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https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G7W6PDQ

# data[].attributes.body
--yes
--no

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--yes, female politicians effectively balance work and family responsibilities
--No, female politicians focus too much on family to effectively work in politics
--No, female politicians focus too much on work to be an effective member of a family unit
--it doesn't matter

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https://youtu.be/tpavaM62Fgo?si=FQhGtte9KYjcTHBf

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"Not Now, Not Ever!" (Gillard Misogyny Speech)

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Because gender equality is one of the key factors for social and economic development. Gender equality involves not only morality and ethics but also fairness and justice. Everyone has equal opportunities and rights. Gender diversity is also beneficial for organizations and businesses. It can also lead to an inclusive and just society allowing for more people to use their agency and create empowered individuals in communities

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Since they first entered the workforce, women have been dogged by persistent gender bias in their quest for career advancement.

Now, a study from MIT Sloan associate professor Danielle Li finds that female employees are less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts, despite outperforming them and being less likely to quit. And her research points to at least one reason why.

In the paper, " 'Potential' and the Gender Promotion Gap," Li found that on average, women received higher performance ratings than male employees, but received 8.3% lower ratings for potential than men. The result was that female employees on average were 14% less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues.

To determine whether women and men were assessed the same in terms of their potential, Li and co-researchers Alan Benson and Kelly Shue studied data on 30,000 management-track employees at a large North American retail chain between February 2009 and October 2015. Women made up about 56% of entry-level workers at the company. Rising through the ranks, women made up 48% of department managers, 35% of store managers, and 14% of district managers.

The company uses the Nine Box rating system - a numerical talent assessment tool that compares performance and potential using a 3x3 square grid and a low, medium, and high scale. The researchers used the Nine Box data for comparing male and female employees.

At the firm, "potential ratings strongly predict promotions," Li writes.

An employee moving from medium to high potential in a Nine Box assessment corresponds to a 75% increase in the likelihood of promotion, compared to only a 27% increase in the likelihood of promotion when moving from a medium to high performance rating.

"Taken together, we find that gender differences in potential ratings can explain up to 50% of the overall gender promotion gap," according to the paper.

What's more, relative to men with the same scores for potential, women outperformed their previous year's score. Yet they were still given lower potential ratings heading into the next year.

"The result I found most depressing in the paper is the result in which women outperform their stated potential," Li said in an interview. "Women have to hit a higher threshold of future performance in order to justify the same potential score."

Along with potential and performance ratings, the researchers examined stereotypes around women supporting women, and women's decisions to remain with a company.

While there's a belief that a female manager might be better at mentoring women and providing unbiased evaluation of female employees, Li's research found that female managers "give everyone lower scores."

"As a result, it's not obvious that assigning women to be managed by other women would solve this problem," she said.

Li also found that men who were passed over for a promotion were 35% - 40% more likely to leave than female employees, and male employees with the highest performance ratings who weren't promoted were 40% -50% more likely to leave. Women with the highest performance ratings were only 10% more likely to leave after being passed over for a promotion.

The firm realized this likelihood of attrition, Li writes in the paper, but rather than viewing this risk of loss as a sign that a male employee is more likely to leave his job, the retail chain "appears to reward at-risk workers with higher potential ratings, pay, and promotions."

"Taken together, it appears that the firm grants higher potential scores to men who are less likely to perform well in the future and more likely to leave the firm altogether," Li writes.

Ways to close the promotions gap

The problem with evaluating potential is that it's poorly defined, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation, Li said. While it does make sense to evaluate people on performance and potential, and the Nine Box does provide a metric for those evaluations, the problems start when a manager's imagination comes into play to help predict potential.

"You're trying to figure out how well would someone do if we gave them an opportunity that they haven't previously had," Li said. "The moment you veer off metrics, that's where people's stereotypes and perceptions now have room to exist."

For example, the stereotypes associated with leadership are traditionally associated with stereotypes around male qualities (ex. outspoken, dominant, aggressive), and a manager might struggle to visualize a woman in a leadership role. Or there's the belief that "diversity is fundamentally seen as the enemy of performance," Li said, which can prompt organizations to resist diversity-related efforts.

Since predictions around employee potential do require a mix of intuitiveness and insight into the unknown, there's no way to get around imagination. But there are ways to mitigate stereotypes and perceptions, whether an organization uses Nine Box or another method for evaluating employees.

One thing managers can do is define potential and what they're trying to measure.

"When you end up with scoring systems that are essentially the number that you attach to the 'vibe' that someone gives, if there's not some accountability in that it allows things to go wild," Li said. "Defining the thing that you're trying to measure is forcing some amount of accountability in how people measure it."

Another way to address the potential gap is to update how managers provide feedback, Li said. A manager should be able to define what they're trying to measure when considering potential, but they should also be able to justify the score they give an employee.

Accepting that there might be some noisy data - thanks to preconceptions and imagination - defining potential, and keeping track of the relationship between what managers measure and how employees ultimately fare in their work performance, will help with the accuracy of promotion potential.

More accurate projections mean improved organizational performance because managers are elevating workers best suited to handle more responsibility and leadership. And as shown in the case of the retail chain, those best workers are women.

So all those organizations that say they only want the highest performers - they can keep those goals, Li said. But be aware of that misallocation of talent that's likely happening between male and female employees.

"If you're an organization and you just want to do well and you don't care about gender equality, you should measure people's future performance and you should promote more women," Li said, "because you are leaving talent on the table."
Read: What these 9 female leaders learned from their allies

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Women are less likely than men to be promoted. Here's one reason why | MIT Sloan

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Whether you use the Nine Box system or another assessment tool, new research suggests it's time to rethink how you rate and track potential.

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Women standing up on behalf of different ethnicities increases the overall voter turnout and healthcare, education, family values, and human rights may be viewed differently by women from different backgrounds. Women's political alliances and partnerships can also be influenced by their cultural backgrounds. No matter what their cultural background is, they might work with other politicians who share their interests or share their goals with them.

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This article comprises of excerpts from Community Care Inform's guide to Initial meetings with young people: an intersectional and systemic approach. The guide is by Nick Marsh and Jahnine Davis, PhD researchers exploring issues related to child protection and safeguarding. They are also joint directors of Listen Up Research, a community interest company, set up to elevate the voices and experiences of marginalised young people in practice.

The full guide explores how intersectionality and systemic approaches are useful lenses to use when working with young people, especially when considering initial interactions with services. It also works through an in-depth case study following a young person who appears not to want to engage with their social worker, and how the social worker approaches and manages an initial meeting.

Community Care Inform subscribers can read the full guide here.

First impressions

When we meet someone we've never met before, within a few moments both parties have made numerous judgments about the other - whether we like it or not, first impressions count. The same applies whenever we meet a young person for the first time. That initial meeting holds the potential to change the direction of that young person's life - this includes what support they may be offered and which services they will be referred to. The outcome of this initial meeting will also be a deciding factor in whether a young person will meet with us again.

Intersectionality is a helpful lens in highlighting some considerations that can broaden a practitioner's thinking when meeting a young person for the first time, support confidence and help you to use this important moment to establish a trusting relationship.

What is intersectionality?

Intersectional thinking invites services and practitioners to explore how children and young people experience the world, how this impacts on the way they interact with others and the extent that they feel able to share their lived realities. These experiences are shaped and influenced by aspects of a young person's identity, such as their ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality, class and abilities. Crenshaw (1991) noted that people's interactions with the world are not solely based one aspect of their identity but instead are layered and multifaceted. Because the components of a person's identity interrelate, they are experienced simultaneously.

For example, someone may experience racism, sexism and ageism collectively or individually at different times and in different environments.

Consider Jamel. He is 15 years old, black British and of Caribbean heritage. He is a victim of peer-on-peer sexual abuse. He is 6 foot tall, is often described as aggressive and has low attendance at school. It is likely that Jamel has experienced racism and biased behaviours not just based on his race and ethnicity but also because of how this intersects with his gender: he is a black male.

