The Sex Discrimination Act and its Rocky Rite of Passage

Abstract

The passage of the (Cth) () represents a high political moment in the history of gender relations in Australia. The seemingly protracted debates of 1983–84² were marked by a deep anxiety about sex roles, the patriarchal family and the wellbeing of children. The hysterical propaganda campaign and the fear engendered by the Bill were out of all proportion to its modest liberal intent that women be ‘let in’ to certain domains of public and quasi-public life, including employment, on the same terms as men.: Reliance on the external affairs power (, s. 51 [xxix]) to