Rae Cooper is an Australian professor, researcher and women’s employment specialist. She is Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations at the University of Sydney Business School and Director of the newly formed Gender Equality in Working Life Research Initiative at the University of Sydney. Rae has published over 70 chapters and articles on work, regulation and women’s careers. In 2022 she will be Australian Research Council Future Fellow working on a project called’ Smashing Glass Walls: Building Gender Equality and Career Sustainability in male-dominated sectors’. She is currently working on a range of other projects addressing respect at work, the future of work, a gender equitable recovery from COVID-19 and young women and men’s attitudes toward work. Rae is President Elect of the International Labor and Employment Relations Association (ILERA), the international scholarly association for researchers of the world of work and industrial relations. She is known for her engagement with industry, unions and government in her work. In 2019 Rae was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her ‘contributions to higher education and to workplace policy and practice’.
Rae will discuss how the gender pay gap has winded during the pandemic and provide insights on solutions to reduce the gap through increasing employment opportunities, mitigating labour market segregation and improving infrastructure.
