Gender and workplace relations: introduction

The articles in this special edition of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies come from a one-day Gender and Workplace Relations conference held on 1 February, 2000, in conjunction with the annual Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ) conference in Newcastle, New South Wales. We convened this one-day conference in an effort to raise the profile of questions to do with gender and industrial relations, employment relations, and management practices as these areas of inquiry have been slow to take account of gender issues in the analysis of workplace practices. While there are researchers in Australia, New Zealand and other countries who are working vigorously on such issues, there is still a pronounced tendency to sideline these issues and “quarantine” them in conferences under women’s or gender sessions. Indeed, these analyses are still largely the province of women researchers, a fact evidenced by the contributors to this volume and the participation at the Gender and Workplace Relations Conference itself with a majority of women present.