As military organisations become less oriented towards violence, the traditional, aggressive, warrior-like culture of the military has to be balanced with new task requirements.
The Gold Coast Meter Maids are the most enduring example of a growing number of young women employed as promotional models in our cities. But how does this sexualised imagery shape our interactions – and men’s attitudes to women?
The Australian netball team after their gold medal win at the Netball World Cup in 2015.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
Netball – one of Australia’s most popular sports – is on track to turn professional. Is this an exciting new chapter for female athletes? Or does netball’s success draw attention from other sports, where women can smack balls, and roam freely?
What’s on offer on issues that disproportionately affect women? Some minor tweaks that are useful but not change-making.
AAP/Lukas Coch
By continuing to see policies that affect women in economic rather than social terms, both major parties are offering little in the way of improved gender equity.
Clementine Ford speaking at Stella’s ‘Girls Write Up’
Maddie Pollard
Clementine Ford is no stranger to speaking out. This makes her a near-perfect poster person for the Stella’s schools program and their latest project Girls Write Up – a day-long wordfest and workshop for…
What is the best way to return ‘Africa’ to African Studies?
Shutterstock
The early goldrush was a topsy-turvy time for rebellious women, such as the globetrotting dancer Lola Montez. An exhibition showcasing goldfields jewellery spotlights this era when penniless immigrants could dress like queens.
Bill Shorten, launching Labor’s childcare policy, inadvertently set off a debate about the major party leaders’ respective feminist credentials.
AAP/Joel Carrett
The small, geographically isolated country of Iceland is a leader in technology, environmentalism, experimental music and feminism. And Bjork, one of its most famous exports, mines all these themes in her new Sydney exhibition.
A typescript for the Female Eunuch with photo of a young Greer on a book.
Germaine Greer archive: 2014.0038.0001. Picture Nathan Gallagher, copyright University of Melbourne
The Greer archives brim with notebooks and papers from her time as a student of the traditional humanities. And reading The Female Eunuch for evidence of the Bard reveals a new kind of book, one that is deeply informed by this scholarship.
More than 7% of Western women choose not to have children.
Alexander Baxevanis/FLickr
Sex workers in South Africa are all potential criminals due to the country’s regressive laws. But their status may change soon, making South Africa the first African country to decriminalise sex work.
From ‘Machiavellian female princes’ to warriors, assassins and prostitutes, the women of Westeros and Essos are a richly varied bunch. A new book examines their role in the series and explores its sexual politics.
Anti-rape protests at a South African university have far bigger implications for the country’s ongoing fight against rape culture and patriarchal gender norms.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne