Gender equity plan nearer
The ANU has made substantial progress towards developing a gender equity plan following a report last year, Equity and Diversity coordinator Leslie Hayes said. Following receipt of Dr Clare Burton's report Gender Equity in the Faculties and in The Institute of the Arts at The Australian National University, responses to it from The Faculties and from the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee (EEO Committee) were considered by the August meeting of Council. A draft Gender Equity Management Framework, developed through the Deputy Vice-Chancellor's Office, and a companion draft Gender Equity Action Plan, developed by the Equity Unit in consultation with the EEO Committee and the University Staff Consultative Committee, were considered by Senior Officers on November 26 and discussed at a meeting of the University Executive on February 4. It is expected that the draft plan will be considered by Council in March. Staff may be interested to note also that subsequent to Dr Burton's report on The Faculties (including ITA), the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs published in December last year the report Gender Equity in Australian University Staffing, 97/18, [by] Dr Clare Burton with the editorial assistance of Linda Cooke and Susan Wilson. This report was the culmination of a project which aimed to identify the "cultural and structural barriers to the achievement of equitable employment outcomes for academic and general staff women and the implications of these barriers for staffing policies and management practices in Australian universities".