Gender and Institutions
Welfare, Work and Citizenship

This interdisciplinary 1999 collection explores institutional design from a feminist perspective.

Moira Gatens (Edited by), Alison Mackinnon (Edited by)

9780521635769, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 November 1998

236 pages, 3 b/w illus. 7 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.32 kg

This important interdisciplinary 1999 volume explores what might constitute a feminist approach to institutional design and reshaping. What is the scope, it asks, in contemporary Australian society, for ensuring that institutions acknowledge gender difference and deliver more equitable outcomes? This feminist perspective on institutional design shows how gendered regulatory norms underpin and intersect with all other institutional settings. The leading team of writers includes Deborah Mitchell, Bettina Cass, Chilla Bulbeck, Carol Bacchi and Joan Eveline. Topics discussed include: institutions, embodiment and sexual difference; the welfare state; housing policy; household work; republicanism and citizenship; gender-based discrimination. This book makes a major contribution to debates about the reshaping of our institutions as we move towards the twenty-first century.

1. Institutions, embodiment and sexual difference Moira Gatens
Part I. Beyond the Male Breadwinner: Welfare, Housing and Household Labour: 2. Life-course and labour market transitions: an alternative model for welfare state design Deborah Mitchell
3. Reshaping housing policy and the benefits of urban/regional location: why gender matters Bettina Cass
4. Moving toward equality? Questions of change and equality in household work patterns Janeen Baxter
Part II. Triumphs and Failures of Feminist Design: Reschaping the Workplace: 5. Changing the sexual harassment agenda Carol Bacchi
6. Heavy, dirty and limp stories: male advantage at work Joan Eveline
7. Designing the process of workplace change through the affirmative action act Valerie Braithwaite
Part III. Reshaping Citizenship: Class, Race and Nation: 8. Being civil and social: the proper study of womankind Lenore Coltheart
9. Redesigning the population: narratives of race and sex Alison Mackinnon
10. Treating ourselves to a republic Chilla Bulbeck.

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Feminism & feminist theory [JFFK]