Brendan
Churchill

This is a first-of-its-kind research partnership between the Commonwealth Office for Women, the University of Sydney, the University of Technology, Sydney and the University of Melbourne to generate an evidence base to facilitate the implementation of Australia’s first gender equality strategy, Working for Women. Each year, the research team investigates a key theme and workforce cohort. The research centres the voices of key demographic groups among the diverse Australian population that are significantly affected by gender inequality at work. Applying an intersectional lens, the partnership addresses critical gaps in knowledge to understand lived experiences of women in the labour market.

This project aims to investigate how workers, households and communities in Australia are reskilling in diverse ways. Through world first quantitative and qualitative research, this project expects to create new knowledge about the social and geographical dimensions of reskilling in order to better evaluate the barriers and enablers of reskilling. Expected outcomes include an interdisciplinary collaboration that will enhance Australia’s research capacity in understanding the social and geographical dimensions of the future of work. This should provide significant benefits through the development of policy responses for industry, service providers, communities and governments to assist reskilling in a socially equitable way.

This project aims to understand new working biographies created by young people that combine employment with entrepreneurial activities. 'Side-hustles' are increasingly common amongst young workers, but while entrepreneurship is promoted globally as a policy solution to youth unemployment there is no comprehensive evidence base about the nature of young workers' entrepreneurial activities or the outcomes they experience. The evidence created by this project supports efforts to facilitate youth entrepreneurship, address youth unemployment, and enhance Australia's future labour force. Outcomes include policy papers and reports, a policy forum, academic outputs, and a project website, offering benefit to policymakers, educators and employers.

This project aims to investigate the economic, social and emotional impacts of precarious work on women. Focusing on the challenges that arise from juggling precarious work with care responsibilities and/or demands from the social support system, the project identifies the strategies women have to manage these demands, and the impacts these demands have on everyday lives across different life stages. By combining otherwise separate bodies of literature with innovative quantitative and qualitative data, the project seeks to generate new knowledge about the impacts of precarious work on women and families. This knowledge is expected to inform policies and services to improve women’s lives and promote economic inclusion and social cohesion.

This project aims to advance understandings of how, why, when, and for whom caring ends, including the socio-cultural and relational factors that shape experiences before, during, and after caring. Using an innovative, multi-method sociological approach, and foregrounding carers’ voices, this project expects to generate new knowledge on the meaning and experience of care and caring. This project is significant in bringing together leading researchers and key carer-focused organisations, spanning service sectors and moving across care relationships, life stages and contexts. Expected outcomes include enhanced service capacity with tangible policy and practice benefits that will enable sustainable and fulfilling informal caring experiences.