Equality
Where are the women warriors on Paid Maternity Leave? The most extensive, economically significant policy proposal to support working women in decades is put forward by a major political party… so where are the feminists and women’s groups?
Why is there such a conspicuous silence from those who “whooped” and figuratively threw streamers when the Rudd Government finally announced its Paid Parental Leave plan (which turned out to be little more than a re-badging of the baby bonus with an administrative nightmare for small business thrown in)?
Where are Eva Cox and Sharan Burrows?
The experiments went like this. Scientists took pairs of people and gave one of them a big wad of money. Then they wired them up and watched what happened as more cash was handed out.
“People who started out rich had a stronger reaction to other people getting money than to themselves getting money,” Colin Camerer, one of the study’s coauthors, told the Freakonomics blog. “In other words, their brains liked it when others got money more than they liked it when they themselves got money.”
The science part: the circuitry of the brain’s reward centres is sensitive to inequality. The basic finding is that regardless of how much money you have, humans respond better to poor people getting money than rich people.
Continue reading "Are people hard-wired for income redistribution?" »
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Nathan H says:
Hard-wired for income-redistribution? Hardly. The original press release contains two crucial quotes: http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13327 Q1) “People who started out poor had a stronger brain reaction to things that gave them money, and essentially no reaction to money going to another person,” Q2) “In the experiment, people who started out rich had… Read more »
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David C says:
You dont make the poor richer by making the rich poorer Read more »
Every now and then life deals you a moment which overloads your emotions.
You’re not sure whether to cry or cheer or run and hide just to catch your breath.
That’s how I felt standing on the sixth floor of NAB’s Melbourne headquarters when watching Kevin Rudd’s apology to my people’s stolen generation.
Continue reading "It’s not just government working at closing the gap" »
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John A Neve says:
Jeffrey, Much of what you have said I agree with. I don’t deny past mistakes, but I cannot change the past. This and other governments have, in my view, tried to correct past mistakes, in many, not all, cases those who needed help, abused this help. There are now many… Read more »
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Jeffrey says:
John I assume nothing John. ASS U ME…...As a whole, indigenous people dont have the same desire to possess or own as white settlers, they shared and still share, the land and the fruits and bounty of the land, rivers and seas. Of course, people are better off…..... - health… Read more »
Lefties and other decent folk are wetting their pants at the prospect of that beacon of excellence Barack Obama and his telegenic family visiting our shores next month.
Since coming onto the public radar, Obama has achieved pop-star status as the great hope for our shared dreams of equality.
But is this really what he represents?
Continue reading "If minorities want equality, don’t look at the Obamas" »
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Robert King says:
Couldn’t agree more, Helen. Do you heard the term ‘rightwing intellectual’ bandide about much? Could be some connection… Read more »
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Helen says:
This article is too nuanced for the Punch - I just knew there’d be a welter of comments from people who just don’t get it. Read more »
The fight for gay marriage in the US took yet another blow last Wednesday when the New York state senate voted down a bill that would have allowed same-sex partners to marry in the empire state.
It follows the repeal of gay marriage rights in California last November when voters in a referendum abolished a short-lived law that allowed gay couples to marry there.
The Governator’s state constitution now reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
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James says:
Ouch Paul, now you’ve hurt my feelings. I had no idea thinking that women are equal to men was such an awful thing. Lucky people like you are around to set us young-uns straight. Read more »
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DG says:
@Bec - No, I did not assume that your meaning was literal. Actually I thought quite the opposite. I understood that you were suggesting that the whole experience was tortuous when there was a concept of “fault” as both parties set out to prove that the other was at fault.… Read more »
Welcome to Wednesday @ The Punch
Today in 2004 Canada’s Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage constitutional, paving the way for it’s Parliament to legalise the practice.
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Dan says:
Exactly T.Chong. All these people BAWWing as if legalising gay marriage will cause the world to end should really get over themselves. Unless you want to marry someone of the same gender as you, it won’t affect you in the slightest… Well, except that you might have to spring for… Read more »
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Chase Stevens says:
Human Rights in Canada > Human Rights in Australia Read more »
I don’t have the research in front of me but, anecdotally, I have noticed that women use phones, fly on planes, shop and withdraw cash from ATMs.
If my analysis is correct, you’d think the top brass at Telstra, Qantas, Westfield and the Commonwealth Bank would need to know a fair bit about women – a hefty chunk of their customer base and their workforce – and what makes them tick.
I’ve no doubt that these organisations employ many fine strategists, marketeers and consultants who can provide the kind of research that backs up my casual observations.
Continue reading "Getting more women on boards is good business" »
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Eric says:
Actually, it turns out that gender quotas are bad business. “In 2002, the Norwegian parliament passed a law requiring that women must comprise 40 percent of all companies’ corporate boards. Since then, women have gone from holding about 7 percent of corporate-board seats to just more than the legally required… Read more »
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davido says:
I seem to remember M jackson pretty much ran Qantas into the ground. She was a woman. Read more »
The World Economic Forum recently released their 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, and unfortunately Australia has slipped markedly in the ranks over the past couple of years.
