Australian Community Studies — A Feminist Critique

Abstract

An analysis of the major Australian community studies since the sixties, shows that despite the scant attention paid to women in the earlier ones, a reanalysis does further our understanding of patriarchal social pro cesses and provides a perspective on developments within the social sciences. The later studies, which focus directly on women, demonstrate the potential of the community study for furthering our understanding of womens' lives, in particular, the way in which the ideology of male domination is perpetuated. These studies suggest that when women take an active part in local affairs, they may downplay this in order to preserve the traditionality of their relationship with their husbands. Thus the earlier community studies show how women's public activities may be obscured by male bias in research, while the later studies show that these activities may be obfuscated by women's own collusion with male hegemony.