Teaching sex discrimination

Webdiary columnist Polly Bush explains the decision by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission not to allow the Catholic Church to discriminate in favour of men in teaching education. She also answers queries by Webdiarist Rob Bruce in Wedgewatch.

Poor Jim was being discriminated against and was suffering a ‘crisis in masculinity’. As a Christian white male, he had terrible trouble coping with his ambition to be a primary school teacher, subject to the brutal qualities of what was heralded a “feminine” occupation. The girls at uni picked on him all the time, relentlessly taunting and teasing him and making sexist jokes. Plus, he couldn’t keep up with the intrinsic drinking culture the female students embraced. Some, drunkenly made moves on him, reducing him to feeling like an objectified piece of meat. Others talked over the top of him in class, ignoring his ideas, and praising other women when they echoed his ideas moments later. Jim just couldn’t win in this cruel female dominated world. He would just have to take the first job he could nail following graduation, and safely assume the male passage out of the lower paid classroom and into the higher paid assistant principals office and assume his dreaded role in life. And gawd help the male kiddies who missed out on a male “role model” and were subject to the teachings of all those women, no doubt teaching them no good.

Since when did the Howard Government become a champion of addressing gender inequity in the workplace? Did I miss something? If Howard truly is the champion of gender equity, will he override the Sex Discrimination Act to ensure an increase in the pathetic figure of 8% of women who are directors in Australia’s top 200 companies? Will he suddenly embrace Joan Kirner and Emily’s List in seeking more female representation in Australian parliaments? Will he address the issue of women earning 66% of mens total average weekly earnings? Will he address the lack of visibility of female role models in sport, sports people who are arguably better role models than rugby league players? Will he sort out the bloke near my work who regularly greets me with the phrase “nice tits”? Will he accept female applications to join the frontline of our Defence force? And if he’s still around for another term or so (sorry Pete), will he search Australia high and low for a woman good enough to be governor-general or a High Court judge, cos gawd knows there’s gotta be one or the other out there?

The Howard Government’s latest proposal to override the Sex Discrimination Act after the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s rejection of an application by the Catholic Education Office to provide male-only teaching scholarships has similarities with the last time the Government tried to fiddle with the Act.

Like the initiative to ban single women and lesbians from accessing fertility treatments, the Government has hidden behind the agenda of addressing the so-called lack of male role models and this crazy concept labelled a ‘crisis in masculinity’.

The male teaching push not only gives the Government another reason to bemoan the so-called lack of male-role models, but also shows up Howard’s complete disregard of human rights and his misunderstanding of discrimination and the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) itself.

It also demonstrates the Government’s naivety in introducing real long-term policies to address the number of male teachers in primary schools. The reality is twelve teaching scholarships for men are hardly going to balance up the numbers. (MARGO: But Howard’s planned law will give blanket authority ‘to discriminate against another person, on the ground of the other persons sex, by offering scholarships to persons of the opposite sex in respect of their participation as students in a teaching course…’.)

It’s the twenty year anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Act, an Act the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) says has “played a crucial role in promoting a greater acceptance of the need for equality between women and men”.

Under the Act, sex discrimination is unlawful. The HREOC identify the major objectives of the Act as being to:

* promote equality between men and women;

* eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status or pregnancy and, with respect to dismissals, family responsibilities; and

* eliminate sexual harassment at work, in educational institutions, in the provision of goods and service, in the provision of accommodation and the administration of federal programs.

Under Section 44 of the Act, the HREOC has the power to grant temporary exemptions. The Act also provides a range of permanent exemptions (the HREOC uses the example of “where the sex of the employee is a genuine occupational qualification”). In such instances, there is no need to apply for a temporary exemption.

On top of the permanent exemptions granted, Section 7D of the Act provides the allowance of “special measures” exemptions. Under this provision, the HREOC states:

“It is not discriminatory to take an action (for example an act, practice, policy, plan, arrangement etc) for the purpose of achieving substantive equality between men and women, people of different marital status or women who are pregnant/potentially pregnant and those who are not. For example, an action that has the purpose of addressing disadvantages experienced by pregnant/potentially pregnant employees in areas where they have been and continue to be unequal may be a special measure.”

While there are certain criteria that need to be met in order to be eligible to use the special measure provision, if the action meets the criteria, again, there is no need to apply for a temporary exemption.

