For Love or Money: The Dominant Themes - Movie Review Example

General comments from teacher 1-Make sure to acknowledge all of your sources in the text. 2-pick out the issues, give them a heading and research them e.g.: value of women's work and pay in equally. 3- good presentation, well edited. 4- expand on the stereotypes- what are they? 5- shorter the description of the film and write on the issues addressing the question. 6- what discrimination approaches and EEO act are in place in our current workplace that can assist these groups – i.e. – discrimination :look at stone text - diversity management Please read the red writing in the text and solve this problems And this assignment about value of women's work and pay in equally please. Introduction: The portrayal of the women in Australian cinema has followed the patterns of their everyday real existence in as much as the fact that there has been a general ignoring of their plight and problems and the portrayal overall has bordered on the stereotypical and the everyday. The following analysis will go into some detail on why this has happened and analyse the film For Love or Money with respect to the portrayal of the changing role of the women in particular equal pay for women in the Australian society. Films that have focused on the gender issue or more particularly the marginalised gender classes. This would therefore mean that the glamour quotient that would attract the audience has ordinarily stayed away from the films. It had been in fact been stated about these films that “these films are about equal pay, equal work and other equal subject and also these films attack the structure of the family care. (For Love or Money: Women and Work in Australia, Online)) For Love or Money- The dominant themes: For Love or Money was in essence a feature length documentary film that presented a feminist history of the place and role of women in Australia from 1788 to the advent of the new women’s movement of the 1970s. Drawing on archival footage, interviews, photographs, clips from feature films and other sources, the film was made over a five year period by a women’s collective. The film has been known as a landmark in Australian filmmaking, given the fact that the film explores issues such as female transportation to the colony, the treatment of aboriginal women, unequal pay for women, family and motherhood, abortion, Aboriginal land rights, the environment, peace and immigration (Hawthorne and Klien, 1994) In this slightly downbeat film about the history of working women in Australia, the tone is sombre although each well-won step forward is highlighted. Divided into four parts, the first segment examines the influx of female prisoners into Australia at the end of the 18th century and their demonstrations in the prisons against deplorable conditions. The story of women's rights continues up to 1914, including the fight for the right to vote. The second part covers the role of women in World War I and before World War II. The third segment continues through the second World War with the role of women in a diminished work force and considers the issue of equal pay for equal work in the years up to 1969. The last segment traces the feminist movement up to contemporary times (early 1980s). A telling and passionate tribute to the unsung labors of Australian women, past and present. It presents two hundred years of Australian history through women’s eyes, from the impact of colonisation on Australian women to the challenges confronting women today. For Love Or Money documents not only the work women have done in the workplace - the factory, the shop, the office, the hospital the school, but also all the work of caring - as mothers, wives, volunteer workers and in many other unpaid occupations. The growing trade union movement excludes female workers. By the beginning of the new century, women are campaigning for access to higher education, the vote, and equal pay. During World War 1 thousands of jobs in offices and factories are filled by women. At war’s end, the minimum wage for a female worker is set for the first time - at 54% of the male rate. Women are accused of stealing men’s jobs. World War II brings women into paid work again and again at war’s end women are pushed back into the home. However a new generation of young women, advantaged by access to higher education (and the pill), is about to challenge traditional female roles. It is when the Labor Party wins government in 1972 that equal pay is finally won. Despite these reforms, most women workers remain in low-paid ‘female’ jobs and are barred from higher-paid ‘men’s’ work. (In the 2000s women doing comparable jobs to men, especially outside of the public service are still paid less). The visual themes: The film is based on many visual sources-clips from past and present have been utilized in the portrayal of the women and women related issues from the 1770s to 1970s. There are many spoken voices and visual images are made coherent through the construction of a common yet complex female story. The story the filmmakers have to tell is one of paradoxes: women’s creativity yet subordination, their self-expression yet entrapment in the work of child caring. By the 1870s industrialisation and the growth of textile and clothing manufacturing had brought women into the factories as cheap labour. Oppressive work practices or ‘sweating’ in the garment industry was common. By 1880 a group of Tailoresses, led by Helen Lothan Robertson, had begun campaigning against the actions of employers. In 1882 Melbourne clothing manufacturer Beith Shiess & Co attempted to reduce the already low piece-rate wages. In response, Robertson and the Tailoresses formed the Tailoresses’ Association of Melbourne, the first exclusively female trade union in Australia (Fieldes, 1997). A list of claims was drawn up and when no response from the manufacturers was received, a strike was called on 15 February 1883. Increasing prosperity, a relatively tight labour market and the support of The Age newspaper in garnering public sympathy resulted in most employers accepting the claims by March 1883. The underlying concerns- Stereotypes and typifications: Despite its obvious pluses the movie at some reinstates the views and the stereotypes that exist with respect to aborigines in general and Australian women in particular given the fact