Victorian local councils and gender equality: examining the intersections for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds

Project team

Investigators: Dr Hyein Cho and Professor Marie Segrave

Project contact: Dr Hyein Cho

About the project

Project aims

Local councils provide critical support and services to communities, and also serve as important employers. This project will provide insight into the intention and implementation of gender equality commitments in local councils, with a focus on how those commitments target and impact migrant and refugee women as employees.

Our research questions are below:

  1. What are the vision(s) of selected local councils executive leadership for intersectional gender equality policies and practices within their organisations?
  2. How is greater participation of women employees from migrant and refugee backgrounds encouraged by their councils?
  3. What are the values and goals regarding gender equality among employees from migrant and refugee backgrounds?
  4. How are concerns and experiences of employees from migrant and refugee backgrounds represented in the audit data and councils' strategic action plans? What are the gaps?

We aim to create qualitative knowledge on the way workplace gender equality is experienced by a specific cohort of women with migrant and refugee backgrounds. Our research will supplement existing audit data, and can be used to assist local councils in designing meaningful strategies and measures for gender equality that are responsive and inclusive to the needs of employees. The project outcomes will prioritise the lived experiences and perspectives of local council employees from migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Research design

This project will conduct a detailed qualitative analysis to identify how local councils can best implement gender equality commitments for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds. This two-phase project will involve:

  1. A secondary analysis of the audit data to understand what it reveals about the intention and impact of gender equality commitments. We will combine this analysis with a review of the relevant gender equality action plans (GEAPs) for each council.
  2. Focus group discussions with two key groups: leaders and employees. We will explore how leaders in local councils understand their role and responsibility with regards to identifying and removing barriers to equality for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds, and the experiences of women from migrant and refugee backgrounds as employees of local councils.

We will study six local councils: three that service populations with a high percentage of diverse background residents, and three that have a low percentage of this group. We are committed to the importance of paying close attention to the councils’ leadership focuses and intentions, and mapping where this does and does not align with the experiences of those who are intended to benefit from these policies and/or practices.

The project will offer key insights into how to implement intersectional responses to gender equality and support the efforts of the Commission to work with employees and leadership in transforming the public sector more broadly.

Funding acknowledgement

This project is funded by through the Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector Research Grants

Project background

Under the Gender Equality Act 2022 (Victoria), defined entities, including the public sector, universities and local councils, will have a number of obligations under the Act that require them to take positive and transparent action towards achieving gender equality in their workplaces as well as in their policies, programs and services.

Defined entities are required to:

(Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector, 2022)

For full information about the Gender Equality Act 2022 (Victoria), please visit the website of the Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector.