Social Theories and Policy in Contemporary Australia

1 Social Theories and Policy in Contemporary Australia Introduction Australia has long been a beacon of peace and stability in the world where ideals of human rights and democracy are held in high regard. What has made the Australian community so vibrant in championing for human rights issues and opening up of the democratic space throughout various nations worldwide is her strong track record on democracy and human rights which are enshrined in the nation’s constitution. Arriving at such a stage was however no fluke.

Australia has had to chatter its path through its social inadequacies of gender and murky history of slavery and outright racism especially towards its native populations from the colonialists and settlers.

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2 The quest to get rid of anti-discriminatory practices in the Australian society has been on for decades (EEO, 2010:1-3). This essay looks into the Australian Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1987 and how it has worked in reducing discriminatory practices in the Australian society. The main focus will be to reflect on the progress made in the antidiscriminatory social policy with regards to the intersectionality theory and the theory of race specifically that of minority groups in Australia. The argument of this paper is that this policy has done a lot in dealing with and addressing inequalities in the workplace and similar policies should be encouraged on the account of their effectiveness.

Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1987 The essence of this act was to curb on alleged and real discriminatory practices in the employment sector in Australia. There was need to reduce racial and gender inequalities of which the genesis could be traced to negative racial and gender practices in the country. The Act recognized the disparities that existed in terms of access to education and social backgrounds, coupled with negative perceptions that contributed to the overall difficulty of certain races and genders to access employment positions. In order to reduce the resulting inequalities in the workplace, the policy examined among other measures the necessity of affirmative action practices that could be implemented, hence the reason for the various amendments the act has undergone in recent times, among them the Act No. 32 of 2003 (Equal Employment Opportunity (Commonwealth Authorities) Act, 1987).

The equal employment opportunity programs originating from the Act have resulted in impressive figures being posted by the government statistics bodies which have indicated that racial and gender integration have been steadily achieved; in terms of access to quality employment that was previously skewed against females and the indigenous and migrant races.

3 In terms of the number of ladies employed in executive positions, the number rose to 49% in 2010 up from 47% the previous year and their levels in managerial positions in 2010 stood at 32.1% (EEO, 2010:1). The number of women in active employment now stands at impressive figures of over a third the workforce at 39.1%, an impressive figure by any standard as compared to the pre-Equal Employment Opportunity Act period. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Report 2009/2010, the same impressive statistics also apply to the employment of the indigenous race ever since the enactment in 1998 of an indigenous employment strategy. The percentage of native employment stood at 1.7% in 2010. The figure for other emigrant populations stood at 22.8% in 2010 up from the previous year’s figure of 22.6%.

Intersectionality theory analysis of policy Intersectionality is a concept that deals with the linking on diverse social norms and ideals that when used in unison serve to disadvantage a particular group of individuals against others (Knudsen, 2006:61-62). The rise to prominence of the theory is inexplicably due to global social inequalities that were prevalent and were to be the subject of feminist sociology and the rise of the feminist movement (McGibbon & McPherson, 2011:62-64). The feminists noted that among the issues that made and contributed to social inequalities that made the female gender inferior, in the eyes of the society, apart from the physical definition and misconceptions of gender, were racism and religious based stereotypes (Epistemology, 2008:1). The level of discrimination that a particular woman experienced was therefore varying in degree depending on the perceptions and views of the societies’ that they lived in (Suter, 2010:91-93).

It is in the interrelation of various cultural oppression patterns together with the prevailing social systems of a society that discrimination thrives in (Knudsen, 2006:65). One of the forms of intersectionality that best apply in the Australian concept is that of gender and race.

4 From here, the work of the Black American feminist and sociologist, Patricia Hill Collins draws from her own experiences with oppression (Epistemology, 2008:1). In the drafting and subsequent amendments of the Equal Employment opportunity Act of 1987, emphasis was always laid on the various ways to empower the female gender so as to increase and open up opportunities in the workplace to such a point that women can end up enjoying the same privileges as their male counterparts in corporate and formal employment (EEO, 2010:7).

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Report 2009-2010 (2010:12), by encouraging knowledge on their constitutional rights of their right of equality and self-definition, the numbers speak for themselves with many more women now in formal employment.

Collins (2000:228) takes issue about how disenfranchised her fellow black American women are because of the traditional oppression of women and the race factor of being black, her very own intersectionality if you may wish to say. In Australia, just like is the global trend, women are normally discriminated against on account of their gender (Greig, Lewins & White, 2003:197-199). When race is then thrown into the mix, women of indigenous and emigrant races, as a result of the double factor of being women and ethnic, find it harder to get gainfully employed in Australia (Stilwell & Jordan, 2007:56-59). The Equal Employment Opportunity Act sought to curb this unfortunate situation by its provisions on gender and racism through such amendments as Act No. 183 of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Act, 1999. The amendment was tailored so as to boost the number of women from whatever racial background that are employed in Australian firms.

There have always been negative misconceptions about the relationship between an individual’s intellectual capacity to that of their race and gender (Weis, 2008:129-131). Society has always been wired, whether it is by design or default, to believing that men are of superior

5 intelligence as compared to women. In addition to the alleged intellectual differences in gender, there is also the more controversial idea that there are certain races that are more intelligent than others and hence should earn more (Gaston & Rajaguru, 2007:2-4). It is such misconceptions that have led to discrimination and oppression of females of certain races from getting access to quality education, to cases that even on an equal academic qualification with a man from a race that is not discriminated against, employers usually end up siding with the man due to the misconception that the man happens to be more intelligent. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act discourages the use of unsubstantiated bases and criteria to hire one individual over the other (Maddison & Patrridge, 2007:24).

