Great Hopes: “Second-Wave” Feminism and the State, from Whitlam to Fraser (1972–1983)

This chapter focuses on Australian government policy but also provides relevant international examples. It analyses gender equality policy during the Whitlam and Fraser governments. Fortuitously for feminists, Whitlam’s election coincided with so-called second-wave feminism’s serious challenge to traditional policy frameworks in the 1970s. The government drew on international developments but also implemented innovative Australian policies. Feminist demands in state-based areas from childcare and women’s health to women’s refuges fitted well with the Whitlam government’s policy framing around “positive equality” whereby government would provide additional services and facilities that improved peoples’ lives. Consequently, the Whitlam government became a pioneering government internationally when it came to the implementation of gender equality measures and the policy machinery associated with them, including being the first government in the world to appoint a women’s advisor. The Whitlam government was also an early pioneer of intersectional approaches. However, neoliberal ideology began to have some influence during the end of the Whitlam government’s period in office and increased under the Liberal/Coalition government of Malcolm Fraser that followed. Furthermore, social conservative Liberals were beginning to mobilise against social liberal perspectives within the Liberal Party that were more supportive of feminism.