Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
give greater weight to (gendered) relational imperatives, against the (gendered) bias
towards unencumbered individualism in the traits expected of parliamentarians. 55
Feminist institution building
Under the Whitlam Labor government in the 1970s, Australia developed a (then)
unique model of women’s policy machinery in which dedicated units in departments,
supported by a central hub, worked to integrate gender analysis throughout
the different policy areas. Women’s budget statements analysed budget commitments
with a gender lens, and ‘femocrats’ (feminist bureaucrats) within government
tried to maintain links with feminists outside government, particularly the Women’s
Electoral Lobby. 56
From the 1990s onwards, this model declined, in part due to rising neoliberalism
and the gradual disappearance from public view of an autonomous,
active and oppositional women’s movement. 57 The recent surge of feminist activity
globally (including the Women’s March, #metoo and other mobilisation against
violence and harassment), as well as ongoing Indigenous women’s resistance and
leadership, has intensified demands for greater gender equality mechanisms. The
announcement in 2018 that the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Time Use Survey
(a key mechanism to measure gender disparities in unpaid care labour) will be
reintroduced after a 12-year hiatus may be a sign that feminist demands for
stronger women’s policy machinery are being heard.
The other major stream of feminist institution building – non-government
women’s services, such as shelters and women’s health centres – has continued,
now running as part of a large, under-resourced sector of government-funded
but independently run community services. 58 This institutional ‘nestedness’ 59
sometimes supports and legitimises women’s services, but it also makes it difficult
for them to sustain and gain recognition for their distinctive role.
Representation
Across the world, much attention has been given to the participation of women
(and, more recently, LGBTIQ+ people) in formal politics, measuring inequalities
as well as identifying the underlying factors that structure participation, with the
aim of improving the inclusiveness of existing political systems. The concept of
representation is key to this ‘inclusion project’. 60
55 Grey 2009, 205–10.
56 Sawer 1990.
57 Maddison and Partridge 2007; Sawer 2007, 40.
58 Murray 2005; Wainer and Peck 1995.
59 Mackay 2014.
60 Squires cited in Celis et al. 2013, 9.
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