Another negative perception that is hindering the employment of all genders and races on an equal basis with regard to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act is the idea that women from ethnic backgrounds do less work on account of them having a lot of personal baggage.

There have been misconceptions that women, on account of their gender, do less work than their male colleagues (Austen & Redwood, 2010:12). The issue stems from the fact that in the case of manual labor, men who happen to be more muscular can do more work than females, hence the reason why industries such as the mining sector are predominantly male occupied (Lucassen, 2006:138). In some instances employers will be skeptical to hire women, especially from an ethnic background because of the breaks from work that they take in terms of maternity leave.

Ethnic women statistically have more kids on average, and so their discrimination on this basis is more severe. Such discrimination on this basis is completely unwarranted as no company or employer should be allowed to control the family structure of their employees, least of all be allowed to discriminate on this basis (Gaston & Rajaguru, 2007:14).

Race theory analysis of policy

6 The issue of race and racism in Australia is so deep rooted that its mere mention in the country sparks a lot of discomfort and unease in the nation. According to Van Den Berg (2002), the Angus & Robertson Dictionary and Thesaurus gives the definitions of race; “race is a group of people of common ancestry, distinguished from others by physical characteristics, such as hair type, color of skin and stature among other things” (35). The Australian culture is made up of very distinctive races, chief among them the indigenous groups, the settlers and colonialist from Europe and Britain in particular, and the immigrant populations from all over the world, with Asian people being the majority in this category (Forrest & Dunn, 2006:172).

The racial diversity of Australia, like many other countries such as USA and Latin America which had European immigrant settlers and colonialist, relied hugely on slave labor to till and farm the lands and fields during the settlement period of Australia (Carey, 2008:25).

Consequently, after the universal abolishment of slavery, many descendants of the slaves found themselves making up the population of Australia. Much like is the case in all the countries that had slavery in the past, these races of slave descendants found themselves disenfranchised in the new nation. Years of neglect and existence in the lowest echelons of society saw them fall behind to the entire nation populace in terms of literacy levels and competitiveness in the employment market (Forrest & Dunn, 2006:184). This lag of an entire race due to the effects of slavery was a major factor that was taken into consideration during the drafting of the 1987 Equal Employment Opportunity Act. The argument raised is that affirmative action measures in a constitutional framework, like is the case in the policy, go a long way in guaranteeing that all races are effectively integrated into the Australian community on an equal footing like the rest of the Australian people (The Brisbane Institute, 2011).

7 Apart from slave descendants, the other hugely disadvantaged group in the Australian nation is that of the indigenous Aborigine race (Forrest & Dunn, 2006:170). During the time of settlement by Europeans, native Aborigine tribes were wholesomely displaced from their ancestral homes in order to give way for the establishment of farms and plantations by the settlers. This displacement was often forced on the people without any consideration on their human rights (Van Den Berg, 2002:43). White settlers were notorious in forcing out natives from their fertile lands into the harsh dry and deserted lands of the Australian outback. In addition to displacement, before the arrival of foreign workers in the form of slaves, settlers often collaborated with rival indigenous tribe chiefs and rulers to use captured and defeated opponents as slave laborers. Clearly, the actions of settlers on the native populations were major precursors to the social injustices that continue to exist up to date in the Australian society (McGregor, 2012:1). Such injustices were cited as the reason why many Aborigines remained distrustful of the government to such a point that some of them were not willing to join the formal education system, the result of which is fewer numbers of these individuals are able to be absorbed into the employment sector competitively.

The Australian government has been keen to continue its implementation of various multicultural policies that have the end goal of ensuring that racial equity and fundamental human rights are observed within the entire framework of the Australian society. Obviously, the first step is recognizing all races as equal in the eyes of the law through the enactment of antidiscriminatory policies that prevent occurrence of incidents such as the continued struggle for access to ancestral homeland utopias by central Australian Aboriginal tribes of Anmatyerr and Alyawarr (Amnesty International, 2011:8). By allowing communities to charter their own settlement course, far reaching social changes can be achieved in terms of establishing schools

8 and health care centers by territorial and national government in these centers. Such selfmotivated initiatives are fundamental in eliminating government distrust and enabling such communities’ access to quality education and health care which in the long run makes them competitive enough to seamlessly fit into corporate and formal opportunities that have been liberalized by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Conclusion The argument of this essay was that contemporary policies that are aimed at stopping or preventing discriminatory practices in the country should be encouraged. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act has been one such policy that has been instrumental in reducing income inequalities that result from segregated employment of different individuals in the country. The choice of the minority group race theory and intersectionality theory illustrate just how much of an impact the 1987 Equal Employment Opportunity Act has had on addressing inequalities in the Australian labor sector. The theory of race examines the positive strides that have been made in squashing discriminatory practices as now the racial diversity in the employment sector in the country is much more reflective of the population diversity than was the case initially. The intersectionality theory looks at the double challenge that faces women in terms of race and gender and how the policy has been successful in addressing discrimination against this group.

The overall success of the anti-discriminatory policy in terms of the two theories has been positive.

9 List of References Amnesty International 2011, The land holds us: Aboriginal peoples' right to traditional homelands in the Northern Territory, Amnesty International Australia.

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Collins, PH 2000, Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge.

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10 Knudsen, SV 2006, Intersectionality- A theoretical Inspiration in the analysis of minority cultures and identities in textbooks.

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