ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the fortunes of feminism in the Australian legal academy are closely intertwined with the prevailing political ideology. Social liberalism, with its commitment to egalitarianism, a robust civil society, and a modicum of tolerance for the Other, coincided with the flowering of second-wave feminism. While necessarily constrained by capitalism, social liberalism includes an element of distributive justice effected by the state through welfare policies and a regime of progressive taxation. Programs include universal health care and education, as well as income support for the unemployed, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and single mothers. The ostensible success of institutional feminism in the legal academy was short-lived. Indeed, the seeds of a more market-oriented incarnation of liberalism had been sown by Gough Whitlam himself in advocating trade liberalisation in the 1960s and cutting tariffs by 25 per cent in the 1973 budget.
