scholarly journals Questioning policy-making as problem-solving. A Bacchian examination of how paid parental leave was problematized in New Zealand and Norway

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Susan Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Early Application ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Original Insight

<p>This thesis adopts Carol Bacchi’s Foucault-influenced poststructuralist perspective to investigate how the concept of gender equality was conceptualized in the paid parental leave (PPL) policies in New Zealand and Norway. Poststructuralism is concerned with how we ‘know’ things, and with language, and the Foucauldian influence brings a focus on discourse as knowledge. Poststructuralism is also concerned with subjectification, how subject positions are created by the discourse, and the way in which some people are excluded from certain subject positions. The research investigates changes to the PPL policies in New Zealand and Norway and how gender equality was conceptualized in each country.  This research is conducted using two closely-related poststructuralist methodologies for two different types of data. The first data consist of historical documents from prior to and including the time that the PPL policies were changed and Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ or ‘WPR’ framework is used to analyse them. The second data consist of interviews with people involved in the PPL policies and Bacchi and Bonham’s Poststructural Interview Analysis or ‘PIA’ framework is used to analyse them. For both data sets, the analysis consists of thematic coding, followed by answering the series of WPR questions or the PIA processes. Three common themes of payment rate, eligibility, and rights were identified in the analysis of the historical data and they provided a focus for the interview data analysis. Different conceptions of gender equality were identified in each country.   The research makes a number of contributions. It provides an original insight into the design of PPL policy from a critical perspective and brings a gender lens to policy analysis. It offers a unique comparison between New Zealand and Norway, and provides a further methodological example of the established WPR framework, as well as an early application of the new PIA approach. The research also challenges policy-makers to makers to adopt and maintain a critical perspective in their work, and to recognise that people are subjects, and that policies are problems constituted by the discourse.</p>

scholarly journals Questioning policy-making as problem-solving. A Bacchian examination of how paid parental leave was problematized in New Zealand and Norway

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Susan Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Early Application ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Original Insight

<p>This thesis adopts Carol Bacchi’s Foucault-influenced poststructuralist perspective to investigate how the concept of gender equality was conceptualized in the paid parental leave (PPL) policies in New Zealand and Norway. Poststructuralism is concerned with how we ‘know’ things, and with language, and the Foucauldian influence brings a focus on discourse as knowledge. Poststructuralism is also concerned with subjectification, how subject positions are created by the discourse, and the way in which some people are excluded from certain subject positions. The research investigates changes to the PPL policies in New Zealand and Norway and how gender equality was conceptualized in each country.  This research is conducted using two closely-related poststructuralist methodologies for two different types of data. The first data consist of historical documents from prior to and including the time that the PPL policies were changed and Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ or ‘WPR’ framework is used to analyse them. The second data consist of interviews with people involved in the PPL policies and Bacchi and Bonham’s Poststructural Interview Analysis or ‘PIA’ framework is used to analyse them. For both data sets, the analysis consists of thematic coding, followed by answering the series of WPR questions or the PIA processes. Three common themes of payment rate, eligibility, and rights were identified in the analysis of the historical data and they provided a focus for the interview data analysis. Different conceptions of gender equality were identified in each country.   The research makes a number of contributions. It provides an original insight into the design of PPL policy from a critical perspective and brings a gender lens to policy analysis. It offers a unique comparison between New Zealand and Norway, and provides a further methodological example of the established WPR framework, as well as an early application of the new PIA approach. The research also challenges policy-makers to makers to adopt and maintain a critical perspective in their work, and to recognise that people are subjects, and that policies are problems constituted by the discourse.</p>

scholarly journals Should New Zealand Shirk Its Obligations? A Critical Perspective on Private Law Scholarship

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 429
Author(s):  
Bevan Marten ◽  
Geoff McLay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Coherent System ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Party Autonomy ◽  
Accident Compensation

This article concerns the role of the private law scholar in New Zealand, and how such scholars use their skills to improve the law. It argues that while an obligations scholar's preference may be to engage with the courts and other academics in their scholarly activities, a focus on statutory reform better suits New Zealand conditions. Scholars should share their talents with policy makers, law reform bodies and legislators, helping to explain the importance of a coherent system of private law, and how this may be achieved. The authors then go a step further by suggesting that, in the New Zealand context, the preferable approach to reform may be one involving policy-based solutions exemplified by the accident compensation scheme, as opposed to approaches based on traditional private law principles such as party autonomy.

scholarly journals Paid parental leave policy: a response to Maureen Baker

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Callister ◽  
Judith Galtry
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Paid Parental Leave

In the August 2011 issue of Policy Quarterly, Maureen Baker sets out to outline ‘Key issues in parental leave policy’. One aim of the article was to examine ‘some of the continuing debates about paid parental leave’. However, we argue that the article fails to advance debates about paid parental leave in New Zealand, because: 1) it does not adequately engage with recent national and international literature; 2) it lacks new empirical evidence; 3) its theoretical basis is confused; and 4) no clear, new policy directions are promoted.  

