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QUT Law & Justice Journal |
JO MORAN[*]
Feminist movements have provided the impetus for many
significant changes to the Australian legal system. Unfortunately, although
these changes have generally had a positive impact on women’s lives,
society continues to treat women as less than equal to men. In Australia the
dominance of patriarchy and liberalism makes understanding and articulating the
reasons for this inequality a daunting and challenging task. Patricia Easteal in
writing Less Than Equal - Women and the Australian Legal System takes up
this challenge.
In Less Than Equal Easteal argues that although
law plays a major role in enforcing the status quo, it is but a small cog in the
cultural machine. Her analysis therefore places considerable importance on the
effects of cultural influences on women’s experiences. Working this way
she reveals not only why women are less than equal to men in Australia, but also
why it is difficult for members of the dominant culture to perceive and
understand this inequality. Written simply, using empirical research and a
theoretical model to support and illustrate her ideas, Less than Equal
provides welcome assistance to both those trying to comprehend the whys of
gender inequality and possible solutions to it as well as those searching for an
accessible means of communicating this information to others.
Easteal is
well placed to write Less than Equal. A recognised authority on women and
the law she is well respected as both an author and an academic. She has written
numerous books dealing with women and the law, including Voices of the
Survivors[1] which saw her
nominated for a Human Rights Medal. It is clear that the book has grown out of
Easteal’s broad based academic background with numerous references and
examples drawn from her research and teaching in areas such as anthropology,
sociology, criminology and law. It is also obvious that Easteal has put a great
deal of herself into the book with anecdotes about grocery shop epiphanies and
her son’s sexist homework revealing a very personal side to her work.
The form of the book lends itself to both skim reading for specifics and
a thorough cover-to-cover examination. There is an extensive Contents section at
the beginning which lists the Chapters and the various headings and subheadings
within them. Its detail not only provides a general sense of the book’s
structure and the topics covered but also makes it easy to locate particular
information. Unfortunately though, as the headings are not numbered, readers
must rely on font and size to gain an indication of the level of the heading.
This can be confusing when browsing through the text itself. A relatively short
index, spanning seven and a half pages at the end of the book, enables readers
to directly locate pages that refer to specific topics.
Each of the
book’s 12 chapters commences with a brief, boxed statement about the
chapter and its place in the scheme of the book. Within chapters frequent use is
made of examples and anecdotes to illustrate points and elucidate arguments.
Their presentation in shaded boxes makes them easily distinguishable from the
general point or argument being discussed in the text. Figures that
diagrammatically represent the author’s written arguments are also often
used and aid understanding. At the end of each chapter there is a list of
individual and group exercises, based on the contents of the chapter, as well as
a list of further readings.
The substance of the text can be divided
into five main parts. In the first part, Chapter 1, Easteal challenges the
reader’s beliefs about reality. Readers are told that their perception of
reality is reliant on what culture considers legitimate and that this is
determined by society’s dominants. Easteal uses a model based on a
kaleidoscope to illustrate how the process works. Reality is viewed through a
kaleidoscope where filters or mirrors create, reflect, or distort the
‘reality’ seen at the end of the cylinder. The lenses of the
kaleidoscope are focussed by dominants who are, amongst other things, male. The
model presented in this part then becomes a tool in later chapters for examining
culture’s masculinist focus and its impact on women’s experiences.
The second section of the book, Chapters 2 to 5, considers women as rule
breakers. Chapter 2 examines a variety of historical and current theories about
female criminality and their practical impact. Chapter 3 deals with women as
violent rule breakers. It focuses on gender bias in laws relating to
self-defence and provocation and the resultant failure of the legal system to
understand and account for the experiences of battered women. In Chapter 4,
women as non-violent rule breakers are considered. The chapter focuses on the
legal system’s treatment of women who commit single parent payment fraud
and cultural beliefs about these women. Chapter 5 looks at the way women are
treated in Australian prisons and the variables influencing the likelihood that
a woman will be incarcerated. It also discusses the prison environment’s
perpetuation of the rules followed by dysfunctional families and the
generational cycle that sees the children of inmates more likely to become
prisoners themselves.
The third part of the book, Chapters 6 to 9,
considers women as the subject of legal harm and their treatment as such by the
legal system. Chapter 6 examines the dynamics of domestic violence and its
effects on the victim as well as the inadequacies in the legal system’s
response. Chapter 7 considers sexual assault law, the mythology surrounding
sexual assault and their combined impact on the survivor. Chapter 8 focuses on
the factors that lead to workplace discrimination and how the law deals with it.
Chapter 9 builds on this discussion of women in the workplace and looks at
sexual harassment. It takes as its focus the path that a complainant faces when
commencing legal proceedings.
Whilst there is some discussion of
difference and intersectionality in the second and third parts of the book,
Easteal acknowledges that for the most part she has treated women as a
homogenous whole. She does this for strategic reasons, including
‘intellectual convenience’ and as a means of avoiding ‘chaos
and mindless pluralism’. In the fourth part of the book she considers the
impact of other socio-demographic factors and how they affect women in society
and in their dealings with the legal system. Particular issues raised include
indigenous women and land rights, sterilisation of intellectually disabled women
and the difficulties encountered by lesbians seeking legal rights as de facto
couples or as reproducers. In Chapter 11 she turns her attention to women who
work with the law as police, lawyers and legal academics.
In the fifth
and final part of the book, Chapter 12, Easteal explains why it is so difficult
for a feminist to challenge the status quo and goes on to suggest possible ways
of achieving change. She argues that structural and cultural changes are
necessary in order for the picture at the end of the kaleidoscope to become more
inclusive of women’s voices, experience and knowledge.
Easteal
indicates in the preface that the book is aimed at students, practitioners and
the general public. Less than Equal is a well-written book imminently
suited to its target audience. It will challenge the ‘unconverted’
reader’s perceptions of reality and provide a wealth of valuable factual
information and theoretical viewpoints for the lawyer seeking to frame argument
and policy. It will also present a range of feminist issues in an accessible
text for members of the general public who want to know more about how women are
affected by the law in Australian society. However, as Easteal states it is not
the goal of Less than Equal to dissect each area of the law exhaustively.
Given the brevity of the work and the variety of topics covered it can only be a
starting point for those who wish to pick up the feminist gauntlet.
[*] Associate Lecturer, Faculty of
Law, Queensland University of Technology.
[1] P W Easteal, Voices of the
Survivors (Spinifex Press, Melbourne, 1994).