Week 13 - Womens Electoral Lobby

Women Leave Work after having a baby

ONE in five women are leaving the workforce after having a child because of inadequate or non-existent paid maternity leave, women's employment experts say.
The 2007 Australian Social Trends study shows that of the 270,000 women who had children while in the workforce in 2005, 72,000 did not use leave to care for their new-born babies and 55,000 did not return to their jobs.
The director of the Centre for Work and Life at the University of South Australia, Barbara Pocock, said figures indicated that the workforce was losing women.
"A significant number of women have a weak attachment to the labour force precisely because they have poor maternity leave provisions," Professor Pocock said. "This is begging, just begging, for policy attention."
The survey also showed that 57 per cent of women did not use paid maternity leave because it was "not available or offered by the employer".
The overwhelming number of women who used paid leave worked in the public sector - some 76 per cent - while just 27 per cent of women in the private sector used similar leave.
Professor Pocock, author of The Labour Market Ate My Babies, said figures suggesting a rise in the number of women entitled to paid maternity leave - up from 36 per cent in 2003 to 41 per cent in 2005 - were deceptive because many of women with access to such leave did not use it because they were beyond child-bearing age. "For them, it's meaningless," Professor Pocock said.

My opinion.

When I had my first child I held down a very good position in the HR Dept at Southcorp Wines, Magill. I took 12 months off and then tried to return to my old position, I had received no pay during Maternity Leave. The position was a very busy one and I had always worked from 8ish til 5.00-5.30 there was no way I wanted to go back to those hours with a baby. I applied to work part time within the company and was knocked back as they did not want part time workers as they said it got to messy and was to hard to organise.

So my opinion on paid maternity leave is this, I think its a great idea and families do deserve it, but unfotunately a lot of companies can not afford to pay for it. Its alright for government bodies and large corporations but for a small business owner this could make or break them. Not sure what the answer is here, I can understand though why women don't return to work. Child care although more reasonable now, is still a big expense, you add transport costs to that and a reduction in your family payment because your earning more, it hardly seems worth all the stress.

WOMEN AND ACTIVISM

Then - what
- peace, free speech, political or womens rights, price control for gas/cost of living, proper kindergartens and teachers.
- solidarity between the women for the Fairley case.
- 1969 equal pay issue
- education - smaller classes, there were hardly any kindergartens at all, more buildings & teachers.
- child care
- reproductive rights
Then - how
- marches,
- housewives association, talking against the state.
- during cold war stood in the street, they were spat on and abused.
- lobby David Jones and Myers to get rid of war toys,
- songs - folk, aprons with slogans, they would door knock

Today - what
- child care
- paid maternity leave
- refugees, housing, environment
- voilence against women and children is still a problem
- reclaim the night
- work - AWA
- cancer awareness, health and body image.
- aged drivers.

Today - how
- civil disobedience
- boycotting (items/Nestle)
- lobbying (lobby your mp)
- non voilent confrontation
- terrorism, media activisim (eg speech bubble)
- protest music
- voluntary simplicity - seachange, hillchange
- strike action
- craftivism - networking

1. Australian Women Work
When the UAW was formed in 1950, the dominant view was that women's place was in the home, with children. At the same time women were welcome in the factories as a source of cheap labour. There was no day-long child care. Whole suburbs were without kindergartens and libraries. Equal Pay was opposed. Contraceptive advice was difficult to obtain. Abortion was a crime. Indigenous Australians were not citizens and White Autralia ruled supreme. The Cold War was at its height.
The women who founded the UAW had grown up in an Australia of hard times, of deprivation and loss, arising out of two world wars and a devastating economic depression.
The UAW founders wanted a world which minimised the risk of war through disarmament and a society where wealth and opportunity were more equally distributed. They were prepared to work publicly for their goals, not just by attending meetings, writing letters and lobbying politicians, but by making themselves visible on the streets.

2. Current Campaigns
Elimination of violence against women
Abortion law reform and reproductive rights
Affordable public housing and health
Rights for asylum seekers

3. Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is a social and political movement which unites environmentalism and feminism[1], with some currents linking deep ecology and feminism.[2] Ecofeminists argue that a relationship exists between the oppression of women and the degradation of nature, and explore the intersectionality between sexism, the domination of nature, racism, speciesism, and other characteristics of social inequality. Some current work emphasizes that the capitalist and patriarchal system is based on triple domination of the "Southern people" (those people who live in the Third World, the majority of which are south of the First World), women, and nature.

