Feminism

FEMINISM

Feminism is the belief that society is disadvantageous to women, depriving them from political, social and economical aspects within the society.

Over the period of the 1940's to present time the women's role in Australia has been successfully changed due to the feminist movements.

Up until the 1960's the role of women was seen to be limited primarily to marriage and motherhood. But during the 1960's protests and feminists movements began to draw attention to the need for women to take a more active role in social/political and economic life. In the late 1960's the feminist movement took a more thorough nature within Australia and liberation groups were formed calling for equal pay, maternity leave, abortion laws etc, these messages can be identified in these 2 sources.

Source one and two represent the nature of the feminist movements in Australia, and the independence women portrayed in order to present their message to society. The message of source one is the women liberation movements. In it we are presented with a group of women protesting, holding a banner (women unite for women's liberation). These campaigns were held for many reasons regarding women's rights, such as domestic violence, gender, stereotypes, sexuality, discrimination, patriarchy, abortion and various others. The banner has been centered in the photo and made the most obvious when looking at it, this reflects the women's want to be noticed and for significant changes to take place towards their role within society.

Source two portrays the same ideas of equality and women's rights although its emphasizing more towards women's working rights. For some time women were treated poorly in regards to the work force. They were paid low wages in semi skilled occupations and even though they were putting in equal labor to the men they were still getting paid less. Source 2 depicts that issue. The captions aids in understanding the message which is a women's right protest against equal pay of men and women who are involved in equal work. (Please we are begging you)-identifies the need of the women for equal pay. The source represents how women had an unadvantaged role within the patriarchal society and the workforce.

Along with these women's liberation protests and movements were political/social and economic effects. Political impacts enabled women to have a more stable role in society, the government brought forward women doing equal work should get equal pay by 1972.(MENZIES) and in 1950 the commonwealth arbitration court granted female workers 75% of the male wage. The political development to the Whitlam government also had significant impact as the govt. gave much greater recognition to women's issues then previous govts.

With the support of the Whitlam government in the 1970s, women's position in Australian society advanced. The attitude changes within the government and society saw numerous decisions and laws passed to assist women, such as appointing women to political positions, establishing a women s bureau and granting them in 1974 the full adult minimum wage. The movement trend reflected changing social attitudes and the belief that women had the same right as men to participate in the workforce. Women also established a more social role in society. Economically, effects of better wages benefited women especially those who were single parents.

The changing role in society changed women from marginalized and disadvantaged to a more liberated society. Shaping Australia as there was more recognition and equality towards them and women gained more involvement in the country. The Movement of Women's Liberation has fundamentally changed the structure of Australian society, in providing gender equality and freedom.

In these 3 sources