Jamel is therefore nine times more likely to be wrongly identified for being in a gang, more likely to experience stop and search ( Lammy, 2017). In terms of how these characteristics intersect with age, likely to be perceived as being more adult-like and in less need of support compared to other children his age ( Goff, 2014). Such experiences may influence Jamel's sense of safety to feel comfortable about receiving and accessing support from professionals as a victim of sexual abuse.

'Seeing the whole person'

Listen Up Research have produced an infographic to consider an example of intersectionality in more detail. Click the graphic for an expanded view.

Reflection points to develop your practice

1. How might a young person's identity (their ethnicity, gender, social class, sexuality, whether they have a disability) and their lived experience of different forms of oppression as well as the specific risks and harms you know about affect how they interact with professionals and services?
You might want to consider a young person you have worked with, or take the example of Keira who is considered in-depth in the full Community Care Inform guide.
Keira is 16 years old, black British and of Caribbean heritage. Keira is being sexually exploited. Keira has had social workers in her life, off and on, for the past three years. Keira doesn't like social workers (or professionals more generally); she feels they have ruined her family's life. She had spoken about the abuse to one of her previous social workers. This information was shared with her mother without Keira's consent.

2. One option Keira's white male social worker considers is that she may want a black worker to support her instead. Why might assuming this be problematic?

3. Frequently services and practitioners do not reflect the diverse communities, children and families they serve. In such circumstances, how can individuals, teams or organisations better equip themselves to meet the needs of the communities they serve?

4. To help him set up a meeting with Keira and reflect on how to establish a relationship with her, the social worker contacts one professional she is known to trust, her school counsellor. With Keira's agreement and input on where they should meet, she and the consellor meet the social worker for him to hear from them about what has worked in building their relationship and how he can support her. By meeting Keira on her terms and with an advocate, the social worker has gone some way to redressing the power imbalance and adopt a children's rights approach. How else might you do this with young people you work with? Are there other ways you can work with different professionals to improve interactions with young people?

Intersectionality and systemic thinking (which is discussed in the full guide) challenge individuals and services to reflect and review how their own positions and perceptions of the world influence everyday lived experiences in both personal and professional arenas. These approaches allow practitioners to think critically, widen their lens and see the world through the eyes of the young people they support. They provide different options to how we approach initial meetings and overall practice.

Meeting young people where they are in their lives requires attention and sense checking to ensure our own beliefs and experiences don't overshadow the opportunity to get to know the young person sitting in front of us.

First impressions count. Time, consideration and a willingness to understand the lived realities young people experience is central to shaping that first interaction.

Find the full guide here on Community Care Inform Children. Not sure if you have access to Community Care Inform through your local authority of organisation or have other questions? Find help here.
Further resources for Community Care Inform subscribers Further reading on Community Care
References

Crenshaw K (1991)
' Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color'
Stanford Law Review, 43(6) pp.1241-1299

Goff P, Jackson M, Di Leone B, Culotta C and DiTomasso, N (2014)
' The essence of innocence: Consequences of dehumanizing Black children'
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4), pp.526-545

Lammy D (2017)
The Lammy Review: An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the Criminal Justice System
London: Lammy Review, Ministry of Justice

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Intersectionality: race, gender and other aspects of identity in social work with young people

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New guide about using intersectionality to improve initial meetings and relationship building with young people and practice in an anti-oppressive way

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Cutting-edge research on the intersection of race, gender, and politics Traditionally, there has been a significant lack of empirical attention given to the ways in which race/ethnicity, gender, and political representation overlap. Intersectionality and Politics is the groundbreaking collection of contemporary research and essays that applies the concept of intersectionality specifically to descriptive and substantive representation by African-American, Latino/a, and Asian-American elected officials.

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This is article presents a positive media representation of women as it shows how over the course of the last 40-50 years, media representation of women in the media has grown. The author, Jacinta Parsons, speaks about how her name was uncommon in the media, no prominent figures shared her name. Until Jacinda Arden came to power, followed by Jacinta Allen as the new Victorian Premier. Although the article is light-hearted and jokes that she now must share her name, it subtly celebrates how women's names are slowly becoming more common in the media as more women come into positions of power and influence.

