Womens Rights for Democracy BY: NG CHENG YUE 10W

The evolution of the rights of women in Australia owes much to successive waves of feminism, or the women's movement. The first of these took place in the late 19th century and was concerned largely with gaining the right to vote and to stand for election into parliament. The second wave of feminism took place in the 1960s and 1970s and focused on gaining equality with men in other areas, such as work, the law and general social standing. The second wave targeted many different aspects of life and presented a broader challenge to traditional ideas of women's rights. It therefore led to more fundamental changes in the daily lives of mainstream Australian women. In Australia in the late 19th century, women began to agitate for the right to vote in the 1880s. Moves towards Federation, among all other factors, prompted this action. During the previous decades, suffrages societies, who wanted the right to vote in political elections, were formed in every colony. Many groups such as the Womens Christian Temperance Union, Womanhood Suffrage League and the Dawn Club campaigned for the right for women to vote. Women wrote articles for newspapers, wrote books and gave talks advocating rights for women. Louisa Lawson began publishing weekly news called The Dawn in 1888. Others such as Vida Goldstein agitated in many ways and drew up petitions and went for parliamentary standings. She was an avid campaigner for votes and equal laws for women. She also stood for elections at the Senate for five times.

During WWI, growing numbers of women began to move into office work, often doing this to escape domestic services. Women became accountants, bookkeepers, clerks and typists, but they were paid less compare to what men would regularly get. Women were not allowed to join the armed forces during WWI. Women volunteered as nurses and went to organizations such as the Red Cross and provided comfort parcels for the men but they were unpaid. Not all women were in favor of Australias participation in the war. In 1915, a group of women, including Vida Goldstein, Adela Pankhurst and Cecilia John, formed the Womens Peace Army. The Womens Peace Army opposed Australian involvement in the war as they were antiimperialist and pacifist. The women also organized a demonstration in Melbourne before the referendum to promote the anti-conscription campaign. Heightened political activism and the movement of women into their non-traditional jobs helped feminists in their demands for equality. After much lobbying, in 1918, New South Wales, the Womens Legal Status Act was passed. This gave women the state the right to stand for election to state parliament, be jurors, enter the legal profession and become justices of the peace. However, women are still discriminated in many ways and there are still signs of inequality against women. Despite the enfranchisement, no woman was elected to an Australian parliament until 1921. The first federal female parliamentarians were not elected until 1943. This is just one example of how enfranchisement fell short of truly improving the lives of Australian women or changing attitudes about them. Women were still seen as nurturers who had no other destiny than to marry and raise children. The few women who did work (excluding the wealth who were involved

in voluntary work) not only had to find paid work, but also had to carry the burden of all housework and child-rearing. The notion of what jobs a woman could do expanded during World War I, but women's role in public life was still very limited. In World War II, Australian women roles were slowly changing as there were shortages of civilian male labour brought about by enlistment in the armed services. The number of women working in factories making goods for civilian use fell from 128000 in 1941 to 82000 in the following year. This is because women moved out of traditional, low-skilled work into war work. Eventually, the number involved in farm work rose from 25000 to 55000. Women undertook the same training as men; they worked in numerous non-traditional occupations such as, truck drivers, motor mechanics, radar mechanics, technicians, wielders and signallers. Sixty-nine Womens Land Army Camps were set up in New South Wales after an Australian Womens Land Army was established on the 27 July 1942. After that, new work opportunities also became more available. The first female conductors appeared on trams in September 1942. Three months later, women were allowed to join the police Forces as drivers, clerks and store persons. This change of attitude to the traditional role of women was short-lived. After the war ended, pictures of female wielders and mechanics were quickly replaced by images of brides and housewives. The women's liberation movement grew very rapidly in Australia in a short space of time. Some women's groups sought to improve women's rights through existing power structures, including increasing women's representation in powerful institutions like parliament and unions. Other groups tried to find alternative forms of protest and expression. These women kept away from what they saw as a male-oriented power

base and sought to change things through demonstrations aimed at raising the consciousness of all of society. It developed in the protest days of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It had shocked many older, conservative womens organisations, such as the Country Womens Association. After the Whitlam government was sacked, there was a sharp drop in the rate of change in Australian society, but the womens movement continued to grow stronger. By the mid 1970s, it became known as the feminist movement. The movement had became broadlybased that included very little Indigenous women but consisted mainly of white women. The feminist movement made significant gains for women in the 1970s despite an economic downturn and the election of a conservative federal government. The womens lobby had become so diverse and strong that it could not be brushed aside by politicians and others. Feminists discussed and demanded a range of needs including equal opportunities, maternity leave and remedies for domestic violence. Feminist who made their way into bureaucracies were known as femocrats. They influenced government policy and practices. In New South Wales, feminists had a significant influence on attitudes and practices regarding the employment of women in the public services. Women also made inroads into the private sector. Women also started to do intellectual and creative work such as film-making, literature and art. The feminist movement also had impacts on other areas of Australian life, including school curriculums and the Australian language. Three main areas of concern for the women's movement were culture and education, health, and sexuality. Women expressed their opposition to patriarchy through art and literature, including that written by author Germaine Greer. As well as university courses, women sought to

improve education at school level. They sought to open up career paths for girls that had previously been seen as exclusively male areas, such as sport and science. Other women focused on meeting women's specific health and safety needs, including greater access to contraception, abortion and protection from violence by men. Women recognised the area of sexuality as one where there was much inequality between men and women. Feminists explored alternative ideas of sexuality such as same-sex relationships or the choice not to enter into relationships at all. Germaine Greer is an Australian academic and journalist, and a major feminist voice of the later 20th century. Greers ideas have created controversy ever since her first book, The Female Eunuch, became an international bestseller in the 1970s. This, turning her into a household name and bringing her both adulation and opposition. Greer has defined her goal as womens liberation as distinct from equality with men. She asserts that women's liberation meant embracing gender differences in a positive fashiona struggle for the freedom of women to define their own values, order their own priorities and determine their own fates. In contrast, Greer sees equality as mere assimilation and settling to live the lives of unfree men. The women's movement made huge changes to Australian society. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and to a lesser extent the 1990s many initiatives were put in place in the areas of health, work, law, education and welfare that attempted to redress the imbalance between men's and women's power and opportunity. Women slowly began to infiltrate areas of power that had hitherto been closed to them and some attempted to use this power for the benefit of women in general.

Women's health clinics were set up around the country. Shelters and half-way houses were established for women escaping domestic violence. Women won official rights to equal pay and paid childcare. Some women were appointed to powerful positions in government, business and organizations. Laws encouraging equal opportunity were enacted around the country. Girls were encouraged to study subjects like science and sport that had always been male-dominated. There are different views about how much impact the women's liberation movement has had on Australia. There is more recognition about violence against women but the violence has not necessarily decreased. Women have more choice over reproduction than they did until the 1960s. Women have been able to reach high positions in politics, the professions and business. It is, however, far more difficult for women to attain these positions than it is for men. Laws attempting to create equal pay and equal opportunity for women do not automatically ensure these things for women. Women's and men's roles in the home have changed little despite the women's movement. Education has improved in terms of female/male equality. Overall, there are greater possibilities for women now but there are still fewer women in key positions in the Australian workforce.