The Women and Work Research Group (WWRG) conducts research across all aspects of women's work experience, including:

The Women and Work Research Group (WWRG) comprises academics from Work and Organisational Studies in the School of Business at the University of Sydney.

Academics with an interest in women and work from other disciplines are also invited to participate.

Research Profiles

Dr Susan Ainsworth is a Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies. Her research interests include older women workers, age discrimination and public policy.  She is currently involved in research gender, age and aesthetic labour (with Dr Leanne Cutcher) and affirmative action in Australia. She has published in a range of international journals including Organization Studies and Gender, Work and Organization.

Dr Marian Baird is Associate Professor in Work and Organisational Studies and Convenor of the Women and Work Research Group. Marian has written extensively about women, work and family and maternity and parental leave in Australia. She has many connections with policy makers in the business, union and community sectors at both State and Federal levels. Marian has undertaken a number of large research projects, including the Parental Leave in Australia Study, a 'Dual Agenda' study of gender equity and organisational efficiency in Australian organisations and an evaluation of the impact of Work Choices on low paid employees. Marian has published widely, is a regular journal columnist to BOSS magazine and is frequently invited to speak to the media. Marian is also an Affiliated Faculty Member of the Workplace Centre at MIT ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Cambridge, USA.

Dr Rae Cooper is a Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies. Rae researches agency in employment relations and is particularly interested in bargaining structures, processes and outcomes. Her PhD examined the strategies of female dominated unions in the 1990s. She is currently researching the impact of Workchoices for Australian women workers and has previously undertaken contract research on gender and activism. Rae is the Review Editor for the journal Labour History, is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Industrial Relations and is the Vice-President of the Evatt Foundation, the labour and industry policy think-tank. Rae sits on a number of public sector boards and has previously been the Chair of the New South Wales Working Women’s Centre.

Dr Leanne Cutcher is a Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies. She has current research projects investigating the construction of working mothers in public debate about paid maternity leave (with Dr Susan Ainsworth) and strategic management in the not-for-profit sector.  She has published with Dr Marian Baird on paid maternity leave in Australia as well as has written on gender and consumption.

A/Prof. Bradon Ellem is an Associate Professor in Work and Organisational Studies. He has published studies of unions, women's paid labour, local industrial relations and gender politics in the cold war. His first book was a study of the history of trade unionism in the Australian clothing industry. Bradon’s research now concentrates on the sources and impacts of government industrial relations policy and changes in the geographies of work and unionism. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Industrial Relations and an associate editor of Labour History.

Dr Elizabeth Hill is a Lecturer in Political Economy. Liz is currently working on two research programs. One focuses on Indian women workers and feminist interventions for work-life reform in informal labour markets. The other concentrates on the development of work and family policies in Australia and their impact on gender equality. Elizabeth is co-convenor, with Professor Barbara Pocock, of the Australian Work+ Family Policy Roundtable and a consultative group member of Asian Women at Work, a Sydney community-based worker organisation.

Dr Suzanne Jamieson is an Associate Professor in Work and Organisational Studies. Her main areas of research have been in OHS prosecutions, for which she shares an ARC Discovery Grant, and in the area of equity for women including equal pay and in particular the role of the law in the equality project.

Russell Lansbury is Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Sydney. Much of his research has focused on international and comparative aspects of industrial relations. In a recent publication with Marian Baird, he argued the case for 'a working families' agenda' for Australia. His current research is on the impact of globalisation on employment relations in the automotive and banking industries in various countries. He is interested in the employment relations policies of multinational enterprises and how these influence practices at the national level in different economic and political systems.

Dr Susan McGrath-Champ is Senior Lecturer in human resource management and industrial relations, Work and Organisational Studies, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Sydney. Amongst other things, her research interests include alternative explanations of the 'glass ceiling', men as primary care-givers within families, training and performance of international assignees, and the spatial aspects of industrial relations. She is presently the lead researcher on a joint ARC-industry funded research project on the construction industry. Susan has previously worked in industry, consulting and research in Australia and Canada. She has published widely in employment relations and social science journals, and is guest editor of a special edition of Economic and Industrial Democracy (August 2005) and Labour and Industry (December 2002, with B. Ellem).

Dr Gabrielle Meagher is Professor of Social Policy in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. She is currently working on two research programs. One focuses on paid care work, examining gender dimensions of how work in this female-dominated labour market is performed, organised, and valued. The second examines Australians’ attitudes to unions, work, and the welfare state. Gabrielle is a member of the Steering Committee of the Australian Paid Care Research Network, and on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Feminist Economics.

John Murray is a doctoral candidate in Work and Organisational Studies. His research interests relate to interactions between households and the labour market.

Dr Diane van den Broek is a Lecturer at Work and Organisational Studies. Her research and publishing interests relate to employment relations within Australian service industries. Her most recent research focuses on the nature of ‘soft’ skills required within contemporary service work and the emotional and aesthetic labour required in many female dominated sectors. Other recent research looks at the ambiguous and contradictory impacts of globalisation on women and the way local market reforms can be both empower and constrain women’s labour and gender ideology.

Sue Williamson is a doctoral candidate in Work and Organisational Studies, researching how parties bargain for family provisions in collective enterprise agreements in a changing workplace relations environment. Her research uses case studies to uncover bargaining processes, to identify how gender is manifest in collective enterprise bargaining and how this impacts on negotiating family provisions. Ms Williamson has presented her work at international conferences and seminars, most recently to staff and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms Williamson has also been published in the Australian Journal of Labour Law. Ms Williamson has worked on women’s issues for many years, focusing on women and workplace relations issues since 1999. She has been employed by unions and State and federal government departments in Australia. Her academic background is in women’s studies and workplace relations, specialising in the field of work and family.

Ms Sarah Wise is a Research Analyst at the Workplace Research Centre at the University of Sydney. She has extensive research and policy experience in the implementation and operation of work-life balance and family-friendly policies in the UK. Sarah has also researched the extent to which gender equality has been mainstreamed into careers education, trade unions’ bargaining agenda and in the provision on social inclusion programmes.

Jeaney Yip is a lecturer in Marketing at the University of Sydney. Her research and publication interests lie between the nexus of consumption and culture with a focus on women, ethnic, young people and religious subcultures. She engages in research which perceives products as cultural constructions that reflect an underlying discourse. Her current research projects involve how Christian music constructs meaning that reflect a persistent tension between sacred and secular, as well as the representation of women in Christian media.