The Gender Card

Today on The Gender Card, we speak to two esteemed Griffith University researchers, Professor Leonie Rowan and Dr Dhara Shah, who are investigating how gender discrimination impacts both the personal and professional lives of academic women in Australian universities.

They're leading a dynamic interdisciplinary team that will use intersectionality theory to gather the experiences of academic women, and find out why so many still experience job insecurity, teaching overload, expectations around emotional labour, reduced opportunities for research and everyday sexism.

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Violence against women is a major human rights violation and public health problem the world over, prevalent across all societies.  

Today on The Gender Card, we speak to three academics who are leading the way in a landmark Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence, which will investigate the causes of this violence.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women - or CEVAW - will become the world’s leading research program to stop violence against women. It will be interdisciplinary, focussed on the Indo-Pacific, and Indigenous-centred, to lead research that redresses power imbalances and enables new cultural understandings.

Monash University’s Professor Jacqui True joins us today as Director of the Centre, along with Griffith University’s Professor Sara Davies as Deputy Director of the centre’s Indo-Pacific Research and Relationships.

Professor Patrick O’Leary tells us about his role as a chief investigator in the Centre, and the hope they all have that by gathering all important data, CEVAW will bring integral breakthroughs so desperately needed, for lasting societal change.

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Today on The Gender Card, we explore the emerging research around critical race feminism and how that intersects with feminist practice in arts and academia. Griffith University’s Dr Nilmini Fernando’s innovative research was recently featured in the Journal of Intercultural Studies - particularly her work in a participatory theatre-based project in Ireland creating a platform for women seeking protection - to self-represent their stories of gendered race in their encounters with the asylum system. The live performance space fostered voicing of stories that connect past to present, disrupt power relations and speak back to gendered racial constructions of "African women" to remake meanings and assumptions on their own terms. As a Sri Lankan Australian interdisciplinary feminist researcher, educator and practitioner, Dr Fernando uses her lived experience and expertise in critical race theory to expand on Sara Ahmed’s seminal work, to distinguish specific forms of Black female agency and resistance in Australia. She’s also co-editing a book based on Senior Research Fellow Dr Debbie Bargallie’s groundbreaking work on Racial Literacy. 

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Episode 29: Today on The Gender Card, we explore teacher activism, and how that resistance translates into the classroom. Phd candidate Carla Tapia has delved into how teachers can bring about social change through resistance, despite constant scrutiny and limitations on their teaching. Using Indigenous methodologies to understand how teachers engage with their students, she showed how teachers have developed ways to give them space to resist - by giving alternative views to history in the classroom, that have traditionally been dominated by male perspectives. Senior Research Fellow Dr Debbie Bargallie was one of Carla’s supervisors, bringing her expertise on Indigenous methodologies, and they both join us on the Gender Card today. Carla’s use of Indigenous Australian methodologies and decolonisation approaches has shone new light on the struggles that teachers face, finding their motivations to create a fairer society are often thwarted by bureaucracy, and how they overcome those challenges.

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On this episode of The Gender Card, we delve into the complexities and wide-ranging experiences of women recovering from depression. Griffith University’s Professor Simone Fullagar and Dr Adele Pavlidis have just released a book along with their colleague Wendy O’Brien, called Feminism and a Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery. Their research approach uses poems and feminist memory to explore why women report much higher rates of depression than men, yet gender is often ignored in medical and therapeutic responses. As they write in their introduction, “We invite readers to engage with this book as a co-constituted process of reading-writing through visceral connections - guts, brains, hearts, skin, words, images, surfaces - to explore how gender matters…we all feel the weight of another woman’s suffering that remains invisible, unrecognised in ways that matter deeply”. Their years of research are shining a light on society’s hesitancy to talk about gender as a crucial factor shaping depression, and what implications this has for more effective prevention, treatment and recovery options.

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Like the octopus she sees herself to be, Griffith Business School’s Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation Naomi Birdthistle has spread her tentacles worldwide in support of women entrepreneurs.

