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Book Review
Patricia Easteal, Less Than Equal - Women and the Australian
Legal System
(Butterworths 2001) 245pp
Joanne
Moran
Feminist movements have provided the impetus for many significant
changes to the Australian legal system. Unfortunately, although these changes
have generally had a positive impact on women's lives, society continues to
treat women as less than equal to men. In Australia the dominance of patriarchy
and liberalism makes understanding and articulating the reasons for this inequality
a daunting and challenging task. Patricia Easteal in writing Less Than Equal
- Women and the Australian Legal System takes up this challenge.
In Less Than Equal Easteal argues that although law
plays a major role in enforcing the status quo, it is but a small cog in the
cultural machine. Her analysis therefore places considerable importance on the
effects of cultural influences on women's experiences. Working this way she
reveals not only why women are less than equal to men in Australia, but also
why it is difficult for members of the dominant culture to perceive and understand
this inequality. Written simply, using empirical research and a theoretical
model to support and illustrate her ideas, Less than Equal provides welcome
assistance to both those trying to comprehend the whys of gender inequality
and possible solutions to it as well as those searching for an accessible means
of communicating this information to others.
Easteal is well placed to write Less than Equal. A recognised
authority on women and the law she is well respected as both an author and an
academic. She has written numerous books dealing with women and the law, including
Voices of the Survivors[1]which saw her nominated for a Human Rights Medal.
It is clear that the book has grown out of Easteal's broad based academic
background with numerous references and examples drawn from her research and
teaching in areas such as anthropology, sociology, criminology and law. It is
also obvious that Easteal has put a great deal of herself into the book with
anecdotes about grocery shop epiphanies and her son's sexist homework revealing
a very personal side to her work.
The form of the book lends itself to both skim reading for
specifics and a thorough cover-to-cover examination. There is an extensive Contents
section at the beginning which lists the Chapters and the various headings and
subheadings within them. Its detail not only provides a general sense of the
book's structure and the topics covered but also makes it easy to locate particular
information. Unfortunately though, as the headings are not numbered, readers
must rely on font and size to gain an indication of the level of the heading.
This can be confusing when browsing through the text itself. A relatively short
index, spanning seven and a half pages at the end of the book, enables readers
to directly locate pages that refer to specific topics.
Each of the book's 12 chapters commences with a brief, boxed
statement about the chapter and its place in the scheme of the book. Within
chapters frequent use is made of examples and anecdotes to illustrate points
and elucidate arguments. Their presentation in shaded boxes makes them easily
distinguishable from the general point or argument being discussed in the text.
Figures that diagrammatically represent the author's written arguments are
also often used and aid understanding. At the end of each chapter there is a
list of individual and group exercises, based on the contents of the chapter,
as well as a list of further readings.
The substance of the text can be divided into five main parts.
In the first part, Chapter 1, Easteal challenges the reader's beliefs about
reality. Readers are told that their perception of reality is reliant on what
culture considers legitimate and that this is determined by society's dominants.
Easteal uses a model based on a kaleidoscope to illustrate how the process works.
Reality is viewed through a kaleidoscope where filters or mirrors create, reflect,
or distort the 'reality' seen at the end of the cylinder. The lenses of
the kaleidoscope are focussed by dominants who are, amongst other things, male.
The model presented in this part then becomes a tool in later chapters for examining
culture's masculinist focus and its impact on women's experiences.
The second section of the book, Chapters 2 to 5, considers
women as rule breakers. Chapter 2 examines a variety of historical and current
theories about female criminality and their practical impact. Chapter 3 deals
with women as violent rule breakers. It focuses on gender bias in laws relating
to self-defence and provocation and the resultant failure of the legal system
to understand and account for the experiences of battered women. In Chapter
4, women as non-violent rule breakers are considered. The chapter focuses on
the legal system's treatment of women who commit single parent payment fraud
and cultural beliefs about these women. Chapter 5 looks at the way women are
treated in Australian prisons and the variables influencing the likelihood that
a woman will be incarcerated. It also discusses the prison environment's perpetuation
of the rules followed by dysfunctional families and the generational cycle that
sees the children of inmates more likely to become prisoners themselves.
The third part of the book, Chapters 6 to 9, considers women
as the subject of legal harm and their treatment as such by the legal system.
Chapter 6 examines the dynamics of domestic violence and its effects on the
victim as well as the inadequacies in the legal system's response. Chapter
7 considers sexual assault law, the mythology surrounding sexual assault and
their combined impact on the survivor. Chapter 8 focuses on the factors that
lead to workplace discrimination and how the law deals with it. Chapter 9 builds
on this discussion of women in the workplace and looks at sexual harassment.
It takes as its focus the path that a complainant faces when commencing legal
proceedings.
Whilst there is some discussion of difference and intersectionality
in the second and third parts of the book, Easteal acknowledges that for the
most part she has treated women as a homogenous whole. She does this for strategic
reasons, including 'intellectual convenience' and as a means of avoiding
'chaos and mindless pluralism'. In the fourth part of the book she considers
the impact of other socio-demographic factors and how they affect women in society
and in their dealings with the legal system. Particular issues raised include
indigenous women and land rights, sterilisation of intellectually disabled women
and the difficulties encountered by lesbians seeking legal rights as de facto
couples or as reproducers. In Chapter 11 she turns her attention to women who
work with the law as police, lawyers and legal academics.
In the fifth and final part of the book, Chapter 12, Easteal
explains why it is so difficult for a feminist to challenge the status quo and
goes on to suggest possible ways of achieving change. She argues that structural
and cultural changes are necessary in order for the picture at the end of the
kaleidoscope to become more inclusive of women's voices, experience and knowledge.
Easteal indicates in the preface that the book is aimed at
students, practitioners and the general public. Less than Equal is a
well-written book imminently suited to its target audience. It will challenge
the 'unconverted' reader's perceptions of reality and provide a wealth
of valuable factual information and theoretical viewpoints for the lawyer seeking
to frame argument and policy. It will also present a range of feminist issues
in an accessible text for members of the general public who want to know more
about how women are affected by the law in Australian society. However, as Easteal
states it is not the goal of Less than Equal to dissect each area of
the law exhaustively. Given the brevity of the work and the variety of topics
covered it can only be a starting point for those who wish to pick up the feminist
gauntlet.
[1]P W Easteal, Voices of the Survivors (Spinifex
Press, Melbourne, 1994).
© Queensland University
of Technology Law & Justice Journal 2002
This article may be cited as: (2002) 2(1) QUTLJJ 150
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