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This is a very interesting phenomenon. This question is very common in interviews with female leaders or politicians, but for male politicians, almost no one asks this question. Women are fully capable and successful at managing both aspects. This balance is not a specific challenge that only female politicians are faced with, this outdated stereotype assumes women to be held to different expectations than their male colleagues in parental status and role. It is critical that discriminatory attitudes are dismantled by speaking out against sexism.

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The Australian Government is providing $5 million over five years to Women for Election Australia to equip and encourage more women to enter politics. More than 4,000 women nationwide will directly benefit from this program.
This grant is an excellent starting point, but the reality of this funding is that $1 million per year shared with 4,000 candidates is about $250, which in the scheme of funding doesn't cover much of the election campaign. The presentation of this grant highlights a progressive movement, but it is only a small step in supporting more diverse women access political spaces.

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This academic article offers interesting analysis into how women are portrayed in Australian and New Zealand media reportage. It describes women in politics as 'media celebrities' since they are often reported on in a similar way to celebrities. The media often focusses on women's fashion choices, family and private life and because they continue to be a minority in a predominantly cis-white male dominated area they can attract much more media attention. The more a woman's background deviates from the dominant cis-white male background, the more they're reported and critiqued. So we can say that women are reported on equally if not more than men BUT the reasons for which they're reported on are not equal to men in politics.

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A) They have no influence on their political positions.
B) They lead to a wide range of political viewpoints and priorities and increase voter turnout
C) They result in women in politics adopting only traditional values.

Correct answer- B

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International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics

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Over the last decade, iKNOW Politics has spoken with many women leaders around the world about the challenges they face in political life. Women interviewed often speak openly about the difficulties of combining a political career with family responsibilities, and in particular, the frequent travel required to meet with constituents or attend parliamentary sessions and committee meetings, usually held away from the family home, in the capital. This travel necessarily involves leaving family members - young or old - in the care of others, such as partners, parents and professional carers (e.g. nannies, child care workers, nurses, respite careers).

Some women politicians also expressed concern for their family members who become endangered when as MPs they are seen to be "too outspoken" on sensitive issues.

In this discussion, we want to hear about good practices in improving work/life balance for women and men MPs, and parliamentary staff who can also work the same long hours as MPs and who frequently travel with MPs in support of committee meetings.

Measures to encourage work/life balance

* What measures have MPs personally put in place to balance work and family responsibilities?

* What measures have been put in place by the political workplace (be it the parliament, the local council, the government department/ministry) to ensure work/life balance?

Transforming social norms and gender stereotypes

* What attitudinal barriers do women face in trying to balance work and family?

* Do men face the same attitudinal barriers?

* What good practices are evident in transforming social norms and gender stereotypes about women's role in public life?

The impact of work/life balance on the political career

* What are the research findings on the impact of work/life balance on political careers of women?

* Is work/life balance a consideration for both men and women when deciding to embark on a political career? Why or why not?

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Creating a work-life balance for women in politics

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Over the last decade, iKNOW Politics has spoken with many women leaders around the world about the challenges they face in political life. Women interviewed often speak openly about the difficulties of combining a political career with family responsibilities, and in particular, the frequent travel required to meet with constituents or attend parliamentary sessions and committee meetings, usually held away from the family home, in the capital.

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Increased visibility for the transgender community and other underrepresented groups is a common goal of trans women in politics. They push for laws that specifically address the special needs and issues of these groups using their platform. Additionally, to counteract prejudice and discrimination, they participate in public outreach and education. They can help the public understand and empathize with one another better by sharing their experiences and tales.

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Participation in our quiz is optional. Your participation is for personal interest; your responses are anonymous and do not form part of our project or research.
Personal identifiers will not recorded or linked to your responses.

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"Invisible while visible: an Australian perspective on queer women leaders in international affairs"
https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/ejpg/3/3/article-p427.xml

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Invisible while visible: an Australian perspective on queer women leaders in international affairs

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In among the silencing and invisibility of their stories, queer women operate as critical leaders in international affairs. They face multiple marginalisations: (1) challenging the archetypical diplomat or security leader as a heteronormative (white) male; and (2) operating in different cultural contexts with varying negative attitudes towards women in power and homosexuality in general.

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multiple choice
1.  feminism
2. misogyny
3. LGBTQ
4. racism
5. religion
6. classism
7. All of the above

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The Australian Government is providing $5 million over five years to Women for Election Australia to equip and encourage more women to enter politics.

The Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Kathy Gallagher said "This funding will help enable a new generation of women across the country to enter public office, including those who might have never considered it as a career option."

Women for Election Australia will lead a diverse consortium of partners to deliver this dedicated non-partisan project equipping women across Australia to prepare for and enter public office, at all levels of government, and achieving real outcomes for women across the political spectrum.

More than 4,000 women nationwide will directly benefit from this program.

The program will include place-based training events, online training forums, and a tech-based training platform containing candidate resources and support forums.

The project will increase the number and diversity of women running for public office and getting elected, and encourages the participation of women from politically under-represented communities.

Consortium partners include Politics in Colour, Australian Local Government Women's Association, Global Institute of Women's Leadership, Ruth McGowan Pty Ltd, and Quantum Impact Group Pty Ltd. The consortia arrangement brings a breadth of experience, community connections and cultural expertise to the project.

Funding has been provided through the Women's Leadership and Development Program 'Women in Public Office' grant opportunity, following a competitive selection process.

The Women's Leadership and Development Program goes beyond creating job opportunities for women by addressing the structural and systemic barriers that impede women's employment, and progression into leadership positions.

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Grant awarded to boost gender equality and diversity in Australian politics

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The Australian Government is providing $5 million over five years to Women for Election Australia to equip and encourage more women to enter politics.The Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Kathy Gallagher said "This funding will help enable a new generation of women across the country to enter public office, including those who might have never considered it as a career option."

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Media Representations of Women Politicians in Australia and New Zealand High Expectations Hostility or Stardom

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Intersectionality is a complex and multifaceted concept that has its origins in critical theory in the social sciences. It recognizes that everyone's identity consists of a combination of social categories, such as race, gender, class, sexual orientation, etc. These categories are not separate or isolated; On the contrary, they cross each other and create a unique and often complicated experiences. In this case, I think intersectionality refers to how a person's experience as a media celebrity is shaped by the intersection of their gender, race and gender identity. For example, women of color or transgender women may experience different media coverage than white cisgender women because of the interplay of these intersectional identities. They may not only face the gender-based censorship that women often encounter, but also face the challenge of the media's description of racial and transgender people. Media coverage of these people may be quite different from that of white men or women. They may experience more negative descriptions and higher levels of stereotypes.

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Growing up in the ’80s in the suburbs of Melbourne, nobody was called Jacinta. I had that market cornered. Unlike my friend Kate, who would need to be addressed by her full name to differentiate her from all the other Kates in our class, I was the only Jacinta. It made me feel like Madonna, who didn’t need a surname clarification either.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. For some reason, maybe it was because there wasn’t enough chloride in the water in the ’80s and it seemed most of us hadn’t developed enough lip strength to pronounce our Ts, my name was often morphed into Jacinnnnnah. I didn’t mind so much because the mispronunciation was all mine too; I didn’t have to share.

On the rare occasion I would run into another “Jacinta”, we’d look at each other with a knowing that we belonged to something rare. “Do most people call you Jacinnnnah?” we would laugh. And then we’d comment on how special the name was and that the other Jacinta was one of the first we’d ever met. How delightful, we’d giggle, we were very, very special, weren’t we?

Then, something terrible happened. The third ever female prime minister of New Zealand had parents who for some reason had dispensed with the T, gone straight for sloppy lips and named her JacinDa ArDern. I went to bed on October 16, 2017, rarefied and woke up the next morning as a bastardised version of my former self. Suddenly, no longer special, I started to get called JacinDa.