Her passion for entrepreneurship started at home, supporting her family business. Now Naomi has multiple projects on the go, in the same way as the women she supports to find the confidence to go on to their next level of success.

Naomi’s work with women in business has led to incredible research output, with more than a dozen book chapters and more than 50 research papers about managing and developing sustainable development goals.

She does this by enabling women to overcome what she describes as “the insular narrative”, to stop holding themselves back, and instead identify when they are entrepreneurs and wear that badge proudly. 

Her main goal now is to stop the Australian government from lagging behind other countries, and instead provide more targeted support to entrepreneurial women.

For more information on Naomi and the other episodes of The Gender Card go to the podcast website at https://www.griffith.edu.au/research/gender-equality-research-network/podcasts

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Today on The Gender Card, we delve into the contested territory that overlaps consent and sport. Griffith University’s Dr Indigo Willing is leading the research project called Red Flags, Banter and Blurred Lines: Exploring Consent in Sport. She’s working alongside Dr Adele Pavlidis, going where many have feared to tread, asking male sports leaders about respectful relationships and how to better prevent violence against women. With Dr Willing’s background as a skateboarding and masculinities expert, combined with Dr Pavlidis’s expertise as a roller derby and women in sports scholar,  both sociologists hope to reveal why cultures of exclusion and harm persist in sport, despite many official programs especially designed to tackle the problem. And as they reveal in this interview with Nance Haxton, issues of power, masked by banter on the sporting field are a central aspect of this dilemma.

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The United Nations International Day of People with Disability has a long esteemed history, celebrating understanding and acceptance of people with a disability around the world for almost three decades. It’s a day to honour the benefits of an inclusive and accessible society for all. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a key touchstone moment for disability rights, as it’s a historic and comprehensive legally binding international treaty that Australia was pivotal in developing. The CRPD as it’s become known, came into force in 2008.

Today on the Gender Card, our guests examine how far we have come, and how much more there is to achieve for disability rights in Australia. Lawyer and marathon runner Henry McPhillamy brings insights from his own lived experience as a person who is blind to the panel. Eloise Hummell is a Research Fellow at The Hopkins Centre, at the Menzies Health Institute of Queensland, who is researching disability and rehabilitation, particularly how the National Disability Insurance Scheme is moving away from the key principles of the CRPD. And we are also joined today by internationally renowned researcher and Senior Policy Officer for People with Disability Australia Frances Quan Farrant.

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As Covid-19 continues its relentless march throughout the world, so too is recognition of what is now becoming known as the Shadow Pandemic. Emerging research gathered from the front lines by the United Nations, shows that since the outbreak of Covid-19, all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has rapidly increased. On this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, the UN is calling for a global collective effort, as essential services such as domestic violence shelters and helplines around the world reach capacity. In some countries, calls to helplines have increased five-fold. Griffith University researcher and phd candidate Elise Imray Papineau is investigating the importance of grassroots activism in this mix. Her research focuses on the cross-cultural experiences of activist women in Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. I’m meeting Elise at a renowned gathering place for activists in Brisbane’s West End called The Burrow, where she’s coordinated an art exhibition highlighting the subversive work of protest groups such as Needle N Bitch from Indonesia, and how art can powerfully challenge the status quo. 

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As the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow draws to a close, amidst debate about how much it has actually achieved, researchers such as Dr Melissa Jackson are solving intractable climate change dilemmas on the front line. Melissa Jackson is a research fellow with Griffith University’s Climate Action Beacon, recognising her novel interdisciplinary approach to water and energy management, particularly in remote communities such as the islands of the Torres Strait. On the Gender Card today she explains how she’s using innovative technologies such as water meters, to empower local communities as they face increasing water supply limitations, exacerbated by the impact of climate change. Melissa has just returned from her latest visit to the Torres Strait, and her interviews with locals about the impact of climate change form a key part of this podcast, and her pioneering model of community based engagement. Part of her success was discovering how to give women in these isolated communities more of a voice in decision making, to help the community come up with successful strategies for extreme weather events and increasingly unpredictable rainfall.

