De facto informality? Rethinking the experience of women in the formally regulated workplace

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that characteristics usually associated with informal work, including a lack of protection under the law, diminished voice and agency, are routinely experienced by women in formally regulated workplaces in Australia. Despite a raft of formal legislation to prohibit gender-based discrimination, outlaw gendered violence and promote workplace health and safety, an experience of de facto informality undermines women’s agency to address everyday discrimination and gendered violence at work. This reality is attributed to the patriarchal social norms that dominate in many workplaces, which create challenges for the enforcement of legal regulation and which lead women to tolerate unsatisfactory conditions despite avenues for formal legal protection and compensation. The lens of de facto informality, we argue, highlights the gap between the legislative intent and the lived experience of working women, the limitations of regulation and the need for collective action to address gender inequality and improve women’s capacity to exercise their agency at work.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal work
• gendered violence
• agency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Heap

Lisa Heap is a labour lawyer and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Religion, Politics and Society, Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.  Between 2015 and January 2018 she led the Women's Rights and Safety Unit at VTHC.  She is the former Executive Director of the Australian Institute of Employment Rights (AIER).

Tom Barnes

Tom Barnes is an economic sociologist and ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Religion, Politics and Society, Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. He is the author of Informal Labour in Urban India: Three Cities, Three Journeys (Routledge, 2015).

Sally Weller

Sally Weller is an economic geographer and Reader at the Institute for Religion Politics and Society at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia. Her work on labour market change and industrial transformation in Australia has been published in numerous articles and book chapters. She is a frequent contributor to public policy and has conducted consultancy projects for the Australian government, the Victorian State governments and non-profit organisations.