The report measures how equally the resources and opportunities of a nation are divided up between genders.
In 2006 Australia was ranked fifteenth. Now we are twentieth out of the 134 countries included in the report. The Nordic countries topped out the list with Iceland coming first, Finland second and Norway and Sweden were third and fourth respectively. New Zealand retained their position in fifth place.
Continue reading "Women by numbers: why we’re slipping on equality" »
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jim morris says:
jasper; I became interested in the female/male ratio after having an application for a library job rejected; even though I had worked in the library whilst studying at university. If what you say is true then why isn’t there a gender equity programme in place to even things up, as… Read more »
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Kit says:
To those who claim that women are earning less because they are in lower paid fields, please read the report. It says ‘wage equality for similar work’ with women earning 68% of man’s income for similar work. To those who say that women choose lower paid fields, historically when women… Read more »
In his deservingly scornful review of the book Iron John, Robert Bly’s absurd bible of the men’s movement in the United States, British author Martin Amis describes the comical pilgrimage made by maladjusted men into the American woods to sniff each other’s armpits, channel negative energy into circles of hate and howl at the moon at the fact that mum had them circumcised.
Happily, this quest to unleash what Amis ridicules as “the hairy satyr within” does not appear to have any formal and organised equivalent in Australia.
This is probably because most Australian men have nothing of any real magnitude to get off their chest, or simply find that the odd night at the pub or the occasional fishing weekend provides ample therapy for any lingering sense of gender injustice. That, and the fact that we’ve got too wry a sense of humour and too much self-awareness to engage in anything that silly.
Continue reading "Angry boys club needs a Bex and a good lie down" »
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Lisa says:
As I said earlier, my feelings are that overall, we are a herd animal, and those individuals that step outside gender roles may be spectacularly punished in the sexual / relationship arena. Perhaps that is why all your unemployed chaps can’t find ‘sugar mommies’, Paul and DG. And perhaps that… Read more »
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DG says:
Paul Horn (11:19am | 06/11/09) My point was that if a person chooses to support their partner (i.e live off the financial benefits of their partner, rather than derive their own income) they can hardly be surprised that their partner is better off (financially) if things change. I deliberately used… Read more »
I read with glee this week the news that the Rudd government is reviewing the role of women in the Defence Force.
For some reason this always gets me riled.
Call me a bra-burning feminist with hairy under-arms and a Subaru if you like, but it appears to me that men don’t want women in the military because they are scared of themselves.
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Kyle says:
@ suze, quite a few comments up you posted this “Consider childbirth or even Rape, women are very resilient and can be put through overwhelming trauma and survive through it. Suicide rate is higher among males which says something about the psychological strength of women.” Just the slightest bit of… Read more »
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Kayleys Son [John] says:
mum i love your article and I totally agree with you. if women are prepared enough and think they’re ready let them go frontline Read more »
There is nothing like an Equal Pay Day to make a man see red.
Writing on Tuesday about research that claims women earn 17.5 per cent less than men in Australia, I drew the wrath of blokes from around the country.
That figure came from the Australian Bureau of Statistics but was used by the newly formed Equal Pay Alliance of 135 organisations to make their point.
Continue reading "Men can’t keep it level when it comes to equal pay" »
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Mark says:
There is no logical reason why there are not more Catherine Livingstones and Gail Kellys out there Well lets start with Applications for Job, Has there been any look at all at the number of creidble applications for Top level jobs? If 40 men and 5 women applied for 2… Read more »
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Mandy Black says:
You are such a fantastic writer Kate, great story. Could it be that some of us have not moved on from the past? I mean our parents, their parents and so on, was all in the mine set that the man went to work and the women stayed home.Therefore a… Read more »
Can you believe that in 2009 we don’t allow same-sex couples to get married? It happens in countries all around the world. Not just where’d you expect like Holland and Sweden. But places like Spain and South Africa. It makes Australia look a little behind.
We all have gay mates or rellies who pay their taxes and live by the law.
But when it comes to one of the most important moments of your life - your wedding day - the law says gays are suddenly so different they’re not allowed to have one.
Continue reading "It’s time to allow gay marriage in Australia" »
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kjhukjjh says:
i’m 15, and i strongly agree that australia should allow gay marriage. anybody who argues any religious views on marriage dont seem to realize that many hetrosexual people get married when they are not religious at all, that point is totally invalid. anybody should have the right to express their… Read more »
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Greg McQueen says:
MarkH wrote: “Redaction, revisionism or the redefining of Marriage to include same sex couples utterly destroys the historic institution of Marriage.” No, it simply allows the concept of marriage to evolve. If you were to believe the stories in the bible, it says that the famous God-botherer Solomon had 700… Read more »
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