ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the relationship between feminism and multiculturalism in Australia, with its particular history of migration and related policy. International debates within feminism provide context for the Australian debates and their particular nuances. The chapter examines the relationship between gender and ethnicity in the context of schooling, the family and policy development, and this research is used to illustrate general arguments about feminism and multiculturalism. The relationship between multiculturalism and feminism has been framed by Australia's national imaginary, which relies on imagined whiteness and a form of hyper-masculinity, entangled in terms such as 'mateship'. Debates about minority cultural maintenance have been read through feminist understandings of the family as a site of women's oppression. Discussions about the emasculation of black men and the ramifications for black women were drawing attention to the complicated responsibilities women had towards combatting both racism and sexism.
