- Title
- Whose rights matter? Women's rights, anti-discrimination legislation, and the case of religious exceptions
- Creator
- McPhillips, Kathleen
- Relation
- Religion after Secularization in Australia p. 119-135
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137551382_6
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- This essay considers the relationship between women, religion, and the Australian state via an examination of federal anti-discrimination law. Using two feminist methodologies, it will be argued that the neoliberal state allows discriminatory practices in employment and service provisions by religious organizations on the basis of protecting religious freedom. However, evidence suggests that women are often subject to discriminatory practices by both religious organizations and the state. The state is in the contradictory position of needing to protect the citizenship from religious influences while simultaneously providing a guarantee of religious freedom. Women, I will argue, are caught in a trap here; they are often denied full inclusion in religious traditions and institutions, and the state reinforces this marginalization through the very legislation it enacts to protect religious freedom. Yet the state also promotes the inclusion of women in public life through human rights and anti-discrimination legislation. This results in a quandary and begs the question: whose freedom is being protected? I am calling this form of secularism sexularism to describe the specific intersection between religious groups and gender rights in neoliberal states.
- Subject
- religion; women's rights; anti-discrimination; federal anti-discrimination laws
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1317217
- Identifier
- uon:23369
- Identifier
- ISBN:97811349571017
- Language
- eng
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