Has Gender equality changed in Australia within the last 30 years?

Note: As you may notice the referencing is different as I wrote this for Sociology and uses Author Date referencing. I removed the in text referencing for easier reading, but included the sources I have used.

 

Gender equality in the last forty years within Australia has been challenging for women as they have seen many changes occur for the better while some ideals have not changed. The second wave feminism was active during the 1970s in Australia expressing issues expressed earlier in the 20th Century from people wanting equal pay and equality with their male counterparts. Women have been making roads to have their voices heard and control over their lives. Some of the older view that was relevant within the last forty years has still persisted following at women’s heels with ideas such as a woman’s place should be at home. The role of women have been politicised with both sides of parliament raising issues with female politicians holding many different positions within Australian politics including Prime Minister. The game of politics shows many the past issues are persistent regarding women’s roles within the workforce. There is still a deep divide between the sexes as both are treated differently. Women have gained many achievements in the last forty years that have helped them to gain freedoms they have not had before including having children and being employed at the same time. While some people hold onto the past notions about women through stereotypes. Women are actually striving ahead in leaps and bounds proving the detractors wrong within a flawed system where they have to prove their worth.

The world forty years ago was a different place where women were slowly gaining recognition through the civil rights movements taking place across the western world and Australia was not immune to that. During the early 1970s, Australia was experiencing its own Second Wave of feminism, a feminist movement that wanted women to be recognised and have more rights. Women like Germaine Greer and Beverley Kingston published books, which hopefully changed people’s perception of women especially within history. During the 1970s women were allowed to attend universities as teachers and students when before they could not. Women had been excluded as a topic of discussion within the history field by being misrepresented or ignored completely. Many of the historians were male and they did not view the role of women as relevant. With the rise of feminism, which meant the literature changed to include the feminine view regarding women in Australian history. During an interview with Inside History Magazine, Anne Summers an Australian author who wrote the book Damned Whores and God’s Police during the 1970s, mentions how much life had changed for women, but also not everything has changed. Laws have been passed in recent years making discrimination against women illegal. Even though there have been many changes from the past, gender stereotypes do still avail no matter what has been done by women movements.

Within the last forty years many changes have occurred within society including men and women living together without getting married, where they would in the past have raised eyebrows. Within the changes there are things that have not changed especially income gaps between the genders. The comparison for the pay gap between 1974 and 2011 are the same level being 17.2%. The media play upon the issues women still face providing information of issues that are still relevant in today’s world. Many laws that have hindered women have been removed especially one that barred married women from being employed and paid a basic wage. Women are still being employed part time or on casual basis with fewer women being employed full time. While many changes with women gaining recognition have occurred there are some women within society who have been marginalised or missed like Aboriginal women. According to some Marxist theories classes do exist in Australia between women. There are women who are at the top who have different views from the women in the lower classes.

Women issues of equality have become politicised with governments bringing up issues that had not been discussed before. Gough Whitlam during his campaign speech in 1972 put the idea through for women to receive equal pay and introduce anti-discrimination legislation. The government wanted women to have more equality with their male counterparts especially within education and employment. Since 1979 changes occurred where women working long term could have access to 52 weeks of unpaid maternity leave. It has become easier for women to divorce their partners with changes to the law and separated families during the 1980s could claim child support from absent parents. The most recent changes, which have occurred, include several parliamentary Acts. These include the sex discrimination Act of 2011 and Industrial Relations Reform Act. By 2012 the Workplace Gender Equality Act was created with the aim to eliminate gender discrimination with regards to family and caring responsibilities. Politicians like Tony Abbott, a past Prime Minister have changed their mindset where they thought a woman’s place is at home to them being in the workplace as a contributing member of society. Women are now able to be paid maternity leave to help care for their children once they have given birth.

Traditional roles have changed where once men were viewed as the primary breadwinner of the family and women the main carer for the children and looking after the household. In later life she would re-enter the workforce once the children were old enough or stay at home, which would be her primary responsibility. Gender roles within the home have changed even with the views of people changing from women being the primary caregiver in the home to that of women in the workplace. There have been dramatic shifts within households as many families have both parents working, although male family members have been known to stay at home to look after the house and children by taking more responsibility. Between the 1970s and 1980s, women were becoming more independent as traditional roles shifted, where women no longer needed a male counterpart to survive. Their fertility could be controlled by themselves and were able to have access to welfare even if they were not married. People with children always tend to be pressed for time through their employment and flows onto when they are at home. 90.5% of mothers are rushed, compared with 66.2% of men in the same situation. Usually once women have had children then their participation in paid employment is reduced, which is different from women who do not have children or women with older children who do not need the range of care that younger children need.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics throughout a woman’s life her priorities change. Younger women are likely to stay in the workplace until their mid-20s, where they would leave paid employment to have children. Today, women are staying in the workplace for much longer to further their careers or not having children at all. To measure the pay gap between the genders, the National gender wage gap is used to measure the status of women in the labour market and their progress thus far. It is used to measure those who are working full time. Employment is balanced out when comparing men and women to how they are employed. In Australia more men are employed full time up to 45 hours a week and more women work part time than men do. Even though there seems to be a balance there is a huge gap between women being employed full time and part time. Women make up 35% of the full time workers and in part time work they make up 70%. Questions that have been raised in the past including about the differences in the wage gap between the sexes continue to today that have truly left unanswerable, when there has been talk about equality in the workplace and all people are meant to be equal.

Children and housework take up large parts of women’s downtime while they are at home from work. In the past women would not usually return to employment after having children, which is different in today’s world. Social expectations have changed where society expects women to return to work after having children. Returning to work is not always easy due to overlap of responsibilities outside of work that could result in conflict. The normal family is made up of two children and two adults known as a nuclear family. This traditionally means women take on more responsibility towards caring for their children than the male counterpart, who would be considered to be the main breadwinner. During the last forty years these stereotypes have changed slowly within the Western society especially in Australia. Men earn a certain amount more than women who are working in similar positions within the same industry. The entitlements like Superannuation between the two sexes are vastly different. Women are more likely to stay at home looking after the children in perceived roles according to society norms. Throughout some studies women felt they were providing themselves as role models for their children were more important than being seen as just homemaker. They wanted their children to be inspired and learn from the role women played in society.

There have been many changes within the last forty years in regards to equality between the sexes, but not everything has changed for the better. The government has tried to make income between men and women to be equal, but there is still a huge pay gap between the two. Women since the 1970s have gained many rights that have helped them from being able to divorce their partners to controlling their fertility. The family concept has changed throughout the time period as women can now work after having children even though they do not have to stay outside of the paid workforce. Many of the views where a woman’s place in the home with the children still persist even though they have been welcome within the workplace for the last four decades. No matter the changes some of the older ideas still exist even with women making paths for many younger generations to proudly follow in their footsteps. The government has tried to make changes to discrimination Acts in parliament making it illegal to discriminate against women even though there were some over four decades ago who had great insight to make equal rights as something to strive for. No matter how much change there is within the government there have been small steps forward and backwards especially when Australia has had a female Prime Minister where the opposition had used her gender as cause for concern as she did not fit the usual stereotype. There will be challenges in regards to gender in the future as it would not be an issue that vanishes overnight.

References

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