Public and Private: Feminist Legal Debates

by Margaret Thornton (Editor)

This pathbreaking book examines the experiences of women in the legal profession in Australia. Based on interviews with more than 100 women lawyers, it sets out to explain why simply "letting in" more women to public life does not necessarily change the masculine culture of the profession.
This book includes contributions from Australia's leading feminist legal scholars and addresses the notion that there is a separation between public and private life. Although it is a myth that the line of demarcation between public and private was ever fixed, the relationship between the two
spheres has become increasingly ambiguous. The trends towards state intervention in private life, on the one hand, and privatisation of heretofore public processes, such as wage-fixing and dispute resolution, on the other hand, have accentuated the emergence of fault lines. The authors consider the
pros and cons of the changing visibility/invisibility dualisms that correspond with public and private in regard to a range of issues that significantly impact on women's lives, including sexuality, the family, work, violence, and participation in public life.

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 1996

About the author

Margaret^^^Thornton, professor of law at Australian National University, is a socio-legal and feminist scholar.