Feminism In Australian Contemporary Society: Criticisms And Support

Contemporary Definition of Feminism

Feminism is a widely discussed topic that continues to gain much attention due to the importance attached to it regarding social economic and political development. Several nations up to date do recognize the fact that women should not be treated equally to men. This implies that males are right to undertake senior public positions while women are bound to occupy minor posts in the society. Ideally, it is evident that women have the capabilities of demonstrating their skills the same level to men only that they are denied opportunity to do so. To some nations, it is apparent even women themselves have accepted the fact that they are weak and cannot appoint a person of their gender, therefore, making it impossible to enhance feminism in the community. Specifically, feminism in Australia has taken new several strides that have seen the nation appreciate and support equality to all genders without disparity. Therefore, by analyzing the extent to which feminism is criticized in Australia is bound to provide a green light to the subject.

According to Hunter (2006), feminism can be defined in simple terms as a move towards the realization of equality among the people. In Australia, the balance has been highly neglected, and women continue to receive harsh treatments hence strengthening the basis for division and unfairness. Recently, women were reported to have contributed to the equality in at the places of work, learning institutions, in governments and boardrooms where they have taken leadership roles, therefore, serving as a pathway to which their counterparts should adapt. Conversely, this is by far not enough to conclude that feminism has been fully welcomed in Australia. The enactment of discrimination act by the government of Australia was seen as the long-awaited solution to the challenges women faced based on pregnancy, marital status, gender, family responsibilities and sexuality (Gornick, 1999). In contrary to that, there have been significant incidences of women mistreatments which prove that harassment of women by their male colleagues still continues. For instance, the whole of the Australian population is comprised of over fifty percent women. However, only forty-six percent of these females secure employment opportunities. This is an apparent show of how the nation has failed to preach equality thereby bring a lot of imbalances which negatively y impact on the economy of the country. To worsen the situation, the working women are recorded to have been earning less salary than men. This demonstrates the fact that the plight of women is ignored thereby degrading and weakening their standards of living.

The studies conducted in 2013 revealed that Australia is significantly continuing to exercise gender inequality by occupying position twenty-four as opposed to 2006 when it stood at fifteenth globally. This is compounded by the fact that most of the women in Australia are entitled to occupy low-level positions in the society that are meant to compel them further from achieving mutual benefits of the nation. According to Seidman (1994), about ninety-two percent of the Australian women occupy places for primary carers which range from looking for the people with disabilities to those carers for the aging parents. To add on the inequality, women continue to be absorbed as part-time workers in those industries where the payment is not forthcoming. Under these conditions, women are exposed to insecurity hence proving it difficult for them to enjoy the fruits of living in Australia. Many people might think that men are more learned than women, but the reality is that irrespective of the academics and other personal qualifications, men are more prioritized than females regarding leadership and control.

Support for Feminism in Australia

Bressler (2007) postulates that women’s Sexual harassment in Australia continues to be witnessed most precisely at the places of work. Basing this fact from the research recently carried out, a quarter of the women were sexually assaulted during the year 2007 and 2007 while fulfilling their caring duties. This vice is seen to be coming not only from the senior staff but also from the coworkers tirelessly engage women in disharmony by posting sexually suggestive comments, inappropriate leering and intrusively questioning their private lives. Similarly, in one of the two women in Australia reports cases of discrimination in the workplace. Most of the institutions all over the world have currently laid rules regarding the wellbeing of pregnant workers and their mothering periods. The commonly set period for nurturing a child ranges from two to three months. Despite the fact that a child needs to be taken care of, it is productive to engage a mother in the workplace before regaining strength necessary to withstand employment environment. In 2014, discrimination was witnessed in Australia with forty-nine percent of the women experiencing after parental leave. Ang (2003) studied that eighteen percent of the women illustrated that they were dismissed and their expiring contracts were not renewed after utilizing the parental leave. It is clear that there are no proper means of protecting the women and their family responsibilities therefore significantly exposing the practice of inequality.

Gunew (2013) posits that nurturing of the children and making a close check on them is a joint responsibility of man and a woman. In Australia, women spend eight hours looking after the kids while men just take three hours a week to fulfill that responsibility. In the connection that, women are seen to have more time for their children than men which show that males are more advantageous regarding investing and undertaking other self-developmental duties. Another show of inequality between men and women is evident on the average retirement payouts. According to the research carried out in 2009 and 2010, men were highly ranked on average pension payouts recording one hundred and ninety-eight thousand dollars while that of women stood at one hundred and twelve thousand and six hundred and twelve dollars. The implication of that figure is that men are deemed to enjoy their retirement benefits for a longer time than the women. Also, women are bound to experience poverty after retirement which in turn puts pressure on the government to spend a lot of money taking care of the old possibly known as age pension. To add more on the violence of women, one in three women from the age of fifteen years and above have ever experienced violence. According to the study carried out, by 2022 the Australian economy will have suffered a loss of about fifteen billion dollars from violence against children and women if preventive measures are not sought. Irrespective of immorality such as drug abuse and robbery, family violence remains to be the leading cause of death for females aged fifteen to forty-four years (Rajan & Mohanram, 1995). In short, goals and objectives underlying feminism is far from being reached thus putting the wellbeing of the women at risk.