As the HREOC’s exemption guidelines explain, “Because the SD Act already provides for both permanent exemptions and special measures, the circumstances in which temporary exemptions need to be sought are therefore very limited. As a result, temporary exemptions are rarely granted.”

In 2002, the Archdiocese of Sydney’s Catholic Education Office applied to the HREOC for a temporary exemption to offer male-only teaching scholarships. The Commission’s first response was to seek public submissions on the matter, and as such, eleven were received.

According to the Commission’s Notice Of Rejection Of Application For Exemption, submissions supporting the Catholic Education Office argued, “male teachers are necessary for the sound development of boys, that male and female teachers teach differently, and that boys need male role models.”

On the other hand, submissions against the Catholic Education Office application argued, “the contention that the exemption sought would subvert the fundamental purpose of sex discrimination legislation to ensure equitable opportunities and economic parity between the sexes. A number of the submissions opposing the grant of the exemption pointed to what was said to be a lack of evidence showing that financial hardship is the barrier preventing a higher number of males from enrolling in primary teacher training.”

The Catholic Education Office also provided material which included statistics highlighting the difference in male and female teaching ratios in NSW, and a 1999 Catholic Church study titled, ‘Men in Primary Schools: An Endangered Species?’. According to the Commission, the study concluded, “the decline in males enrolling and completing teaching training is a ’cause of concern to educational administrators and systemic policy makers and [has] wide-ranging educational and social ramifications’.” (All documents are at HREOC.)

The House of Representatives 2002 report ‘Boys: Getting It Right’ was also examined by the Commission.

Based on the material, the Commission found that (a) there are more female primary school teachers, (b) reasons for the imbalance included the “status of teachers in the community, child protection issues and the pay and conditions of primary school teachers relative to other occupations”, (c) there is “insufficient evidence” the proposed scholarship scheme would address the imbalance, and (d) there is “insufficient evidence” the imbalance will “detrimentally affect school culture or the education of boys enrolled as students in primary schools”.

The Catholic Education Office’s application also cited Section 7D of the Act, the special measures provision, arguing the male only scholarships were an attempt to achieve substantive equality. As the Commission noted in its rejection ruling, “If this is correct, then it would be unnecessary for the Commission to grant a temporary exemption.”

The Commission inferred the Catholic Education Office had failed in sufficiently proving the scholarships would achieve substantive equality:

“Although not entirely clear, it does not appear to be suggested by the Catholic Education Office that the scholarship scheme is aimed at addressing alleged substantive inequality between male and female teachers. If such a suggestion is advanced, the Commission notes that the Catholic Education Office has not sought to identify any “practices said to exclude, disadvantage, restrict or result in an adverse effect” upon male primary teachers or “leave uncorrected the effects of past discrimination against them.”

To utilise the special measures provision, the Commission notes the most important element in addressing substantive inequality, is the examination of the “overall effect of current practices and to trace unequal outcomes to their source.”

In the rejection of the Catholic Education Office’s application, the Commission cited the ratio of female to male principals in primary schools, and the occurrence of men more likely being promoted in the teaching profession:

“In those circumstances, it is not at all clear that the Catholic Education Office would be able to identify an “overall effect” that amounts to substantive inequality favouring female teachers.”

The Commission also found that the Catholic Education Office had not established a link between the gender of teachers and improvements in boys’ performances. It cited the House of Representatives Standing Committee report ‘Boys: Getting it Right’, which states:

“In supporting the presence of more men in schools, the Committee is not suggesting that female teachers should be displaced in favour of men or that women are not equally good teachers. The Committee agrees that the quality of the teacher is more important than the gender of the teacher.”

Interestingly, the same Standing Committee Report recommended the introduction of teaching scholarships but not male only scholarships the Committee recommended HECS free scholarships for equal numbers of males and females, based on merit.

The Catholic Education Office is appealing the Commission’s rejection and the case is to be heard next month.

Despite this pending review, the Federal Government still pushed ahead with their proposal to override the SDA to allow the Catholic Education Office to offer male-only scholarships.

In response, Labor’s Shadow Attorney-General and Minister Assisting the Leader on the Status of Women Nicola Roxon accused the Prime Minister of failing to “understand the operation of existing laws” within the SDA.

Like Opposition Leader Mark Latham, Roxon argued that “The Catholic Education Office, in seeking to attract more male students to take up primary teaching courses, could have put their proposal forward as a ‘special measure’.”

