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Gender equality in Australia – what are the issues?

By Rose Espinola - posted Friday, 1 July 2011


Australia is a society that demands that both spouses work, as a social view and more often than not, as an economic requirement for families. As a result, women in Australia are struggling between their perceived 'traditional' roles as housewives and mothers, as they take on a larger quantity of household work than men, alongside their workplace hours.

As a result of such inequalities, many women in Australia today are faced with the unfortunate common dilemma of harbouring feelings of guilt and other stressors in connection with managing their time at work and with their partners and children. It is an unfair result of continued inequalities.

Inequality Number 5 – Women are depicted as the weaker of the sexes and often sexualised:

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The depiction of women in the media continues to present women as the weaker of the sexes and oftentimes commodifies women, likening them to sexual objects.

The sexualisation of women in our society is concerning to say the least, including crass anti-women jokes and posters of half naked women in vulnerable poses. Just this month, fashion giant Supre released advertisements for leggings targeted at teenagers with a girl sexually posed without a shirt on.

The commercialization of women and the ideology that 'sex sells' consistently sees us bombarded with images that condemn women to be merely sex objects and paint women in demeaning positions.

The risk of the sexualisation of women starts at a very early age, with women being taught very early on how important beauty is. The effect of this, is that it very subtly reproduces attitudes within our society where women are in sexualised and domesticated positions.

While there is much to be concerned about in the area of gender equality in Australia today, we are still capable of striving to achieve equality no matter how great or small the inequality is.

We must raise the standard and shouldn't need an impetus such as the benefits associated with equality or economic development, in order to stimulate action for women's issues. We can all aspire, on a micro or macro level, to reduce gender inequalities in our daily lives for the good of the society.

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We can do this by familiarising ourselves more with the kinds of inequalities that are affecting women in our society on a whole, as examined by HEROC and the World Gender Report. By understanding exactly where the inequalities lie, and by increasing awareness, we can approach these problems for change more effectively.

In doing so, we can work to decrease gender inequality through encouraging better attitudes towards women, that is, discouraging the stereotyping of women as managers of the private sphere in household work and childrearing.

Instead, we can work towards reproducing a culture that promotes equality in all spheres of everyday life. As Tony Smith pointed out in the OLO article on 28 June: The natural roles of child rearing does not account for the confinement of women to the role of housework for a lifetime.

By increasing awareness of the very issues that are affecting gender equality and encouraging support of each other to counteract this imbalance, we will be better able to choose the way we balance our lives in an equal participation experience.

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About the Author

Rose Espinola is a freelance writer who has spent significant periods in the Middle East, the U.S. and Australia.

Rose has a working background in education, immigration, social justice and non-profit. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations at Griffith University in Queensland, and her Masters of International Law at the University of Sydney. Rose’s focus areas are Culture, Gender, Citizenship, Politics and Social Justice. She currently lives in Colorado, USA.

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