Australian Feminist Movement - Essay Example

The Feminist movement Feminism has been defined as " advocacy of equal rights and opportunities for women, especially the extension of their activities into social and political life.( the Macquarie Dictionary) It is very clear from this definition that women have been denied equality in the society and also in politics. The roots of feminism at the global level can be traced back to the 18th century. A Vindication of the Rights of the Women by written by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792. It is often cited as one of the earliest works on feminism. Few other works on Feminism. Later other works also came up like 'The Subject of Women' by John Stuart Mill in 1869 and 'The Origin of the Family, Property and State' by Friedrich Engels in 1884. These works denounced marriage as slavery for women. Feminism started in America as a revolution. The Seneca Falls convention held in 1848 is considered a milestone in the history of the Feminist Movement. It put forth the demand for women's rights which included right for equal pay, right for property, right for divorcing the husband, right for taking guardianship of the children etc. the most important in this agenda was womens' right to vote. This was a declaration of demanding equality without sexual discrimination. Their voice slowly started getting people's attention. When the 19th amendment was made in the American Constitution to give women the right to vote, it looked like they had finally won the battle. On 14th December, 1961, the President's Commision was set up by the then President John F. Kennedy to review the status of women. Its purpose was to review the status of women and remove the obstacles that prevented women from enjoying equal status in the society. This Commission was aimed to combat the customs, notions and other factors prevalent in the society that were hindrance for the women. So the movement that was building up quietly in the 50's, gained momentum and became more visible and more audible. The 60's were the era of demonstrations, marches and processions. This time it saw the participation of school and college girls as well. Status in Australia Feminism has its presence in Australia also. Although Australia has always been conceived as a true democratic state with total egalitarian attitude.(Summers, Anne, 1994, Dmaned whores and God's Police, p.103) But the feminist movement in Australia has been raising the issue to provide the Australian women equal access to power. This movement started in the nineteenth century and its prime focus was to get the women their right to vote and also an equal opportunity to participate in the political activities and help them come to power. ( Oldfield, A., Woman Suffrage in Australia: A gift or a Struggle. 1992) Australian women got their right to vote much after the American women. In fact their neighboring country New Zealand got their right to vote before them. This gave them the status of citizens finally.(Summers, Anne 1994, Ibid, p.405) But even then the Aboriginal women were not given the same status. It was only in 1967 that they also got the right to vote.(Brenner,J.1996, p.20) 1960 was the beginning of the second wave of Australian Feminist movement. This was focused on the legal and social equality. Although women had got their right to vote but practically they were still considered the "second sex". They faced discrimination at the workplace and often got exploited. At home also they did not have equal status as men. They had no control over their sexual and reproductive lives. This second wave had some achievements as they succeeded in getting equal wages for the women. They also got the discrimination based on marital status eliminated from the work place. Simultaneously there was another movement coming up which was for the rights of the marginalized groups. This movement wanted equality for people regardless of their country of origin or their color or race or their sexual preferences like being gay or lesbian. The feminists got a ground as patriarchy, against which they were fighting was considered a ground for discrimination. It was at this point that it seemed as if the feminist movement had 'finally arrived'. Its status in 1990 In 1990, it saw the third wave. The right to vote had not been able to give the power to women as it was conceived. Although women were participating in all these activities, but they were getting stuck after a certain point. This has been called as the 'glass ceiling'( Julie Evington ,1995) The top and authoritarian positions were still dominated by men. It has been debated upon what holds women from getting their equal rights. Actually it has its base in the social structure. Although they have the rights on the paper and technically they can also compete with men for the same positions but practically with the responsibility of the homemaker is still with them. This does not give them equal opportunity in the practical sense of the term. (Foster, V. , 1995) The reality is that they are only technically equal to men, but not in real life. They have not been able to get the equal status at the social level. In the sixties a woman was just a wife and in the nineties she had become a wife and everything else at the same time. Women felt that the right to work and become financially independent was their ticket to freedom but they found that they have landed in a tighter spot where they are juggling their roles as the worker, the mother and the wife and struggling to cope up with everyone's expectations from them. This overburdened woman cannot be said to have the same opportunities as the men. This is what Susan wants to point out when she says-"Women are enslaved by their own liberation". They have beautiful