Labor’s Economic Rationalism: Women Under the Hawke and Keating Governments (1983–1996)

This chapter focuses on Australian government policy but also provides relevant international examples. It discusses gender equality policy during the period of the Hawke and Keating governments. It highlights internationally innovative policy developments such as the introduction of Women’s Budget Statements, later exported to the world in the form of gender responsive budgeting. However, it argues that the governments’ internationally innovative attempts to meld neoliberalism and social democracy—a project which influenced Tony Blair’s “New Labour”—had less positive effects on women such as public sector cutbacks and a marketisation of services. Furthermore, some of the neoliberal framing influences on industrial relations policy were to contribute to the gender pay gap for decades to come. Nonetheless, it will be suggested that the Blair (1997–2007) government’s “Third Way” placed less of a focus on being socially inclusive than the Hawke and Keating governments’ policies. However, Australian supporters of gender equality were to face a much greater challenge with the defeat of Labor and the election of the socially conservative, neoliberal Howard government that was influenced by both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.