This is a book that every woman working in a senior management position, every person who is responsible for the occupational health and safety of employees and all who believe in meritocracy or that workplace equality for women has been achieved, needs to read. For those of us, who are already attentive to workplace discrimination against women, it provides a comprehensive but sobering analysis of the issues.rnThe book has been rushed into print to coincide with the International Labour Organisation's 2009 campaign "gender equality is at the heart of decent work" as part of which the month of April focused specifically upon women's occupational health and safety (Briar, 2009, p. 221). The publication of the book, and this review, coincides with a series of significant policy set-backs in the area of gender equity in employment in this country. This month New Zealand's recently elected conservative (read neo-liberal) National Government axed pay and employment equity investigations into two female-dominated public sector occupations (teacher aids and social workers) and disestablished the pay and employment equity review office within the Department of Labour (including Briar's own job). The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) (2009) estimates that New Zealand women earn on average 12 per cent less than men. In the public sector the gap is as much as 35 per cent.
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