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List of contents
Contents: The persistence of inequality; The unencumbered citizen; Equal opportunity: rhetoric and reality; The fragile family; Structuring dependence: family, state and self; Workplaces and women: an uneasy relationship; The family as signifier: tax and families; Making room for families: choices and realities; Bibliography; Index.
About the author
Sandra Berns, Professor of Law, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Summary
This title was first published in 2002. In this book, signifiers such as gender, worker and family are unpacked and suggestions are made as to how common usage of these signifiers reinforce existing practices and act as barriers to change. Particular attention is paid to the areas of equal opportunity law, family law, industrial relations law, social welfare law and taxation law.
Additional text
’Sandra Berns has created a sprawling and insightful work that examines the obstacles, both legal and social, to the enlargement of non-traditional gender roles of both men and women. She explodes the myths of flexible employment policies as mechanisms that often serve to perpetuate the long-standing gendering of the workplace, and reveals the breadwinner-caregiver dichotomy that underlies contemporary notions of family law and social welfare. Drawing on diverse strands of employment law, family law, social welfare, and taxation schemes, and synthesizing legal and social policies across three continents, Sandra Berns compels us to re-examine society's treatment of gender, particularly the formation of social policy predicated on false notions of gender-blindness. Extensively researched and thoroughly argued, a fresh approach to examining the social reinforcement of gender assumptions.’ Dr Bridget Cullen Mandikos, Lecturer and Barrister (Qld), Griffith University, Australia ’Bern’s work is a valuable contribution not only for assessing policy in Australia, but also for considering similar issues globally.’ Griffith Law Review