It was around this time that I met an ally. I had been sending emails to myself (don’t ask) but had been clumsy with the email address and had been sending them to another Jacinta Parsons. After a long and confused courtship, we each decided not to kill off the other Jacinta Parsons, and instead joined forces. A friendship was born. The other Jacinta Parsons, who happens to be a New Zealand resident, is cooler than I am. But I feel like she’s improved our brand, so I don’t mind.
And then, just when things had started to recover after JacinDa ArDern resigned, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price rose in the national consciousness as the Voice referendum debate kicked off.

Then our mate Dan had to go and throw another spanner in the works. At 5pm on September 27, 2023, Daniel Andrews resigned as premier of Victoria. Beyond the political, social, cultural and economic relevance that this had to the State of Victoria – there were other issues closer to hand. His replacement as premier would be a Jacinta. Jacinta Allan.

Every time her name was mentioned while she was the minister for transport and infrastructure, or her time as the minister for suburban rail loop, my tummy would flip. As the only Jacinta on the block, I had trained my ear to jump on any utterance of my name. And now, this? Premier of Victoria? Her name would be EVERYWHERE.

But I realised it wasn’t just me. Other’s had surely felt the same when they shared names with the powerful premiers of Victoria: Daniel, John, Jeff, Steve, Henry, Albert, James, Rupert, Harry, George, Alexander, Thomas, Duncan, Graham, John, James, John, John, John, Stanley, another Thomas, another John, and one more, William, Ted, James, William, Denis, another William, James, James, Bryan, William, William, Charles, Richard, Allan, William again, Lindsay, John, George, John, Charles, Ian, George and … well… Joan.
I’m not sure how William or John might have felt, I mean, they would have probably become
quite accustomed to hearing their names associated with those that wielded power and
influence. But I’m not sure about all the Joans. Would they have gone to bed on August 9,
1990, and woken up the next morning no longer just a Joan, but now a Joan that shared a
name with the first female premier of Victoria?

And now, for only the second time in the history of this state, a woman – someone who happens to share my first name – is sworn in as premier. One of only 14 women to be a head of government in the nation’s history. I realised that the utterance of my name, in this context, was historic.

So, instead of fighting it, I’ve decided to accept the role as the premier of Victoria and now spend a lot of time wandering Spring Street hoping to give a hapless journalist an exclusive on what I plan to do. Jacintas/Das of the world, unite!

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Growing up in the '80s in the suburbs of Melbourne, nobody was called Jacinta. I had that market cornered. Unlike my friend Kate, who would need to be addressed by her full name to differentiate her from all the other Kates in our class, I was the only Jacinta. It made me feel like Madonna, who didn't need a surname clarification either.

It wasn't all smooth sailing, though. For some reason, maybe it was because there wasn't enough chloride in the water in the '80s and it seemed most of us hadn't developed enough lip strength to pronounce our Ts, my name was often morphed into Jacinnnnnah. I didn't mind so much because the mispronunciation was all mine too; I didn't have to share.

Jacinta Allan, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Jacinta Parsons and Jacinda Ardern. Credit: The Age

On the rare occasion I would run into another "Jacinta", we'd look at each other with a knowing that we belonged to something rare. "Do most people call you Jacinnnnah?" we would laugh. And then we'd comment on how special the name was and that the other Jacinta was one of the first we'd ever met. How delightful, we'd giggle, we were very, very special, weren't we?

Then, something terrible happened. The third ever female prime minister of New Zealand had parents who for some reason had dispensed with the T, gone straight for sloppy lips and named her JacinDa ArDern. I went to bed on October 16, 2017, rarefied and woke up the next morning as a bastardised version of my former self. Suddenly, no longer special, I started to get called JacinDa.

It was around this time that I met an ally. I had been sending emails to myself (don't ask) but had been clumsy with the email address and had been sending them to another Jacinta Parsons. After a long and confused courtship, we each decided not to kill off the other Jacinta Parsons, and instead joined forces. A friendship was born. The other Jacinta Parsons, who happens to be a New Zealand resident, is cooler than I am. But I feel like she's improved our brand, so I don't mind.

And then, just when things had started to recover after JacinDa ArDern resigned, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price rose in the national consciousness as the Voice referendum debate kicked off.