scholarly journals Paid parental leave for 26 weeks

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzy Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Financial Pressure ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Payment Rate

This article examines the paid parental leave policy in New Zealand. It considers the various design elements of the policy and, in particular, the payment rate. Although the policy ostensibly provides wage replacement, paid parental leave is subject to a cap of approximately the minimum wage. This creates financial pressure for those previously earning a higher amount and may restrict its use by the higher earner in a two-parent family. The article highlights how the rate of payment compares poorly both internationally and against a local example of support for another temporary absence from employment (ACC).

scholarly journals Key issues in paid parental leave policy

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Baker
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Women Employees ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Paid Parental Leave

In 2002 New Zealand employees gained access to paid parental leave, but other countries established these benefits much earlier and/or used a mix of policy parameters. This article, which is framed within a comparative and feminist political economy perspective, compares paid parental leave programmes in two countries with similar welfare regimes: New Zealand and Canada. The article argues that delivering these benefits through social insurance, as is done in Canada, could elevate benefit levels for some workers but fewer women employees would tend to qualify.

Gender equality and paid parental leave in Australia: A decade of giant leaps or baby steps?

2021 ◽  
pp. 002218562110082
Author(s):  
Marian Baird ◽  
Myra Hamilton ◽  
Andreea Constantin
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
10Th Anniversary ◽  
Company Policy ◽  
Giant Leap ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
The Government ◽  
Potential Use

The year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Australian Paid Parental Leave Act 2010. Using Baird’s orientations typology and Brighouse and Wright’s equality framework, with evidence from the Workplace Agreements Database and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, this article assesses changes in policy, bargaining and company provisions over the decade. We find that policy changes may enable more fathers and partners to take leave, although the period is short and barriers to uptake exist. In bargaining and company policy, we find modest growth in the proportion of agreements with paid primary and paid secondary carer leave provisions, but no movement in the duration of the leaves, with secondary carer leave much shorter. We conclude that although these changes suggest growing attention to improving women’s working conditions and fathers’ access to parental leave, short secondary carer leaves set normative standards of fathers as ‘supporters’ rather than recognising substantive involvement in care. Consequently, the changes do not promote gender-egalitarian sharing of parental leave. While the introduction of the government scheme was a ‘giant leap’, the 10 years since have seen modest ‘baby steps’ towards greater gender equality in the availability and potential use of paid parental leave.

Enemies, allies or citizens? The subject positions of men in the making of birth leave for fathers in Israel

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-339
Author(s):  
Nadav Perez-Vaisvidovsky
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
The Subject

Gender equality-oriented policy-making adopts a complex attitude toward the role of fathers. While some branches of the legislative branches see the potential in engaging fathers in the household for promoting gender equality, others see the risk in men appropriating women’s few sources of power. In this article, the subject positions given to men in the legislative process of the birth leave for fathers programme in Israel are examined. I show how, in accordance with this division, fathers are given two subject positions ‐ that of the enemy and that of the ally. However, policy-makers fail to put fathers in the role of citizens, seeing them as entitled to rights based on their own status. This situation mirrors the citizenship of Israeli women, who are, in turn, limited to their motherhood. While the claim that fathers are not seen as citizens, and that their rights are not protected enough, might sound absurd, I claim that such a position is required in order to promote a radical change in the division of labour within the household.

Women, Work and Industrial Relations in 2009

2010 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Baird ◽  
Sue Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Pay Equity ◽  
Promote Gender Equality ◽  
Paid Parental Leave

The interplay between women’s work and family lives and public and business policies attracted considerable attention during 2009. In this review we focus on Australia’s new paid parental leave scheme, pay equity, award modernization and the lack of women in senior management and on boards. We conclude that ‘economic efficiency’ arguments to promote gender equality in the workplace became stronger during the year, sometimes displacing gender justice arguments. We also suggest that 2009 was a year of policy wins and losses for women at work and that 2010 will see more attention to gender equitable policies as political parties seek to win the ‘women’s vote’.

scholarly journals Paid parental leave in New Zealand: a short history and future policy options

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Callister ◽  
Judith Caltry
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Short History ◽  
Childbearing Age ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Age Range

In early 2005 the Labour-Progressive government stated that, while New Zealand’s overall labour force participation rates were high, the rate for some groups of women, particularly those aged 25-34 years, were below the OECD average. Given that this is the main childbearing age range for New Zealand women, mothers of young children form a significant component of this group. There was subsequently much debate about the benefits or otherwise of bringing more mothers into paid work and, inevitably, questions arose about the level of both parental leave and childcare support available to new parents.

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