2023 Laureate Profile: Professor Janeen Baxter – 2023 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship

Administering Organisation: The University of Queensland

Fellowship Project Summary

FL230100104 - Bringing Equality Home: A New Gender Agenda

Professor Baxter aims to provide the theoretical and empirical foundations to reverse the trend of Australia slipping backwards in achieving gender equality in comparison to other countries. This project will provide a new approach that explains why changes to legislation are not enough, and why we must turn our attention to caregiving and social relationships in the home to progress gender equality. Professor Baxter’s research will demonstrate how to reduce motherhood penalties in loss of employment and earnings and fatherhood penalties in loss of time with children. It will also identify the life course stages where interventions will be most impactful. It will advance the potential of women and men by increasing knowledge, training, policy and practice for social cohesion and economic prosperity. This research will be pivotal to improving gender equality and essential for ensuring Australia realises its potential to create better and fairer outcomes for all.

Ambassadorial and mentoring role

Through the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Fellowship, Professor Baxter will provide opportunities for postgraduate students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to establish international connections early in their career. This will provide a foundation on which they can further build capacity, collaboration, mentoring and international opportunities.

Professor Baxter will draw on her networks with leading feminist and life course scholars around the world to establish an annual international researcher-in-residence school for postgraduate students and ECRs. One international visitor per year will be invited to spend time in Australia to offer an intensive week-long course on a selected topic relating to gender inequality, social research methods or social policy and translation.

Australian Research Council funding: $3,400,000