Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Gender, Headlines, Human Rights, Population

AUSTRALIA: Women in Top Posts but Discrimination Prevails

Stephen de Tarczynski

MELBOURNE, May 8 2008 (IPS) - While some have hailed the recent announcement that a woman is to be Australia’s next governor-general as a breakthrough for women – the first time that the English monarch’s representative in this country will not be male – advocacy groups argue that discrimination against women remains prevalent.

"What this day says to Australian women and to Australian girls is that you can do anything, you can be anything and it makes my heart sing to see women in so many diverse roles across our country," said Quentin Bryce last month after she was confirmed as Australia’s next governor-general.

The 65-year-old grandmother – a former lawyer and currently governor of Queensland – was raised in outback Queensland and will become Australia’s 25th governor-general when she takes over from the incumbent, Michael Geoffrey, in September.

One of the most important posts in Australia, the governor-general wields considerable power as the representative of Australia’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.

Besides exercising the executive power of the Commonwealth on the advice of government ministers and acting as the defence force’s commander-in-chief, Bryce’s new role will include reserve powers such as the right to dismiss a prime minister, which famously occurred in 1975 when governor-general John Kerr dismissed then-prime minister Gough Whitlam.

But if Australia’s current leadership was concerned with the possibility of such a scenario under Bryce, they have not been showing it. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – on whose recommendation the Queen appointed Bryce – says Bryce will capture the spirit of modern Australia by "giving proper voice to people from the bush and the regions (and) giving proper voice to the rights of women".

Julia Gillard, the deputy Prime Minister – the first woman to hold the position – said that it was "fantastic to see the first woman to serve in this role".

Bryce’s appointment – which received endorsements from across the political spectrum – is "a sign that our society is changing", according to Gillard.

But while much has been made of Bryce breaking the 107-year male stranglehold on the position of governor-general, a prominent women’s advocacy group says much more needs to be done.

Eva Cox, chair of the Women’s Electoral Lobby’s (WEL) national coordinating committee, told IPS that Bryce’s appointment is a double-edged sword.

"It’s very good that we’ve finally got a woman into that sort of senior position and this is potentially an indicator that anybody can do it, but the fact that it has been commented on so much indicates it’s still fairly unusual," she says.

Cox argues that discrimination against women in Australia is rife. "Just look at who’s running the place…most of the politicians are still male, most of the senior executives are still male, most of the people who have power and influence are still male."

Despite 2008 marking the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day – which commemorates the 1908 demonstration by 15,000 female clothing and textile workers in New York demanding shorter working hours, better pay and voting rights – issues such as women’s financial security and economic independence remain of great concern, according to the Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek.

Cox says that while the situation has improved for Australian women, progress in addressing gender imbalance has been slow. She told IPS that equality between the sexes has not been reached.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) support this assertion. Women working full-time earn, on average, around 15 percent less than full-time working men. For male graduates, median starting salaries are AUD 45,000 (42,331 US dollars) per year, while for their female counterparts, the median salary is AUD 42,000 (39,509 US dollars).

Research from the Equality Opportunity for Women in the Workplace indicates that women chief executives earn only two-thirds the median salary of male CEOs.

"If you assume that the skills and intelligence and capacities of males and females are not so much different as to set up a hierarchy, you’d wonder why so few women make it through the system into the most senior positions," says Cox.

Yet it is not just in the workplace where women appear to receive a raw deal. Plibersek used the recent National Stop Domestic Violence Day – held on April 26 – to highlight widespread abuses suffered by women.

In ABS figures, described as "shocking" by the minister, one in three Australian women experience physical violence during their lifetime, while almost 20 percent experience sexual violence. Perhaps particularly alarming is that most of the violence suffered by women is perpetrated by men they know.

Additionally, Plibersek says that "it is generally accepted that the incidence of domestic violence and sexual assualt is understated as many women may be too frightened or ashamed to report violence".

While this shows a harrowing situation for many Australian women, the national president of the Women’s Action Alliance (WAA), Maureen McCarthy, says that Bryce’s appointment as the next Governor-General is historically significant.

"I think every time you have a woman break those kinds of barriers it’s a historic moment and I do believe that women bring a different perspective to their positions," McCarthy told IPS.

Unlike the feminist WEL, the WAA is more family-oriented, describing itself as a "lobby group concerned with women and family issues." The WAA says that "there are important biological and psychological differences between the sexes."

While McCarthy agrees that discrimination against women in Australia exists "in many areas", she argues that some of the discrimination "is a function of life choices that women make".

According to the WAA head, womens’ role as mothers impact on their representation in the paid workforce. "Some of them would point to the fact that their work is incompatible or unfriendly towards that (motherhood)," says McCarthy.

She told IPS that other women, upon becoming mothers, discover "something new and all-encompassing" which would take precedence over their comittment to paid positions.

McCarthy argues that discrimination should not be confused with free choices made by women. "You have to look at the underlying root (of discrimination)," she says.

 
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