Gender Discrimination And Right Of Vote example essay topic

Synopsis There is a long history associated with discrimination between the two sexes. And the thought of women are weaker than men has grown deeply in mind that can be hardly removed. However, as the society grow up, and being amid of modernism, women started to stand out and claimed for the equal rights as men. In Australian history, women successfully achieve equality in work places and political positions. However, that was a tough expedition rather a smooth way to go. Australian women, as the women in others countries, were suffering sexual discrimination from men.

They were treated unfairly in family as well as in the society. They had less opportunity in working and were paid less having the same amount of work done. They did not have the right to vote and made political decisions. In this essay, the ways of Australian women achieving the equality are going to be analyzed in the areas of work places, gender discrimination and right of vote. In other words, this is a summary of how Australian women struggling for the right to be treated equally.

In the past, many societies as well as Australia, were dominant by men who were thought to be more commanding and prominent, and women who were believed to be weaker and incapable, were mostly seen as the second one following the men. Moreover, women were not usually the one have the right to speak wherever at home or in the publics. In whole, women were said to be discriminated based on sexually difference. This is so-called gender discrimination that when a particular person or group are treated unfairly by another one. In Australia, equal right for women has been being fought for a few decades and in the period during the campaign, the Australian society was reformed and several legislation were passed in order to protect the women right. Women in work places Ever since the white settlement in Australia, women were sent to fulfill the needs of men.

Women were exploited for their sex and cheap labour. Governor Macquarie was under orders of British Government to keep the female convicts separated. However, a report of the Select Committee on Transportation written in 1800 had indicated that women were received rather as prostitutes than as servants. The women fulfilled the male's needs, but women were still not considered as wives or servants for the free settlers and administrators (Jan, 1975, P. 24). In 1831, the British Government began offer the females assisted route to Australia. These young women of good health and character, were sent aiming to keep house, to bear and to raise children.

In spite of this, in migrating to Australia, these women saw higher possibility of employment prospects as a result of disproportionate ratio of men and women in England that many women had left single and unemployed. However, not all of the women were married. Those who were not married, were expected to enter domestic service. However, a large portion of those women chose instead to work in factories in which, salaries were cut down but less restricting. Since, women were regarded having innate responsibilities to be either a mother and wife, or domestic servant, women had less chance to be employed when seeking jobs. Women were said to be! yen protected, in addition, women were banned from working long hours by so-called! yen protective! | legislation.

At that time, women received no security of employment and no minimum wages. In other words, home and family were defined as the prime responsibility of women.! yenS he must not compete with men but should rather subjugate herself to them! | written by Jan (1975, P. 27) can clearly show how women were discriminated in the late nineteenth century. Thus, shifting to equal pay and minimum wages for women was regarded by the male society as a threat to family life (Jan, 1975). However, changes have been undergoing during the period from 1975.

According to the research of the Department of the Parliamentary Library (2000), women have possessed higher proportion in the labour market then since 1975. Proportion of women labours has increased from 41.1 per cent to 56.1 per cent for married women and from 43.0 per cent to 54.8 per cent for women generally. In addition, nearly twice the women were employed than in 1975. Why was the situation changed, was because of serious of social movements which were the results of the furious fight of women. Gender discrimination Gender or sexual discrimination occurs when a person is treated unequally by another person because of their sex or gender. Although gender discrimination could occur in both sexes, women are usually the victims of gender discrimination.

Sexual discrimination often occurs in various areas like sports, work places or policies. In the 1980's, gender discrimination was a serious problem in the Australian society. Within that time, women only possessed a small portion in the labour market and women were treated unfairly that receiving less than men for the same amount of work done. Moreover, women were stereotyped in the workforce as weaker and incapable of performing! yen high-ranking! | jobs. However, during the period of the last few decades, women have been fighting for equal rights both in the workforce and society. In 1950, the Union of Australian Women was set up, which was the first organization representing women in Australia.

The institution of the union was to mainly fight for the right for women to work, equal pay, sexual equality (Union of Australian Women, 2001, internet). According to the history of International Women's Day, as experiencing the women's liberation group in United States and Britain, some Australian women went together and the first women liberation group was formed in Sydney at the end of 1969. The first public meeting of women was then held in early 1970 which set the movement off. Since then, similar events were taking place in Adelaide and Melbourne.