Then our mate Dan had to go and throw another spanner in the works. At 5pm on September 27, 2023, Daniel Andrews resigned as premier of Victoria. Beyond the political, social, cultural and economic relevance that this had to the State of Victoria - there were other issues closer to hand. His replacement as premier would be a Jacinta. Jacinta Allan.

Every time her name was mentioned while she was the minister for transport and infrastructure, or her time as the minister for suburban rail loop, my tummy would flip. As the only Jacinta on the block, I had trained my ear to jump on any utterance of my name. And now, this? Premier of Victoria? Her name would be EVERYWHERE.

But I realised it wasn't just me. Other's had surely felt the same when they shared names with the powerful premiers of Victoria: Daniel, John, Jeff, Steve, Henry, Albert, James, Rupert, Harry, George, Alexander, Thomas, Duncan, Graham, John, James, John, John, John, Stanley, another Thomas, another John, and one more, William, Ted, James, William, Denis, another William, James, James, Bryan, William, William, Charles, Richard, Allan, William again, Lindsay, John, George, John, Charles, Ian, George and ... well... Joan.

I'm not sure how William or John might have felt, I mean, they would have probably become
quite accustomed to hearing their names associated with those that wielded power and
influence. But I'm not sure about all the Joans. Would they have gone to bed on August 9,
1990, and woken up the next morning no longer just a Joan, but now a Joan that shared a
name with the first female premier of Victoria?

And now, for only the second time in the history of this state, a woman - someone who happens to share my first name - is sworn in as premier. One of only 14 women to be a head of government in the nation's history. I realised that the utterance of my name, in this context, was historic.

So, instead of fighting it, I've decided to accept the role as the premier of Victoria and now spend a lot of time wandering Spring Street hoping to give a hapless journalist an exclusive on what I plan to do. Jacintas/Das of the world, unite!

Jacinta Parsons is a Melbourne writer and co-host of The Friday Review on ABC Radio Melbourne. The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.

Jacinta Parsons is a Melbourne writer and co-host of The Friday Review on the ABC.

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No two people are the same, unless they're called Jacinta

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As the only Jacinta on the block, I had trained my ear to jump on any utterance of my name. Now, my head is flipping in every direction.

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Text box
options for 1 or 2 word answers
1. adequate
2. Exceeded expectations
3. Below expectations

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If you are curious and want more information on this survey, please access this Padlet: how-does-intersectionality-challenge-media-representations-and-expectations-as-a-woman-in-Australian-politics?

Here we dissect our questions and have links for further education on these topics.

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What is Intersectionality?

The term "intersectionality" has, unfortunately, become another buzzword, and, consequently, a lightning rod for some intense reactionary backlash.

As Jane Coston explained it in a 2019 , "The intersectionality wars":

"On the right, intersectionality is seen as "" placing nonwhite, non-heterosexual people on top...To many conservatives, intersectionality means "because you're a minority, you get special standards, special treatment in the eyes of some."

But asked for a definition during a 2020 , Columbia Law Professor and original author of the term, Kimberlé Crenshaw, put it this way:

"These days, I start with what it's not, because there has been distortion. It's not identity politics on steroids. It is not a mechanism to turn white men into the new pariahs. It's basically a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What's often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts."

Origin of the Term "Intersectionality"

In 1989, in an analysis of U.S. discrimination law, Crenshaw observed a problem in how courts were deciding discrimination cases when the plaintiffs were Black women.

They would determine that discrimination was or was not present, based EITHER on race OR on sex (each of these having previously been defined as a protected class), but not both.

Not, in other words, based on the intersection of the two categories.

As Crenshaw's analysis showed, this "single-issue" or "single axis" logical framework led to varying situations in which Black women either fell through the judicial cracks altogether, or they were not seen as sufficiently representative of either category.

In one case (DeGraffenreid v. General Motors ), the court ruled the Black women plaintiffs could not claim sexual discrimination, because they could not prove the discrimination they had experienced had been experienced by ALL women at GM.

