Domestic Lives

Question 1

Overview of key issues women faced in Aotearoa in this sphere

Answer 1

One of the main sayings of the feminist movement was “the personal is political”

• Recognition of domestic labour and division of labour within the home
• Free/affordable, high quality child care
• A change to the very structure of marriage
• Raising awareness around domestic violence

Question 2

1 action that SWFs took on these issues was CONFRENCES

Answer 2

At feminist conferences, workshops were formed to analyse the position of housewives and to advocate for their value against the pervasive low esteem evident in the apoplectic manner in which many women introduced themselves as: ‘only a housewife”.

Question 3

1 action that SWFs took on these issues was MEDIA PUBLICATIONS

Answer 3

Publications such as Broadsheet and Thursday worked to raise awareness, as well as the Women’s Weekly published an article in 1978 went into depth about the extent of violence and the experiences of ‘battered wives’
In this article Miriam Jackson, a researcher, argued:
“We need to encourage women to be independent and confident, to be able to overcome […] domestic situations that are so damaging to themselves and their children”

Question 4

1 key Impact n NZ women’s lives due to to SWF is The Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB)

Answer 4

SOCIAL
In 1973 the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) was introduced. This benefit, paid to solo parents, gave women the freedom to leave abusive relationships.
It became the focus of much of the social unease stirred up by the changes in marriage and family patterns, and the challenges which women were increasingly making to traditional expectations as wives and mothers.

Question 5

1 key Impact n NZ women’s lives due to to SWF is THE MATRIMONIAL PROPERTY ACT

Answer 5

ECONOMIC
1976
Provided for a fair division of property when someone’s relationship ends, taking into account the interests of their children, the general presumption being that a couple’s property will be divided equally between them. This gave women some financial stake within marriage and a financial basis on which to consider a future should the marriage end.