Asking difficult (feminist) questions: the case of ‘disappearing’ women and policy problematics in Australian VET

Since the establishment of Australia’s first national vocational education and training (VET) system, policy that centres women has diminished, to a present‐day national scenario in where ‘woman’ is all but unspeakable in national VET policy forums. This article provides a contextualisation and partial tracking of this erasure, before juxtaposing the present problematic positioning of women with findings from research conducted over the last two to three years. It confirms that a process of re‐traditionalisation in gender roles is being enacted through enmeshing policy shifts, supported by the complicity of contemporary education policies and practice. Given the location of VET at the nexus of work, welfare and education policies, there is an ongoing need to advocate for gender‐sensitive policy initiatives with the potential to cross sectoral and institutional boundaries of education and training, industrial relations, labour force and welfare portfolios. Moreover, it is time to think hard about how to speak ‘woman’ and so do gender equity policy work in VET that centres ‘women’.