Katherine Ravenswood

Katherine Ravenswood
Occupation	researcher
Academic background
Education	Auckland University of Technology
Alma mater	Auckland University of Technology
Thesis	Productivity, participation and employee wellbeing in the Residential Aged Care Sector (2011)
Doctoral advisor	Ray Markey, Candice Harris
Academic work
Institutions	Auckland University of Technology

Katherine Ravenswood is a New Zealand professor of industrial relations and leads the Care/Work Research Group at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). She works on the interactions of power, gender and ethnicity in workplace relationships between employers and employees.

Academic career

Ravenswood's early interests were in philosophy and medieval literature, but she became interested in industrial relations during her study for an honours degree in business at AUT. Ravenswood completed a PhD titled Productivity, participation and employee wellbeing in the Residential Aged Care Sector at AUT in 2011. Her advisors were Candice Harris and Ray Markey. Ravenswood was promoted to full professor in 2023.

Ravenswood leads the Care/Work Research Group at Auckland University of Technology. She worked with Julie Douglas on assessing the impact on workers of the 2017 Pay Equity Settlement. They found that despite the increase in wages for carers, meant to address historic inequities, some people were less well-off after the settlement as their hours were reduced, possibly due to lack of funding in the sector.

When legislation to ensure reporting of the gender pay gap was announced, Ravenswood commented that the overall gap of 8% was hiding larger inequities in certain workforces, and in some ethnic groups. She said “I think [compulsory pay reporting] will normalize an understanding that there is discrimination on the basis of gender and hopefully whichever government is in will also make sure it’s on the basis of ethnicity as well. Then the facts will be there and it won't be controversial, because it's something everyone knows and reports.”

Ravenswood has been involved in policy development for New Zealand's care workforce and is part of the New Zealand Work Research Institute leadership team.

Selected works

• Katherine Ravenswood (13 February 2023). "'Try, Learn, Adjust': it's time to bring workers into disability support policy". Policy Quarterly (in Spanish). 19 (1): 27–34. doi:10.26686/PQ.V19I1.8102. ISSN 2324-1098. Wikidata Q123220460.
• Katherine Ravenswood (4 November 2021). "Greening work–life balance: Connecting work, caring and the environment". Industrial Relations Journal. 53 (1): 3–18. doi:10.1111/IRJ.12351. ISSN 0019-8692. Wikidata Q123220461.
• Paula O’Kane; Katherine Ravenswood; Julie Douglas; Fiona Edgar; Jane Parker (2 January 2021). "Doing things differently: IR practice and research beyond 2020". Labour & Industry. 31 (1): 1–6. doi:10.1080/10301763.2021.1911041. ISSN 1030-1763. Wikidata Q123220462.
• Katherine Ravenswood; Sarah Kaine (8 July 2015). "The role of government in influencing labour conditions through the procurement of services: Some political challenges". Journal of Industrial Relations. 57 (4): 544–562. doi:10.1177/0022185615582238. ISSN 0022-1856. Wikidata Q123220814.
• Candice Harris; Katherine Ravenswood; Barbara Myers (September 2013). "Glass slippers, Holy Grails and Ivory Towers: gender and advancement in academia". Labour & Industry. 23 (3): 231–244. doi:10.1080/10301763.2013.839084. ISSN 1030-1763. Wikidata Q123220815.
• Marilyn Clarke; Katherine Ravenswood (4 February 2019). "Constructing a career identity in the aged care sector: overcoming the "taint" of dirty work". Personnel Review. 48 (1): 76–97. doi:10.1108/PR-08-2017-0244. ISSN 0048-3486. Wikidata Q123220799.
• Katherine Ravenswood; Raymond Markey (September 2011). "The Role of Unions in Achieving a Family-friendly Workplace". Journal of Industrial Relations. 53 (4): 486–503. doi:10.1177/0022185611409113. ISSN 0022-1856. Wikidata Q123220821.