From Homer Simpson to Phil Dunphy, sitcom dads have long been known for being bumbling and inept.It wasn’t always this way. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, sitcom dads tended to be serious, calm and...
By Julie Hare
Skills reform: women missing from the big picture
Amid concerns that women are being overlooked in the government’s COVID response, it is worth considering how well women are likely to fare in the future if the Productivity Commission has its...
The new austerity: why it will hurt women more than men
In 2010, as the impact of the global financial crisis hit homes across the globe, the word austerity became the most looked-up word on the dictionary Merriam-Webster’s website. In short, austerity...
The diversity advantage: leadership, women and universities
When, in 1990, Professor Fay Gale became vice-chancellor of the University of Western Australia, it was an important moment in Australian higher education. Following Di Yerbury, who was appointed...
Snap Forward Feminist Policy Network: Submission on COVID-19
The Snap Forward Feminist Policy Network (SFN) is working to ensure a gender-responsive COVID-19 recovery over the immediate and longer term: we want a Snap Forward which also contributes to the...
Lockdown’s silver lining: or why I’m dreading the end of COVID
My baby was three months old when COVID-19 forced us all indoors. At first I mourned my sabotaged parental leave plans: I missed the company of my doting family and the members of my mothers’...
Childcare ‘reform’ set to flip backward to old norm?
If Dan Tehan brings the hammer down on free childcare on June 28, as growing speculation predicts, then Jen Jones will overnight go from paying nothing to $1340 a fortnight.The period of fee-free...
BroadAgenda Wraps the Week
I was out walking the dog on a brisk (very brisk) Canberra morning when I came across a mum and two young children – I’m guessing one and three – on the play equipment at a local park. The kids were...
What in the world is ‘gender plus’?
The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the gendered nature of work, particularly unpaid work, while highlighting the lack of women’s voices in the formal response (it's been mainly white, male and...