Criticisms of Feminism in Australia

Criticism regarding feminism continues even after the enactment of family law reform act which was enforced in 1996.The act dictated that any form of violation of the children and the women was against the law. Unfortunately, feminists have not yet been accorded much of the freedom regarding equality because there is a small number of police who are responsible for taking care of such vices (Campo, 2005). Also, the state is reluctant to implement such laws because inequality is still being practiced at high levels such as local authorities and the national government as a whole. There have been rape law reforms that have not yet been implemented by the government; therefore, questioning the plight of women as far as national cohesion is concerned. Some of the theorists argue that despite the enactment of feminist laws, there are some boundaries that the law cannot cross. This implies that, even if women are battled by their husband, the law has nothing to do with family issues. That is because by interrupting on such grounds, one of the sides will be harmed due to the fact women might be sailing on the wrong side yet they claim protection from their wrongdoing. The issue of women seeking to be protected from violence is not a case that required fast action (Lotz, 2001). This is because the force investigating department should strictly undertake in-depth research on the initiator of violence before posting all the accusations to man. The feminism is bound to lose focus in Australia because there seems to be a variance in the understanding of family violence between the magistrates and the victims (Cosslett, Lury & Summerfield, 2000). The family violence act accounts for force by looking at the damage to property, repetition of the behavior, finding out that assault, molestation, and other offensive acts are evident. This means that the law does not account for physical violence only, therefore, proving it hard for the feminists to stage their grievances.

Yates (1993) explains that the court considers some of the factors before issuing an order to have the victims of violence protected. The feminists should not coerce the court to take action on the offenders without taking into accounts the balance of the situation. This implies that the Supreme Court should not be viewed as a ground for spelling the sanctions for the offenders but an institution filled with powers of injunctions that differ from one case to the other. To explain that, men who are viewed as the perpetrators also have their rights and their voices should be heard (Kalantzis, 1988). Briefly, a lot has to be done before equality is achieved and leveled in Australia.

Conclusively, it has been observed that criticism of feminism continues to thrive in Australia. Several ways by which women are discriminated have been highlighted.Sexual violence and physical assaults are dominant in the discussion. However, the interpretation of the law by the magistrates and feminists seems to take a different direction hence proving equality to be a dream in Australia. It is the responsibility of the government and particular individuals to enhance balance for better living of current and future generation of women and all genders as a whole.

References

Ang, I. (2003). I’ma feminist but…‘Other’women and postnational feminism. Feminist postcolonial theory: A reader, 190-206.

Bressler, C. E. (2007). Literary criticism. An Introduction to theory and practice.

Campo, N. (2005). ‘Having it all’or ‘had enough’? Blaming feminism in the age and the Sydney morning herald, 1980–2004. Journal of Australian Studies, 28(84), 63-72.

Cosslett, T., Lury, C., & Summerfield, P. (2000). Feminism and autobiography: Texts, theories, methods. Psychology Press.

Gornick, J. (1999). Gender equality in the labour market: Women’s employment and earnings. Ceps/Instead-Centre D’etudes de Populations, de Pauvrete Et de Politiques Socio-Economiques/International Networks for Studies in Technology, Environment, Alternatives, Development.

Gunew, S. (Ed.). (2013). Feminist Knowledge (RLE Feminist Theory): Critique and Construct. Routledge.

Hunter, R. (2006). Narratives of domestic violence. Sydney L. Rev., 28, 733.

Kalantzis, M. (1988). Ethnicity meets gender meets class in Australia.

Lotz, A. D. (2001). Postfeminist television criticism: Rehabilitating critical terms and identifying postfeminist attributes. Feminist Media Studies, 1(1), 105-121.

Rajan, G., & Mohanram, R. (1995). Postcolonial Discourse and Changing Cultural Contexts: Theory and Criticism (No. 64). Greenwood Publishing Group.

Seidman, S. (1994). The postmodern turn: New perspectives on social theory. Cambridge University Press.

Yates, L. (1993). What happens when feminism is an agenda of the state? feminist theory and the case of education policy in Australia. Discourse, 14(1), 17-29.