words like 'chairperson' instead of a discriminatory 'chairman' but their access to them is still limited because of their social limitations. At the social level they are still tied down to their roles at home. They have to choose to fight for equality with this burden or give up their fight. In both the cases we cannot say that they actually have equal opportunity. This is what Susan Faludi, the prominent journalist who wrote Backlash:The Undeclared War against Women, 1991, also says. She has defined Feminism as - " Feminism's agenda is basic: It asks that women not be forced to "choose" between public justice and private happiness. It asks that women be free to define themselves -- instead of having their identity defined for them, time and again, by their culture and their men." This is exactly what is meant by freedom. It should be the freedom to choose and the liberty to define themselves. The problem so far has been that the definition has been in the hands of others. They have tried to give women an "equal" status in the society, as perceived by them. Anne Summers has used the term "breeding Creed" in her book. She says that it is a conspiracy of the state to push the women into the homes and tie them with motherhood and childraising. She says that, "since 1990, the government has made ruthless use of childcare, employment, family assistance and taxation policy to steer women with children out of the workforce and into full-time motherhood." (Summers, A. Corralled Back to the kids and kitchen, May24, 2004, p. 2)And it seems correct as government has done it by bringing in Family Tax Benefit A and the Child Care Benefit. These clauses impose substantial financial penalties on a woman who continues to work after becoming a mother. The question is not whether a mother should continue to work or not, but the question is should the mother not have the right to decide it How can we say that he Australian woman has "arrived" when she cannot even choose to decide whether she will like to work or whether she will like to stay at home. As long as the decision lies with others, be it the man or be it the government, that again is dominated by men, the woman is not really free. This is not restricted to Australia only but can be seen worldwide. Even in the former Soviet Union, the women got the opportunity to work after the second world war. Butt his gave them the burden to perform at the home and outside at the same time. If we lok at the political scene, women were hardly anywhere. The political change in 1989, did not make things any better for them. Even today in Australia, women's average salary is 15% lesser than the men, which is pointed out by Summers.( Summers, 1994, Ibid, p.34) From the late 80's onwards, the government does not see people as citizens and what are the rights or the opportunities they avail. For the government it is a market place and the people are perceived as customers who buy services offered by the state. Since the earning and thus the purchasing power of women is low, their voice of protest is also less audible. There has been a debate in the media over the issue of "citizens vs customers" (Dessaix, R (1998) 'Citizens all let us rejoice' The Age, 24 January p. 6; Williams, S. (1998) Social vision not marker values, The Age, 12 January, p. 10; Costello, T. (1997) 'Some values are free' 16 January p. 15.) Today, in America, feminism is not limited to asking for financial equality or right for abortion and right for voting. Now it encompasses women as total equal entity as compared to men. No discrimination in any field of any sort is tolerable if it is based on sexual discrimination. The feminists want absolute equality with their male counterparts. Anatomical difference is unacceptable to them as a criteria for discrimination. Also they do not want decision of roles in family and in society based on gender. They are not ready to accept that the husband will be the head of the family because his role has been decided by the family and society as the breadwinner. Even sexual relations are not only to give pleasure to men but even women can look at it as much a pleasure as normally the men do. They have denounced the institution of marriage and they do not want to be tied down by the concept of home and family. They want total freedom and want to get rid of the responsibility of raising children. According to them it should be the state's responsibility or public's responsibility. They are very assertive in demanding liberty in their reproductive lives. They want unrestricted advertisements of the contraceptive methods to be implemented and any women should have the right to buy these things over the counter without any prescription. Her age or marital status should not be a factor for it. Abortion should be available to all the women and it should be provided free of cost by the government. The issues concerning the Feminist movement may differ from country to country. And many points may be raised in a particular country. For example in Australian context a point is raised that- did feminism fight for the rights of all the women So far it has been a middle class movement that was run by the middle class to give equal rights to the women of the middle class as compared to the men of the middle class. It has totally overlooked the lower class. There are many other points and issues that will be addressed in future as the struggle of mankind for a better life continues. We may find that the Feminist movement has not been able to deliver equality to women but when we compare the status of women in the nineteenth century, as discussed above, we find that they have come a long way. They have progressed and they enjoy a better life today compared to the situation 100 years back. They may not have got the