Gender and Australian Law - Essay Example

?Gender and Australian Law The gender discrimination in Australia has been one of the major problems faced by the nation and to eradicate it the Australian government along with the states has formulated laws to spread equality among all the section of people in the country. The discrimination among the gender in Australia has been evident in almost all the sectors of the country and the paper analyzes the problem of discrimination based on genders and the laws and regulations framed to promote such practice in a reputed country like Australia. Australian society and evidence of discrimination: Gender inequality is a matter of regular experience in Australia. The overall condition of women in Australia is a serious matter of concern as they had to repeatedly face barriers in the advancement of their careers and regarding their participation in the workforce. The women community in Australia has exhibited underrepresentation in the positions of senior leaderships. The interest of men has also taken a setback as they find it difficult to balance the responsibility of the work and the family. The increase in work pressure and absence of any legislation promoting their needs makes it difficult for them to share time with their families. Women regularly have to encounter matters of violence and harassment and have a huge impact affecting their ability to get involved in paid work which seriously curtails their economic independence. The barriers in the overall structure and the culture, prevalent in the workplace are one of the serious reasons for the discrimination which both men and women have to suffer. The sexual harassment of both the sections of men and women in every part of the society also is an example of gender discrimination in Australia. Because of all these social problems, the government of Australia has introduced various laws and had undertaken various amendments in order to improve the condition of both the section of the society.1 Anti-discrimination laws in Australia: The structure of the anti-discriminatory laws in Australia works in a uniform pattern throughout the country. The federal laws regarding anti-discrimination based on gender is applicable both in the public sectors and as well as in private sectors of the country. The laws in Australia do not have any special status and are applied by the courts of the federal government as a part of the simple legislation. The Australian government basically maintains four sets of substantive acts to eradicate discrimination of all forms in the country and they are Racial Discrimination act 1975, Sex discrimination Act, Disability discrimination Act and Age discrimination Act. The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 is however fully dedicated to the prevention of gender biasness in the country across all sectors. The Human rights and the Equal opportunity Commission acts a mentor to evaluate the performance of the acts and monitor the overall implementation of the act. Preventing discrimination in workplace: The acts relating to the prevention of discrimination based on sex and the other acts preventing discrimination based on various grounds is applicable to the work related fields. The act is applicable in the every stage of the organization. The sexual discrimination act held that during the hiring process no organization can depict biasness in recruiting an employee based on the gender. The terms and conditions of the employment should also be same for both class of genders and no exceptions or special privileges are to be provided based on the gender. The employees also cannot be terminated based on their genders. The laws prevent any form of discrimination in the workplace whether direct or indirect and try to provide justice to the victims of such acts. In spite of the presence of such acts in the Australia, the laws relating to the prevention of sexual discrimination suffer from variety of limitation. Though the laws are implemented but there is the absence of the process to identify cases of discrimination and eliminate such acts form the working environment.2 The participants in the workplace are not educated about the prohibition of such steps and they lack the knowledge regarding how to proceed with the cases if they are the victims of discrimination in the workplace. There is an absence of measure which converts the legislation into the regulation of the workplace which would have been really helpful for the employees working in the organizations. The employers of the organizations also feel reluctant to implement any internal grievance procedure to help the employees who feel that they have experienced the violation of such legislation. But evidence of employers also exists in Australia who has effectively deployed the discrimination policies at the workplace.3 The application of the sex discrimination act in the workplace proved further difficulty for the employees to implement as it specified that the person who has been the victim of such gender discrimination is required to prove the fact with evidence and a defense. Based on this amendment in the law, the cases of indirect discrimination became difficulty to prove as the identification and providing of fact in such cases was difficult. Instance of such evidence was seen in the case of the New South Wales vs Amery in the year 2006, where the female teachers claimed that they were being provided with less pay package in comparison to the male teachers of equal qualification. The reason of difference in the pay package appeared as they were not the permanent teachers and they were never made permanent as the clause of permanent teacher in the school mentioned that they had to get transferred to any school in the district which they refused based on the family care responsibilities. The description cited in the case accounted for the indirect discrimination and due to proper lack of evidence the teachers lost the case in the high court of New South Wales4. Other than the sex discrimination act, the Equal Opportunity for Women in Workplace act is also framed under the Australian law which promotes the cause of only women in the organization. The laws under EOWW imposes obligation on the employers in developing strategies