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Gender equality

Yesterday

Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint. Baldoni’s lawyer said the claims were false.

Blake Lively turns the shame around

The actress is suing a Hollywood studio alleging sexual harassment and a smear campaign. It may prolong the pain but the only way to end impunity is to speak up.

  • Nicholas Kristof

This Month

 Kirsha Kaechele celebrates the reopening of The Ladies Lounge at MONA

Women-only gallery at MONA to let men in for housework lessons

The Ladies Lounge will briefly reopen after a successful appeal against a discrimination suit, and will even admit men – with some (apron) strings attached.

  • Michael Bailey
Nicola Forrest, Jun Bei Liu and Catherine Allfrey.

Forrest-backed all-female fund wants to change a pale, male industry

Nicola Forrest will invest $100 million to seed the first all-female fund in Australia. But one of the star stock pickers says it’s a tough time for fundies.

  • Updated
  • James Thomson
Armina Rosenberg

All the ladies: Future Generation set to launch fund run by women

A group of high-profile female investment managers have thrown their support behind a fund that aims to advance gender equality and opportunity.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

November

One of the persistent myths in diversity conversations is that inclusion comes at the expense of merit.

Rio Tinto diversity backlash shows men are key to inclusive workplaces

Resistance to cultural changes shows advocates need to strengthen the “why” about gender equality and not talk into their own echo chamber.

  • Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz
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Dr Katie Spearritt, chief executive of Diversity Partners.

Why the backlash from men is threatening gender targets

Mining behemoth Rio Tinto is not the only company to discover pockets of male employees who resent the push for greater diversity.

  • Sally Patten
 Data from mature democracies around the world suggests there is a growing gender divide in politics with women heading left and men turning right.

Australia’s gender divide: Why young men and women are pulling apart

There is mounting evidence that more directionless young men are looking for validation that they have been badly done by.

  • Emma Connors
Jakob Stausholm says Rio’s Everyday Respect program is also about driving better performance.

Did gender diversity and merit collide at Rio Tinto?

The challenge for companies is to find a way to promote pluralism while treating all employees equally and avoiding inflaming a politicised culture war.

  • The AFR View
Kellie Parker is Rio’s chief executive in Australia. The company has been grappling with cultural change since a landmark report in 2022.

Rio Tinto workers push back against its diversity efforts

Two years after a major review found the company had systemic bullying issues, employees of both sexes say they are uncomfortable about some changes.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker
Jakob Stausholm says Rio’s Everyday Respect program is also about driving better performance.

Rio Tinto’s push to protect women is making both sexes angry

The attempt to address sexual harassment and bullying captures the collision of the push for increased diversity and another against so-called wokeness.

  • James Thomson
Qantas reduced its chief executive pay by 26 per cent when it replaced Alan Joyce with Vanessa Hudson.

Female bosses are paid $159k less than men

Female chief executives and heads of business are paid an average of $158,632 less than their male counterparts, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

  • Euan Black
ASFA CEO Mary Delahunty says menopause can have a big impact on retirement savings.

Paid leave would help menopause super hit: ASFA

Absence of Australian data has led to a failure among employers and governments to understand the financial impacts on women, says a pension industry body.

  • Michelle Bowes
For women in particular, having someone to exercise with is important, say experts.

Even exercise has a gender gap

Women have less time to work out than men – and their health pays the price. Here’s how to fix that.

  • Danielle Friedman
WGA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said company boards had a big role to play in stamping out harassment.

Lack of anonymous reporting channels fuels harassment underreporting

Victims of work-related sexual harassment do not have the option of reporting incidents anonymously at more than three in 10 large companies, research shows.

  • Euan Black
Women turned out supporting Trump in much larger numbers than expected.

Cost of living trumped gender ‘tokenism’ for women voters

While Democratic candidate Kamala Harris won the female vote by 10 points in Tuesday’s election, this fell far short of the pink wave her party hoped for.

  • Hannah Wootton
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Labor’s student debt reduction plan benefits male students more than females.

$16b uni student debt fix helps men more than women

Those paying tertiary fees will have to wait until at least 2027 for the overhaul, as analysis shows it will assist male graduates erase their liability sooner.

  • Julie Hare
Kamala Harris speaks with reporters before departing to Pennsylvania.

Secret messages as celebrities urge women to vote Harris

What started as a whisper campaign has become a controversial advert, amplified by Julia Roberts and Michelle Obama, and drawn furious backlash from the right.

  • Emily Davies
Recruiters say some clients have asked them to conduct female-only searches to fill vacancies, putting them in “compromising positions”.

Is female-only recruitment discriminatory? Even lawyers are divided

The debate over gender diversity targets was reignited this week when the Australian Financial Review revealed employers had told recruiters not to bother shortlisting men for senior jobs.

  • Euan Black
Greens MP Sam Hibbins has resigned from the party after revealing he had a consensual relationship with a staffer.

Victorian Greens MP quits party after affair with staffer

Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell says Prahran MP Sam Hibbins has completely lost her trust and is “never welcome back” after admitting he had an affair with a female staffer.

  • Gus McCubbing
Recruiters say some clients have asked them to conduct female-only searches to fill vacancies, putting them in “compromising positions”.

‘Don’t shortlist men’, ASX companies tell recruiters

ASX-listed companies are privately instructing recruiters to shortlist only women for certain senior roles to help meet diversity and inclusion targets.

  • Euan Black

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/gender-equality-5xr