Sociological Foundations Essay: Gender Equality, Feminism, and Society

This essay provides an analysis of the feminist movement in contemporary Australian society, exploring its significant achievements and the extent of its societal support. The essay begins by highlighting the progress made in gender equality, particularly in the workforce, and the impact of feminist campaigns on women's rights, such as the right to vote and equal opportunities. The discussion then delves into the relationship between feminism and sociological theories, specifically structural functionalism and social conflict theory. It critiques the perspectives of these theories in the context of gender roles and equality. The essay also examines the gender pay gap, underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, and instances of gender inequality in the workplace. It concludes by summarizing the societal support for feminism, emphasizing the importance of equal opportunities for both men and women, and the evolution of feminist perspectives. The essay uses several academic sources to support its arguments and provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Running head: SOCIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
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Introduction
Feminism, regarded as a struggle to bring to an end to sexist oppression has been
supported in the contemporary Australian society. Australia has always been a democratic
nation, thus when majority of Australians advocate a justifiable and equitable concept or
disparage discriminatory and subjugated ideas, the Australian government efficiently takes
action. According to Wilson (2016), the notion of gender equality is considered as a fundamental
feminist objective which is seen as greatly equitable and justifiable to all Australians. As a result,
such a women movement has developed into a public policy as well as a social norm in most
aspects of contemporary Australian society (Scharff 2016). The following essay will shed light
on some of the major achievements of the feminist movement for women in Australia which has
led the society support this form of fair movement. In addition to this, the essay will evaluate the
extent to which the contemporary Australian society has supported feminist movement and the
way feminism is related to structural functionalism and social conflict theory in the context of
gender equality.
Discussion
One of the areas where the contemporary Australian society is still struggling is the
subject of gender equality in the workforce. However, Cohen and Jackson (2016) have claimed
that gender equality has undergone significant developments in recent years in comparison to
previous decades. Comprehensive studies of Dinner (2014) have revealed that feminist
movement in Australia has attained civil rights and privileges for the women in the country. The
suffragists’ campaigners in the 1900’s had persuaded a newly developed Commonwealth of
Australia in order to grant the right of casting vote for all Australian women and stand for the

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federal parliamentary elections. However in the later decades, during the early 1970’s, the
commonwealth government had introduced remunerated maternity leave for all female
employees engaged in public organisation. In addition to this in mid 1970’s, South Australia
successfully introduced the Sex Discrimination Act which was later repealed in the 1980’s when
the Commonwealth Government introduced the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984. These
significant achievements by the Australian government have drastically enhanced gender
uniformity in this society (Sinclair 2014). In Australia, the debates surrounding younger and
older feminists have principally been framed within a pattern of generations instead of focusing
on metaphorical waves. Such a symbolic shift has put forward the fact that women's movement
has advanced from the current disparaged idea of sisterhood to another feminine familial
metaphor which involves their roles as mothers and daughters. Seidman (2016) has further
claimed that while in the 1970’s and in the early 1980’s, the types of conflicts have moved
majorly over the underlying factors related to sexuality, class and race. Nonetheless, in recent
times these conflicts have inclined towards incorporating the terrain of age.
However, a number of critical international issues related to women still necessitate vital
actions, for instance, violence against women, sexual harassment, forced or obligatory sexual
slavery and genetic injury or mutilation. At this juncture, Few‐Demo (2014) has shed light on
issues regarding gender inequality in one of the most important factors of the society that is the
workforce. As per the reports of Dinner (2014), the current national permanent gender pay gap
that is the difference between the average weekly full time comparable income between men and
women reveals a gap of 15%. Such a difference in remuneration implies to the fact that women
in the Australian society engaged in permanent employment earn less in comparison to men.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data has revealed that only 24 per cent of company director

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positions are filled by women. Further to this, the statistics are highly depressing for the
proportion of female company serving as chief executives, which is floundering around 17 per
cent. Report of Wilson (2016) has revealed that currently, in Australia the gender pay gap is at
17.3 per cent, which implies that the average woman engaged in permanent roles earn $277.70
less per week in comparison to men engaged in same role or position.
On the other hand, other forms of gender inequality can be witnessed when women are
generally underrepresented in significant and superior roles and occupational stratification in non
managerial roles. Such stratification appears to be evident when women tend to dominate
occupations which are by tradition assigned to women such as clerical and nursing jobs.
According to Sinclair (2014), while the sex discrimination act is considered to be unlawful to
exhibit any form of discrimination against gender, several organisations still involve them in
gender biased remuneration, income and promotion. These activities regarding gender inequality
mainly arises due to the under representation of women's significance and value in the society.
On the contrary, Howe (2017) has claimed that society shows at most inclination towards
exhibiting the unique capacity and choice of women to give birth and care for their children.
However there can increase arguments regarding the concern that feminist movement shows an
indication to condemn women who sacrifice the rigours of achieving success professionally and
embrace there not establish role of being mother wife or homemakers which is regarded as a
detrimental perspective inherent in feminist thought. Feminism is regarded as a sociological
paradigm which construes sociological theoretical aspects through the perspective of women
being subjugated by patriarchal dominance such as the claim of male superiority (Sinclair 2014).
Seidman (2016) has mentioned that structural functionalism is a sociological viewpoint which
perceives the society as a multifaceted system regulated by the purpose and connections of social

