Clare Burton Lecture 2002
A Pound of Flesh: Women Politics and Power in the New Millennium
by Moira Rayner
The 2002 Clare Burton Lecture A Pound of Flesh: Women, Politics and Power in the New Millennium was given by Moira Rayner, at that time acting Commissioner for Equal Opportunity in Western Australia. She used her research towards the first biography of Joan Kirner, first woman Premier of Victoria (forthcoming Hodder Headline, December 2003). Moira Rayner asked whether women in politics were being asked an extortionate fee for their glimpse of power. "Fundamental to patriarchy is the invisibility of women, the unreal nature of women's experience, the absence of women as a force to be reckoned with," she quoted, and then launched into an examination of some of the toughest questions and the assumptions of feminism. She challenged the assumptions of both second-wave feminists and post feminists. She asked whether women political activists have put too much emphasis on the minutiae of women's lives - childcare, family-friendly work practices, community, relationships - rather than the 'male' obsession with economics and technology. She asked, "Does it really make a difference to have a 'critical mass' of women in power?" She answered "Probably not unless they use their power in a different way, which may depend on whether they used patronage to get it." A 'critical mass' of cautious, privileged women reflect the values of the men who pulled the strings to get them their power.
Do women use political power differently? Not necessarily, said Rayner, and perhaps that depends on a vision of what 'feminine' politics might look like - or whether that is the same thing as 'womanly' values. But women who consciously value some attributes dismissed by managers as 'wet' or old fashioned - such as friendships and trust, consultation and toleration of different views - seem to have a better track record.
The lectures are hosted by ATN WEXDEV, at the five universities of the Australian Technology Network: Curtin University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, University of South Australia and University of Technology, Sydney. A lecture was also held in Canberra under the joint sponsorship of four ACT universities: Australian Defence Force Academy, Australian National University, Australian Catholic University and University of Canberra. The 2002 lectures gave a further opportunity to raise funds for the Clare Burton Scholarship which commemorates Clare Burton's life and continues her work by providing a scholarship for postgraduate study in gender equity at any of the universities of the ATN. Sarah Wendt, the holder of the first Clare Burton scholarship, presented at the Adelaide lecture a most appropriate tribute to Clare Burton's life and work and introduced us to her important research project.
The 2002 Clare Burton Memorial Lecture Series took place with assistance from Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA); Department for Women, ACT Chief Minister's Office; Department for Women, New South Wales Office for the Status of Women, South Australia; Office of Women's Policy, Department of Equity & Fair Trading, Queensland; Office of Women's Policy, Department of Premier & Cabinet, Victoria; Women's Policy Office, Western Australia.
Left: Professor Denise Bradley, Vice-Chancellor, UNISA with Moira Rayner at the 2002 Clare Burton lecture, Brookman Hall, Adelaide.