4.
They campaign for issues involving third world countries, for racism, feminism and to save the environment.

Betty Friedan - Week 11

Betty Naomi Friedan was born in 1921 and died in 2006. She was an American Social Reformer and Feminist who went to the University of California in 1942. Her main claim to fame was the book she wrote in 1963 called "The Feminine Mystique" it attacked the theory that women could find fulfillment only through childbearing and homemaking. She challenged the ideal of which Betty herself was a suburban housewife who also wrote part time, that a womans role was to make beds, cook meals and serve her children and husband. This book made a huge impact on Society triggering change



She also wrote "It Changed my Life" all about the Women's Movement in 1976 and the Second Stage in 1981. She was one of the founders of the National Organization for Women in 1966, and played a big part in the struggle for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.


Betty was the co-founder of NOW (National Organisation for Women) that was establised in 1966 to support "full equality for women in America in a truly equal partnership with men". Through legislatvie lobbying, court litigation, and public demonstrations, NOW seeks to end sexual discrimination in employment.
She made a big push for paid maternity leave and for child care centres, also to change the laws to adoption.

WOMEN IN THE 50's - WEEK 9

1. You can see that things have changed for women after the war, simply because they are in college and there are female teachers at the college. Its still obvious that an education is only something for the rich girls to do while they are waiting to meet the man of their dreams. The Academy was for girls only and you were still considered a spinster if you were unmarried at 30. Even though the academy wouldn't condone it, women were learning about contracteption and that they can choose when to start their families.


2. It will take a long time before society's attitude changes towards the roles of women, some examples of this was the sacking of the school nurse for giving out contraceptive. The girls were very much class conscious, as in whose families had money, community standing etc... What was the standing of the family they intended marrying into what their husbands job was and how much money he would make. Katherine was trying to teach the girls to think outside the square, she was considered a forward thinker and very progressive. The fact the girls were given elocution lessons in how to cross your legs was a sign that these girls role in life was to marry well, look after their husbands and children and make sure both are kept happy. It was not socially acceptable to study and work after marriage.


3. The hair and clothes was typical 1950's, the pencil skirts and college look. The microphones were another giveaway of the time period as was the band and the I Love Lucy shows on TV. TV was still a big novelty as it hadn't been around long enough for everyone to be sick of it. Something that was amusing was the obsession that women loved appliances, the newly married wife in the movie couldn't wait to show off her washing machine as if this was going to make her life so much better having this particular washing machine. I also noticed it was very socially acceptable to smoke, they even had those long plastic cigarette holders to make it look even cooler.

WOMEN AND WAR

1. Women had different roles in each war, in the first world war they still mainly worked in volunteer positions, a few women worked outside the home in paid income but that was mainly in the clothing/textile industries. WWI 1914-1918. In WWII 1939-1945 women were encouraged to work in factories, and to basically take over the jobs that men had left to go to war. They also ran the Womens Land Army which was a huge organisation which used to run the farms.
2. WWII is when things really started to change for women, there was a major advertising campaign to get women into the Services, Nursing, Womens Land Army. Also into the factories they were finally allowd into the typically male dominated positions, although of course for a lot less pay.
3. In World War I women were expected to stay home and look after the children while the men went off to fight in the war. They were of course expected to help with volunteer positions like Red Cross etc.. Some women did seek paid employment but most stayed home and took over all the household duties. Those who did enter the paid workforce were not encouraged to continue after the war ended.
4. The Australian Comforts Fund made socks and sent them over to the men in the trenches, as they had no way of drying their socks.
5. In WW1 women were expected to fill their traditional roles with a few extras added on. But in WW2 things really changed for women, they were asked to fill traditionally male roles and work outside the home and not just in volunteer positions like in WW1.
6. I will send this to you in a word doc!!!!!!!!
7. The Womens land army was a voluntary group who moved into the rural communities and did the work on the farms so that the men could either go to war or work in the jobs they were needed in. You had to be between the ages of 18 and 50 and be a british subject to be able to join.
8. Vivian Bullwinkle was a South Australian nurse who enrolled in the war when she was 25. While trying to escape the area her ship was sunk and 22 nurses floated to shore, where they were massacred in the sea. She was the sole survivor and made it back to land where she cared for an injured solider for 12 days before he died. She then gave herself up to the japanese making no mention of the massacre she had been involved with. She was held captive for three years until the end of the war.
9. These men were a group of pilots that Bowen sketched in front of their bomber plane, before she could finish the group portrait the men were Missing in action, presumed dead and she had to finish from photographs and sketches. One of the men did eventually turn up at the end of the war after being held POW by the Germans.

