Feminism, yes. But what kind of feminism? And what has yet to be achieved.

The Ideas and Society Program, convened by Professor Robert Manne, has been since 2009 a La Trobe University forum for discussion of questions concerning the future of Australia and beyond. Last year we conducted a series of debates and discussions. Speakers included Gillian Triggs, Bob Brown, Clementine Ford, Bill Kelty, Jennifer Westacott, Hugh White, Clive Hamilton, Tasneem Chopra, Chelsea Bond, Julian Burnside and Frank Brennan. This year we will be putting together a series of panels on some of the most sensitive and troubling questions now facing Australia with suggestions for policies that might a difference. We will have panels of experts discussing questions like mental health policy, disability support, climate change & energy, the strengths and weaknesses of our political institutions, the defence of Australia and the quality of our universities. Other issues demanding attention may arise during the year. The first panel will concern our most pressing current crisis, for which Australia has quite suddenly become famous or notorious across the world: bushfire.

Ideas & Society

The feminist movement has fundamentally re-fashioned our world. As the #MeToo movement and the backlash against it continues, it is timely to think about what kind of feminism we need. There are different voices within feminism, and different answers to the question of what still must be done to deepen and complete the feminist revolution. 
Clementine Ford has risen to prominence with a swingeing, radical critique of female inequality. In her most recent book, Boys Will Be Boys, she unpacks and exposes "toxic masculinity" and the very great harm that it does, not only to women but also to men. The rigid traditional norms of masculinity under patriarchy create a system where men are regarded as superior to women. Contemptuous and aggressive behaviour towards women is rendered nothing more serious than “Boys will Be Boys.” Even in cases of violent crime more concern is shown for the effect on a male perpetrator’s career than for his female victim. 
Teela Reid is a Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, practising lawyer and a powerful advocate for the rights of Aboriginal women. She contends that the issues facing Aboriginal women, like the soaring rates of incarceration, are systemic problems that require structural solutions. Having more female politicians and lawyers 'at the top', will not, in of itself, dismantle the system that oppresses Aboriginal women. For her, as she writes, “the personal is political…I grew up with stories of my great-grandmother who challenged police brutality and racism in the system…Because of my identity and the interconnectedness of the issues confronted by Aboriginal women, I feel I have a very strong moral obligation to my mob to continue to fight for social justice.”
How much does motherhood shape women’s lives? Petra Bueskens has written extensively on motherhood and the impact of being a mother on gender wage inequality. It is mothers, rather than women in general, who are poor and have an insecure place in the gig economy. It is women’s responsibility for unpaid care work, in an insecure labour market, combined with the individualism of the neo-liberal age and unstable relationships, which has created new conditions for economic inequality for mothers. This is especially true of single mothers who are increasingly impoverished and even homeless. Bueskens is an advocate of Universal Basic Income.
The discussion will be moderated by La Trobe University's renowned historian, Clare Wright, who has documented the previously neglected role that women have played in Australia's political life.
This promises to be an illuminating and a fruitful discussion. Book your ticket early to avoid disappointment.
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<H3 CLASS="MsoNormal">Speakers:</H3>
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Clementine Ford is a feminist author and public speaker. She is author of the bestselling books Fight Like A Girl (2016) and Boys Will Be Boys (2018). She was the recipient of the Matt Richell Award for Best New Writer of the Year at the 2017 Australian Book Industry Awards. She is disliked by Men On The Internet. Clementine lives in Naarm (Melbourne) with her son and his increasing collection of plastic dinosaurs. 
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Teela Reid is a Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, lawyer and human rights advocate. She is a solicitor with experience practicing in criminal, civil and administrative law. Teela was a working group leader on s 51(xxvi), the Race Power, in the Constitutional dialogue process that culminated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Teela commenced her professional career as a high school Health and PE teacher. She then obtained her postgraduate Juris Doctor from UNSW Law Sydney.
Born into a resilient matriarchal family, Teela grew up with a strong sense of social justice and contends that Aboriginal women are still fighting for the inherit right to be treated as human and with dignity in our own country. Anyone can call themselves a feminist. But not every feminist is actively working to dismantle the system that oppresses those most vulnerable in our society, particularly Aboriginal women. 
Teela was the first Aboriginal person to be elected on the UNSW Law Society as Vice-President (Social Justice), where she was the founding director of the UNSW Law First Peoples Moot. She was also the Inaugural recipient of the NSW Indigenous Barristers Trust award. 
Previously, Teela was Australia’s Female Indigenous Youth Delegate to the United Nations Permanent Forum in New York that inspired her journey to become a lawyer.
Teela is an advocate for structural change and has been inspired by the black sistahood and leadership in the struggle. In 2017, Teela was selected to attend Harvard University as a global Emerging Leader. On her return to Australia, Teela fearlessly took Prime Minister Turnbull to task on Q&A after his dismissal of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. 
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Petra Bueskens, PhD., is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, the founder and principal psychotherapist at PPMDTherapy, and occasional op-ed writer. She is an international expert in the sociology of motherhood, feminist social theory, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Her books include Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities (Routledge, 2018), Mothering and Psychoanalysis (Demeter, 2014) and the forthcoming Australian Mothering: Historical and Sociological Perspectives (co-edited with Carla Pascoe Leahy, Palgrave, 2019).
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<H3 CLASS="MsoNormal">Chair:</H3>
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Dr Clare Wright is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. 
Her best-selling book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka won the 2014 Stella Prize and the NIB Literary Award (and People’s Choice Award) and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the NSW Premier’s History Awards, the WA Premier’s Literary Awards, the Victorian Community History Awards, and longlisted for a Walkely Award.
 We Are the Rebels, a Young Adult version of The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, was published by Text in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards.
The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka is currently being developed into a ten-part television drama series with Ruby Entertainment and Hollywood screenwriter/producer, Anne Kenney.
Clare’s latest book is the best-selling You Daughters of Freedom (Text), published in October 2018. It is the second book in her Democracy Trilogy.
Clare has worked as a political speechwriter, university lecturer, historical consultant and as a broadcaster in both radio and television. 
Clare is the writer and host of the ABC Radio National history series and podcast, Shooting the Past and a Board Director at the The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. She is currently an Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow in the History Program at La Trobe University where she holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.

The Capitol

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