ABSTRACT
In the light of that statement of position, this chapter examines some of the ways in which the ideology of the family has permeated Australian social life. It discusses in passing some of the consequences for women of their serving the national interest’ in their nuclear family roles. The national interest’ has indeed been rather selective as far as women and the family are concerned. The Right sought to restrict Asian immigration and, in the interests of cutting government expenditure, also called for the strengthening of traditional family ties with women providing the unpaid domestic welfare work of caring for the young, the sick and the aged. As the decade of the 1990s begins, high interest rates, unemployment levels that are particularly high for some immigrant categories and Aboriginal people, inadequate child care and the incidence of domestic violence all continue to strain or fracture family ties.