that the beginning of the film is characterised by a show of the many hardships that characterized the life of the Australian women. The problem is here is that despite the best of intentions the movie reinforces the stereotypes that have been attached to the minority women of Australia in the light of the colonial history that characterises the development of civilisation in Australia. The film overall is a collecting point for many kinds of visions, accounts and images rather than as imply discursive history, though it might be argued that the highly verbal processes of organising the sequences pulled in different directions at times from the more mixed demands (verbal, visual. Aural and rhythmic) of organising the film and that the film sometimes seems to be straining in conflicting directions. For the purpose of our discussion we would have to limit ourselves to the first part of the film (No, this doesn’t need reference; this is a statement)- “Hard labor” which begins at 1788 and the union of Australian women’s traditional gathering work with the gaoling and transportation of Britain’s distressed and unemployed women, to 1907 and the Harvester judgment in which the long standing practice of unequal pay was established. Rare glimpses of Aboriginal women’s traditional work introduce this archival compilation history of women’s work in Australia. The story of convict women’s enforced labour in the early years of the colonies is followed by an examination of the role of women through the decades of frontier conflict, pastoral settlement, gold rushes and industrialisation. Women’s labour – as wives and mothers, maids and governesses, cooks and farm workers, nurses and seamstresses – is essential work but always underpaid and unacknowledged. Class and race sharply define and limit women’s roles. The growing trade union movement excludes female workers, so women form their own unions. By the beginning of the new century, women are campaigning for access to higher education, the vote, and equal pay. The Australian trade and workforce system in the period of the early 1880s was for example characterised by a segregation of the sector workforce (Bowden and Bowden, 2004). This was also substantiated by the a justification that had its grounds in ideology based in turn on a model of a nuclear, heterosexual family of male breadwinner and female "dependent". This would automatically therefore mean that the men had the right to be the ones to be in charge of the purse strings and the women were to be subservient and to be the ones that would bear the kids and take care of the household. A woman who came out of this role was challenging the “natural” order of things. The factor of wage inequality was again based on gender, the undervaluing of women's work, the double oppression of indigenous women and women of color. It has been proven time and time again that the efforts that were put in by the women were in fact a manifestation of the needs to of time and the fact that women were cheap labor was not due to their liking but due to the factors of an unequal wage system. Sylvia Van Kirk has demonstrated that in the sector of the fur trade, the efforts of the aborigine women in the sense of it being mostly unpaid labor was of utmost importance in as much as that it proved to be an essential input to the overall furthering of the process of profit generation and accumulation. This in turn built the capitalist enterprise of the Hudson's Bay Company. Interestingly enough, this very capitalist system was brought under scanner during the Great Depression and this very work of the women was placed under scanner in the context of the fact that the 1, 00,000 women who worked were said to be usurping jobs of as many men (Lawrence Mishel et al, 2005). Later, native women's work was often an essential part of kin production, such as farming, hunting, and trapping, but this was seldom registered in official censuses, a fact accentuated by the state's attempts to marginalise native people within a reserve system. Similar difficulties occur in relation to the work of Australian Aboriginal women, who were not even counted in the national census until 1971. Nevertheless, their work in the pastoral, maritime, and mining industries of northern and central Australia was often crucial both to the economic viability of these enterprises and to the survival of dispossessed Aboriginal groups (Raelene Frances, 1996) What one can identify based on the aegis of the discussion till now is the fact that women and minority groups are the two basic stereotypes that one would have to focus on in the context of the discussion (this doesn’t need a reference). Add the two and one gets the problems of typification that would face aboriginal women. Interestingly enough, stereotypes are more often than not negative constructs and the fact of the matter would therefore remain that these would automatically have repercussions as far as an impact in the work place is concerned. Stereotyping requires that two conditions be met: The existence of set of beliefs or mental representation of a social category and The classification of categorisation (whether conscious or unconscious) of an individual as a member or an exemplar of a given community (John T. Jost, 2004). This would mean automatically that there would be notions about a group-in these instances women in general and aboriginal women in particular with respect to the scope of their efficiency and the kind of work that they would be equipped to handle. This would therefore severely restrict their reach as far as success or failure in a given career is concerned. This would have relevance in 2009-2010 as well given the fact that set notions and stereotypes are still present with respect to the abilities and the capabilities of women in the workplace and the kind of influence that they ought to wield. Stereotypes don’t just have an influence with respect to the levels of authority but even with respect to the kind of profession that one should enter. A woman for example is best suited to be a nurse while the man should be a doctor. The age old adage is sticking like glue and this would be the relevance as far as the discourse on gender and the scope of power relations in this measure is concerned (Liza Jansen, 2009). The best possible method of dealing with this issue is through an implementation