Dr Sarah Ailwood
Gender Equity Law Academic and Consultant
Gender Equality Consulting
Sarah has over 15 years experience in
workplace gender equality law,
with a particular focus on sexual harassment.
Respect@Work Reforms
I have deep expertise in the Respect@Work reforms and the new regulatory environment with respect to workplace sexual harassment and sex discrimination.
Workplace Gender Equality Agency compliance
I support organisations meet their current WGEA reporting requirements and prepare for future obligations
Gender equality indicators
I offer briefings, assessment, policy review and design, training and strategy across all workplace gender equality indicators.
Research
I am a feminist law and literature academic
in the School of Law at the
University of Wollongong, Australia.
My current work explores social media,
listening and law reform
addressing violence against women.
View my full profile here.
Women, Listening
& Law
Women have for decades been urged to ‘speak out’ about their lived experience, but what happens to their voices in legal contexts?
This project explores how women’s voices are elicited, heard, listened and responded to in legal contexts, with a particular focus on social media and law reform. This research is part of the Women, Listening and Law Research Project at the University of Wollongong.
#MeToo and
Sexual Harassment
My research explores the legal contexts of the #MeToo, #March4Justice and similar social media moment in terms of sexual harassment and assault law reform.
I also research the current wave of sexual harassment law reform in Australia and internationally, including the introduction of the positive duty, the increased projection of sexual harassment into workplace health and safety law, and the expansion of the concept of sex discrimination.
Engage with my work
Recent Publications
In 2023, our article ‘Beyond Women’s Voices: Towards a Victim-Survivor-Centred Theory of Listening in Law Reform on Violence Against Women’ Feminist Legal Studies (2023) 31:217-231 (open access) won the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand prize for a research article in 2023.
My article on law’s failure to provide a remedy for the harm suffered by women publicly named as victim-survivors in the context of #MeToo was published in the Australian Feminist Law Journal:
Sarah Ailwood (2020) ‘Collateral Damage’: Consent, Subjectivity and Australia’s #MeToo Moment, Australian Feminist Law Journal, 46:2, 285-303
Podcasts
I spoke with the Feminist Law Podcast
about my research in 2023:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Australian Feminist Law Journal
I am a Managing Editor of the
Australian Feminist Law Journal
Sarah Ailwood 