collision of work, care, the mental load, the physical load, caring for parents, and women are exhausted.
- Non-medical solutions to the exhaustion (which includes male partners picking up more of the load!).
- Employer solutions like flexibility, and ensuring people aren’t penalised for taking it.
- Government solutions such as Paid Parental Leave and policy architecture.
- The general agreement that DEI and gender equity work needs to happen, but companies and people stall when work actually has to happen.
- The contribution of social and gender norms to inequity.
- The backlash women face, particularly in male-dominated environments.
- How women feel like they have to do everything twice as well, while their mistakes are amplified.
- The motherhood penalty, flex work, and how men see their partners being penalised in their careers.
- What women want: respect, job security, flexibility, and equal pay.
- The outsize impact your direct and one-up manager have on your work experience.
- The stories Rae has heard about lack of respect – being talked over, interrupted, and everyday sexism.
- The positive duty of care around sexual harassment and disrespect.
- How women can have agency while we wait for systemic change.
- The power of collective action and professional peers.
About Dr Rae Cooper AO
Rae Cooper AO is Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations at the University of Sydney, where she is the founding Director of the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work.
Rae is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and is President of the International Labor and Employment Relations Association.
Rae has researched and published scores of articles across many aspects of women’s working lives, including career navigation, working life in very male-dominated sectors, and respect and equality at work.
She has collaborated with key Australian and international organisations in her work including the ACTU, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the OECD.
Rae was made an officer of the Order of Australia in 2019 recognition of her contributions to Australian higher education and to national workplace policy and practice. She is an experienced non-executive director, is a respected advisor to industry and government, and is one of Australia’s leading media commentators on the world of work.