Economic Inequality between Men and Women in an Australian Rural Community

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Abstract
In this article the income inequality prevailing between men and women in an Australian rural community is examined. It is argued that in order to appreciate the magnitude of the financial disadvantage experienced by women it is necessary to abandon the usual approach of restricting income comparisons to male and female members of the paid workforce in favour of one including all adult men and women irrespective of their workforce status. This approach directs attention beyond the immediate 'causes' of income inequality in the market situation — such as length of job experience — to the societal causes of this and other manifestations of gender discrimination. This includes women's socialisation to place caring for others before career, and economic and social sanctions to ensure that they do. Such factors partially explain why the income reported by the majority of females is below, or only marginally above, the poverty line and why women with tertiary qualifications earn much less than similarly qualified men. In a community where farming is the modal occupation it is shown that women experience the double inequity of being denied the resources to practise this occupation whilst being expected to contribute unwaged labour to the success of its male practitioners.

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