Questioning Women's Movement 'Strategies': Australian Activism on Work and Care

Abstract

Women's movements are often described as adopting "strategies" but studies rarely question how and to what extent movement decisions are actually made. This case study considers the Australian second-wave women's movement's "choice" to pursue workforce participation over care-centred approaches. It finds that the movement was too diverse and decentralized to make any such collective strategic decision. Action was geared to growing the movement and expressing the concerns of the women involved, not forming political platforms. Nevertheless, a pragmatic strand emerged, in which some groups took significant pro-work decisions to counter the risk of reinforcing traditional sex roles.