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Women’s movement legacies in Australia

Women’s movement legacies in Australia. Marian Sawer, ANU Protest, dissent and activism symposium Victoria University of Wellington 16 October 2010. http://cass.anu.edu.au/research_projects/mawm. Mapping the Australian Women’s Movement. Three components

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Women’s movement legacies in Australia

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  1. Women’s movement legacies in Australia Marian Sawer, ANU Protest, dissent and activism symposium Victoria University of Wellington 16 October 2010

  2. http://cass.anu.edu.au/research_projects/mawm

  3. Mapping the Australian Women’s Movement • Three components — protest event database and analysis 1970- 2005 – longitudinal institutional mapping 1970- 2005 — online discursive legacy

  4. 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

  5. Multiple repertoires, 1976 • Direct action to unlock the cage • WEL submission on structure of women’s policy machinery (‘wheel’ model) implemented in Australian govt

  6. Multiple repertoires 1979: IWD marchSydney • Protest events continue • Health cover for legal, safe abortion • WEL also forum shopping, institution-building in different jurisdictions

  7. Multiple repertoires, High Court September, 2001 • WEL defending access of single women to IVF, inside and outside High Court of Australia

  8. Women’s Movement protest events, SMH, 1970-2005

  9. Women’s institutions per year 1970-05

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Can institutions sustain movement goals? • Exogenous influences on women’s services — collectives give way to hybrids (accountability) — professionalisation — deradicalisation of language — competitive tendering

  13. 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…

  14. Institutional persistence 1976-2010http://www.rapecrisis.org.au/index.htm Sexual assault counselling for women & children
Community education & training
24 hour crisis support and advocacy 

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. Discursive legacies online • Feminist blogs — eg http://hoydenabouttown.com links 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

  20. Blogosphere http://downunderfeministscarnival.wordpress.com/ Down Under Feminists' Carnival Call for Submissions: Thirtieth Edition at Fat Lot of Good, 5 November 2010

  21. Redheads ‘no other match’ • Pam Debenham – Canberra artist, limited edn, August 2010

  22. Women as % of Liberal and Labor MPs 1977-2010

  23. Women’s movement legacies in Australia Marian Sawer, ANU

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