Feminism, Politics and Women's Policy in Western Australia, 1972

Burning Down the House?: Feminism, Politics and Women’s Policy in Western Australia, 1972-1998 Jasmina Brankovich, BA (Hons) UWA This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Western Australia School of Humanities, Discipline of History 2007 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the constraints and options inherent in placing feminist demands on the state, the limits of such interventions, and the subjective, intimate understandings of feminism among agents who have aimed to change the state from within. First, I describe the central element of a „femocratic‟ policy machinery as a three-tiered network of politicians, public servants, and women in community organisations and political lobbies, who were agents of a particular brand of feminism. I focus on the formation of a women‟s information service, passage of equal opportunity legislation, and a legislative decriminalisation of early abortion, as case studies where these networks were most effective in engendering change. Second, the politics of the 1970s Perth women‟s movement shared a heritage of peculiarly Australian tradition of social liberalism, where the state intervened to equalise the unequal social order. The „feminism‟ articulated within the state was influenced by social liberalism, but was also configured and reconfigured according to the specific Western Australian political context. Third, the material obtained in interviews with women politicians and senior bureaucrats constituted the most important source of the women‟s understandings of the politically volatile arenas of public life in which they worked. In particular, insights gathered in this material underscored and reinforced the complexities of feminist involvement with the state and the fragile, contraditory nature of feminist gains. This thesis makes a contribution to the under-researched field of Australian feminist political participation, spread across the conventional academic spectrum of disciplines, while bringing together an important body of relevant feminist analysis. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements v Abbreviations vi Introduction 1 Chapter One: „Rock the Boat Not the Cradle‟: 44 Feminist Interactions with the State 1972-1983 Chapter Two: Beyond „Man-Made‟ Politics: 83 Feminism‟s New Generations and Women‟s Parliamentary Representation in the 1980s Chapter Three: Getting the Act Together: 133 Campaigning and Legislating for Equal Opportunity in 1984 Chapter Four: „Doing It Differently‟: 181 Leading the Women‟s Information and Referral Exchange, 1984-1992 Chapter Five: „The Art of What‟s Possible‟: 228 Abortion Law Reform in 1998 Conclusion 277 Appendix One: Biographies of women interviewed for this thesis 292 Appendix Two: Interview schedule 297 Appendix Three: A census of potential interviewees. 299 AppendixFour: Copyright release form template 300 AppendixFive: Sections of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA) 301 AppendixSix: Sections of the Acts Amendment (Abortion) Act 1998 (WA) 303 and Health Act 1911 (WA) Appendix Seven: Glossary 305 Bibliography 306 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank the University of Western Australia for providing me with the university postgraduate award with stipend, and to the Discipline of History for hosting me and this PhD over a long time. I thank especially Muriel Mahoney for her responsiveness to postgraduates in the School of Humanities in all administrative matters and beyond. The Office for Women‟s Policy kindly allowed me time off full-time work to complete the final draft of this thesis, and I thank my colleagues for their support and for enduring frequent bouts of near nervous breakdowns. The women I interviewed for this thesis gave their time and energy freely and generously; without their contributions, this thesis would have been impossible to research and write. In the initial stages, my research focus was sharpened in conversations with David Black, Sue Booth, Jill Cameron, Janice Dudley, Harry Phillips and Rachel Robertson. A number of friends and colleagues were great sounding and listening boards in the long course of the work presented here: I thank Kellie Abbott, Joan Eveline, Julia Farrell, Jenny Gregory, Phillipa Maddern, Val Marsden, Robyn Murphy, Gail Radford and Marian Sawer. My supervisors, Trish Crawford and Jane Long, have provided constructive criticism and support and I thank them for all their work. My brother, Kris Brankovich, provided intelligent advice and support that soothed me in more difficult times. Jason Batory was a source of strength and the love and warmth he has given me have made all the difference. This thesis is dedicated to three important women in my life: my grandmother, Milica Starcevich, who passed away while I was writing it and who brought me