Gender Roles in Australia: Violence and Inequality Assessment Answer

Part A: Reading Summary

The traditional stereotypes of gender roles in Australia lead to certain issues of disadvantage like domestic violence, workplace inequalities and economic disadvantage. As a result, women are paid on average 17% less than men across industries, with males dominating the positions of authority. Another disadvantage faced by women in Australia is gendered violence. The violence faced by women by their intimate partners harms the physical, emotional and social well-being of women and also causes harm to their children. A survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 34% of women in Australia have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. Moreover, 19% of the women have experienced sexual violence at least once since the age of 15. In addition, 19% of the women also experienced the issue of stalking. Despite the graveness of the issue, the social services aimed at mitigating violence against women were not effective in dealing with the issue. This is evident from the fact that 72% of women’s legal services were not able to meet the demand. Moreover, 51% of the residency services were not able to cope with the demand, thereby turning away women in need.mIn addition, women also face gender bias from social workers who may downplay the impact of violence on their women clients. Furthermore, their inability to comprehend the plight of women also leads to the provision of ineffective legal services. Thus, women not only face disadvantages but are also unable to access effective services to fight those issues due to societal views on gendered roles.

The prevalent discourse means that women are marginalised in Australian society since they face discrimination and exclusion from economic and political institutions due to unequal power relations across several dimensions. Thus, they face unequal pay and career opportunities, financial insecurity due to dependence on male figures and unequal access to social services. 

The response of women to the marginalisation has diffreed across different generations. In the 19th and early 20th century, the women who wanted to diminish the plight of women were focused on, not empowering women, but on providing limited choices of support to women on the basis of prevalent social norms. Moreover, with advancements in society, the concept of feminism emerged with women advocating for support to women through targeted services in order to mitigate the bias of mainstream services against women. The contemporary services also adopt a feminist framework but in order to increase the effectiveness of these services, there is need for a change in the perspective of women in society to improve the quality of service provided to them 

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