Women’s movement legacies in Australia
description
Transcript of Women’s movement legacies in Australia
Women’s movement legacies in Australia
Marian Sawer, ANUProtest, dissent and activism
symposiumVictoria University of Wellington
16 October 2010
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://cass.anu.edu.au/research_projects/mawm
Mapping the Australian Women’s Movement
• Three components— protest event database and analysis 1970- 2005– longitudinal institutional mapping 1970-
2005— online discursive legacy
Multiple repertoires, 1972
• WEL ‘outsider’ strategy - demonstrations and ‘demands’
• At the same time as ‘insider’ strategy - submission to Tariff Inquiry, arguing for removal sales tax from contraceptives
Multiple repertoires, 1976
• Direct action to unlock the cage
• WEL submission on structure of women’s policy machinery (‘wheel’ model) implemented in Australian govt
Multiple repertoires 1979: IWD marchSydney
• Protest events continue
• Health cover for legal, safe abortion
• WEL also forum shopping, institution-building in different jurisdictions
Multiple repertoires, High Court September,
2001
• WEL defending access of single women to IVF, inside and outside High Court of Australia
Women’s Movement protest events, SMH,
1970-2005
Women’s institutions per year 1970-05
Trajectories• Protest events peak beginning 1980s• Institution building peaks 1970s but continues into 1990s, in different states — women’s services— women’s policy units, intergovt bodes—cultural spaces
• Vocational institution-building continues in 21st century
Cultural spaces• Feminist presses (1980s: Sybylla, Redress, Sisters Publishing; 1990s: Spinifex)
• Feminist bookshops (from 1974, now only 1)
• Feminist journals (eg Refractory Girl 1972-2000)
• Newspaper ‘women’s pages’ (eg. Age 1966-97)
• Radio (eg, Coming Out Show, ABC, 1975-98)• Film (eg, Women’s Film Fund/Program 1976-99)• Online blogs, e-Lists
Can institutions sustain movement
goals?• Exogenous influences on women’s services— collectives give way to hybrids (accountability)
— professionalisation— deradicalisation of language— competitive tendering
Can institutions sustain movement
goals? 2• Endogenous influences on women’s services
—Professionalisation & individualisation:experts & clients rather than democratic service delivery
—Loss of institutional, political memory—Generational shifts:
querying relevance feminist organisational models
BUT…
Institutional persistence 1976-2010http://www.rapecrisis.org.au/index.htm
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Sexual assault counselling for women & childrenCommunity education & training24 hour crisis support and advocacy
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Can institutions sustain movement goals
(3)• Women’s policy agencies—Effects of NPM —outcomes not processes, product format—‘evidence-based’ policy + market research—Idea of agency capture (see public choice)— resistance to disaggregated analysis — ‘Mainstreaming’ 1990s
Changing discursive context
• Rise of populism and public choice— ‘special interests’; ‘rent-seeking’— agency capture— conspiracy against public— redistribution at expense of ordinary taxpayers
• Discursive shifts more important than partisan changes
State/NGO relations
• From operational funding of advocacy organisations to strengthen weak voices
project funding (in a/c govt priorities)
competitive tendering, excluding political functions
'silencing dissent’ – gag clauses and threats to charitable status
Precarious nature institutional legacies
• Institutional innovation threatened both by—surrounding institutional norms—changing discursive contexts—endogenous shifts, lifecycle, generational
• Adaptation may make it difficult but not impossible to pursue movement goals
Discursive legacies online
• Feminist blogs— eg http://hoydenabouttown.comlinks to off-line actions such as rallies for abortion rights 9 Oct 2010— Down Under Feminist Carnival http://downunderfeministscarnival.wordpress.com/
• Social networking— Twitter, Facebook build stronger connections, draw attention to contentious issues, events
Down Under Feminists' Carnival
http://downunderfeministscarnival.wordpress.com/
Call for Submissions: Thirtieth Edition at Fat Lot of Good, 5 November 2010
Blogosphere
Redheads ‘no other match’
• Pam Debenham– Canberra artist, limited edn, August 2010
Women as % of Liberal and Labor MPs 1977-
2010
Women’s movement legacies in Australia
Marian Sawer, ANU