MAWM - Mapping The Institutional Legacy

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The second component, mapping and assessing the institutional legacy, will be operationalised through a longitudinal case study of women's policy machinery and women’s government and non-government services. It will build on surveys conducted by Sawer in 1989 (federal and state policy units); 1998 (federal and intergovernmental); and more recently of federal units only (Sawer 1990; 1994; 2003; 2007). It will also draw on longitudinal surveys such as that on domestic violence policy being conducted by Suellen Murray at RMIT. It will involve new surveys at federal, state and territory levels, at inter-governmental levels (including ministerial councils and officials meetings) and regional levels (APEC). The intergovernmental survey will be conducted in conjunction with a Commonwealth/State officials meeting, as with the 1998 Sawer survey.

This survey will plot the location (access) and resources of Australian women's policy machinery over time, as well as policy transfer mediated by intergovernmental bodies. It will also draw on the UN Division for the Advancement of Women directories of national women's machineries and related expert group meetings for a comparative dimension. It will begin from the hypothesis that institutionalisation within government does not survive the loss of visible social movement activity outside, even where political opportunity structures remain otherwise relatively favourable.

Merrindahl Andrew is the member of the project team with responsibility for developing the study of women’s institutions.

Where does this fit in the project as a whole? See Project Structure