New research article on women’s safety in Papua New Guinea
Our principal consultant Dean Laplonge has published a new article based on his work exploring safety for women who work in remote locations in Papua New Guinea. This work has been completed through Factive’s client the International Finance Corporation, and in partnership with the Business Coalition for Women in PNG.
Article Title
Responding to paternalistic protection: Gender-smart safety for women working in remote locations in Papua New Guinea
Abstract
The practice of a ‘gender-smart safety’ is an important part of recognizing and responding to specific risks faced by women in workplaces. This is a relatively new concept within the discourse of workplace safety, and one that is challenging traditional views about what safety is, how it should be managed and who should be included in this management. This article explores the findings of a research project that looks at the safety of women who have experience of working in remote locations in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
You can access the article here.
Clean Energy Council Innovation Award 2017
Congratulations to our talented consultant, Sue Griffin, who is a co-creator of an award-winning Australian-first electricity pricing innovation which works like a mobile phone plan, with an app to track usage. It was joint winner of the Innovation Award by the Clean Energy Council and shortlisted for the Business Community Engagement award. The pilot engaged the public as collaborators using an app, Facebook group, interviews, forums, surveys and video. This new product is being introduced into regional Western Australia.
Horizon Power has run a research pilot to test the features of a smart new pricing model for a 21st century energy system. It’s a new way of charging for electricity similar to a mobile phone plan. The idea is to leverage mobile phone literacy, rather than trying to build electricity literacy.
The research pilot was run for four months in Port Hedland over a summer, with very high customer engagement across multiple channels. The pilot engaged the public as collaborators using an app, Facebook group, interviews, forums, surveys and video. 407 participants volunteered to test the app and see if they could stay under the hourly peak allowance set for them by Horizon Power. This provided insight into people’s willingness and ability to manage their consumption or leverage technology in return for financial benefit.
See this ABC news article, or the video for more info:
Oil, Gas Firms Hit High Scores on LGBTQ Equality Index
Several oil and gas firms have achieved high scores on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s latest corporate equality index (CEI), which rates Fortune 500 workplaces on their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) employees.
Find out which ones here!
Gender Equality conference in Vietnam
Fair Wear Foundation, in close cooperation with the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC/ILO), is hosting the 2017 Gender Forum in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.
During this three day event, businesses, governments, NGOs and trade unions will share solutions to help put an end to gender-based violence in garment factories, a persistent and widespread problem.
Factive’s Dean Laplonge is attending and presenting. Dean is currently supporting the work of the ILO in Myanmar to conduct a gender equality assessment in the garment sector.
For more updates, see the Fair Wear Foundation Facebook page.
Find out why a woman left the mining industry…
A female geologist in Canada explains why she left the mining industry.
Diversity is a hot topic these days in the mineral exploration and mining industry. It seems that no matter what conference you attend, someone will comment on the number of older Caucasian men that are in the room vs. people that are younger, female, indigenous or ethnically diverse. The discussion always leads to a consensus that the industry needs more diversity. While this true, I often find that the discussion fails to address the factors that may be inhibiting these groups from entering, and/or staying, in the industry.
One summer, I was working in a camp of 20 people total, and the gender balance was evenly split among the team. I was washing dishes with a male co-worker on the third day of camp, so I had only met this man 3 days prior. Within 10 minutes of talking, he told me that he would probably cheat on his girlfriend this summer while in the field, and hook up with someone (no one in particular) while at camp. This mostly confused me; aside from the adult workers, there were 10 geologists total and 5 were female, and I think I was the only single female at the time. Did he automatically assume that the females in camp would want to sleep with him and he had his picking of us in the camp? Was he planning on making this happen at any cost even if we weren’t interested? Was he telling me he wanted to sleep with me?
Read Anne’s full article HERE.
Women sick of sexism and discrimination in mining
CBC News today ran an article on sexism in the mining industry in Canada.
Getting training was an issue as well. Foster didn’t get to partake in some training that included physical labour because her supervisor didn’t want her to get hurt. But all the men were allowed to do the training, and Foster said some of the men were smaller than her. “That was hard on me.”
Read the full article HERE.
Gender Role with IFC in Myanmar
The International Finance Corporation is seeking a passionate, energetic and experienced Operations Officer with experience in women’s employment and private sector to be located in Yangon, Myanmar to support the implementation of an IFC Advisory project, Get2Equal Myanmar, supported by the Government of Australia and focused on improving business performance through closing gender gaps.
Click HERE for details.
Non-Violent Masculinities. The Missing Picture.
