Women And Inequality Essay Research Paper

Women And Inequality Essay, Research Paper

“Policy making does not happen in a vacuum. Decisions about land rights, unemployment benefits or child protection are made by real people in particular historical settings and under pressure from a wide range of individuals and organisations” (Dalton, Draper, Weeks and Wiseman, 1996, p.23)

WOMEN AND INEQUALITY

In this essay an evaluation of this statement will be given by using one contemporary social policy and that will be women and inequality in Australian society. It will be arguing that even though new social movements and policies have emerged in Australia, in the last twenty years to rectify the inequality towards women, (Dalton et al., 1996, p.35) it is still entrenched within Australian society and is therefore structural inequality.

This viewpoint states that inequality is entrenched in the economic political and social composition of society, and is hard to change the attitude of policy makers because of these entrenched ideals. The essay will then discuss patterns of power and exclusion and further look at the inequality of women in education and the legal system.

In Australian society we have talked about the ‘fair go’ for all Australians but this concept did not seem to apply to women, and women exchanged their domestic labour and sexual favours for support from men, particularly in the financial area (Dalton et al., 1996) In 1972 women fought for equal pay for equal work and won this battle but the struggle for financial freedom still goes on, thirty years later (p.26) and women are more likely to be living in poverty (p.33).

The whole of society is permeated by a sexism which structures and maintains the oppression of women in psychological and biological terms. (Bullock and Stallybrass cited in Leach, 1993.) The differences between female and male are socially constructed and are the source of women s oppression because women are not treated or equally entitled to respect and consideration in Australian society, (Sargent, 1992) whether it be in employment opportunities, education or a political career, child minding, reproduction, or the legal system for instance.

Social disadvantage and inequality are generally understood to have been affected by economic factors. Ideologies such as Conservatism, promote and legitimise social division. Social inequality is built into the system, which is structural inequality, that is the systematic production of unequal outcomes.

Through structural inequality women belong to a sex class and they are therefore oppressed and treated as second class citizens. This is accomplished through the use of the sexual politics of love which stress women s subordination, the double standard of morality for women forced on them by males, and the social structure of sexism. (Leach 1993.) The power elite consists mainly of white, ‘Anglo’ middle aged, well educated, wealthy men and so the structure of society deliberately advantages the ruling class by economic, political and social inequality and oppressing women, keeping them in a lower class.

Patterns of power and exclusion stem from major structural sources of gender, class, race, culture, and sexuality/sexual preference. Social inequality can be understood to be both the result and cause of reduced, limited or diminished access to valued social resources. Examples of such resources are educational institutions and the work force. Social inequality also comes from the result of certain groups being excluded to varying degrees, from cultural and political involvement, and a lack of power or interest in the policy making process.

This in turn means that they are excluded from many of the financial and emotional rewards of our society. One of the ways this is accomplished is through socialisation, learning our place, role defining and gender behaviour. Not all women understand the roles of gender behaviour and therefore never reach demystification, that is, that of perceiving the ideology of dominant groups and that it is not necessarily to the advantage of women. (Sargent, 1992) This in turn perpetuates the myth that women are inferior and also reduces the power of women to affect changes in society and policy.

The groups with economic or political and social power ensure that their interests are served and looked after. Through State institutions such as education, the state reinforces their power positions and advances the powerful interest groups and compounds the problems of the weak or disadvantages them, thereby creating more social inequality.

Many key features of Australian social policy continue to be based on older assumptions such as full male employment and female dependency, with working hours not incorporated into the need for women to pick up children from school. (Dalton et al. p.34)

Women have been expected traditionally to bear children, rear them and then take care of other family members, make them happy and take care of the home as well. Women s roles were determined largely by social status and had few rights that were independent of men, the power elite . In the past women s behaviour was determined by men, by their fathers or other male relatives and when they married, then, by their husbands. Women of higher social status produced children, preferably male and then fulfilled the role of decorative hostesses whil