Thanks and acknowledgement of our wonderful Interviewees:

Regina Turner, artist, Panipan designs www.panipan.com.au/, Resident Hammond Island; Mark David, Operations Manager, Water, Torres Strait Islands Regional Council; Toni Pearson, Administration Officer, Buildings, Torres Strait Islands Regional Council (Poruma), Poruma resident and P&C Chair, Tagai State College Poruma; Vere Ledua, Water Officer, Torres Strait Islands Regional Council (Murray Island); Felisha Pearson, Administration Officer, Torres Strait Islands Regional Council (Poruma) and Poruma resident.

Find out more about Griffith's Climate Action Beacon here.

Find out more about Dr Melissa Jackson here.

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Today on The Gender Card we speak to two proud First Nations PhD candidates at Griffith University, whose Indigenous identity and family connections along with their wealth of experiences from the classroom as former teachers are informing their specialist research. Kombumerri saltwater womanMadeleine Pugin is investigating Indigenous Human Rights, particularly cultural rights, and how Aboriginal groups can have their identity better recognised. While Gumbaynggirr/Dunghutti woman Julie Ballangarry is researching how to make Education policy more effective and truly inclusive. She wants to find out why Indigenous Education policies keep failing to address the fundamental issue of education inequality.

Both are breaking down the barriers in what are traditionally male dominated fields, in the hope their findings can place Indigenous perspectives at the centre rather than on the periphery of policy making. Julie and Madeleine also have invaluable insights into how to better support Indigenous PhD students, so that they don’t just survive, but rather thrive in the university environment.

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The United Nations has dedicated 12 August as International Youth Day. As we focus on young people around the world, we are dedicated to making young people's voices more mainstream, and help them take part in meaningful engagement with political, economic and social decisions. We are joined by two Griffith University researchers who have found that when you give young people access to arts and culture, even in challenging and isolating environments, the benefits for all of society are immense.Dr Alexis Kallio is using her background in music education and criminology to exploring how music can be a powerful tool for rehabilitation in Australian Juvenile Detention Centres. Joel Spence, a secondary school teacher, is researching how ballet as a dance therapy has huge benefits for traumatic brain injury survivors and their carers. Join us to find out more about their research.

Dr Alexis Kallio is using her background in music education and criminology to exploring how music an be a powerful tool for rehabilitation in Australian Juvenile Detention Centres. Joel Spence, a secondary school teacher, is researching how ballet as a dance therapy has huge benefits for traumatic brain injury survivors and their carers. Join us to find out more about their research.

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The Gender Card discussed human trafficking for World Anti-trafficking Day. While many people think slavery and human trafficking are vestiges of a long distant past, found only in movies and books, the reality is, every year thousands of men, women and children are exploited by traffickers.

In 2018, more than 50,000 people were bought and sold in 148 countries around the world.

Many of those are from south-east Asia, but it is by far not the only region where humans are trafficked for money. And in Australia, despite recent federal legislation aimed at curbing the practice, it’s a problem that’s not going away.

The United Nations has declared July 30 as World Anti-Trafficking Day, to shed light on this practice, and increase worldwide efforts to shut it down.

Women are the main targets, making up almost half of all victims of human trafficking, while almost a fifth of victims, are young girls. Most of them are trafficked for sexual exploitation or forced labour.

Today on The Gender Card, we speak to three experts in this field - Chantel Brown from the Australian Red Cross Support for Trafficked People Program, the Queensland lead of the Freedom Hub Keight Davis, and Deputy Head Of the Griffith Law School Kat van Doore - all of whom have worked with trafficking survivors to try and end the cycle of abuse with trauma informed recovery care. And they give tips for us, on how to spot trafficking, and what to do about it if you do.

