EMILY's list and angry white men: Gender wars in the nineties

Abstract

In the 1998 federal election the politics of ‘angry white men’ intruded on the campaignwith the entry of the Abolish Child Support/Family Court Party and the Family LawReform Party and with strong male support for the Pauline Hanson One NationParty. The coalition under John Howard continued with a politics of social division,including policies differentiating between women inside and outside the workforce.The Labor Party had ‘mainstreamed’ women but was assisted by a strong campaignon the part of a new feminist organisation, EMILY’s List.More women were elected to the House of Representatives than ever before,thanks to the ALP quota finally beginning to bite and to Liberal women defying theswing to hang on to their marginal seats. For the first time a group of Labor women(eight) were elected in safe seats and for the first time a significant group of women(eleven) entered parliament who had made formal commitment to a feminist agendain the process of obtaining EMILY’s List endorsement.Groups such as the Equality for Fathers, Men’s Confraternity Incorporated, DadsAgainst Discrimination, the Men’s Rights Agency and Parents Without Rights hadbeen proliferating in the 1990s when their ideas began appearing in the mainstreammedia. While others may think that women still have a long way to go to achieveequality, these groups believe that women have already gone too far. They claimthat feminists have entrenched themselves in positions of power and influence ingovernment and are using their power to victimise men.Examples of such beliefs are to be found in submissions to the 1998 Review ofthe Affirmative Action Act. According to Mr Alan Barron, previously spokesmanfor Women Who Want to be Women and now Convenor of the Institute of Men’sStudies, men are rapidly being marginalised in Australia: ‘Make no mistake, womenhave enormous political clout, a clout men do not have in any measure. Is it anywonder men are being left behind?’