In the article “Rethinking hegemonic masculinities in conflict-affected contexts”, staff from International Alert explore what gets missed when we focus only on violent masculinity. Preventing and responding to violence by men against women is key to creating empowerment for women. But as the authors argue, there are many other forms of non-violent masculinities which exist. We fail to notice these when we jump to the simple conclusion that (all) men are violent.
The authors explore this issue within the context of conflict, drawing on studies from Lebanon, Nepal, Colombia and other countries. Here, we explain what they say, and then consider what their argument encourages us to consider when looking at gender in male-dominated workplaces.
The authors explain the term hegemonic masculinity. First introduced by the academic Raewyn Connell in 1987, it refers to how certain practices of masculinity gain power and legitimacy by ensuring that other practices of gender (including, as examples, femininity and homosexuality) are always seen as weaker. It is a complex term, mainly because what is considered to be a dominant practice of masculinity can change depending on who’s there, where they are, what they are doing, who they are with, when they are doing it, and more. As the authors argue, the term has however often been used to oversimplify masculinity as always violent and always dominant.
The authors argue there are three kinds of non-violent masculinity which get ignored when we assume that masculinity and violence naturally go together.
Thwarted masculinities. This is when men are unable to meet the expectations of what it means to be a man in their culture. When there are no jobs, or when conflict forces people to leave their homes, this can mean many men “fail” to do what they are expected to do—work, provide for the family, provide protection for their children.
Vulnerable masculinities. Men are vulnerable to attack during conflict even if they are not engaged in the conflict. They can be ridiculed for not doing what men should be doing—working or fighting. They can also be subjected to sexual violence, because this is seen as a way to strip away “manhood” and deny them “proper” masculinity.
Non-heterosexual masculinities. These men are already vulnerable because they are often outcasts in their societies. They may be seen as an extra unwanted burden during conflict, or even part of the “evil” that is causing the conflict. They are rarely provided with assistance, even less so than women and children, because they are often invisible to humanitarian agencies.
In Factive’s work on gender issues in workplaces, we find that men can respond negatively to projects which focus on empowering women. This is because they see—rightly or wrongly—that the project sets men up to be the bad guys. They hear, for example, that a particular project wants to address violence against women, and see that they—as men—are being read as the violent ones. In some cases, this is true. Some men are violent. Violence against women is an issue we see everywhere we work. But the men we work with also regularly ask: Why are our needs not being addressed? Why are you assuming that we are okay as men?
Looking beyond men as dominant and violent allows us to think about how men might also be vulnerable even in contexts, like male-dominated workplaces, where it might appear on the surface that being a man means being safe.
What happens to the thwarted men who can’t live up to the expectations of what it means to be a man in their workplace? What if they aren’t physically strong enough? What if they are not good at using a particular piece of machinery?
What are the experiences of the vulnerable men? Are younger male employees exposed to workplace initiation practices which are abusive? How does the vulnerability of men get attacked or supported?
Where are the non-heterosexual men in these workplaces? What visibility do they have or want? To what extent do workplace policies and practices address the needs of these men?
Myrttinen, H., Khattab, L. & Naujoks, J. (2016). “Re-thinking hegemonic masculinities in conflict-affected contexts”. Critical Military Studies
What does diversity have to do with extractive industry disasters?
Yassmin Abdel-Magied argues that a lack of diversity was responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in 2010.
“Was there anyone else around the table who thought differently and who didn’t just think differently, but was included enough and was valued enough so their different perspective was valued, to actually challenge that bias?”
“Everyone around the table came from a similar world and a similar perspective. They all thought the same. They all cared about the same things. And so we ended with one of the worst tragedies in our industry.”
Read the full article HERE.
Factive’s Director and Principal Consultant, Dean Laplonge, is currently exploring the link between masculinities and mining disasters for a chapter in his next book. To discuss this issue with Dean, contact him through our website.
Gender Smart Solutions in PNG
Factive continues its work with the International Finance Corporation and the Business Coalition for Women in Papua New Guinea to support Gender Smart Safety in workplaces.
A new article published in the Annual PNG Industry Overview 2017-18 by Energy Publications provides information on the services and training programs the Coalition offers to member companies.
The impetus for the development of the Coalition’s Gender Smart Safety resources was the realisation that some women were being overlooked for career development opportunities simply because their employers felt they could not guarantee their safety on particular worksites.
Importantly, we equip PNG businesses with a sustainable approach to improving women’s safety by training their own teams and giving them tools to conduct women’s safety audits.
To read the full article online, click HERE.