Specialisations

• Gender pay equity
• Parental rights in employment
• Gender, work and occupations

Professor Gillian Whitehouse has made major contributions in areas of gender and employment equity, from detailed statistical evidence on the relationship between institutional frameworks for wage setting and gender equity outcomes (widely cited in leading international journals and referred to by international agencies including the OECD and the British Equal Opportunity Commission) through to research into parental leave policies, including the design and implementation of Australia’s first comprehensive survey on the use and impact of parental leave (which informed a major Productivity Commission inquiry and federal policy development).

Her research has attracted significant funding from the Australian Research Council (including eight large Discovery and Linkage grants), as well as from Australian and international agencies including the OECD and the European Commission.  A crucial aspect of her research has been its impact beyond academia: she has appeared as an expert witness in key Australian pay equity inquiries and cases and her work has contributed to the development of Equal Remuneration Principles and other policy advances in the Australian context.