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In this special episode of The Gender Card podcast celebrating World Refugee Day, we walk through the multicultural streets of inner city Brisbane with local community leader Seble Tadesse. And we find out how the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention is being challenged around the world by speaking to two experts from Griffith University’s Gender Equality Research Network - Emma Robinson and Thu Nguyen.

As part of these discussions we talk about family violence and the violence that refugees sometimes experience and flee. If you need to seek counselling after listening to this please call 1800 Respect or Lifeline.

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Today on the International day to End Obstetric F…

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The 2021 Federal Budget was billed as a budget for women? Was it? Join Nance Haxton and experts from the Gender Equality Research Network as they drill down into the detail of the spending spree.

The panel of experts include Professor Susan Harris-Rimmer, Dr Elise Stephenson, Professor Fabrizio Carmignani and Associate Professor Pavinder Kler.

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Nance Haxton in conversation with Professor Patri…

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Inclusive education: What is it and how can we he…

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Today we talk to former senator Natasha Stott Despoja about her appointment to a top United Nations role and ending discrimination against women. In January, Natasha starts her four-year term as one of 23 independent experts monitoring the effects of countries around the world to improve gender equality. In this interview, she tells us how the need to protect women’s rights is even greater in the wake of coronavirus, and how she keenly feels her responsibility in her new role as the only expert on the committee from the Oceania region. After Natasha’s interview, we are joined by Professor Susan Harris Rimmer, who tells us how significant it is that Natasha was chosen as the first Australian in 28 years to join the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

This interview coincides with the international campaign of 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence.

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Please note: This podcast includes graphic conversations about sexual abuse and violence. The conversation is disturbing and may cause distress. Please call 1800 RESPECT if you need to seek counselling, information or support services.

This episode of the Gender Card comes at a crucial time, at the start of a global campaign of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The International Women's Development Agency is calling on us all to add our voices to this global movement by challenging attitudes that perpetuate, rationalise and normalise violence against women, and deny women's right to safety. Two Griffith University researchers—Phyu Phyu Oo and Tristan Russell—are doing groundbreaking work highlighting the dangers and discrimination that women face in two of our closest Asian neighbours—Myanmar and Thailand. Phyu Phyu Oo is investigating how structural violence and gender inequality is embedded in conflict-related sexual violence and how this prevents effective prosecution and prevention of these crimes. Tristan Russell's research explores gendered pathways to prison in Thailand, with violence against women being a prominent theme. Many of these women experience myriad abuses throughout their lifetime, ultimately leading to their incarceration.

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While many social equity programs have had to pau…

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In this episode of The Gender Card podcast, Nance…

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic violence h…

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In February 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic w…

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The worldwide health implications of the coronavi…

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Ethnomusicologist Dr Catherine Grant has travelle…

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Domestic violence remains a scourge of society, w…

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Human trafficking is a term we are now familiar w…

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Household finance. It’s something we all have to …

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We know what geography is, but what about human geography?
Griffith School of Environment lecturer and Urban Research program researcher Dr Natalie Osborne investigates the links between the person, the society and physical space around us, and how women are often left out of planning. She focuses on social and environmental justice in human settlements and the development of more just, resilient and sustainable futures. And she’s finding there’s more than just history and politics at play when it comes to gender politics in this realm.

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Women travelling alone are a growing demographic,…

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Today we look at how gender plays out in sport, a…

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Imagine for a moment if you will, what the world would look like if all genders were equal. What would that mean for society, for work, and play, and for women’s place in those structures? That’s what this podcast, The Gender Card, is all about.

In this first episode of The Gender Card, we find out why and how women win or lose in big transitional periods, both on a global scale, and in their own personal lives.

And we discover what brought together our esteemed experts Griffith Law School Associate Professor Dr Susan Harris-Rimmer, and Griffith Business School Associate Professor Dr Sara Davies, to start a radical research network for gender equity at university level.

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