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INTRODUCTION: In this article we focus on two women's movements, Abortion Rights in Australia and the Iranian women's protests, that have resisted dominant oppressive discourses and systems. These movements have pushed back on the regulation of women's bodies, choice, and reproductive rights, and are demanding social justice against violence, key areas of concern for critical social work (CSW). METHODS: The theoretical lenses of feminist transnationalism and intersectionality will inform critical analysis based on our case studies describing activism on reproductive justice (RJ) and social justice. FINDINGS: Both movements centre women's choice and control over their bodies--in one case, the removal of access to abortion in the USA (United States of America) has incited protests to protect women's reproductive right to choose, and in the other, Iranian women have taken to the streets to demand their rights to gender equality and protest the systematic violence against women and their bodies. Consideration of the contribution of women's activism to social work education is presented. CONCLUSION: While these movements are not equivalent, they demonstrate political and collective activism to fight for women's right to choose. The article concludes with how social movements can help us develop strategies of hope and collective action. The pedagogy of solidarity and community of practice can amplify social work education to both reflect and encourage activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the official history of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), there is only one mention of the women's liberation movement, amongst a collection of other social movements that emerged in Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, alongside the anti-Vietnam War and Aboriginal rights movements. However, we know from files released by the National Archives of Australia that ASIO heavily monitored the women's liberation movement in Australia, just as it did with most social and protest movements that existed at the time. Concerned about the crossover between the women's liberation movement and other protest movements, ASIO were particularly worried about the entry of the various far left groups, such as Communists, Trotskyists and Maoists, into the women's liberation movement, even though these groups were very much divided about the issue of women's rights during this period. This article examines the ASIO files on the Australian women's liberation movement and the anxiety that the authorities felt about the 'threat' of the personal becoming too politicised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article, written for the fiftieth anniversary of theAustralian Journal of Political Science(formerlyPolitics), analyses articles focusing on women, gender and feminism that were published in the journal. The analysis demonstrates that the study of gender is relevant to a broad range of fields, and methodological approaches used, in political science. It also demonstrates that political science knowledge is itself historically and socially constructed, reflecting both traditional social power relations and the influence of the social movements that challenge them. Consequently, key articles have drawn attention to the ways in which the frameworks of mainstream forms ofpolitical sciencewere gender-biased and have sometimes continued to be so, particularly in terms of narrow constructions of the ‘political’. Such narrow constructions may still be contributing to some ongoing gaps in the literature, despite the important contributions made by work published in the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Some scholars have suggested that institutionalisation and professionalisation of women's movement organisations leads to ‘feminist fading’. This article examines whether such propositions hold true for the Australian women's movement. It maps changes in the women's movement that had emerged by the 1990s, including increased diversity and increased national and international networking as well as increased institutionalisation. It finds that loss of political influence has less to do with institutionalisation than with a changed discursive environment that constructed the welfare state and women's reliance on it as a problem. Nonetheless, women's movement institutions have continued to sustain feminist values and engage in differently organised but effective campaigns. A case study of the women's health movement in Victoria shows how it succeeded in having abortion removed from the criminal code in 2008. Repertoire had changed since the 1970s but the goal remained the same. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the rich symbolism offered by the central Australian desert, and what happens when it becomes a site of feminist protest, as happened in 1983 when Australian women mounted a women-only peace camp at the Pine Gap military facility. The desert holds iconic status as both the ‘centre’ of Australia and ‘the middle of nowhere’, evoked as the ‘heart’ of the country and yet represented as dangerous and deadly. Its ambivalent meaning for white Australia unsettles Pine Gap as a site of protest, and also differentiates it from more traditional protest sites like urban streets, as well as from the most famous women's peace camp at Greenham Common in England. This account is made more complex by my own formative relation to central Australia, where I lived as a child and left in 1983 around the same time as the protest. The impact and limits of situated knowledge and feminist writing practice thus form part of this research as it also intimately addresses the formation of my feminist self through the remembering and remaking of meanings for this landscape of my childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movement theorists have developed several concepts to explain the role of social networking in maintaining social movements. This is particularly relevant for periods when levels of public activism are low due to backlash, hostile social contexts and structural uncertainties. As part of my study of the women's movement online and feminist blog networks in Australia, I provide a review of several of these concepts, interrogating their applicability to the study of online communities. This paper explores the relevance of the social movement theory concepts of submerged networks, abeyance structures and the related idea of counterpublics for the study of feminist blog networks. In 2009, the radio station Triple J's ‘Hottest 100 of All Time’ poll featured no solo women artists, and women played on few tracks. In response to this, several strands of discourse developed in the Australian feminist blogosphere identifying ways that the history of rock music excludes or erases women. Activists developed a cross-platform poll on Twitter, Facebook and email, and promoted it through blogs and Twitter, to counter the ‘Hottest 100 Men’ with a ‘Hottest 100 Women’. This paper shows the ways these women have used blogging networks to challenge mainstream discourses and generate new ones. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores the range of art historically inflected activities around women in Australia. It emphasizes that art historical themes around women is attuned to the values of the first wave feminist movement. It stresses that Australian woman artist Violet Teague is responsible for publishing a range of primary sources on women speaking and writing publicly on art. It asserts that the early narrative of women artists is also presented by sculptor Margaret Baskerville.

