I’ve been interviewed for the Lady Science podcast. I talk about what sociology is, my career as an applied sociologist, and how Indigenous and other minority sociologists continue to challenge Western and colonial methods and ideas in sociology and in social policy.
Continue reading “Interview on My Sociological Practice”June 2014 was a bad month for media stories about social science. First, a study examined how gendered expectations affect the public’s interpretation of severe weather warnings about hurricanes. Second, a story rebounded around the world that wrongly associated domestic violence to marital status.
Continue reading “Why the Media Gets Social Science So Wrong”
I reflect on the use of social science during the analysis phase of the investigation, for the purpose of broader education on how to other organisations might improve management responses to environmental, health and safety.
Continue reading “Environment, Health and Safety Training”
Your Social Science Quote of the Week is about looking beyond gender narratives. Writing for Slate, psychology PhD student Jane Hu called out poor media reporting of social science research. She shows that it can adversely affect girls and women, including everything from gender equality at work to patterns of domestic violence: By reinforcing gender stereotypes and roles, the media affects people’s perception of women. Study after study has shown that pre-teens and teens learn about gender and sex from the media, and adults, too, subconsciously take those messages to heart. Gender stereotypes disrupt girls’ behaviour on social media sites, … Continue reading Quote of the Week: Look Beyond Gender
In a perfect world, you could tell a woman she’s hot and she would smile and say thank you because there would be no millennia-long history of women’s bodies being used and abused by men, no notion of women’s beauty as being ‘for’ men, no ridiculous beauty standards. Complimenting a woman on her appearance would be just like complimenting a person on their bike or their shoes or the colour of their hair; it would not carry all the baggage that it carries in this world. But that’s not our world, and it may never be. Yeah, it sucks that … Continue reading No to unsolicited ‘compliments’
By Zuleyka Zevallos, PhD
Social science studies find that male bosses are more likely to judge the competence of women managers using a skewed view on gender. In practice, this means organisations are missing out on a proactive approach to leadership.
Continue reading “Why Women’s Leadership is a Business Asset”
A forthcoming international survey of 240,000 workers by Barbara Annis shows that women feel professional exclusion in their workplaces, while men remain unaware that there’s a problem. Men resort to expressing old fashioned chivalry like opening doors and offering to pay for lunch, thinking this makes women feel more comfortable and appreciated. In fact, it is the way that men exclude women from promotional opportunities, meetings, and mentorship that is a problem for women.
Continue reading “How to Promote Gender Equality in Your Workplace”
The New South Wales Court of Appeal ruled that people do not have to be officially registered as male or female, after Sydney activist ‘Norrie’ (below) contested this law. The judges panel ruled “as a matter of construction … the word sex does not bear a binary meaning of ‘male’ or ‘female.’” This means that transgender, intersex and other queer-identified Australians are no longer forced to fit themselves into a narrow gender binary.
Continue reading “NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages vs Norrie”A question from a reader: Hi there, would you happen to know where I can find a good definition of victim blaming, be it online or a book. Hey hommedelamachine. It depends on what you’re studying. William Ryan popularised the … Continue reading Victim Blaming
Beautiful spoken word poem by Guante: 10 Responses to the Phrase “Man Up”: I want to be strong in a way that isn’t about physical dominance. Continue reading ‘Man Up’
Social Science Insights 