In 1972, the first marches for the International Women Day was taken place in Sydney. The march was carried out for the demand of several rights for women including equal pay, right to work, equal opportunity to work and education. This resulted some 20 percent of women workers, such as the teachers in NSW in 1959 and the meat workers in 1969, had won equal pay for equal work, though, not all the women were paid equally with their work. In December of 1972, the!

SS equal pay system!" was phased in by the Whitlam government for all women workers, however, the long-term effects still left a gap between male and female rates and a new equal pay demand still needs to be made (International Women's Day, internet). Later in 1984, the Government legislated the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act which has made sex discrimination unlawful. The legislation has defined what behaviours constituted sex discrimination and sexual harassment and placed an obligation upon organizations to prohibit behaviours of discrimination. In 1986, there was another event again fought for the women right, the Affirmative Action. Although the Affirmative Action was not started by Australian, the action had significant influences to the history of Australian women in fighting for their right. In which, women right for equal opportunity for work and education were reformed.

However, the campaign for equality is still undergoing. In the year of 1998, the Commonwealth Government committed to ensuring that men and women receive equal remuneration for work of equal value without discrimination based on sex. On the 16th of February in the same year, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Equal Pay Handbook was launched aiming to assist employers in understanding to pay equally between men and women and to meet obligations under anti-discrimination legislation. Right to Vote On the other hand, women have been achieving equality as well as in the area of suffrage. In 1890's, there was no women were members of parliament and had no vote in the majority of colonies. Along the way before women gained the right to vote, Australia's Federation movement progressed through at least three clear stages and Australian women entered the movement in the third stage when the Woman's Christian Temperance Union has branches in all colonies and had separate suffrage Leagues excepting Tasmania.

At that time, women's literary and political discussion groups could be found in Tasmania, New South Wales, and Western Australia (Helen, 1996). However, the idea of! SS vote for women!" had been discussed since 1860's in South Australia. In 1861, women owning properties and paid council rates had had right to vote in Municipal Council election, but were not permitted to stand as candidates. In 1876, the University of Adelaide was founded and gave access to women of studies and the educated women became a supportive argument of the campaign later in the Suffrage League. Few years after, Sir Edward Stirling who is a doctor and parliamentarian introduced the first parliamentary measure supporting women's suffrage in 1885.

Although the resolution was adopted, there were no further actions took place. In 1888, the Women's Suffrage League was formed in which social and economical difficulties many women faced were concerned and the campaign was set off earnestly. It campaigned for equal treatment to women by law and greater legal protection for young women. In 1885, the society achieved legal reforms raising the age of consent girls to 16. In the time between 1886 to 1893, there were six Women's Suffrage Bill introduced, however, none of the Bills were succeeded. Until 1894, the Constitution Amendment Bill (to change the Constitution to allow women to vote) is introduced and passed by Parliament.

Since then, women have gained the vote and had the first vote in the legislative Council election in 1896. However, the women's suffrage was lost again after the Federation in 1901 until after the Australian citizenship referendum in 1967 (Parliament of South Australia, 2001, internet). Conclusion The success of the women's suffrage not merely gave the women rights to vote, but also representing a great leap forward the equality of two sexes. In conclusion, Australian women have been fighting for equality, equity and fairness along the history ever since the institution of the Parliament. As the role of women has been undergoing changes from domestic places shifting to the communities, nowadays, there are women participating! SS high-ranking!" jobs and having the same power as men do which is something unachievable in the past.

Bibliography

Books Helen, I. 1996, A Women Constitution? , Hale & Ire monger Pty Limited, Sydney NSW Judi Mylan, MP.
1998, Maintaining Our Commitment to Women, Commonwealth of Australia, Australia Jan, M.
1975, The Other Half: Women in Australian Society, Penguin Books Ltd, Australia Micheal, P.
and Xin, M. 1995, Trends In The Australian Gender Wage Differential Over The 1980's, Catherine Baird, Australia Internet Affirmative Action Review, , 20/9/03, What you need to know about International Women's Day, , 22/9/03 Challenging Sexism, , 3/8/03, Department of Education Tasmania Women and Politics in South Australia, , 2001, Parliament of South Australia.