of the principles of workforce diversity management given the fact that these principles attack the crux of the problem by dealing primarily with the issues regarding promotions, pay and sexual harassment. This would automatically then address the evils of a hostile work environment backed by stereotypes and typification. This would manifest itself in the workplace through organs such as ensuring that the organisation overall adapts to demographic changes. The Affirmative Action (AA) requirements are met by written policy statement on EEO (in order to facilitate better and transparent functioning of several of the steps necessary for employment and career development)/AA, designated AA officer, publicized EEO/AA policy statement, labor market analysis, goals and timetables established for any underrepresented group, specific programs to achieve these goals, internal reporting system, and internal and external support systems for AA. Section 2: Analysis At the workplace, one would have to accept that in the most ideal scenario the principle governing factor ought to be that of merit, ability and hard work above all else. This finds manifestation in schemes such as Australia’s compulsory arbitration, union and non union employees- wherein 90 per cent of all employees receive the same award compensation and within each firm the same over-awards might be negotiated locally (Kornfeld, 2001). This has been achieved at times by unionised bargaining and at times by movements and strikes. The second thing that becomes apparent with the discussion is that the importance of women in commercial activity is paramount of the nation overall has to achieve a respectable standard of development. The scope of independence and freedom that has been achieved as far as women are concerned is still at a low level and it is needed that the kind of typification and stereotyping that women have been subject to at the workplace be reduced. This can be achieved by an equal opportunity approach by the governments and the corporate. The best example in this case is the growth of women and their work in the financial sectors of the Australian economy in the post second world war era, when sectors where there were new jobs deemed "appropriate" for women were sorted out. This was in specific an answer to the economic pull of family need and the changing structure of domestic labour. Families needed more cash to meet mortgage, tax, beating, education, and transportation costs. At the same time, a consumer-oriented economy, and one in which domestic work and products were increasingly corn-modified, meant that women were more likely to use wages than unpaid work or the informal economy to help sustain their households (Frances, Kealy and Sangster, 1996). The third factor that one would have to consider is the fact that levels of education need to be brought up, especially in the context of the Australian women given the fact that one of the main influences on labour-market success is educational attainment. The level of education has been shown to have a major bearing on whether a person is employed or unemployed (Le & Miller, 2000). One can end this discussion with a prediction of the things that the future could hold in store for the labour market in the context of the importance of women to the overall structure and importance in trade. It has been stated by some that while the financial market deregulation was the big story of the 1990s and the early part of the 2000s, the next big story would be the deregulation of the labour market. Sydney Morning Herald economics columnist, Ross Gittins, in the run-up to the Federal election in March 1993, stated, "And, though each side emphasises the difference in their approach, both parties are committed to it... to dismantling our 90-year-old system of nationwide pay rises and moving to a system of company specific pay rises. Both sides tell us how necessary this is and how much better it will be. They say that linking workers' pay rises to the productivity of their enterprise will itself encourage greater productivity. This will make our enterprises more competitive, so that we're able to export more and import less, thereby reducing our problem with the foreign debt." (this is part of the above statement, so no reference is necessary). The importance of recognising merit based work over the marginalisation of minorities based on stereotypes therefore assumes more importance in 2009-2010 than it had even at the peak of the feminist movement-the ones that grasp this the earliest would probably be the biggest gainers. References Kornfeld R, 2001, The effects of Union Membership on wages and Employee benefits: The case of Australia, pub, Industrial and Labour Relations Review, Vol.47 No.1, pp114-128 Hawthorne S and Klien R, 1994, Australia for Women: Travel and Culture, pub, Spinifex Press, p187 Raelene Frances, Linda Kealey, and Joan Sangster, "Women and Wage Labour in Australia and Canada, 1880-1980," Labour/U Travail, 38 (Fall \996)/Labour History,! I (November 1996), 54-89. Le A T and Miller P W, 2000, The Rising Education Levels of Females in Australia, pub, Education Economics, Vol. 10, No. 1 Fieldes D, 1997, 'Everybody Was "Girls" in the Minds of the Management': the Fight for Equal Pay in the Australian Insurance Industry, 1973-75, pub, Labour History Bowden B and Bowden T, 2004, The women do the machinery': Craft, Gender and Work Transformation in the Brisbane Boot Trade, 1869-95, pub, Labor History For Love or Money: Women and Work in Australia, A film by MEGAN McMURCHY, MARGOT NASH, MARGOT OLIVER and JENI THORNLEY, Available at A film by MEGAN McMURCHY, MARGOT NASH, MARGOT OLIVER and JENI THORNLEY, Accessed on January 22 2010 Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Sylvia Allegretto, The State of Working America: 2004-2005 (Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 2005), 252-484 Raelene Frances, Linda Kealey and Joan Sangster, Women and Wage Labour in Australia and Canada, 1880-1980, Labour / Le Travail, Vol. 38, Australia and Canada: Labour Compared. A Special Joint Issue of "Labour/Le Travail" and "Labour History" (Fall, 1996), pp. 54-89 John T. Jost, A decade of system justification theory, Political Psychology, Vol 25, Number 6, 2004 Liza Jansen, 'Rights: Women’s Treaty a Powerful Force for Equality', Inter Press Service, December 4, 2009, Read More