for analyzing the environment in the workplace and also in framing regulation so that they can eliminate the barriers for the equality towards women. However the limitation of the law in the act under EOWW is that the sanction of the act is very limited to use and the agency has no power for the enforcement of the act. The act is applicable only to the employers who run their business in a large scale. The employers are not persuaded enough to maintain the act strictly in the organization and they are only required to provide a report to the administrative authority that they are compiling to the act imposed on them , without any verification of the actual act performed in the organization. Another disadvantage of the EOWW act is that it does not force the organization to change any practice as they require only evaluating the organizations principle and designing the plan. 5 Family law promoting equality in gender: The Australian government maintains equality and democracy in marriage, and laws are framed so that no discrimination is present in the society in the matters of marriage. In order to provide benefit to both the sex in matters of parenting the government introduced the additional parents benefit for women in the year 1973 and later in the year 1979, the parents benefit for men was also introduced. The courts passed the orders which promoted the cause of the single mother by providing them with benefits in order to maintain their child in a proper fashion. Benefits were also there for both men and women so that they can end their violent and unhappy marriage life6. One of the rising problems which the Australians have faced over the years is in the balancing of the work life and responding to the needs of the family. In earlier days maternity leaves were provided to the mothers so that they could able to take care of their child, but the government has recently announced the paternity leaves for the fathers which is to be effective from the month of July in 2012. Under the paternity leaves the fathers are entitled to get a two week paid leaves for providing care towards the new born child. Prevention of Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment has been one of the key factors which have affected the general society in Australia for over the years. The victims of the sexual harassment are both male and female. Cases of sexual harassment have been found in schools, colleges, and workplace. In order to safeguard the interest of the victims, the Sex discrimination act has been amended to include the context of the sexual discrimination. The laws cover the sexual harassment of the victim in any areas of the public life. The sexual harassment laws cover the interest of students also and does not discriminate the issues based on the sex of the students7. Cases of sexual harassment are more frequent in the workplace in Australia. Cases of Sexual harassment has increased significantly over the period of time and in 2008, 22 % women belonging to the age range 18-64 were the victims of sexual harassment whereas the number of men was also higher nearly of about 5 % who belonged to the same age profile. The convicts of the sexual harassment are treated on equal terms under the law and no biasness is maintained based on the sex or other criteria.8 Obligation under the international laws: Other than the social issue of preventing sex discrimination and the problems which the Australian government faces in preventing the inequality system based on the gender, the international laws also oblige the government to stop such acts and take bold steps to promote equality in all spheres of the society. The obligations arise because of the international treaties or the protocols which the government is a signatory. The sex discrimination act was passed in the year 1984 to put in effect of the convention of the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Australian government is also a part of the treaty of the International Covenant on civil and Political Rights along with ICESR and both the treaties contains rationales which signify provision for elimination of discrimination of sex. The Article 23 of the ICCR declares the requirement of the country to provide equal rights in the context of the marriage. On the other hand, article 3 of the ICESCR mentions that all the rights in the country are to be enjoyed on an equal basis by both men and women. The right to equality also maintains the provision of conditions in the workplace and mentions the equal rates of pay for both men and women and tries to remove any discrimination prevalent in the workplace. CEDAW is the primary international treaty signed by the Australian government which promotes the equality towards women base on the context of gender discrimination. 9 The Australian government has also started the practice of the gender mainstreaming after the conference in Beijing promoting the eradication of any form of discrimination. 10 Conclusion: Inequality has been prevalent in Australia on various contexts and the discrimination based on gender is one of the rising issues. Various global bodies have addressed the government to stop all kinds of discrimination and to promote the standard of the Australian society11. Based on the urgency of the situation, The Australian government had incorporated various laws to eradicate all forms of discrimination. The Sex discrimination act framed in 1984 was aimed at removing discrimination based on gender in the workplace and in the families of Australia. The laws formulated covered most of the vital areas in the eradication of discrimination but various limitations were spotted in the effective implementation of the laws. Various house hold issues were also considered and an effort was made to eradicate the discrimination of sex in the workplace and to cease the sexual harassment. Though the laws were formulated keeping in mind of the promotion of equality, but the employees were not educated how to proceed with the laws and claim their rights. The government should carry on with their good work and also provide necessary knowledge regarding the implementation of the law so that the cause of spreading equality based on gender is achieved. 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