Women’s movement legacies in Australia

Marian Sawer, ANUProtest, dissent and activism

symposiumVictoria University of Wellington

16 October 2010

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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

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Sexual assault counselling for women & childrenCommunity education & training24 hour crisis support and advocacy 

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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