Prof Marian Sawer
Australian National University
msawer@coombs.anu.edu.au
Stream: Australian and New Zealand Politics
Sub-stream: Emily’s List?
Refereed: Yes
When women support women...: A case study of EMILY's List in Australia
EMILY's List was founded in Australia in 1996 with the aim of increasing women's
substantive as well as descriptive representation in parliament. It has certainly helped
increase the descriptive representation of women in parliament, through its advocacy role
in relation to the ALP and through its mentoring and other support for endorsed
candidates. But its support for candidates is conditional on track record and commitment
to substantive issues of concern to women. This paper explores, through Hansard analysis
and in other ways, how successful EMILY's List has been in contributing to the
substantive representation of women in the Australian Parliament. The salience is
examined of three key terms, paid maternity leave, unpaid work and domestic
violence/violence against women during the two parliaments before the creation of
EMILY’s List and the two parliaments that followed.