In another case (), the court would not allow the Black women plaintiffs to represent their entire racial class (i.e., redress was not extended to Black men), because "the sex disparities between Black men and Black women created such conflicting interests that Black women could not possibly represent Black men adequately."

"Intersectionality" as a conceptual framework, provided "a prism to bring to light dynamics within discrimination law that weren't being appreciated by the courts."

From about 2015 on-most notably, at the time of the 2017 Women's March on Washington-the word went mainstream and began to take on a life of its own. It has since suffered a fate similar to that of many buzzwords: its meaning has morphed-its use misapplied, and its strength watered down-in what Crenshaw describes as, "like a very bad game of telephone."

For a more in-depth review, read the Vox , or Crenshaw's original .

What is an example of intersectionality?

In her 1989 paper, Crenshaw the story of Sojourner Truth and her speech, "Ain't I a Woman?," before a Women's Rights Conference in 1851, to illustrate how an intersectional lens or prism can reveal forms of experience-and often patterns of discrimination-that would otherwise escape consideration or go unseen if you only look at categories like race and gender as distinct and separate, without looking at the interplay between, or compounding of, the two, in a person "identified" or "identifying" as both.

In 1851, (white) male critics against women's suffrage used the argument that women were "too frail and delicate to take on the responsibilities of political activity." Responding to this, Truth pointed to the harsh conditions and myriad brutalities she had endured as a slave-plowing fields, working "as much as any man," being whipped, and bearing thirteen children, all sold into slavery. "And ain't I a woman?," she asked.

Yet, as Crenshaw points out, and as we have discussed , early suffragettes in America did NOT, in fact, welcome Black women among their ranks, and even what historians today call "second wave" feminism is often also referred to as white feminism , because it mostly left out the experiences and needs of women of color. It lacked, in other words, an intersectional lens.

"Black women," Crenshaw explains, "sometimes experience discrimination in ways similar to white women's experiences; sometimes they share very similar experiences with Black men. Yet often they experience double discrimination-the combined effects of practices which discriminate on the basis of race, and on the basis of sex. And sometimes, they experience discrimination as Black women-not the sum of race and sex discrimination, but as Black women."

In short, an intersectional lens allows us to explore ways in which various systems of inequality, based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability , and many more, interact to create unique lived experiences for people of those communities.

As a concrete example, when we look at the Roe v. Wade reversal , an intersectional lens allows us to understand how and why Black and brown women will be disproportionately harmed by the ruling.

In Crenshaw's use of the framework-and certainly in the way we think of it-it is NOT meant to create a hierarchy of oppressions, nor to "build a new racial hierarchy with Black women at the top and white men at the bottom."

Economic privilege within the intersectionality conversation

At Daniel's workplace, from what I could glean, there are significant markers of privilege on display at Daniel's workplace, revealing disparities between those coming from a certain kind of elite background, and those not.
It's against the perpetuation of this cycle that Daniel has been trying to make a difference.
Having had some contact with elite institutions myself (and the pedigreed lot that can hail from their halls), I had a sense of what this disparity might look like.

Yet the circles of privilege don't always match what you would expect.

Daniel believes the preconceptions can lead businesses to look at D&I in a somewhat one-dimensional way.

"If you hire a person who looks a certain way," he offered, "but that person actually grew up in circumstances of privilege in a foreign country, are you helping combat inequality?"

To me, this gets at the heart of some very nuanced issues.

On the one hand, if we're talking about a role that has never been held by a person of color, and you hire a privileged person of color from abroad, surely you are still breaking down racial barriers? Surely, in this case, representation matters?

At the same time, there may be other barriers, like class and economic means, that you are failing to address, but which contribute to the perpetuation of an underclass that remains excluded - perhaps one largely made up of people of color - within your country.

If the goal is to dismantle systems of privilege; possibly even challenge the notion of hierarchy itself, you may have to push beyond a given marker to see if you're getting at the root problem or problems. You might think you're solving an inequity when in fact you are only doing surface work.

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The Intersectionality Venn Diagram | Tidal Equality

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In conversation with an Equity Sequence™️ learner, we break down how intersectionality exists at work; where identit(ies), equity, and inclusion intersect.