Formal egalitarianism - private traditionalism : the position of women in Australia

Abstract

In Australia, as elsewhere in the world, the past decade has witnessed a renascence of interest in the position of women in society. It is commonly assumed that men’s and women’s roles are changing rather rapidly in the direction of greater equality between the sexes. The standard used to estimate this change is generally taken to be the more equal distribution of the two sexes in education, employment, and political activity. This thesis examines the assumption that such changes in women's patterns of behaviour represent either greater equality between men’s and women’s roles or an improvement in the overall status of women. The approach taken here is that the position of women spans roles in both the "public" and the "private" spheres. Norms and attitudes about women's rights and obligations within the family and in interpersonal relations are as crucial to defining women's overall status as are the more formal opportunities available to them for social participation on an equal footing with men. On the basis of an analysis of both statistical indicators and data collected from a sample of secondary school students in Sydney, it is concluded that, while orientations toward women have become more egalitarian and the distribution of the two sexes in social positions is changing, norms and attitudes toward "men's" and "women’s" place, by remaining generally traditional or ambivalent, serve to impede the movement toward greater equality between the sexes in both everyday activities and interpersonal relations. As a consequence, women’s access to their formal rights and the social rewards flowing from them remains restricted.