VICTORIA UNIVERSITY A VERY DIM LIGHT, A VERY STEEP HILL: WOMEN IN THE VICTORIAN BRANCH OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY Submitted by VERONICA ANN O’FLAHERTY BA (Monash), BA Hons (Vic. Melb.), MA (Vic. Melb.) A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY MELBOURNE, VICTORIA First Supervisor: Dr John Tully Co Supervisor: Professor John McLaren November 2005 ii THESIS SUMMARY This thesis presents a contemporary approach to the problem of the lack of recognition of women in Australian society and politics using the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as background and the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party as a test case. It examines the paradox that women have had the vote in Australia for over a hundred years yet, in the largest political party officially dedicated to social equality, they still fail to hold leadership positions with the exception of Jenny Macklin who is Deputy Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (FPLP). Several writers have drawn attention to this puzzle of the lack of effective participation in general by women in Australian political life. Authors such as Joy Damousi, Anne Henderson, Marian Sawer and Marian Simms among others have begun the process of theoretical and historical analysis of women in politics in this country. Sawer and Simms are both prominent female academics in the field of Political Science. Their book, A Woman’s Place: Women and Politics in Australia (1993), is a good example of an emerging genre. Given my own particular academic interests, the thesis is based in the discipline of Political Science. It is not located primarily in the area of Women’s Studies, but feminist theories and ideas are applied, as are historical surveys and sociological perspectives to support my arguments and buttress conclusions. The aim of the work is to examine the Victorian Branch of the ALP between 1946 and 2005 and tests the hypothesis that a combination of societal and structural factors has been responsible for the exclusion of women for the most part from leadership positions in the Party. The Victorian Branch was chosen partly for reasons of access and manageable size, but also because it is representative of general trends in Australian politics. Essentially, this thesis is about the role of women in a major political party committed to the cause of working-class people. It does not deal with policy formulation or the dynamics of the parliamentary arena. Rather, it concentrates on the party’s culture and the structural and organisational factors which affect the participation rates and levels of influence of women. This thesis will contribute to knowledge by analysing the reasons for the exclusion of women from positions of power in the Victorian Branch of the ALP; it also draws lessons about the nature of politics in Australia. Indeed, it constitutes the first major study of the role of women in Victorian ALP politics—no such study currently exists. My own personal case studies will determine how and why and if male-dominated ‘traditions’ (patriarchy) are restricting the progress of women in the public sphere in this country. The research material from interviews with past and present female MPs (including former Victorian Premier Joan Kirner) and State Executive members will provide a great deal of invaluable information and opinion for other students of party politics. The thesis will give an opportunity for female ALP views to be expressed. A further contribution to knowledge will be to establish why injustices, inequalities and constraints have been placed on women which hinder their rise to power in the ALP and the Victorian Branch. It is significant to state that throughout Australia’s largely patriarchal history the nonrecognition, or misrecognition, of Australian women has been a form of exclusion resulting in their under- representation in leadership roles in the ALP and its Victorian Branch. Therefore, by studying the particular processes of how gender diversities are formed within a historical and ideological context, we can start to hypothesis on how and why women have been marginalised with the male-dominated ALP and the Victorian Branch. This thesis will examine why women in the Victorian Branch of the ALP have been largely excluded from decision-making positions. Has a combination of cultural, historical, sociological and structural reasons contributed to their exclusion until some thirty years ago when things began to appear to change? Are attempts to make the Branch more inclusive real or are they simply a form of Marcusian repressive tolerance? Therefore, in order to clarify specific aims of the project, one should ascertain why, despite the attainment of legal, political and social rights, there exists a significant inequality between the genders when it comes to achieving and exercising power and influence in the Federal ALP and the iii Victorian Branch. By researching those factors that create inequality, I hope to ascertain why women have been excluded from decision-making positions in the ALP and the Victorian Branch and document what changes have occurred and suggest future directional aims. iv CERTIFICATION I, Veronica Ann O’Flaherty, declare that the PhD thesis titled, A Very Dim Light, A Very Steep Hill: Women in the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, is no more than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, references and footnotes. This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work. Veronica Ann O’Flaherty v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A thesis is a challenge that involves long periods of exhaustive work. It involves also the contribution of many dedicated people. It gives me much pleasure to acknowledge the support I have received from Professor John McLaren who admitted me to the Post Graduate Studies Unit at Victoria University in 1994. With gratitude I acknowledge the role Dr John Tully has played in the past two years as my supervisor and Professor John McLaren as my co-supervisor throughout the completion of this thesis. To Professor Allan Patience and Dr John Dalton I offer my sincere thanks for their supervision and inspiration during the first three years of the thesis. Thanks also to Professors Patience and McLaren for guiding me through the Masters Degree I completed at Victoria University in 1998. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Brian Costar who encouraged and assisted me throughout my Undergraduate days at Monash. Thanks also to Dr Dennis Woodward at Monash. Martin Summons has been a meticulous proofreader of the thesis and deserves my earnest gratitude. To the library staff at Victoria, Monash Universities and the State Parliament, I offer my thanks for their help and co-operation. Most importantly, I have appreciated the support and technical supervision of my husband, Garrie. And to my family I offer my thanks for their encouragement over many years. vi DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my grandchildren: Alexander Clarke, Benjamin and Catriona O’Flaherty, Samuel March and Fen Summons. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Thesis Summary ii Certification iv Acknowledgements v Dedication vi Table of Contents vii Introduction 1 1 Women in Australian Society/Philosophical and theoretical perspectives 34 2 Women in Australian Politics. Why were women discriminated against/marginalized? 59 3 The ALP Culture: ‘Sexist from the jump’. Note the paradox of its socialist ideology 91 4 The Structure/Organisation of the ALP: women’s exclusion from full political citizenship 118 5 The Organisation and Structure of the Victorian Branch of the ALP 143 6 Contemporary Agents of Change 183 (a) Societal Factors (economic, independence, sexual liberation, educational opportunities) (b) Feminist Movement, Germaine Greer et al.; WEL; Emily's List; The Purple Sage Project 7 Case Studies: Women in the ALP and the Victorian Branch 212 (a) Body Politics. Women as the child-bearing sex. Child-care facilities (b) Discrimination/harassment 8 Case Studies: Women in the ALP and the Victorian Branch: an unresolved dilemma 239 (a) The preselection system (b) The Media (c) The rigid form of patriarchy that exists 9 Why so Few? Towards explanation 264 Conclusion 288 Abbreviations 296 Bibliography 297 Appendix 1 321 Appendix 2 322 Appendix 3 323 1 INTRODUCTION Why, after one hundred and five years in which many formal inequalities between women and males have been lessened, does women’s participation in leadership roles in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and its Victorian Branch in particular differ so evidently from that of men? This thesis will argue that women are no more powerful today in the ALP and the Victorian Branch than when feminism’s second-wave raised women’s chances of accessibility as MPs in the Victorian Branch of the ALP and the federal ALP. In fact, Anne Summers argues that limitations are worse, due to expectations having been raised and hopes lifted (Summers 2003:173). The marked increase in recent years in the number of ALP women MPs seemed to show that all that was required was time for women to take their rightful positions next to men in filling the roles of leadership in the Party. Instead, the same forces that kept women from gaining preselection in the 1950s and 1960s are still there today blocking women from rising to the upper echelons of power. For instance, Julia Gillard a Federal MP, single and childless, had her chances of gaining support for leadership of the Opposition in January 2005 thwarted by other parliamentary members of her own Party. Arguments raised anonymously by Gillard’s ALP male colleagues claimed that women cannot win, suggesting ‘people are not going to vote for a single woman’.