The social movements that first flourished in the 1960s and 1970s were initially characterized by protest activity against the state and against dominant norms, and by their only loosely organized structures. Over time, however, these social movements, including feminism, have become partially institutionalized in government and nongovernment bodies, and in policies, practices, and social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happened to the women's movement in Australia under the conservative Howard government (1996-2007)? Why was there such a slump in energy and impact during this period? And what are the implications for the future? In addressing these questions, this article critically reflects on concepts of abeyance, political opportunity structures and cycles of contention. It highlights the shift to neoliberalism that occurred even before Howard came to power and the loss of the movement's 'novelty value', trends that were intensified by broader ideological shifts under Howard. Using interviews with key activists, the article constructs a detailed historical account, arguing that there was not only a hostile environment that constrained the movement but also that the movement's dynamics, activities and goals changed over time. The article concludes that the Australian women's movement is still surviving, but not thriving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second wave of feminism in Australia became a popular reality for ordinary women through many forms of media, and especially through the new women's magazine Cleo. The reader letters published in Cleo throughout the 1970s provide rich, if productively problematic, evidence for the media historian's desire to interpret the meanings readers can make from magazines. In this case, the desire is to understand how younger ordinary (non-activist) Australian women made sense of the immense challenge of feminism. Through letters written in response to Cleo's feminist journalism (and journalism about feminism), it is clear that a popular feminism was being experienced in the period of the second wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a chronology of events which led to the development of women's liberation in Australia. In the earlier part of 1970, Women's Liberation has issued postcards to be signed and sent to the federal government on issues related to tax deductions for childcare and the removal of 27 1/2% luxury sales tax on contraceptive pill, among others. On January 14, 1970, the Sydney Women's Liberation held its inaugural public meeting. Moreover, during that year, several women's groups held various public meetings.

This article focuses on the figure of the selfish feminist in Australia. The author provides an analysis of feminist and anti-feminist texts by exploring the ways in which disputes about feminism in the 1970s swivelled around political and moral concepts of selfishness. Ahee also accounts the film "Kramer vs. Kramer" in connection to selfish feminist. Moreover, she examines how the myth of the selfish feminist persist in the modern time.

There is much theoretical and strategic discussion of the State as a player in gender reform, but there is still a need to understand how gender reform processes work within public sector agencies. Evidence on this question is drawn from a field study of NSW (Australia) government agencies. Knowledge of gender equity measures is widespread among public sector workers but it is very uneven in depth. Participation in programmes is also very uneven, though more common among women. Programmes that appear 'family-friendly' are more widely accepted than 'enhancement' programmes directed to women, which are often thought unfair to men. Men are more likely to be cool towards gender equity measures though significant numbers now support gender equality, and overt 'backlash' attitudes are uncommon. Opinions about feminism as a movement are strongly divided. Feminist programmes are becoming routinized, a key process in large-scale change. Consequences of these patterns for gender equity strategy can be identified. Proposals are offered for making routinized programmes more effective, and for 're-gendering' gender equity strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the paintings of artist Kathleen Petyarre. It has been construed that Petyarre's work emerges as an abstract art, modern art, and at the same time, gains its celebrity in the genre of indigenous art which is considered not modern. In understanding works of art, it is important to consider about the creation and reception of art, as it does about the creation and reception of political categories like indigenous, feminist and so on.

The article presents information on Australian feminism in the 1940s. It features the story of what happened to Australian feminism during the 1940s, a decade when feminists frequently spoke of the coming of age. It discusses how feminism at that time period was an alternative political and/or social movement that sought to express itself within the mainstream discourses of time but was also profoundly affected by historical changes of the time.

