ABSTRACT
In this chapter I explore the dual and seemingly contradictory theses concerning western women’s freedom and oppression with a view to elucidating the terms of what I call the ‘new sexual contract’. I examine two sets of literature to explore the configuration of gender relations in the contemporary west: first, sociological accounts of late or ‘second age’ modernity; and second, sociological research on the changing position of women, in particular, in relation to education, the labour market and the family within the Australian context, although comparisons are made with other Euro-American nations. Together these literatures provide the theoretical framework for understanding and interpreting the new sexual contract. This contract has quite specific contours and only takes root after women become mothers – although its effects are felt on those who are not. In keeping with the central dialectic outlined in earlier chapters, I argue that modernity has both enabled and disabled women in diametrically opposed yet interrelated ways. Specifically, I make an evidence-based argument that women are free as individuals and constrained as mothers, with the twist that the very freedom women have gained as individuals relates directly to the difficulties they face as mothers.