complete justice and complete equality but with political and economical opportunities made available to them by the Feminist movement has empowered them to continue the fight till the justice is done. The voice of women is now being heard loud and clear. And in the words of Edward Wilson,(Consilience: The unity of Knowledge, 1998) "I do not read the welcome triumph of feminism, social, economic, and creative, as a brief for postmodernism. The advance, while opening new avenues of expression and liberating deep pools of talent, has not exploded human nature into little pieces. Instead, it has set the stage for a fuller exploration of the universal traits that unite humanity." Reference: 1. Damned Whores and God's police, Anne Summers, 1994, Anne Summers has been associated with the cause of women in Australia. She is considered a leader of the movement concerning the women of Australia. This book has tracked the history of the white setters in Australia and has projected the history in entirely different perspective. It has pointed out the normal outlook of people to look at women as too good or too bad. This book traces the image of women and their place in society, starting from the 18th century till late 20th century. In context of the Feminist movement, it helps to study it in that perspective. 2. Edward Wilson,(Consilience: The unity of Knowledge, 1998) Edward O. Wilson is a scientist, who is known for his environetalism and scientific humanist ideas. Consilience means 'jumpimg togther' of knowledge. In this book, Edward O. Wilson has presented a unique view point of combining all the streams of knowledge like humanities and science. This synthesis of knowledge provides a holistic view of things. In context of the Feminist movement, it is helpful to provide an unbiased opinion and to help us look at things in totality. 3. Johanna Brenner, Women and the Politics of Class; The best of times [and] the worst of times: Feminism in United States, 1996 Johanna Brenner is the coordinator of women's studies at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She is a writer who has written on women related issues. She is an activist and raises he r voice in favor of reproductive rights, welfare rights, and socialism. Best of times, the worst of times- is a part of her book Women and the Politics of class. In this book she has specially brought out the struggle of the working class woman of America and the class polarization of women. This gives us a different point of view to analyze the Feminist movement and see it as a classification of Class and not Gender. 4. Oldfield, A., Woman Suffrage in Australia: A gift or a Struggle 1992 Audrey Oldfield has written about Australia in partcular. In The Great Republic of the southern seas: republicans in nineteenth-century Australia the political history of Australia is discussed. In Woman Suffrage in Australia, the plight and fight of women of Australia is described. This book tells about the struggle of women to get the right to vote. It gives the history of the movement from 1880 when it started, to 1902,when it was granted. It gives a comparative study of the struggle in USA and UK. It is a good source to get an overview of this movement. 5. Daniels, K. Feminism and Social History, 1985 Australian Feminist Studies. Daniel's work is often quoted in the researches related to feminism and specially its history. Australian Feminist studies ahs a collection of authentic works on subjects connected with women and feminism. A study of this article by Daniels hephs us to see how history has recorded the progress of the feminist movement in Australia. It helps us see the bias and to put it in the correct perspective. 6. Susan Faludi, Backlash:The Undeclared War against Women, 1991, Susan Faludi is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. She is a journalist and author of two books: Backlash: the Undeclared War against American Women and Stiffled: The Betrayal of the American Man. Backlash talks about the Feminist Movement and has criticized the people who have commented on women's position. This book also won the National Book Critic's Circle award in 1992. The study of this book gives us a much-acclaimed view point related to the feminist movement. Susan's name and works are often quoted in any study or work done in the field of feminist movement as she is considered a strong authority on the subject. 7. About:Women's History; About inc, a part of new york times company Although the internet still gets scowls of the scholars when being quoted as a source. But in today's world, it is important to get the perspectives of today's people and most of the recent information is available only through the Internet. About.com was founded in 1996 and today attracts more than 29 million people every month. It is considered one of the top 10 web properties and has a very qualified team of guides. Searching this site for Women's history helps us get diverse opinions of people from all corners of the world and we get a very wide perspaective. 8. Sydney Morning Herald This is a newspaper started in 1841 by John Fairfax. It started as a weekly paper and became a daily in 1840. Today it is a very popular paper with a very high circulation. A study of such news papers, specially their articles by renowned writers, gives us today's view point and help us to evaluate things in today's perspective. Anne Summers has been a regular contributor to this paper and we can read many of her recent articles on this newspaper. This enhances our knowledge on her thought process as compared to her earlier published book. When we trace a history of any movement, we get the history in the books that have already been written but the later developments are available in such media as the newspapers. Read More