Gender and Australian Industrial Relations Theory and Research Practice

Abstract

Gender is a significant—if understudied—theme in the field of Australian industrial relations. This paper reflects on some of the ways in which the theory of industrial relations—more precisely, its conceptual categories—and its research approaches, are constrained and perverted by the failure to treat gender effectively. The paper considers how the study of industrial relations is in many places in fact the study of men: that gender, though always present, is rarely pulled into focus. The field remains largely uninterested in naming men, or in studying women, and conflates ‘women’ with gender. In contrast, other related fields—and feminist theory in particular—have been vigorously unravelling the uses of gender categories within the social sciences. How can these opposing tendencies be usefully reconciled in ways which enrich industrial relations research?