Journal Week 13

WOMEN’S STUDIES 1
Journal – Week 13.

FEMOCRACY
A Story of WEL

Beatrice Faust believed that up until this point women’s liberation had so far consisted of too much talk and not enough action. In 1972 The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) was formed just before the Federal election. The women believed their was still big discrepancies between the status of men and those of women. They didn’t wait they took action and began to get the message out about The Women’s Liberation Movement by bringing it to the people.
It took Beatrice Faust to incite Australian women into action, by a political survey of all candidates in all jurisdictions in Australia. WEL’s first survey of political candidates revealed a big lack of knowledge or even interest in the many issues. Further surveys gained public notice and encouraged the establishment of branches in all capital cities. Since then, winning in government has often been associated to the women’s vote. Over the years, WEL has continued to provide well-researched reports to both sides of the political arena on a range of issues from economics and employment to health and human relationships. WEL policies have been based on the assumption of women’s right to choose and to control her own destiny; WEL’s approach has been to demand that right be entrenched into legislation and embedded in political, economic and social structures.
The WEL campaign in 1972 was based on the six demands formulated by women’s liberation; equal pay, equal employment opportunity, free contraceptive services, abortion on demand and free 24hr childcare. Action groups began work in these areas creating the basis for the well-researched submissions for which WEL was to become famous.
The 1972 Federal Election must go down in history as the first in which the average women is really interested. Much of this interest is due to WEL. The Whitlam government won office and came to power amid great hopes and a prevailing sentiment that this really was the birth of a new age of tolerance and increased recognition of the equality of women in Australia.
The period between 1972 and 1975 was one of rapid and major change in Australia, with the election of the Whitlam Government. Elizabeth Reid was appointed as the assistant to the Prime Minister on Women’s Issues in 1973.There was also the Women’s Affairs section introduced in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The Government assisted financially to the United Nations International Women’s Year, 1975. This money went towards rape crisis and health centres. There were also a number of conferences looking at women’s issues. The Government also gave funding to support non-profit childcare centres. Eventually after much lobbying, women were awarded the male rate of pay, no matter what job they did, on 15th December 1972. The issue was raised for sexual harassment at work, the need for changeover stations for fathers to have access to children in the custody of separated wives. Many women were guttered when the Whitlam Government was dropped in 1975.and replaced by the Fraser Government, many women saw this as the end of the period of reform and development Australia had been set upon. Fortunately the few brief years had gained enough popular support that the trend was irreversible.
In the Fraser years, WEL had campaigned for and won the Office of the Status of Women, an office within the prime Minister’s Department which was charged with the task of developing policy which took notice of women’s meeds, which evaluated all policy and legislation in light of its impact upon women and which began to push for and develop pro-active strategies for redressing some of the long standing problems facing women. This was a great step forward because for the first time women were guaranteed some formal say in the development of policy and legislation.



WEL affirms article 10 of Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which states women should have the same access to education in all forms as men, and that such access should not be barred on the basis of stereotyped conceptions of the roles of men and women. WEL calls on governments to redress inequities and discrimination in education against women and girls.
WEL affirms the responsibility of government to provide free education from preschool through tertiary and post-secondary levels, funded from general revenue. In fulfilling this responsibility, governments must recognise that individuals’ access to free education depends on the provision of adequate income support and appropriate infrastructure.
WEL opposes funding arrangements that benefit private schools at the expense of the public school system.
WEL believes all schools which receive government funding, whether public or private, should abide by relevant legislation such as anti-discrimination legislation.
WEL recognises the value of the Adult and Community Education sector in providing women with knowledge, skills and competencies to return to learning and to employment.
WEL supports programs which stress equality between men and women and that all students should be given opportunities to study gender equality issues and develop a wide range of communication skills, through assertiveness training and anger management programs for example.
WEL supports mandatory gender equity programs for all students.
WEL believes that the political institutions and process of the three levels of government should be taught in primary and secondary schools as compulsory curriculum so students understand their voting rights before they leave school.
WEL supports the principles of lifelong learning and recognises the needs of women of all ages to be able to access education and retraining.
WEL believes that all students should be encouraged and supported to excel in the subjects in which they demonstrate aptitude.
WEL acknowledges and is concerned that women’s and girls’ traditional choice of education leads to career paths that are lower paid.
WEL is concerned that ‘traditional’ careers of women e.g. teaching, child-care are undervalued in Australian society. Careers advisers should be required to alert girls to the financial and social implications of their career choices.
WEL recognises the need to encourage girls and boys into non-traditional areas
My views on this situation are that if you want an education or to update your learning skills this choice should be available to all women and girls. Unfortunately some of the courses through TAFE are rather expensive so many women would have trouble affording the costs involved. It was suggested to me that maybe a programme like the Universities have eg HECS fees could be introduced. This supports education first, and an interest free loan on course fees, until employment is started. I’m sure this would attract a lot more students to expensive courses which were out of reach for them financially. Some courses studied by women such as Electricians or Technicians where mainly male dominated courses, but now many women are enrolled and enjoying the challenge.