Conceptualisations of Women within Australian Egalitarian Thought

Abstract

Both these quotations are products of considered reflection made by men upon the “nature” and place of women within Australian society. Withnell is president of the Perth chapter of the Coffin Cheaters and currently writing a Ph.D. thesis on the “subculture” of biker clubs. Sturgess, a barrister perhaps best known for his prosecution of Lindy Chamberlain in the second inquest into the disappearance of her daughter, at the time of the newspaper article was the one-man commission of inquiry into child abuse in Queensland. Both statements express commonsense Australian cultural understandings of women, which are also available within Australian myths of national identity. My intention in exploring these myths is to elucidate a more complete range of the cultural conceptualisations of women than is provided by these statements and, at the same time, account for the prevalent limited and often negative

Women leave work because of family responsibilities: Fact or fiction?

“…It is important to examine women’s reasons for departure in Australia. Although Australia is generally regarded as an egalitarian society, it has a relatively low gender-egalitarian culture (Barham 1988; Brandl, Mayrhofer and Reichel 2007). Australia lags behind many western countries (e.g.…”