Australia

Australian Women’s Anti-Nuclear Leadership: The Framing of Peace and Social Change

Citation:

Maleta, Yulia. 2018. “Australian Women’s Anti-Nuclear Leadership: The Framing of Peace and Social Change.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 19 (6): 70–86.

Author: Yulia Maleta

Abstract:

This article addresses a gap on hegemonic masculinity/emphasized femininity and essentialism/constructivism within the Environmental New Social Movement (eNSM). Utilizing my interviews with Australian women members of environmentalist New Social Movement Organisations (eNSMOs), including eNGOs, academic institutions and the Greens party, I adopt a constructivist approach towards emphasized femininity, arguing that women-led strategies, strengthened through agentic competence contributes to global peace, whilst challenging the patriarchal control of environmental governance (Cockburn 1988, 2012). My feminist sociopolitical model is framed by resistance to ruling class masculinity, emphasizing participants’ gender performativity, advocating anti-nuclear agendas (Warren 1999, Gaard 2001, Butler 2013). Constructivism is relayed by the way women activists’ resist patriarchy as a barrier, in terms of ‘hierarchy’, ‘man-made decisions’ and ‘power…terrible nasty stuff’. Moreover, women accommodate emphasized femininity as an empowering enabler, framed by women-led strategies, described as ‘revolutionary’, ‘mother and child’, ‘social responsibility’ and ‘environmental protection’, whilst advocating sustainability (Leahy 2003, Connell 2005, Culley and Angelique 2010, Maleta 2012).

Keywords: emphasized femininity, women, constructivism, Anti-nuclear, sustainability

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Gender, Femininity/ies, Gender Analysis, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Patriarchy, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Countries: Australia, Guatemala

Year: 2018

Green New Deal - or Globalisation Lite?

Citation:

Salleh, Ariel. 2010. “Green New Deal - or Globalisation Lite?” Arena, no. 105 (May): 15-9.

Author: Ariel Salleh

Annotation:

Summary:
"In response to the global climate crisis and the breakdown of international financial institutions, green new deals are being discussed in local, national, regional and international settings. But the word ‘deal’ gives the lie to new, for these are mostly trade-off packages designed to hold together the narrow political arena of business-as-usual. The Transatlantic Green New Deal, the Global Green New Deal, as well as British and Australian versions, look rather like a revved-up Hobbesian social contract, drafted in the realisation that life under global capitalism is more ‘nasty, brutish and short’ than ever before. The outline of the contract is on the table, but only one voice is represented in the text. Class difference appears only as an employment statistic and the systematic exploitations of race and gender that underpin the global economy are ignored. The neocolonial South, the domestic North, and material nature at large, remain sites of subsumption in green new deal discourse" (Salleh 2010, 15).

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Post-Conflict, Race Regions: Americas, Europe Countries: Australia, United Kingdom

Year: 2010

Narrations and Practices of Mobility and Immobility in the Maintenance of Gender Dualisms

Citation:

Boyer, Kate, Robyn Mayes, and Barbara Pini. 2017. “Narrations and Practices of Mobility and Immobility in the Maintenance of Gender Dualisms.” Mobilities 12 (6): 847–60. 

Authors: Kate Boyer, Robyn Mayers, Barbara Pini

Abstract:

This paper analyses the role of practices and representations of mobility in supporting particular kinds of gender orders. While scholarship has shown the various ways women are materially and symbolically ‘fixed’ in place, less attention has been paid to how discourses and practices of mobility interface with systems of gender differentiation more broadly. This work is based on a robust empirical base of 55 interviews, 90 h of participant observation and an analysis of museum displays in Kalgoorile, Western Australia, an iconic frontier mining town selected for this investigation as a site of strongly bifurcated gender discourses. Analysing our field data through the lens of feminist theory which problematizes gender binaries, we argue that while some narrations of gender mobilities serve to reinforce gender binaries, lived practices of movement can also destabilise (idealised) notions of gendered movement. This paper extends conceptual work by advancing understanding about the role of mobility within systems of gender differentiation, showing how lived practices of mobility are just as likely to challenge idealised patterns of gendered movement as they are to reinforce these patterns.

