Literary Views & Reviews

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 3

Literary Views & Reviews

The Female Sex In Australian Society

[Reviewed by M.FLI.P.) Komen in Australia. By Norman MacKenzie. F. W. Chettilre.

Even within living memory, women in Aiw-ralia have had a hard life. Pioneering conditions, imposed heavy burdens on both sexes, of course, because as Mary Gilmore said, recalling her childhood in the middle of the last century: "It was the men and w omen who, as horses, pulled the harrow over the seed w hen it had been sown" but she added: “the earlier women had but their hands and feet and their bent backs." Machines gave some help but they could only niod.fy the hardship imposed by a harsh climate, hazards of sickness, bush-fire, duststorm, flood, drought and pests. One woman, looking back on the rainless yeans of 1901 to 1902, commented: “It is food which has left the most uncomfortable mem. ories, or rather its staple ingredients—rabbit meat, month in and month out; and melon-pie jam, a kerosene

t.n of it made and consumed by a family once a fortnight” In such conditions, often endured in isolation’ thousands of women in each generation had to find within themselves courage to make and keep a home going. But since Australia from the start has been essentially a male country in which for a long time men outnumbered women, in which masculine habits of life put their mark on the society in its formative years, there has been little study of the contribution of women. Men judge the past by male standards and women are noticed only w hen their achievements can be measured in those terms or what they have done relates in some way to male activities.

Such are the conclusions reached in a new important book, “Women in Australia” by Norman MacKenzie. The author, political scientist and assistant editor of the “New Statesman.” was asked to spend a year in Australia by the Social Science Research Council to undertake research into the position of women because many Australians felt that Australia was still more a man's country than other industrial countries and that women encounter formal and informal discrimination and play a less significant role in the professions and public life than men. In consequence, the use of Australia’s resources of talent is not maximised.

The facts relating to the legal status of women are given in a valuable appendix prepared by Dr. Enid Campbell. the first woman to be appointed to the Faculty of Law in the University of Sydney. Dr. Campbell notes on the credit side that women may now participate on an equal footing with men in the government of the country; they may vote at parliamentary and local government elections and be themselves elected; they are no longer disqualified ’ from appointment to public offices and in a majority of States they are eligible for jury service if they volunteer to serve. There are no legal impediments to women acquiring the educational and professional qualifications prescribed for the various professions while the few industrial occupations in which

women cannot legally be employed are of a kind which are so hazardous or physically demanding that the law cannot fairly be said to prejudice females.

She adds tnat the civil and proprietary disabilities formerly imposed on married women have disappeared. Further, a comprehensive system of social service benefits assures widow’s, aged, sick or unemployed women erf means of livelihood and the income-earning woman incurs the same tax burden and receives the same tax concessions as would a man in like circumstances (presumably this includes deductions allowed for employment of housekeepers). On the debit side, apart from the limitations placed on women with respect to jury service, principal defects in law relate to the employment of women in the public service, wages and salaries. New South Wales is the only state in Australia which does not prohibit the employment of married women in the public service except on a temporary basis. In the other State public services and in the Commonwealth public service, married women are barred. Dr. Campbell comments: “The requirement that a woman shall retire from the service on marriage, regardless of her qualifications, age, experience and worth, must surely tend to discourage many a young “career" woman from even entering public service, for not only must she face up to the prospect of loss of career upon marriage, but also the possibility that advancement to responsible posts will not be as easy as for a male officer.” Dr. ' Campbell points out •hat only two States <Queensland and New South Wales) have to date formally accepted the principle that female wage and salary earners are entitled to equal pay for work of a Like nature or work of an equal, value as work performed by males. She does not believe tnat the example of the two States named is likely to be followed in the near future either by the Commonwealth or by other States. Dr. Campbell explains that a fundamental difficulty stems from the fact that the basic wage is calculated not with reference to the value of work but according to the needs of the male worker with a family and the capacity of industry to pay that wage. Female workers may in practice be contributing to the expense of the family but hitherto the fixing of the male rate has proceeded on the assumption that the female is under no obligation to maintain other members of the family.

On the debit side also .must be noted the disabilities suffered by ’husbands under the Married Women's Property Acts. For example, in New South Wales and Western Australia, a married woman’s liability is still limited to her separate property whereas her husband's liability is personal. Practically. the difference is not important because imprisonment for civil debt has disappeared and a married woman may be declared bankrupt but in these states also, a husband cannot sue his wife on contracts entered into before marriage though he can be sued on contracts made by his wife with third parties before marriage. In New South Wales, moreover.

husbands continue to be liable, to the extent of assets acquired through or from their wives, for torts committed by their wives before marriage and are jointly liable with their wives for torts committed by wives during marriage. Dr. Campbell considers these and other provisions which weigh unequally on husbands as unwarranted survivals of an age in w’hich married women were allowed neither property of their own nor full Legal responsibility. Thus in some spheres, women are favoured by Australian law; in others they are underprivileged. The position of women has to some extent been improved and MacKenzie argues that the transformation has been achieved not by women securing the vote but by (1) shifts in the social structure induced by technological and commercial changes (2) labour shortages created by two World Wars, (3) a long period of full employment but. above all, by <4) the adoption of birth control. He argues that a drop in the birth rate has meant smaller families, fewer pregnancies, better health and more vigour for women. Today in Australia, women aged 45 years will have two children at the end of their school careens and a third entering adolescence. They can expect another 25 years of active life. He notes too that many Australian women are childless or have only one child. These new factors are bound to lead to a demand by women for a revision of the prevailing attitude towards the female sex in Australian society.

In the pioneering days, communication between women was difficult and the standards of a predominantly male country imposed silence and acceptance of inferiority on would-be female rebels. Today women increasingly recognise that if they go out to work in industry or the professions they may be at a disadvantage in pay and status even though they contribute equally with men and in addition, young women who marry after a period of working outside, recognise that if they remain at home, they are required to work harder and long hours, they have less money to spend on themselves and they have less time to do the things in which they were previously interested.

Revolt, therefore, seems inevitable. It can, however, be avoided by giving one half of the human race, women, equality with the other half, men. MacKenzie tells us that in the course of his research, he talked to hundreds of women and was impressed by one fact—the gap between their potential and their achievement. Undoubtedly this book does a considerable service in drawing attention to the gap and also the means by which it could be closed In New Zealand as well as in Australia, it should be compulsory reading for all boys’ schools young and older men’s clubs and societies.

“Nowadays if you want something broadcast to the world you tell it in confidence to a member of the 1922 Committee.”—Lord Mancroft, comparing the differences between the methods of spreading opinions in 1863 with those of today at the centenary dinner of the Alliance Building Society.