Gender Inequity Case Study

Women have the same rights as men do in the society nowadays, such as studying, working and voting. Both gender can work out of willingness and be successful in their own work, which is called gender equity (HEREOC Media Release, cited in Bell 2010, p.63). Governments carried out law and policies to protect women’s rights from being infringing in Australia approximately 40 years ago (Johnson et al. 2015, p.689). Unfortunately, visible or invisible gender inequity is still occurring in social life, whether in developed countries or developing countries and whether in school among students or in workplace among employees. It is evident that gender inequity causes a few problems, especially for women who is also desperate for success in her career.

Australian government has been searching for ideal strategies for gender inequity. There are 5 goals in the Second Australian Vice Chancellors’ Committee’s Action Plan for Women Employed in Australian Universities2006-2010, including promoting equity strategies in universities, decreasing the underrepresentation of female in higher positions and tracking the progress of female into senior roles (Australian Vice Chancellors’ Committee, cited in Winchester& Browning, 2015, p.271). The authors also mention that this plan is primarily focusing on output rather than equality. However, in the study of Dobele et al. (2010, pp.233-234), a research team with higher percentage of women is lack of financial support even though it is working diligently, which is pointed out by AVCC (cited in Dobele et al., 2010, p.233) that the plan is not as successful as expected for female academics receive less research money in universities. A way to overcome this is launching a research funding policy. This is likely to solve the shortage of funding in research and keep female academics concentrating on their work. Dobele et al. (2010, p.233) also argue that financial support is an inevitable factor that appeal more women devote themselves into academic studies or even in senior roles. But with intense work load of academic research, women may be not able to balance their life and work, which contributing to less productivity of female than male. However, low productivity can result from “left out of collaborations and informal networks and a lack of mentoring” (Hult, Callister, & Sullivan; Hult, et al., cited in Dobele et al., 2010, p.233). Dobele et al. (2010) recommend that setting a target of output for women and encouraging them with the reduction of teaching time and service activities. This may help female remaining their personal time and dedicate themselves into work at the same time. There is also a more