Keywords: mobility, sex work, skin-work, gender binaries, mining, Kalgoorlie Australia

Topics: Gender, Gendered Discourses, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2017

Counting on Marilyn Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics

Citation:

Bjørnholt, Margunn and Ailsa McKay, eds. 2014. Counting on Marilyn Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics. Ontario, Canada: Demeter Press.

Authors: Margunn Bjørnholt, Ailsa McKay

Annotation:

Summary:
This second edition, which includes an epilogue by Marilyn Waring, maps new advances in theories and practices in feminist economics and the valuation of women, care and nature since Marilyn Waring’s 1988 groundbreaking critique of the system of national accounts, If Women Counted. It features theoretical, practical and policy oriented contributions, empirical studies, and new conceptualizations, theorizations and problematizations of defining and accounting for the value of nature and unpaid household work, eco-feminism, national and international policy processes, unpaid care and HIV/AIDS policy, activism and artwork, and mirrors the wide-ranging impact and resonance of Waring’s work as well as the current frontiers of feminist economics. (Summary from Amazon)

 

Table of Contents:

1. Advances in feminist economics in times of economic crisis
Margunn Bjørnholt and Ailsa Mckay

2. Feminist economics as vision for a sustainable future
Iulie Aslaksen, Torunn Bragstad, and Berit Ås

3. Everything needs care : toward a context-based economy
Sabine O'Hara

4. Reflections on unpaid household work, economic growth, and consumption possibilities
Iulie Aslaksen and Charlotte Koren

5. Women's unpaid work was counted but ...
Johanna Varjonen and Leena M. Kirjavainen

6. Accounting for death : infant mortality, the MDGs, and women's (dis)empowerment
Monica J. Casper and William Pual Simmons

7. Substantive equality, Stockholm Syndrome and the costs of child sexual abuse
Shirley Jülich

8. A Pacific way of counting
Tagaloate Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop

9. Narrative trumps numbers : Marilyn Waring in the world
Rod Dobell and Jodie Walsh

10. If mothers counted : status symbols for the invisible art of mothering
Hadara Scheflan Katzav and Shira Richter

11. Whose rights count? : a research journey with Marilyn Waring on unpaid HIV care and the economics of dignity
Meena Shivdas and Anit N. Mukherjee

12. Rural, northern Canadian women's caregiving experiences in the context of economic values
Heather I. Peters, Dawn Hemingway, and Jo-Anne Fiske

13. Creating conceptual tools for change : Marilyn Waring's influence in Australia
Marty Grace and Lyn Craig

14. Making mothers' milk count
Julie P. Smith

15. Resilient feminism : social movement strategy in a conservative regnum
Mara Fridell and Lorna Turnbull

16. Counting embodied learning : Marilyn Waring and feminist pedagogical practice
Jill Eichhorn

17. Post-graduate supervision with MJW
Karen Webster

18. Epilogue: Wow! Marilyn Waring


Topics: Economies, Care Economies, Feminist Economics, Gender Regions: Americas, North America, Oceania Countries: Australia, Canada

Year: 2014

The Australian Foreign Policy White Paper, Gender and Conflict Prevention: Ties that Don’t Bind

Citation:

Agius, Christine, and Anu Mundkur. 2020. “The Australian Foreign Policy White Paper, Gender and Conflict Prevention: Ties that Don’t Bind.” Australian Journal of International Affairs 74 (3): 282-300.

Authors: Christine Agius, Anu Mundkur

Abstract:

After a 14-year gap, Australia’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper advanced a ‘comprehensive framework to advance Australia’s security and prosperity in a contested and competitive world’ (Australian Government 2017a, “2017 Foreign Policy White Paper.” https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/., v). Focused on regional stability, partnerships and global cooperation, it identifies ‘risks and opportunities’ in an altered external environment. In this article, we argue that the neglect of gender and conflict prevention in the White Paper has implications for its stated aspirations with regard to peace and security. This is striking considering the attention that gender—particularly in the context of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda—has received in other policy areas and documents. Building on feminist security scholarship, conflict prevention approaches, and bringing in civil society voices, we argue that the White Paper contains a gendered, masculinist logic, separating domestic and international issues and paying insufficient attention to the structural and systemic causes of conflict. This article pursues a gender analysis in order to illuminate the gaps present in the White Paper and its limited vision of security and makes the case that conflict prevention from a gender perspective is key to sustainable peace, security and national interests.

