School of Politics & International Relations

A history of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) has been prepared at the Australian National University with the assistance of Australian Research Council (ARC) Large Research Grant, No. A00104176.

WEL is a feminist non-party-political lobby founded in Australia in 1972. WEL’s role as an advocate for women is recognised in the political and social history of Australia. WEL has been at the forefront of the struggle for equal employment opportunity, access to quality childcare, sex discrimination legislation, reproductive rights and women’s election to Parliament.

In 2012 a pilot project entitled Gender and Feminism in the Social Science was initiated, looking at the relationship between the gender profile of four social science disciplines and their incorporation of feminist critique and knowledge. The project was funded by the Research School of Social Sciences, the Gender Institute and a College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) pilot grant. It covered Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science and History and the project leaders were Marian Sawer, Ann Curthoys, Ann McGrath, Fiona Jenkins and Helen Keane.

The Australian Election Studies aim to provide a long-term perspective on stability and change in the political attitudes and behaviour of the Australian electorate.

The surveys investigate the changing social and attitudinal bases of Australian politics as the society changes.

In addition to these long-term goals, the AES examines the political issues and personalities in each specific election and evaluates their importance in shaping the election result.

Trust in government has reached its lowest level on record, with just one-in-four Australians saying they had confidence in their political leaders and institutions, according to a major study of the 2019 Federal Election.

The latest Australian Election Study, conducted by The Australian National University (ANU), also found Australians' satisfaction with democracy is at its lowest since the constitutional crisis of the 1970s.

Dr Katrine Beauregard from the School of Politics and International Relations, and Dr Elisa deCourcy from the Australian Studies Institute and have been successful in the most recent ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) round.