Again, this would not have required the Catholic Education Office to submit a temporary exemption application.

In Bettina Arndt’s article, ‘Jobs for the boys’ (The Sydney Morning Herald, March 20 2003), Arndt reported on the rejection of the Catholic Education Offices application, and the alternative avenue of the special measures provision:

“All over Australia, there are universities being bold and getting away with it. Four years ago, HREOC told the Australian National University that it was not willing to grant an exemption to enable the university to offer women-only academic positions to address gender imbalances in earth sciences. However Susan Halliday, the then sex discrimination commissioner, advised the university that if they could show “barriers exist in relation to the appointment of women staff”, then advertising for women-only could qualify as a “special measure”. (She noted there were risks associated with this approach.) The university advertised the positions and got away with it.”

Arndt also addressed what Webdiary contributor Rob Bruce argued in ‘Wedgewatch’. Bruce challenged Margo Kingston to a Google challenge of sorts, and, using examples of scholarships offered to women in engineering and IT, queried her statement that “it is inconceivable that low percentages of women in other jobs would get such special treatment”.

Personally, I interpreted Margo’s description of special treatment as the Federal Government intervening to override the Act not the functions or exemptions of the Act itself.

Interpretations aside, Bettina Arndt raised the same comparison in her piece:

“It’s interesting to note that similar arguments could be made about scholarships to attract women into fields such as engineering – with the reasons women avoid engineering having more to do with the tough male-dominated work conditions than the costs of training. Yet here universities get away with offering women financial incentives.”

Similarly, Miranda Devine in her piece ‘Labor has a list for Emily … but not for Edward’ (The Sun-Herald, March 14, 2004), cited areas where women are being encouraged into professions, arguing the Labor Party was practicing “positive discrimination”:

“There’s Emily’s List, Joan Kirner’s instrument for enforcing targets of female representation in Parliament. And the Victorian Labor Government warning to law firms of dire consequences if female barristers didn’t get more government work. Women comprise 18 per cent of the Victorian bar, which happens to be almost exactly the percentage of males (18.8 per cent) among trainee primary school teachers in Australia.”

Is there any validity in comparing legal and engineering initiatives to the latest teaching decision? In Wedgewatch, and in response to Bruce’s engineering comparison, Margo asked if there were “any sex discrimination experts out there who’d like to comment?”

Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Dr Jocelynne Scutt has provided Webdiary with this answer:

“The attempt at comparing engineering scholarships for women and teaching scholarships for men is misguided. Exemptions are not to be given lightly. Every application must be considered on its merits, in light of the facts of the particular application. Attempting to argue by analogy isn’t productive, and particularly in this area, because the principle is, as stated, that each case must be considered on its own merits, and exemptions should not be given lightly. Hence, if there is no valid or substantive argument on the basis of the application itself, there can be no grant of an exemption. What has or has not occurred in relation to a different set of facts, in a different area, trade or profession, cannot ‘shore up’ an entirely different application. An extraneous matter, such as the grant of another exemption which is based on its own terms, in relation to its own facts and circumstances, cannot bolster an argument or application dealing with a particular problem or issue in another area.”

Unproductive analogies aside, by taking up Bruce’s Google challenge, there is a lot of literature available tracking the barriers faced by women in engineering. The same cannot necessarily be said for men in the teaching profession.

In 1996, researchers Christopher McLean, Sue Lewis, Jane Copeland, Brian O’Neill, and Sue Lintern examined the Masculinity and the Culture of Engineering (Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 7, No. 2, 1997).

The researchers surveyed male students in engineering faculties at two Australian universities, as well as interviewing academics and looking at previous research with female engineering students. What they found was a masculine dominant culture in engineering, and resistance to those who attempted to change this culture:

“A number of students recognised that, to belong to the engineering group, there are certain rules of behaviour that need to be followed, and that pressure would be brought to bear on anyone who transgressed. Attempts to change the nature of engineering – such as special assistance for women – was often interpreted as an attack on the ‘group’ to be resisted strenuously. Similarly, unacceptable views or behaviours by students – such as feminism or homosexuality – were seen as warranting exclusion. Engineering was also quite clearly seen as ‘white’, with ‘Asians’ viewed as outsiders.”

