Why is Gender still on Today’s Agenda?
Speech delivered by Pru Goward,
Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner at Ulysses
Society Dinner Meeting, Canberra Grammar School Monaro Crescent, Red Hill
ACT, 27 November 2003
- Mrs Primrose, Dr Bearlin, members of the Ulysses Society, thank you for inviting here this evening.
- It gives me great pleasure
to address the Ulysses Society Dinner meeting.
- As federal Sex Discrimination
Commissioner I thought we could discuss gender relations in society today
and consider where we need to take them in the future.
- While year 12 has only
just begun, you may already have set yourselves university attendance as a
goal.
- For those of you who
actually make it there, no doubt the first thing you will notice about university
is the presence of women on the campus, sitting next to you in lectures, waiting
in line beside you in the cafeterias – perhaps over the next year this
will even be the motivating factor to keep you studying hard!
- Welcome to the world!
- Today female students
account for 55 per cent of university enrolments.
- This is quite an achievement
considering only 150 years ago women in Australia were not even allowed to
attend university.
- This statistic would
suggest that there is no need for a Sex Discrimination Commissioner who actively
pursues the rights of women.
- If anything, it suggests
that I should now be concerned about men’s rights.
- Before reaching this
conclusion let me carry on with my story...
- You have now left university
– your marks were pretty good - although you didn’t win the university
medal (that went to that girl who always sat in the front row of your anatomy
lecture). Nor did you win any academic prizes (again the female students in
your course seemed to win most of those).
- Still you did well enough,
and combined with your extra curricular activities and the work experience
you undertook during university, you managed to secure a graduate position
in big city law firm.
- So did that girl who
topped your contract law class. In fact you are working at the same law firm.
- You both complete your
year as a graduate lawyer and land up working in the same group.
- One day you and her
start talking about salaries. She earns $46,000 a year. Wait that can’t
be right! You earn $$53,000. But you’ve both been working one year.
You know both started on the same graduate salary. In fact, you know she has
a reputation in the firm as being a great young lawyer.
- Why then this difference
in salary?
- Perhaps her boss just
doesn’t like her.
- Considering that in
general female law graduates with one year experience earn on average $8,200
less than their male counterparts, it would appear that this is not personal,
it is a trend.
- You also notice that
most of the senior positions in the law firm are held by men, and every meeting
you sit in on seems to be dominated by men.
- Where have all those
girls from university gone?
- Certainly not to the
top – While we do have women in ‘high places’ they are so
few and far between we can probably name them all.
- Think about our legal
system - Mary Gaudron, our first and only female high court judge retired
last year.
- Think about women in
Federal politics. Name a political party with a female leader. Do not worry
if you can’t - there is not one.
- And if you can name
10 women in the senate, you have almost named half of the grand total of women
there.
- Can you name one female
CEO in a top 200 company in Australia? If you can’t don’t worry,
there are only two to think of and only 8.2 per cent of board of directorships
are held by women.
- If some of these positions
are meant to be representative of the range of people in our society, you
would never believe that women make up over 50 per cent of the Australian
population.
- If some of these positions
are based on merit you would never believe that women are perfects, school
captains or walking out of school and university with top results.
- So when we look at
the actual numbers of women who make it to the top, it appears that while
today women are allowed to participate in most realms of public life, we still
have a long way to go in achieving equality.
- But what is equality?
- There are two types:
- One, formal equality
– which is about creating an environment whereby all people can participate
equally in society.
- Formal equality means
having in place laws which do not discriminate – laws which do not prevent
certain groups of people from attending university or voting or accessing
housing.
- It also means having
in place laws which make it illegal to discriminate in this way.
- The Sex Discrimination
Act 1984 (Cth) for example, makes discrimination on the grounds of sex,
martial status or pregnancy against the law.
- Next year will mark
the 20th anniversary of this Act.
- While formal equality
can be as simple as having in place such laws, when it does not occur the
impact is quite devastating – think of Apartheid in South Africa.
- Australia has done
well in achieving formal equality and not just in the area of sex discrimination.
- We have laws prohibiting
race discrimination, disability discrimination and currently have legislation
prohibiting age discrimination before parliament.
- Then there is substantive
equality, which is about equality in outcomes. On this front, Australia is
not doing so well.
- Substantive equality
dictates for example that women and men should expect to earn the same amount
for doing the same work – did you know that even today women in Australia
earn less than men?
- Comparing the full time,
average weekly earnings of men and women, women only earn 84.3 cents for every
male dollar earned.
- With formal equality
in place, some argue that if there is a lack of substantive equality women
only have themselves to blame – they have been given all the same opportunities
as men.
- If they earn less or
are less likely to be promoted or hold less powerful positions in society
it is because they are simply not as good as men, or because they choose to
spend their time having children.
- To argue this is to
fail to understand the link between formal and substantive equality.
- While formal equality
certainly is essential, in our world it means women have access to a world
that has been designed by men, for men.
- It accommodates men’s
life choices, men’s lifestyles and men’s life time experiences
- which vary greatly from women’s.
- Consider for example
the workforce.
- It rewards and advances
those who enter their field at the bottom, put in the hours, months and years
and slowly work their way up the ladder.
- Climbing this ladder
is a bit more difficult for women – and not just when they are wearing
a skirt!
- It is more difficult
because ‘career breaks’ - necessary for even a few days if you
want to give birth to a child – are equated with a lack of commitment
and ambition instead of being recognised as a different style of working.
- And one which is necessary
if women are to work and have children.
- So while formal equality
is a great first step, it will be limited unless we change structures so that
they reflect and accommodate the life experiences of women – in particular
the unique experience that women have of bearing children.
- Structural changes sound
like a big task – and they are.
