5th Women and Labour Conference, 1995 - Sydney

Abstract

After more than eighteen months of planning the fifth Women and Labour Conference was held at Macquarie University, on the Friday before, and the Saturday and Sunday of, the Labour Day long weekend 1995. It had been over ten years since the 4th Conference and some sixteen years since the original Women and Labour Conference of 1978, which was also held at Macquarie. Both attendance and participation demonstrated that the time was indeed ripe for another Women and Labour Conference. Over one hundred and twenty separate presentations were programmed, including videos, workshops, panels and papers, while more than five hundred people attended over the three days. People came from intra-state, inter-state and abroad, some assisted by Conference sponsorship. The Conference had aimed to be broad, receptive and encouraging of diversity. The fulfilment of this aim is evident in a scan of Conference Abstracts; topics canvassed included: women's struggle in central and Latin America; women's earnings under enterprise bargaining; older women workers and unions; voluntary work; women and retirement; women in trades; right-wing anti-feminism; affirmative action and equal employment opportunity; the Union of Australian Women; the feminist generation gap; blockbuster feminism; gender imbalance at management levels in the private sector; reproductive rights; older women and superannuation; feminism and racism and non-indigenous women; queer politics and women; post-modernism and political activism; rural women and the 'new domestic service'.