Australian politician tells women just to ignore discrimination at work
Denise Turner
WVoN co-editor
The leader of the opposition in the south Australian parliament, Isobel Redmond, caused a furore this week when she told a women’s leadership forum in Adelaide that women should just ignore sexual discrimination at work.
Just in case that wasn’t clear, she added that the best way for women to achieve parity at work was to avoid confrontation, ask intelligent questions and make gentle suggestions.
Her view, she said, was based on 40 years experience as a lawyer, where she found that legal action was rarely the best way to counter workplace sex discrimination.
She also claimed that more had been done to achieve gender equality in the workplace by women who put up with discrimination.
“The hard yards are done not by looking at your personal situation but by helping to break down the barriers for the next woman coming along.
“Whereas if you take that legal approach, then very likely all you’ll do is entrench the hatred of women in the very people whose minds you’re trying to change.”
As a feminist it’s hard to sympathise. How many high achieving women business leaders can you think of who say they want to break down the barriers for other women?
In the US, where workplace legislation is being steadily dismantled in several states by right wing Republicans, women represent 50% of the work force but only 18 of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs.
Perhaps a better way of judging whether legislation is the best recourse is to examine a country like Denmark where workplace legislation and equality for women is enforced.
In addition it is consistently voted one of the best countries in the world in which to live and work for men and women alike.
Back in Australia, Australia Elizabeth Handsley, law professor at Flinders University, said Redmond’s view reflected a fundamental misunderstanding of what discrimination is.
And federal Minister for the Status of Women Julie Collins said Ms Redmond’s comments were unacceptable.
Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said behaviour and attitudes will not change unless women complain about discrimination.
Yeah, and maybe the best way of dismantling slavery would have been to gently suggest to slave owners that it really isn’t a very nice way of treating other human beings. Discrimination exists because we live in a hierarchacal society that always has to have a cheap source of labour and people who work for free. Men have made us that cheap/free labour and unfortunately it was only when women started killing themselves and rioting did men start to concede human rights to us. This woman acts as if discrimination is women’s fault, rather than a subconscious system run by men for men of promoting themselves to the top of the pile in order to stay in charge, reap the rewards of other people’s labour and generally get a slightly better deal out of life. Smiling politely and just carrying on is going along with it. We don’t have to prove ourselves any more, we do better at school, better at university but the moment we get to pay and family work load we suddenly hit a brick wall that is manned by the men round us in our everyday lives … most of them unaware of how much their constant critical ‘banter’ about women is a system of self promotion in order to keep themselves on top as a gender.
“She said her experiences as a young lawyer and councillor taught her that legal action is rarely the best response to discrimination at work.
I have generally in my life taken the view that the best way to deal with discrimination is to simply be good at the job that you’re doing and do the best you can,”
Um, she was a young lawyer 40 years ago. They didn’t even have discrimination legislation then. She’s out of touch, women do sue now, all the time. That is how they break down the barriers for the next generation, not by making ‘gentle suggestions’.
And it never fails to amaze me how women who have achieved a certain success can see their female peers fall all around them as they rise up the ladder, and conclude that all the rest just weren’t good enough.
Haha, I looked her up, she opened her law firm with the winnings from a lottery ticket! It seems she missed the trenches entirely.