Listening to and Incorporating the Voices of Sessional Academic Staff: Building a Supportive and Sustainable Workplace for Women at Western Sydney University. Final Research Report to Vice Chancellor's Gender Equity Fund

This is the final report for the project ‘Listening to and Incorporating the Voices of Sessional Academic Staff: Building a Supportive and Sustainable Workplace for Women at Western Sydney University’. The aim of this project was to document the experiences of female sessional staff, to explore strategies adopted by those sessional staff members to improve their working and personal lives, to make recommendations for change and ultimately, to build a supportive and sustainable workplace for women at Western Sydney University (WSU). We report here on our findings from data collected in confidence, by sessional staff. We planned the research, designed the survey and interview questions, distributed the survey, conducted interviews and analysed data. The research team was comprised entirely of sessional staff. We created a safe and supportive space where participants could share their experiences at interview, without fear of repercussions. We provided our colleagues with the opportunity to tell us about their experiences through an anonymous survey. We also held formal consultations, webinars and focus groups, and spoke informally with sessional staff. The goals of this research were to draw on and privilege the experience, knowledge and leadership of female casual academics at WSU, provide a culturally safe, supportive and gender inclusive environment for women employed as casuals to share experiences and strategies and interview and bring together 10–15 women (former or current casual academic staff) to share positive and negative experiences discuss, analyse and document supportive policies and practices, both informal and formal, and to recommend ways to build a welcoming, supportive and sustainable workplace for all women at WSU.