Women

The Greens (WA) value women as equal members of the community. We recognise that many women have yet to realise their potential.

Women have the right to equal respect, responsibilities and rewards in society. Women should not be devalued by economic and social policies that discriminate against women in home ownership, bank loans, the job market, politics and other areas.

The Greens (WA) believe that social structures which disadvantage women must be changed.

Goals

The Greens (WA) want: 

• the Commonwealth Government to sign the optional protocol on the United Nations Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
• equal representation of women and men in public life
• women to be able to live their lives free from violence
• equal pay for equal work
• women to have access to safe and confidential health and wellbeing services, including reproductive health services
• women to have equal access to appropriate well-resourced education services
• family-friendly workplaces and public spaces

Initiatives

The Greens (WA) will initiate and support legislation and actions that: 

• reverse adverse changes to welfare, housing, health care, child care, employment conditions, further education, legal aid and other programs affecting women
• give financial recognition to the value of home-making and child raising by providing means-tested allowances which encourage mothers and fathers of young children to stay at home with their children if they so choose
• provide superannuation options so that women are not disadvantaged in retirement because they have chosen to work part-time or in the home
• provide affordable, quality, publicly-funded child care (see Greens (WA) Children policy)
• develop public education programs to overcome the view that housework and child rearing is solely ‘women’s work’, encourage sharing of work in the home, and recognise that housework, child rearing and paid employment are of equal status
• recognise and give due weight to the work of women involved in home-making, child raising, caring for the elderly or disabled and working for community organisations by including those activities in the calculation of the gross domestic product (GDP)
• prevent discrimination against women with small children in public places by providing changing areas and easy access for prams
• promote change in community attitudes to remove barriers to women breastfeeding their babies in public
• educate the community and change community attitudes towards women and the control of their bodies
• increase funding and extend the range of services to provide support and respite to carers, most of whom are women
• oppose the production, performance, display and distribution of pornographic material which depicts women and children as objects for violence and sexual degradation
• recognise and support the voluntary work done by women

The Greens (WA) will support workplace initiatives that:

• provide a minimum of 18 weeks of publicly funded paid maternity leave for all women with benefits (eg superannuation) accruing during this time
• make employment structures more appropriate to the diverse needs of parents, particularly in developing job-sharing and part-time work with benefits equivalent to those under permanent full-time employment
• encourage flexible working conditions to make workplaces more friendly to parents with young children by providing child-care facilities, lactation breaks and paid leave for women with sick children
• strengthen penalties for sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination in the workplace
• provide fully publicly funded child care not restricted to women in employment
• support affirmative action legislation to reform the workplace to remove sources of direct, indirect and systematic discrimination against women

The Greens (WA) support education programs which:

• promote alternative role models and career options for girls and women, including the study of science based subjects and trade courses
• ensure that affirmative action is practised in schools and universities to overcome the attitudes inherent in our society that result in different expectations for girls and boys
• prevent discrimination against women students
• teach relationship skills that will improve personal and sexual relationships and family planning strategies in future life
• recognise that HELP fees impact disproportionately on women - The Greens (WA) support free education.

The Greens (WA) believe that women should be empowered to make informed decisions to control their own reproductive processes, and we support:

• access to free, safe contraception and contraceptive advice
• access to free, safe and legal abortion together with access to counselling on the personal and medical issues involved and the various options available
• adoption laws that allow adopted children and natural parents to seek contact and provisions to allow relinquishing mothers to maintain contact with their child
• access to free, safe and diverse options for pregnancy and childbirth, including a reduction in medical intervention in childbirth, support for home birth and the training of midwives
• the implementation of the National Maternity Action Plan
• funding for hostels and other support services for homeless girls, women and mothers
• intensive support services for women having difficulties coping with babies and young children, and whose children might otherwise be taken into care
• ethical legislation to regulate biotechnology and surrogacy
• the right for lesbian and gay couples and single people to parent/adopt children

The Greens (WA) are appalled by the continuing level of violence against women and will support measures which:

• protect women in the streets and in their homes
• protect women and children against family and domestic violence
• provide refuges for women and children subject to family and domestic violence
• support educational and awareness programs on family and domestic violence