Gender and the restructuring of work and vocational education in Australia: some perilous possibilities

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Abstract
This paper discusses the restructuring of the world of work and education and training in Australia and its implications for women and girls. It outlines some of the ways in which government policies are restructuring the Australian workforce and workplaces and points to the promises this agenda makes and the possible price of these for women. It then focuses on the changes taking place in the post‐compulsory years of schooling, also in Australia, looking at both the policies that are reshaping the curriculum to make it more oriented to the workplace and at the implications this has for the post‐school options of young women. In this regard it points to the ways in which the notions of ‘a workplace’ and ‘the competent worker’ which are inherent in policy are deeply gendered, suggests that the definition of ‘effective participation’ is disempowering for workers generally and women workers particularly and that the specific vocational competencies on offer are likely to be particularly unhelpful for women and girls. Overall the paper argues that the restructuring agenda offers girls and women ‘perilous possibilities’.

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