up and taught me about the world in more ways than one; my mother, Zivka Brankovich, for her unconditional love, support, courage, and too many hot dinners to count. Special and deepest gratitude is reserved for Trish Crawford – for her wisdom, inspiration, encouragement, dedication, for going far beyond the „call of duty‟ as a supervisor, and for believing in me when even I threatened to waver off course. ABBREVIATIONS ALP Australian Labor Party ALRA Association for the Legal Right to Abortion/Abortion Law Repeal Association/Abortion Law Reform Association AWAR Australian Women against Rape CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (United Nations) CEPO Council for Equal Pay and Opportunity (WA) CLA Coalition for Legal Abortion (WA) CR Consciousness-raising CWA Country Women‟s Association EOA Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA) FPA Family Planning Association of Western Australia HIG Health Industry Group LWO Labor Women‟s Organisation MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly (WA) MLC Member of the Legislative Council (WA) OEEO Office of Equal Employment Opportunity (WA) PHA Public Health Association of Western Australia RACOG Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists TAFE Technical and Further Education UWA University of Western Australia WAC Women‟s Advisory Council WAPD Western Australia: Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) WCAG Women‟s Centre Action Group WEL Women‟s Electoral Lobby WIN Women‟s Investment Network WIRE Women‟s Information and Referral Exchange WIS Women‟s Information Service WOW! What‟s on for Women! (WIRE newsletter) WSG Women‟s Services Guild WW Western Women group of financial services WWWW Women Who Want to be Women INTRODUCTION Writing in the 1990s, Australian sociologist Chilla Bulbeck observed that „all Australian feminisms might be seen as grafts, [as] each transplants disparate growths to produce something new‟.1 This thesis examines some Western Australian feminist grafts as I explore the role of feminism in the work of a generation of Western Australian feminist women politicians and public servants, and its changing public dimensions over the three decades. First, this thesis traces the entry of women into the State Parliament from the 1970s, during feminism‟s „second wave‟. Second, I outline how throughout the 1980s, the reformist Australian Labour Party (ALP) state governments introduced many changes to benefit women, in installing the „women‟s policy machinery‟ in the public service.. Third, I discuss the more recent feminist engagements with the state in the 1990s, marked by what some see as the beginning of „the end of equality‟.2 Finally, I evaluate the constraints and opportunities in feminist state involvements, the limits and gains of such interventions, and the subjective, intimate understandings of feminism among women agents who have aimed to change the state from within. In other words, I ask whether or not this specific feminist generation of women has „burnt down the house‟, that is the extent to which it has impacted on the very system of the state.3 1 Chilla Bulbeck, „Hybrid Feminisms: The Australian Case‟, Journal of Women‟s History, vol.6, no.1, 1994, p.112; the term „feminist graft‟ is credited to Susan Sheridan (ed.), Grafts: Feminist Cultural Criticism, Verso, London, 1988. 2 Anne Summers, The End of Equality: Work, Babies and Women‟s Choices in 21st Century Australia, Random House, Sydney, 2003; in the mid-1990s, Eva Cox noted conservative attacks on feminists in the public service, Leading Women: Tactics for Making a Difference, Random House, Milsons Point, 1996, p.134. 3 The title of this thesis replicates the name of a women‟s community radio program broadcast since 1974 on the Perth community radio station RTR fm; permission to use the name has been obtained from the program collective. 1 Defining feminism The period between the early 1970s and late 1990s saw a marked improvement in women‟s representation in the Western Australian Parliament, not least symbolised by the election in 1990 of the first Australian woman premier, Dr Carmen Lawrence. The introduction of legislative and policy initiatives for women was achieved through using „windows of opportunity‟, such as the increased election of feminist women into the ALP State Government, and the emergence of „femocrats‟ in the public service.4 I propose that the assumed „golden age‟ of feminist engagements with the state, particularly in the 1980s, was instead a terrain of competing ideas within feminism about women‟s needs, wants and interests. The Western Australian women‟s movement‟s relationship with the state government was, at the best of times, central to gaining favour for the introduction of „feminist‟ changes in legislation or policy of the state government.5 At the

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