Australian women activists have never been enthusiastic about federalism because of its reputation as a system that restricts the scope of government and obstructs the path of progressive social change. Like their sisters in other countries, women's groups have sought collectivist solutions to economic and social problems. In the last couple of decades, however, orthodox ideas about the restrictive impact of federalism have been questioned. A revisionist view has emerged, which holds that the system sometimes facilitates the adoption of innovative policies and may lead to an expansion of the role of government. The revisionist perspective raises the question of whether women's groups have been wise to oppose federalism. This article examines relevant Canadian and Australian studies in order to test the validity of orthodox and revisionist perspectives and to draw conclusions about appropriate feminist approaches to federalism. The evidence is mixed. The main argument of this article is that, to the extent that we can distinguish its independent effect, federalism sometimes obstructs policy development and sometimes facilitates it. There are serious methodological problems involved in trying to isolate the impact of the federal variable from the many factors that influence policy, making generalisations precarious. Experience, therefore, offers little guidance to women's groups seeking to decide whether to support centralised or decentralised decision-making structures. However, this study concludes that in the context of present Australian federal arrangements, women are more likely to achieve their aims when the Commonwealth government takes action, either alone or in cooperation with sub-national jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synopsis: This article explores a qualitative, year long study of young, first-time Women''s Studies students at a large metropolitan university in Australia. These students came from a wide range of different ethnic backgrounds and from low socio-economic groups. In particular, the article focuses on the students'' changing perceptions of the meaning(s) of gender in their personal lives, in their communities and in Australian society at large. It looks at the discourses employed by the young women to articulate, and negotiate, their perceptions of ‘equality’, ‘freedom’ and lastly, their relationship to feminism itself. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article explores and documents the role of young women in the contemporary Australian women's movement. Through case studies of two very different groups of young women, working in submerged networks in the community and on university campuses, it aims to suggest the diversity of contemporary young feminist praxis. Further, it argues that the work that these young women are doing in discursively creating and maintaining a feminist political space is crucial to the future of the movement. Based in constructivist 'new' social movement theory this article suggests a way forward from the so-called 'generational debates' of the 1990s and argues that, through their own unique processes of collective identity, young women who are active in the Australian women's movement are dealing with the conflicts that are essential to the movement's survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paradigm of maternal citizenship has been variously understood by historians as enabling and restrictive of women's action in the public sphere. This paper considers the use to which the maternal paradigm was put by the founders of the Australian Women's National League, focussing in particular upon their campaign to link the Labor party with socialism and “free love”. It observes the ease with which the ideal of the maternal citizen — central to the liberal feminism of the day — could be turned to the conservative class interests of elite women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Aboroginal activist Irene Watson. When asked about feminism, she says in terms of thinking about feminism as a movement, she can't talk for and about all Aboriginal women - it's how she looks at this as an Aboriginal woman - is not so much as a movement but as a space and place in her own life. She says her understanding of the place of Aboriginal women is a way of knowing her mothers and aunties and sisters and all the things that she loves about the power and the strength of Aboriginal women. When asked about resolving opposition through integration rather than punishment and isolation, she says she thinks that that approach can apply outside of the Indigenous world view. Of course politics and power dictate that it doesn't, that Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous ways of being are contained within Indigenous communities. That's not to say that those philosophies and ideas and concepts about how to manage society can't extend beyond the boundaries of Indigenous containment into the areas of western non-Indigenous cultures. She says she thinks it would be a much more positive approach than people have seen throughout the colonial history particularly in Australia.

Focuses on feminism as cultural renaissance in Australia. Information on the organization Women's Liberation in the country; Overview of some political activism involving feminism in Australia; Details of the cultural transformation of the Women's Movement organization; Discussion on cultural disruption as a dimension of second-wave feminism.

Discusses the emergence of second wave feminism in Australia. Historical background of feminism in the country; Principles of women's liberation; Information on the concept of sectarianism; Theoretical issues involved in the diversity of feminist; Details of cultural relativism and its relation to feminism.

Presents a perspective and understanding of feminism in Australia. Discussion on the political system in country; Political participation of women in the country; Traditional role of played by feminists in the society.

Abstract This paper uses ethnographic data from an Australian university to explore constructs of "otherness" focusing on women in lower-level university work. The work of these women, who hold both academic and non-academic staffpositions, takes place in the spatial and symbolic locale we call the "ivory basement" Poststructural feminism provides the basis for an examination of the contradictions and subtle&s of their identity work as they respond to the pressures of restructuring and managerialism. Faced with a request from these women for certain aspects of their relational work to remain unseen, unrecognised and unspoken, this study assents to that request and focuses instead on options for how poststructural feminism might elaborate their identity work stories. The paper is concerned with the tensions between women's own struggle with being positioned as "other" and poststructural feminist theorizing of the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the romantic stereotypes of the 'Bush Myth', Australian national identity is formed through the confrontation between the bushman and the natural environment, particularly as depicted in 'realist' literature. This myth has been displaced from its centrality in numerous ways. Less attention has been paid to the many other competing literary figurings of national identity at the turn of the nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth century. One of these tropes, often used by women writers, looked at the national space not as a hostile and alien environment but as a garden. By contrast, iconic fictions such as Lawson's 'Water them Geraniums' show gardening as a feminine pursuit antithetical to (masculine) Australian life. Australia as garden produced a different set of possibilities for the settler colonial plot. Instead of beleaguered fighters against an unyielding wilderness, fictions figuring the nation as a garden produced a potentially more fruitful and less doomed role for the protagonist, particularly the female protagonist. This plot also allowed some casting of urban space, particularly suburban space, as authentic Australian space, rather than second-hand European waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an explanation of the beliefs of environmental group members in Australia. Several overlapping theories have been developed to explain why environmentalism and other new social movements, such as pacifism, feminism, and minority rights advocates, have emerged in advanced industrial democracies in the late twentieth century. Some theories involve values and beliefs, principally postmaterialism, while others emphasize the importance of social location in structuring these movements, especially the rise of a new middle class, and generational experiences as measured by age. Gender is also sometimes considered a significant social dimension affecting environmentalism, through its link to postmaterialism, although it has been the subject of some debate. After a steady increase during the 1980s, public concerns for environmentalism in Australia, peaked in the late 1980s. In line with this increase, public support for environmental groups articulating these concerns also rose dramatically. These groups have espoused a wide variety of policies and opinions, ranging from lobbying governments on a narrow range of environmental issues, to outright hostility toward economic growth and support for a fundamental reorganization of society.

This article analyzes ways in which the Australian women's movement affected the social-policy bargain concerning support for sole parents and the process by which that bargain has been and continues to be negotiated. It is suggested that the women's movement has transformed the bargaining process in two ways. First, the ideology of women's liberation alters the traditional conceptions of women's roles and autonomy and, thus, affects the terms acceptable to various parties. Second, the women's movement brings new organizational resources to bear on the bargaining process and, thus, improves the bargaining power of sole parents. A social-policy bargain is a metaphor for the set of mutual expectations governing how actors affected by a government program should interact with each other. One effect of the women's movement has been to make more fragile the metaphorical social-policy bargain concerning sole parents. Institutional stability depends on continued compliance with the bargain, but compliance will not be sustained if the policy becomes unacceptable and if the dissatisfied party has sufficient bargaining power to reopen negotiations.

The 'women's lobby' or the 'powerful feminist lobby' has been held responsible for a range of evils including the undermining of the traditional family, public expenditure on community services, social engineering and the imposition of 'political correctness'. To what extent is there a 'women's lobby' working from inside or outside government to influence public decision-making? In this paper we explore this question, using data from a social network analysis of the Australian women's movement conducted in 1992-3. Our findings are that there is a large, very loosely connected network of organisations engaging in advocacy on behalf of women. Density of ties is less than is found in a comparable study of the Canadian women's movement but there are more ties between non-government groups and government agencies. Issues of organisational philosophy have inhibited the development of a 'peak body' for the non-government women's movement and led to reliance on issue-specific coalitions. Latterly, awareness of increasing fragmentation has led to a series of attempts to create more effective national networking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses conservative intellectual attitudes to feminism, with reference to the journal Quadrant. It is argued that a conspicuous failure to seriously address the issues raised by feminist writers is both short-sighted and self-defeating, since such issues are not as compartmentalized as Australian conservative intellectuals appear to think. Contrasting attitudes to feminism are explored with reference to the respective approaches of conservative writers, John Carroll and Ronald Conway. While this comparison reveals that it is possible for conservatism and feminism to co-exist, it is shown that Conway is almost alone among Quadrant intellectuals in appreciating this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need to produce a digitized version of the Australian feminist journal "The Dawn" and make it available online. Regarded as the first Australian feminist journal, "The Dawn" was first published by Louisa Lawson in 1888. The article discusses the type of information that was published in early editions of the journal and examines the contributions it made to feminism in Australia. The journal also employed women in various positions, including as writers, and campaigned for women's suffrage.