Many of the male survey participants identified with the stereotypes normally associated with studying engineering like binge drinking and joking around. The researchers of the study also identified an underlying theme of sexism in the embrace of joking around:

“There was also a tendency to dismiss the issue of sexual harassment by saying ‘it’s just a joke’:

‘I think some females can be a little bit sensitive to comments whereas it’s not aimed to be sexual harassment or anything like that. I’m probably guilty of it myself. At one time in one of our subjects we were talking about setting up an office at a company. I said, ‘Oh, we need a secretary as long as she’s wearing a short skirt and topless’ as a joke, and I know I offended one person. I apologised afterwards, but it wasn’t meant to degrade anyone. It’s just an offhand joke.'”

Male respondents also spoke of the survival mechanism for women, suggesting women were more likely to fit in to the course if they were “one of the boys”:

“Several male students pointed out that female students who act like this are seen as ‘chicks with dicks’. As one noted:

‘I think that would make it one hundred per cent easier to do engineering if you were the sort of girl, you know … sort of act like one of the guys. Very strong-willed and not shy sort of pretty little girl sort of image that is portrayed. I think they would struggle to come to grips with all the guys. So if you act like one of the guys I’d say it would be a lot easier to cope, yes’.”

On the other hand, women who identified as feminists faced ridicule:

“It is clear that comfortable survival in an engineering faculty necessitates an open, even aggressive rejection of feminism. We argue that the sanctions contained in the dominant discourse act to ensure that females in engineering do not openly call themselves feminist or appear to be following a feminist political agenda. Some of the sanctions applied against those seen as feminist were laughter, exclusion from social and study groups, cruelty, rudeness, and labels of ‘lesbian’ and ‘masculine’.”

Far better to be a chick with a dick than lesbian or masculine. The research also referred to a letter to a student paper by a second year engineering student who wrote of the dominant male culture in the course:

“Being supportive of women’s issues and drawing attention to them, even referring to the fact that you are female and surrounded by men, gets you virtually nothing but hostility in engineering. Male students seem to think that you are trying to make them feel insecure, or gain some sort of advantage. They tend to become extremely defensive and obnoxious, or increasingly fearful and maintain a blank silence, neither of which are much help when you need their help or co-operation… There are no long-term advocates of any form of feminism in engineering.”

The report directly addressed the issue of female scholarships, and other such measures to encourage female participation in the face of the dominant male culture:

“We believe that strategies developed to increase women’s participation in engineering must take account of the culture of engineering faculties and should focus on changing this culture. Given the negative responses of female and male students towards special measures for women such as women’s officers, scholarships and extra support, it would seem that many of these measures are destined to provoke a backlash and in doing so, to essentially fail. In a sense, these measures are band aid measures because they are about enabling girls to cope in the existing culture of engineering rather than about challenging and changing that culture. Such measures still focus on the girls, rather than on males or on engineering itself. Having said this, we also recognise the importance of continuing these strategies, perhaps in low key ways – to continue to support the women who currently take advantage of these programs and support systems. Our experience is that some female students covertly participate in these events and have learnt to not mention their participation to the male students.”

Indeed, women or male only scholarships are a contentious issue, and it is valid to question the long-term solutions they provide. Former Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Sue Walpole addressed the issue of special measure provisions in an International Womens Day address in 1997. Walpole said:

“Another reason for history being so difficult is that it leads us directly to the question of special measures. Recent amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act make it explicitly clear that special measures are not reverse discrimination. Rather, they are positive steps to achieve equality of outcomes for men and women. Despite this attempt to clarify the law, special measures remain controversial. We only have to reflect on recent debates around the so-called ‘race issue’ to understand this.

“In my view the main reason for the misunderstanding of special measures is that it is difficult for people to see positive steps in any other framework than a current zero-sum game: to give to one is to take from another. What this ignores is the question of historical discrimination and the reality of difference. Men and women are not the same. If we only treat them as the same we will not achieve equality of outcomes. Achieving equality is not merely a matter of applying a formal equation. It requires analysis, discussion, protest and a consistent focus on measuring the outcomes of what we put in place-rather than simply assuming that because we have policies, because we have procedures, then we will automatically get the right outcomes. If history teaches us anything, then it is clear that it teaches us this.”

History, has not been on women’s side, and if the Masculinity and the Culture of Engineering study is anything to go by, there are many barriers women still face. So where does that leave Poor Jim in the teaching profession? Well, in ten years time, my bet is Poor Jim will be taking up a more senior, higher paid position, perhaps in the Catholic Education Office.

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