Keywords: conflict prevention, Foreign Policy White Paper, Australia, gender, foreign policy, women, peace and security (WPS)

Topics: Civil Society, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Peace and Security, Security Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2020

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Major Depressive Disorder Among Women at Public Antenatal Clinics from Refugee, Conflict-Affected, and Australian-Born Backgrounds

Citation:

Rees, Susan J., Jane R. Fisher, Zachary Steel, Mohammed Mohsin, Nawal Nadar, Batool Moussa, Fatima Hassoun, Mariam Yousif, Yalini Krishna, Batoul Khalil, Jok Mugo, Alvin Kuowei, Louis Klein, and Derrick Silove. 2019. "Prevalence and Risk Factors of Major Depressive Disorder Among Women at Public Antenatal Clinics from Refugee, Conflict-Affected, and Australian-Born Backgrounds." JAMA Network Open 2 (5).

Authors: Susan J. Rees, Jane R. Fisher, Zachary Steel, Mohammed Mohsin, Nawal Nadar, Batool Moussa, Fatima Hassoun, Mariam Yousif, Yalini Krishna, Batoul Khalil, Jok Mugo, Alvin Kouwei Tay, Louis Klein, Derrick Silove

Abstract:

Importance: Pregnancy may increase the risk of depression among women who self-identify as refugees and have resettled in high-income countries. To our knowledge, no large systematic studies among women with refugee backgrounds in the antenatal period have been conducted.

Objectives: To compare the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD), trauma exposure, and other psychosocial risk factors among women who identify as refugees, women from the same conflict-affected countries, and women from the host nation and to test whether self-identification as a refugee indicates greater likelihood of prevalence and risk.

Design, Setting and Participants: This cross-sectional study was undertaken in 3 public antenatal clinics in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, between January 2015 and December 2016. Overall, 1335 women (685 consecutively enrolled from conflict-affected backgrounds and 650 randomly selected from the host nation) participated. Data analysis was undertaken between June and September 2018.

Exposures: One-hour interviews covering mental health, intimate partner violence, and other social measures.

Main Outcome and Measures: World Health Organization measure for intimate partner violence and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) for MDD. To make a diagnosis, 1 of 2 items relating to being consistently depressed for 2 weeks and 3 further symptoms that cause personal distress or psychosocial dysfunction were endorsed.

Results: Overall, 1335 women (84.8% overall response rate), comprising 685 (51.3%) from conflictaffected countries (women self-identifying as refugees: 289 [42.2%]) and 650 (48.7%) from the host nation, participated. The mean (SD) age was 29.7 (5.4) years among women from conflictaffected backgrounds and 29.0 (5.5) years among women born in the host nation. Conflict-affected countries included Iraq (260 [38.0%]), Lebanon (125 [18.2%]), Sri Lanka (71 [10.4%]), and Sudan (66 [9.6%]). Women who identified as refugees reported higher exposure to 2 to 3 (67 [23.2%]) and 4 or more (19 [6.6%]) general traumatic events compared with women from the host nation (103 [15.8%] and 21 [3.2%], respectively). Women who identified as refugees also reported higher exposure to 1 (147 [50.9%]) and 2 or more (97 [33.6%]) refugee-related traumatic events compared with women from the host nation (86 [13.2%] and 20 [3.1%], respectively). Women who identified as refugees reported higher rates of psychological intimate partner violence than women born in the host nation (124 [42.9%] vs 133 [20.5%]; P < .001). Women who identified as refugees were less likely to identify 5 or more supportive family or friends compared with women born in the host nation (36 [12.5%] vs 297 [45.7%]; P < .001). A greater proportion of women who identified as refugees reported experiencing 3 or more financial stressors compared with women born in the host nation (65 [22.5%] vs 41 [6.3%]; P < .001). Women who identified as refugees had the highest prevalence of MDD (94 [32.5%]), followed by women from other conflict-affected backgrounds (78 [19.7%]), and women born in the host nation (94 [14.5%]).

