In the Frame: Women and the Discursive Construction of Gender Equality in Theory and Practice

This chapter makes a case for why the history of the development of gender equality policy in Australia, as a multicultural, settler-colonial society situated in the Asia-Pacific, is of broader international significance. It highlights Australia’s innovative contributions to gender equality, from its early granting of women’s suffrage and the right to stand for parliament, to the development of feminist policy advisory structures and being the first country to introduce gender responsive budgeting. Yet, Australian governments also tried to meld social democracy and neoliberalism (long before Tony Blair) with major consequences for women that the Albanese Labor government has begun to address. The chapter provides necessary background, discussing different conceptions of gender equality internationally and the breadth of relevant policy issues requiring study from political economy to intersectionality. It outlines a range of feminist methodological approaches used while arguing that an analysis of gendered discursive policy framing is particularly useful for identifying both the factors influencing policy and the flaws in policy that can result. In particular, discursive policy framing analysis identifies the need to reimagine gender equality policy frameworks, given that gender equality policy has all too often been incorporated into pre-existing frameworks designed to address other issues.