Gender and Race Based Discrimination in Australia in 1901-1914

Between 1901 and 1914 non-white people and women were highly discriminated against. Whether it was law, violence or pay they were highly disadvantaged compared to white men. Around a century later these issues improved drastically however there is still room to improve as these stereotypes are still disadvantaged in our nation today

In December of 1901, the Immigration Restriction Act came into law, now known as the White Australian Policy. It had been among the first pieces of legislation introduced to the newly formed federal parliament. This policy was designed to limit non-British migration into Australia. The federal parliament was in favour of this law as the majority of the population of Australia shared the same opinion towards people of different races, that today would be considered extremely racist. Criticise of non-white people suggested that they were less advanced than white people in all ways including moral and intellectually. Indigenous Australians were considered a ‘dying race’ and had nearly no rights. This has shaped our nation today as even though we are not as nearly as racist as white people in the 1900s we are still racist against black people. If a black man and a white men were applying for the same job with the exact same skills, the white man would receive the job due to one thing, his appearance. If we weren’t so racist and if we didn’t discriminate against non-white Australians back in the 1900s we may have had a more inclusive culture now. How we treated aboriginal Australians was terribly wrong, now there are debates and arguments involving both races like the Australia Day being called invaders day by some.

Another great example which demonstrates laws which have affected our nation today is the discrimination, violence, and rights against women. In the early 1900s whoever was in charge of the household (usually the father or husband) had the moral authority to use violence to discipline the people below them in the hierarchy (wife and children). The wives and children were told they must accept the discipline no matter how unnecessary they thought it was. However, violence towards people above you in the hierarchy was never acceptable no matter what the reason was. The husbands role was to keep his family in line without using uncontrolled force, however, when the wife thought it was an excessive amount of force she was eligible to appeal to a number of legal and social measures to ensure her husband behaved properly. Although not much was done to help the wife just more punishment was given by the husband. Other methods were to hide the wife and children from the husband to protect them from being beaten.

Suffragettes fought extremely hard to extend the very little women's rights in the early 1900s. However, there were still very few rights and certainly no political rights. In the 20th century women had a very stereotypical lifestyle, once married they would stop working and cook, clean and work for their family instead. If they were single they would work however got paid less than a quarter of the men's wages and worked the same if not longer hours. Young women were expected to get married early and have children. A divorced woman was shunned by society and treated as an outcast, therefore, the majority of the women were forced to stay in unwanted marriages. It was only 1903 when women began the right to vote however this was not all women. Aboriginal women were only eligible to vote much later in 1962.

Now in 2019 changes have been drastically made to improve the lives and wellbeing of women. Now all women can vote and they are rarely forced into unwanted marriages. It is now illegal for a man to abuse a women and can face many years of jail time. Although there have been a great improvement women are still faced with the challenge of unequal pay. On average women only earn 80.5 cents for every dollar a man earns and the annual earnings are 10,000 less than a mans according to data from the 2017 U.S. Census Bureau. Women would have to work an average of 44 days to earn the same annual salary of their male coworkers. The equal pay act does not specify that the male and female pay of the same job should be the same just “sustainably similar” therefore this is making it okay for women to be paid less. Because women had such different rights to men before our generation it means that women are still affected by this now even a whole century later. Yes, it is a better place for women now although it could still be better by making all genders equal in every way.

In conclusion, discrimination against non-white people and women between 1901 and 1914 has shaped our nation today negatively. Although we discriminate against these stereotypes a lot less now that we did in the early 1900s they are still disadvantaged just for being born the way they are. Nowadays there are not any polices like the white Australian policy or any laws that make non-white people different however white people still think of them differently and treat them a bit unfairly. Discrimination against women is similar to a century ago women were being abused, and the man/women pay gap was terrible. Now, these issues have been improved drastically however there are still traces of discrimination from the 1900s that we still see today.