Conclusion and Relevance: Women identifying as refugees reported a higher prevalence of MDD and all the indicators of adversity related to that disorder. Even after risk factors were accounted for, refugee status was associated with risk of MDD. Assessing whether women attending an antenatal clinic self-identify as refugees may offer an important indicator of risk of MDD and a range of associated psychosocial adversities.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Conflict, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Health, Mental Health, Reproductive Health, Trauma Regions: Africa, MENA, East Africa, Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Oceania Countries: Australia, Iraq, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Sudan

Year: 2019

Gender and Climate Change in Rural Australia

Citation:

Boetto, Heather, and Jennifer McKinnon. 2019. "Gender and Climate Change in Rural Australia." Critical Social Work 14 (1). 

Authors: Heather Boetto, Jennifer McKinnon

Abstract:

This paper outlines the results of a literature review exploring the relationship between gender and climate change in rural Australia. Whilst the climate change debate in Australia has largely focused on environmental and economic implications, little attention has been given to the social implications of climate change. The focus of this study is on the climate change impacts on Australian rural women and men, with particular emphasis on the disadvantage experienced by rural women. A key finding in the review was that rural women and men adapt to climatic events, such as, drought and water shortages, in different ways. Outcomes of the review also highlight the dearth of Australian research that focuses on rural women and climate change. We contend that social workers have an ethical responsibility to be aware of the impact of climate change on disadvantaged groups, such as, rural women. The fact that gender equality has been largely ignored in the Australian climate change debate points to a need for social work involvement in climate change advocacy, research, and policy development, in an effort to redress the imbalance.

Keywords: gender, rural, climate change

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2019

Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries: Work, Public Policy and Action

Citation:

Cohen, Marjorie Griffin. 2017. Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries: Work, Public Policy and Action. Abingdon: Routledge.

Author: Marjorie Griffin Cohen

Annotation:

Summary:
"Climate change is at the forefront of ideas about public policy, the economy and labour issues. However, the gendered dimensions of climate change and the public policy issues associated with it in wealthy nations are much less understood.
 
Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries covers a wide range of issues dealing with work and working life. The book demonstrates the gendered distinctions in both experiences of climate change and the ways that public policy deals with it. The book draws on case studies from the UK, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Spain and the US to address key issues such as: how gendered distinctions affect the most vulnerable; paid and unpaid work; and activism on climate change. It is argued that including gender as part of the analysis will lead to more equitable and stronger societies as solutions to climate change advance.
 
This volume will be of great relevance to students, scholars, trade unionists and international organisations with an interest in climate change, gender, public policy and environmental studies". (Summary from Routledge)
 
Table of Contents:
Part One: Context and Overview
1. Introduction: Why Gender Matters when Dealing with Climate Change 
Marjorie Griffin Cohen
 
2. Masculinities of Global Climate Change: Exploring Ecomodern, Industrial and Ecological Masculinity 
Martin Hultman & Jonas Anshelm
 
3. It’s Not Just the Numbers: Challenging Masculinist Working Practices in Climate Change Decision-Making in UK Government and Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations 
Susan Buckingham & Rakibe Kulcur
 
Part Two: Challenges for Paid and Unpaid Work
4. Women and Low Energy Construction in Europe: A New Opportunity? 
Linda Clarke
 
5. Renewable Inequity? Women’s Employment in Clean Energy in Industrialized, Emerging and Developing Economies 
Bipasha Baruah
 
6. UK Environmental and Trade Union Groups’ Struggles to Integrate Gender Issues into Climate Change Analysis and Activism 
Carl Mandy
 
7. Transporting Difference at Work: Taking Gendered Intersectionality Seriously in Climate Change Agendas 
Leonora Angeles
 
8. The US Example of Integrating Gender and Climate Change in Training: Response to the 2008–09 Recession 
Marjorie Griffin Cohen
 
Part Three: Vulnerability, Insecurity and Work
9. Gendered Outcomes in Post-Disaster Sites: Public Policy and Resource Distribution 
Margaret Alston
 
10. Climate Change, Traditional Roles, and Work– Interactions in the Inuit Nunangat 
Mike Kim
 
11. Towards Humane Jobs: Recognizing Gendered, Multispecies Intersections and Possibilities 
Kendra Coulter
 
Part Four: Rural and Resource Communities
 
12. Maybe Tomorrow Will Be Better: Gender and Farm Work in a Changing Climate 
Amber Fletcher
 
13. Understanding the Gender Labours of Adaptation to Climate Change in Forest-Based Communities Through Different Models of Analysis 
Maureen G. Reed
 
14. The Complex Impacts of Intensive Resource Extraction on Women, Children and Aboriginal Peoples: Towards Contextually-Informed Approaches to Climate Change and Health 
Maya K Gislason, Chris Buse, Shayna Dolan, Margot W Parkes, Jemma Tosh, Bob Woollard
 
Part Five: Public Policy and Activism
15. How a Gendered Understanding of Climate Change Can Help Shape Canadian Climate Policy 
Nathalie Chalifour
 
16. The Integration of Gender in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Québec: Silos and Possibilities 
Annie Rochette
 
17. A Gendered Analysis of Housing Policies in the Context of Climate Change: A Comparison of Canada and Spain 
Penny Gurstein & Sara Ortiz Escalante
 
18. Canadian Indigenous Female Leadership and Political Agency on Climate Change 
Patricia E. Perkins
 
19. Using Information about Gender and Climate Change to Inform Green Economic Policies 
Marjorie Griffin Cohen

 

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Livelihoods Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Oceania Countries: Australia, Canada, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America

Year: 2017

Gender, Politics, and Water in Australia and Bangladesh

Citation:

Alston, Margaret. 2019. "Gender, Politics, and Water in Australia and Bangladesh." In People and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Social Justice, edited by Lisa Reyes Mason and Jonathan Rigg, 165-83. New York: Oxford University Press.

Author: Margaret Alston

Keywords: water, gender, women, policy, Australia, Bangladesh

Annotation:

Summary:
In the wake of climate change, environmental degradation, and increasing global populations, food and water security are under threat throughout the world. This chapter focuses on the impacts of climate change on water security in Australia and Bangladesh, noting in particular the gendered implications and the way policies influence and shape gendered responses. In Bangladesh, for example, following disasters, access to safe, uncontaminated water may involve women walking significant distances. Australian research has examined the impact of water policies on gendered livelihood strategies as farming families readjust to their reduced access to irrigation water. A critical feature of this chapter is an examination of the way water has become “commodified” and reconfigured around new forms of market value. The chapter poses questions about the ongoing impact of water insecurity in the face of predicted and extreme climate events. (Summary from Oxford Scholarship Online)

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Asia, South Asia, Oceania Countries: Australia, Bangladesh

Year: 2019

Investigating the Increase in Domestic Violence Post Disaster: An Australian Case Study

Citation:

Parkinson, Debra. 2019. "Investigating the Increase in Domestic Violence Post Disaster: An Australian Case Study." Journal of Interpersonal Violence 34 (11): 2333-62.

Author: Debra Parkinson

Abstract:

Interviews with 30 women in two shires in Victoria, Australia, confirmed that domestic violence increased following the catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires on February 7, 2009. As such research is rare, it addresses a gap in the disaster and interpersonal violence literature. The research that exists internationally indicates that increased violence against women is characteristic of a postdisaster recovery in developing countries. The relative lack of published research from primary data in developed countries instead reflects our resistance to investigating or recognizing increased male violence against women after disasters in developed countries. This article begins with an overview of this literature. The primary research was qualitative, using in-depth semistructured interviews to address the research question of whether violence against women increased in the Australian context. The sample of 30 women was aged from 20s to 60s. Recruitment was through flyers and advertisements, and interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and checked by participants. Analysis was inductive, using modified grounded theory. Seventeen women gave accounts of new or increased violence from male partners that they attribute to the disaster. A key finding is that, not only is there both increased and new domestic violence but formal reporting will not increase in communities unwilling to hear of this hidden disaster. Findings are reported within a framework of three broad explanations. In conclusion, although causation is not claimed, it is important to act on the knowledge that increased domestic violence and disasters are linked.

Keywords: domestic violence, gendered violence, disaster, gender

Topics: Domestic Violence, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2019

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