What is Feminism

What is Feminism

1. The word Feminism was first used in the 1890s. It is the belief that women and girls should have equal rights with men and boys.
2. The 3 waves of feminism are suffrage and temperance movements, the 2nd wave of feminism was the Womens Liberation Movement. The 3rd wave of refers to the period we are in now which is the empowerment of women.
3. In my opinion the womens movement is all based on change and equal rights for women and girls.
4. Women do function differently to men both physically and mentally, but this doesn't mean they can't perform the same tasks equally well as men.

Raising the Issues

1. From the 7th Century women gained new rights in traditional Arab society. The Prophet Muhammad (c570-632) decreed that women had rights to divorce, to child maint. and to inherit land and property.
2. "The Enlightenment" (c1650-1789), philosophers question tradional relighious beliefs. They challenged the absolute power held by monarchs and a society in which peoples social position was based on birth rather than on merit.
3. The Declaration of Independence stated "that all men are created equal and ... have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". France wrote a similar declaration 13 years later. In both America and France, these rights did not extend to women, slaves, natives or gypsies.
4. Both women were arguing for a right to equality in education and in marriage. They both argued that women needed extra rights. Olympe de Gouges was executed in part because of her suppport for womens rights.
5. The Temperance group were fighting for anti-alcohol because it destroyed homes and families. They believed that somens right and concerns would always be neglected when governments were elected only by men.

Campaining for the Vote

1. Social reform issues were women fighting for the vote and the right to run for Public Office. Also for anti alcohol because it destroyed families.

2. Suffragists were fighting for women to be able to vote and to run for public office.Feminists believed that womens rights and concerns would always be neglected when governments were elected only by men.

3.It believed women inferior that they would jump up on the table if they saw a mouse and that the Lady Mayor was only there to sew buttons on.

4. The arguments for voting were that womens rights were not being addressed as governments were run by men and that women wanted the same rights as male voters.

5. The anti-feminists argued that one of the most powerful weapons used to discourage women in public life was ridicule, it leads women to mistrust themselves and could deteriorate into bitter abuse. They also argued for reproductive rights such as contraception and abortion, family allowances, education and respect.

6. The mother and daughter team founded the WSPU with one aim and that was votes for women. Both were arrested and jailed many times and at times fled to france to avoid arrest. Both women were brilliant speakers. Two sisters were involved with womens working class in London's east end and the other was involved with Women in the Union.

7. The first world war made women choose between loyalty to their country and their international feminists links. Most chose patriotism and there was another delay in the push for the most basic of womens rights.

8. Women were allowd to finally work, women stepped into the jobs that the men left behind, including factory work on public transport and the public service.

Australian Suffragettes

1. They argued for the vote.

2.Temeperence groups were anti alcohol because it destroyed homes.

3. SA 1894, WA 1899, NSW 1902, Vic 1908.

4. The first wave of feminists were concerned with peace rather than war and concern for the weak.

5. They said women were to good and high minded to sully themselves with political matters which should be left to the men. That giving women the vote would be dangerous and theat it would destroy feamle purity and undermine male authority.

6. They portrayed women as empty headed creatures that were only interested in marriage, clothes and babies. They were called hyenas in petticoats.

2.

Week 5 - Immigrant Women

JOURNAL – WEEK 5 - IMMIGRANT WOMEN

As I said one side of my family is Maltese! My Grandparents came over from Malta straight after WWII and they along with their own brothers and sisters settled in Adelaide. My grandfather immediately got a labouring job, within the Maltese Community and that is what he did for the rest of his working life.

My grandmother of course immediately started to have babies and had four children under 6. Both her and my grandfathers English was very limited and it really wasn’t until my auntie and dad went to school that my grandparents started to really learn how to speak and write English. Of course my grandmother took a lot longer as she wasn’t out in the work force each day like my grandfather was.

When my dad left school at 15 to start an Apprenticeship as a Baker, he got my grandmother a job there working in the factory. The family thought that if he was there to interpret for her the language barrier wouldn’t be so great, and then hopefully she would catch on quickly. One thing that did happen though is she was exploited, she was such a hard / strong worker, she was taken off the factory line which was easy but repetitive work and she was put on the ovens. Of course being on the ovens is what the qualified bakers do and get paid a lot more than what the women/men on the factory line. My grandmother was never paid any extra money for working on the ovens and it was something that used to really upset and annoy my dad. Of course my grandmother would never complain as her English was so limited and she was very grateful to have a job. It was the first time she had been in paid employment as she had got married at 17 and her and my grandfather had moved out to Australia straight away from Malta.

Both of my grandparents died over 20 years ago now, they had worked hard all their lives in hard working menial positions, and this took its toll on their bodies in their old age.

By moving from Malta they have given our whole extended family a wonderful opportunity of growing up in Australia.