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structures for instance social class, gender, family and communal welfare along with institutions
such as government, education, law and religion.
Drawing relevance to the sociological perspective of social functionalism with feminist
movement it is important to note that the feminist movement severely criticized this sociological
perspective as it puts forward the division of labour shaped by conventional and predefined
gender roles for instance men with the primary role of ‘breadwinners’ and women as
‘homemakers’. Taking into consideration the way social institutions have undergone significant
transformations to provide avenues for women and the way Australian government has
prohibited gender discrimination and offered equivalent opportunities of education and
professional development, the pre-eminence of structural functionalism in the contemporary
Australian society has gradually lost its importance. According to authors, in recent years the
sociological perspective has appeared to show lack of competence to explain the recent social
development in the Australian society.
At this peak of discussion, one of the major sociological theories known as social conflict
theory has been studied in order to draw relevance to the way of contemporary Australian society
has been in support to feminism. Meanwhile, Prügl (2015) has claimed that the feminist
movement tends to embrace as well as criticize the social conflict theory. Feminism has
criticized the social conflict theory as it did not feature any marginalised or discriminated groups
involving women in the class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletarians. Thus, drawing
insights from Marxist view, authors have stated that Marx had shed light on the predetermined
and rigid differentiations between men and women which he claimed will be sustained despite of
any significant changes in social arrangements or measures (Cohen and Jackson 2016). Such a
sociological perspective has been severely refuted and ridiculed by feminism. Nevertheless,

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despite of such a criticism towards social conflict theory feminism has adopted this sociological
perspective and applied as a base for feminist theory by changing it from class struggle into a
conflict between gender and replacing terms such as ‘bourgeoisie’ for men and ‘proletarian’ for
women. Comprehensive studies of Scharff (2016) have stated that this form of misinterpretation
of social conflict theory has served it rationally all through the last half of the 20th century.
However, in the future, feminism has shown the propensity to address issues on the subject of
sustainability and protection of rights and authorities which have already been achieved for
women and further give attention to solve issues of social intersectionality. However, at this
juncture Cohen and Jackson (2016) have noted that gender equality in the workplace has
exhibited capacity to remove the gaps between men and women in the future. In recent times,
institutions for instance, Male Champions Of Change which is recognised as an association of
business, administration, management, government, military leaders along with organizational
leaders, supervisors, CEO and board directors who have openly shown dedication and have
committed to exercise their power control and resources to identify equivalent remuneration for
equal work and further to considerately improve as well as augment the image of women in areas
involving senior roles and responsibilities in the Australian society (Seidman 2016).
Conclusion
Hence to conclude feminism is undoubtedly advocated as well as supported in the
Australian contemporary society. Currently there can be witnessed women having significant
amount of rights and authorities in comparison to past decades and enjoying gender equality in
the workplace. It is important to note that the Australian society is filled with equal prospects for
both men and women in order to seize with both hands.

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References
Arruzza, C., 2016. Functionalist, determinist, reductionist: Social reproduction feminism and its
critics. Science & Society, 80(1), pp.9-30.
Asch, A., 2017. Critical race theory, feminism, and disability: Reflections on social justice and
personal identity. In Disability and Equality Law (pp. 143-176). Routledge.
Cohen, C.J. and Jackson, S.J., 2016. Ask a feminist: A conversation with Cathy J. Cohen on
Black Lives Matter, feminism, and contemporary activism. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture
and Society, 41(4), pp.775-792.
Dinner, D., 2014. Strange bedfellows at work: neomaternalism in the making of sex
discrimination law. Washington University Law Review, 91(3).
Few‐Demo, A.L., 2014. Intersectionality as the “new” critical approach in feminist family
studies: Evolving racial/ethnic feminisms and critical race theories. Journal of Family Theory &
Review, 6(2), pp.169-183.
Howe, D., 2017. An introduction to social work theory. Routledge.
King, D.K., 2016. Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a Black feminist
ideology. In Race, gender and class (pp. 36-57). Routledge.
Prügl, E., 2015. Feminist Struggle as Social Construction: Changing the Gendered Rules of
Home-Based Work. In International relations in a constructed world (pp. 123-146). Routledge.
Scharff, C., 2016. Repudiating feminism: Young women in a neoliberal world. Routledge.
Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons.

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Sinclair, A., 2014. A feminist case for leadership. Diversity in Leadership, 17.
Wilson, L., 2016. Australia’s war over the other F-word. Retrieved from
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/inside-australians-ongoing-gender-wars-and-how-the-
meaning-of-feminism-has-changed/news-story/f0df2f580d51075bd6935cea63de929b