- BUT they remain the
easiest and most tangible option today or at least while we wait for science
to make it possible for men to have babies, or for babies to be grown in test
– tubes now a real possibility within this century.
- Because it is only
when this occurs that we can talk about the similar life experiences of men
and women.
- This ‘brave new
world’ need not happen of course, if we make our present world more
attractive.
- Real, substantive equality
is a lot easier to achieve than test tube babies.
- It means we have our
challenge set out before us - reshaping our attitudes, workforce and society
in general in a way that recognises that men and women, are of course equal,
but they are different.
- It is easy to see why
there would be resistance to making this change. It will mean changes to the
lives of men, and why would they want to challenge a status quo which has
brought them so many benefits?
- We would hope that all
members of society would want to bring about this change for the same reasons
white South Africans eventually wanted to end Apartheid – to redress
a situation of injustice and one that breached the human rights of fellow
citizens.
- Of course the two situations
are of different gravity – but the principle is the same.
- In facilitating change
we also have to acknowledge that some people, in fact most, need reasons other
than the ‘greater good’ of humanity to be propelled into action.
- Many people in South
Africa for example wanted Apartheid to end because they were feeling the negative
impact of the global sanctions imposed upon them – for example trade
and travel restrictions.
- Sure, it would be better
if injustice or protection of human rights was the factor which motivated
them to call for the end of this abhorrent system, and perhaps a more sustainable
outcome will be reached if this had been the case.
- However this is not
the way humans operate and if it is self interest that motivates us, there
are a number of reasons why we should foster equality between the sexes.
- But why should this
matter to young blokes like you – after all, you’ll be alright.
- First, it is in economic
interests.
- As long as the workforce
fails to accommodate women as they work and mother many women will feel that
they have to make an either/or choice – mother or work.
- Social, economic and
physiological circumstances combine to mean that it is often child bearing
that is forfeited in this choice (or at least put off until later). This has
implications for Australia’s economic future, as well as the number
of children young men will have.
- Our current fertility
rate is 1.75. This means women in Australia today are having on average 1.75
babies.
- For the population
of any society is to remain stable or grow – both desirable outcomes
for Australia – the fertility rate must be 2.1 or higher. (2.1 is the
necessary replacement rate).
- Unless we maintain
this level we will literally be a society without a future.
- Our economy will be
jeopardised as we lose a future generation of consumers and employees.
- Think of all the hard
work you are doing now, all your plans, your aspirations. Imagine if your
dreams could not come into fruition simply because there are not enough people
around to make them happen!
- Second, men too have
been disadvantaged by the imposition of traditional gender roles on their
lives. As the future generation of men you should aspire to change this.
- Men deal from at least
adolescence with the expectation that they will be the breadwinner in their
future families - and with the pressure of that expectation.
- This onerous task may
mean working in an often thankless job, perhaps ill paid, with long hours
and bad conditions and has always been considered the demonstration - the
proof - of their love for their family.
- Breadwinning has always
been seen to discharge the greater proportion of a man’s fathering obligations.
- But as women have entered
the realm of work, and are now significant contributors to a family’s
standard of living, some of this obligation has been lifted from men’s
shoulders.
- It should have freed
men up to pursue other time consuming aspects of being a dad- like role modelling,
teaching and companionship. Sometimes it has, but often times it has made
no difference.
- Today men in their
early parenting years, for example, work more overtime than any other work
force age group.
- Shouldn’t you
be able to do a bit of both, working and parenting, like many women do?
- One day you too will
have children – how much time do you want to spend with them? What role
do you want in your children’s lives? Do want to see more of them then
you see of your own fathers?
- If so, it’s up
to you to make these changes.
- Sure you may not be
physically able to give birth (yet), however physiology does not stop men
from taking on greater family responsibilities.
- It is only attitude
and perception that prevents.
- In Australia the 52
weeks unpaid leave available to employees after the birth of a child is paternal
leave.
- This means it is available
to both women and men.
- However very few men
use this leave – why?
- Because we still see
parenting as predominately a woman’s role.
- Family friendly policies
in workplaces, such as part time work and flexible hours, are seen as options
for mothers – women.
- Viewed as such, they
remain outside of the normal practices of the workforce.
- Equality will only be
reached when these options become the normal practices.
- When instead of saying
that women work and look after the children, we say all employees have work
and family responsibilities they want to balance.
- When men adopt flexible
working arrangements, without being seen as less ambitious, slack or ‘soft’.
- This is possible it
just requires a change in attitude and practice.
- Look at Holland for
example.
- Here all employees have
a legislated right to part time work, and legislation prohibits discrimination
against part-time workers.
- It ensures them equal
hourly pay, pro-rated benefits, and equal opportunity for career advancement.
- Part time work is considered
‘good work’ in Holland. It is the norm for women and men and Holland
has the highest rate of part-time work among OECD countries (17 per cent for
men and 68 per cent for women) and a very low rate of involuntary part time
work (6 per cent).
- So long as families
are women’s business, we can open every position, field and sphere of
life to women, but real equality will not be achieved.
- It will remain an ideal.
Of no practical use to those whose rights it aims to promote.
- Once we believed that
women should not have the vote, should not be in universities, should not
hold public positions. We believed their hands were too soft, that their delicate
health would not enable them to cope.
- But we changed the
way we thought about this.
- It was hard. We had
to introduce words and concepts like equality and equal rights.
- This time we are equipped
with all the lingo. Moving forward should be easy.
- And finally what does
this matter? Why does real equality matter?
- It doesn’t mean
we are all the same, it means we all have the same options available to us.
- We can make different
choices but we have the same smorgasbord to choose from.
- As history and economic development demonstrates over and over; not only does having life choice make us happier it also makes us wealthier, healthier and wiser.
- That surely is your goal and it surely is the goal for Australia.
Thank you.
Last updated 2 December 2003
