In the second half of the twentieth century many feminist law reform projects were pursued in Australia, including new legal rights to non-discrimination and the adjustment of labour laws in order to support women in the labour market. This article unpacks Australian developments in work related legal entitlements designed for the purpose of supporting women in paid work, including those designed more broadly to assist workers, including men, with responsibilities to care for others such as children or elderly relatives. It examines the extension of these rights to LGBT workers. The paper reveals ways in which Australian developments have displaced some markers of the breadwinner ideology of earlier legal regulation, whilst at the same time replicating central aspects of those social and cultural sets of understandings.
International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations