Women Issues In Australia

1167 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on universal declaration of human rights

Issues faced my women
Women are a vital part of the economic development of Australia being on par with their male counterparts. However due to historical impacts of sexism and common misconceptions women face major issues and problems. Major issues relating to women include unequal pay, security, sexual harassment, lack of proper family support, deficient maternity leave and several others.
Sexual harassment is a major issue that women face in the workplace as many women fall victim to acts of sexual harassment in the workplace. This harassment manifests itself into several categories such as a demand or request of sexual favours for example having employers soliciting sexual favours from women employees in return for promotions, pay raises …show more content…

Women working in the BPO sector (business processing outsourcing) have a high percentage of women falling victim crimes at the workplace, this is due to lack of security provided by the employer. Accounts of women being victims of rape and other forms of sexual abuse are quite common and can attribute to the lack of proper security.
These issues being faced by women in the workplace have proven to be detrimental to the individual and the organisations that employ them. These consequences include a reduced level of efficiency in the workplace, increased absenteeism, damage to image of the organisation in the market and lawsuits and the high legal fees that follow …show more content…

It was opened for signature in 1979 and entered into force in 1981. The entire preamble of CEDAW acknowledges that the Charter of the United Nations and he Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirm that all human beings are born free and are equal in dignity and rights. This acknowledges the fact that nation states have the responsibility to ‘ensure that the equal rights of men and women to enjoy all economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights’. In domestic law there have been legislation passed that exist at both a state and federal level in Australia. Discrimination on the basis of someone’s gender may be considered 2 type of discrimination. Direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination is a more blatant form of the latter where males are given special privilege over their female counterpart. With the entrance of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 (CTH) allowed for the elimination of discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status or pregnancy in areas such as education, facilities, services, accommodation, housing, insurance and superannuation. This bill takes into account sexual harassment as a form of discrimination in employment and education and outlaws this behaviour. This act was also used to promote

Show More
Related

  • Shirley Chiisholm's Patriarchy: Race, Revolution And Women

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thornton, Margaret. "Feminism And The Changing State: The Case Of Sex Discrimination." Australian Feminist Studies 21.50 (2006): 151-172. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 May

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Australian Society During World War II

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the World War II era, the outlook on the role of women in Australian society revolutionised. As a majority of men were at war, Australian women were encouraged to rise above and beyond their stereotypical ‘housewife’ status. They were required to take on the tasks that were once considered predominantly male roles, and also allowed the opportunity to join the armed services as well as enlist in the Women’s Land Army. Many women who doubted their abilities played their part by entering voluntary work. Women had the privilege of contributing in Australian society in many ways that they had never been able before. Thus, it is manifest that the role of women in Australian society had drastically changed.

    Read More

  • Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1974 - Gender and Sexual Discrimination

    2159 Words  | 5 Pages

    Despite legislation for equal opportunities, sexism is still evident in the workplace. Women have made great advancements in the workforce and have become an integral part of the labor market. They have greater access to higher education and as a result, greater access to traditionally male dominated professions such as law. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is clear however, that they have not yet achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. Discrimination in the form of gender, sex and sexual harassment continues to be a problem in today’s society.

    Read More

  • How National Initiatives Promote Anti Discriminatory Practice

    3061 Words  | 7 Pages

    Sex Discrimination Act 1975- This protects women and men from discrimination or harassment as levels of the gender in employment, advertising, education or even in the provision of housing, good, services or facilities. The reason this was created is to protect every gender in the service away from discrimination or harassment because of their difference of sex. It was made by keeping the individuals protected from harassments and discrimination in service, for example all service users are kept away from sexual harassment, this is ensure by checking every staff member and care workers in the service.

    Read More

  • Managing Workplace Relations

    2007 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gaze, G (2009) ‘The Sex Discrimination Act after 25 years: What is its role in eliminating gender inequality and discrimination in Australia?’, Insights, vol.7,p.13-17, viewed 5 October 2011, .

    Read More

  • Women Rights in Canada

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Honey, you’re not a person, now get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!” If a husband were to say these words to his wife today, he would likely receive a well-deserved smack to the face. It is not until recently that Canadian women have received their status as people and obtained equal rights as men. Women were excluded from an academic education and received a lesser pay than their male counter parts. With the many hardships women had to face, women were considered the “slave of slaves” (Women’s Rights). In the past century, women have fought for their rights, transitioning women from the point of being a piece of property to “holding twenty-five percent of senior positions in Canada” (More women in top senior positions: Report). The Married Women’s Property Act, World War I, The Person’s Case, and Canadian Human Rights Act have gained Canadian women their rights.

    Read More

  • Disability Discrimination Act Case Study

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Equality Act of 2010 was put into place to protect people who had not only an impairment or disability but also those who had protected characteristics (Brown, 2014 Cited by Hodkinson, 2014). There are four kinds of unlawful behaviour in the Equality Act and these are; direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimisation (Hodkinson, 2016). Brown (2014) believes that this act is based upon the medical model as it focuses on the individual’s ability to do the ‘normal’ day to day activities (Hodkinson, 2016).

    Read More

  • Essay On Australian Women's Role In Ww2

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    Australian women played a large role in WWII by proving that they were able to do many of the jobs that had been previously assigned only to men. Australian women enjoyed traditional ‘women’s war roles’ (popular in WWI) such as preparing food, knitting, first aid and fundraising for the servicemen. By 1940, many women wanted to assist by doing more. As war proceeded, more than 500,000 Australian women (married and single) worked in industries such as munitions, shipbuilding, and air craft construction. In 1941, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies toured Britain and realized how much potential women had as a resource of war. When Prime Minister Menzies returned to Australia 250 positions opened in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force)

    Read More

  • Dualistic Thinking: Perils of Gender Dichotomy

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bravo, Santa Anna and Meric discuss the ways in which women are disadvantaged in the workplace which directly ties back to gender roles, in "An Overview of Women and Work." Crawley, Foley and Shehan

    Read More

  • Third Wave Feminism: Equality or Exclusion?

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    That young women in Australia today are freer than both their mothers and grandmothers were and that inequality is solved. However, while responsibility for the domestic sphere is no longer “widely understood as imposed on women” (Baker 2012, 341), the mark of a successful woman is the ability to balance both domestic duties with a successful work life. The efforts against feminine essentialism and liberation from the domestic sphere undertaken by first and second wave feminists have been sidelined. Thought to have been fulfilled, this domestic essentialism interrogated by Fuss (1989) and Ortner (1996) have appeared in the expectation for women to be successful both the public and the private sphere. Young women must demonstrate that they are making good of the opportunities afforded to them. The compromise for occupying a space in the labour market is that women “must retain a visible fragility, and [display] the kind of conventional feminine vulnerability that will ensure she remains desirable to men” (McRobbie 2009, 79). Here, conventional femininity can be exchanged for essential femininity, as many women still believe it to be their responsibility to manage and maintain the domestic sphere (Walters and Whitehouse 2012, 1118). Despite feminist challenges, this essentialist belief has continued in subtler ways. Through research done by Walters and Whitehouse, it is

    Read More

  • Intersectionality and Reproductive Rights: A Feminist Perspective

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Birth and reproductive rights have proved to be a much more complicated issue when looking through a feminist, intersectional lense, than how it is perceived by the American public. Bettina gave an enlightening lecture on reproductive and birth rights, explaining all the components involved in birth rights issues; and the intersections of these issues with other issues in feminism. Zakiya Luna Further illustrates this in her essay, “From Rights to Justice: Women of Color Changing the Face of US Reproductive Rights Organizing”. She emphasizes the need to treat women 's rights as human rights. The US needs to focus on tackling and acknowledging these many human rights issues that it is facing.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Diversity Essay

    1797 Words  | 4 Pages

    The federal government has passed a number of laws which aim to protect people from certsin kinds of discrimination in pubic life/workplace and from breaches of their human rights by commonwealth departments and agencies.

    Read More

  • Age and Gender Discrimination: A Case Study

    2837 Words  | 6 Pages

    Gender discrimination is treating individuals in a different way in their employment because of their sex. Person who have been experiencing this kind of discrimination may have been rejected for employment. Employer who provides different working conditions such as salaries, positions or bonus to women and men are ...

    Read More

  • Conflict of Interest with different stakeholders

    1930 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every employee wants maximise their salaries and benefits based on particular skills and the rewards available in different employment. Most employees also want to continue their employment (ACCA F9). However, when sexual discrimination was happened in a company, there...

    Read More

  • The Challenges Faced By Women

    1571 Words  | 4 Pages

    It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.

    Read More

More about Women Issues In Australia

Open Document