WMST2002: THINKING GENDER

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WMST2002 THINKING GENDER

• WEEK 2 GAINING EQUALITY

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The (Fraternal) Social Contract
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The Fraternal Social Contract

• Carole Pateman argues that the hypothetical
  social contract, which is the foundation of
  liberal democracy, is a contract between brothers
  (ie a fraternal contract) which specifically
  excludes women. It excluded women from both
  political life and from the paid labour market.

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Mary Astell, 1700

• If all Men are born Free, how is it that all
  Women are born Slaves? Mary Astell, Some
  Reflections Upon Marriage

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Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792

• It is time to effect a revolution in female
  manners - time to restore to them their lost
  dignity - and make them, as part of the human
  species, labour by reforming themselves to reform
  the world. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of
  the Rights of Woman.

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Harriet Mill Taylor, 1851

• ...there has arisen ... an organised
  agitation on a new question ... This question is,
  the enfranchisement of women their admission, in
  law and in fact, to equality in all rights,
  political, civil, and social, with the male
  citizen of the community. Harriet Mill Taylor,
  Enfranchisement of Women.

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The Right to Vote
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The Right to Vote

• From the outset women resisted their exclusion
  from the fraternal social contract and from
  around the mid 1800s began to campaign for the
  right to vote. From the early 1900s onwards women
  in different countries began to be granted voting
  rights.

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Equal Political Representation
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Equal Political Representation

• While women have now had the vote in some
  countries for almost 100 years they still do not
  have equal representation in parliaments and
  politics. In Australia, in 1998 women made up 21
  of federal parliamentarians.

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Anne Phillips Arguments for Equal Representation

• Anne Phillips examines 3 arguments for equal
  representation. These are
• the Justice Argument
• the Womens Interest Argument
• the Revitalised Democracy Argument.

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Anne Phillips Argument for a Revitalised Democracy

• Anne Phillips concludes that while the justice
  argument and womens interest argument are
  important the most important argument for equal
  representation is the revitalised democracy
  argument which is an important aspect of a
  broader campaign for a revitalised democracy.

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Equal Wages
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Equal Wages

• While women have formally had equal pay in
  Australia for two decades in reality women
  continue to earn only around 80 of mens
  full-time average weekly earnings.

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Public/Private Split and Household Work
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Public/Private Split and Household Work

• One of the main reasons for continuing
  inequality is the public/private dichotomy.
  Womens work in the private sphere of the home is
  not recognised and this effects their ability to
  participate in public life.