Marian Sawer

The neo-liberal upsurge of the last twenty years and the neo-liberal case against the welfare state has gained much of its emotional force from a sub-text which is highly gendered. Whereas social liberalism had contained the promise of more autonomy within the private sphere and more caring values in the public sphere, neo-liberalism depicts the results of social liberalism as a loss of self reliance – through ‘over-protection’ by the state in the public sphere and usurpation of male roles in the private sphere. The identification of the welfare state as female (the ‘nanny state’) helps fuel resentment on the part of those already confused by rapidly changing gender roles. This paper tracks the sex change which took place in the image of the liberal state as it evolved out of the night watchman state – the link between the women's suffrage movement and social regulation, maternal principles of distribution and demands for the public organization of caring. It examines the neo-liberal rejection of the breast and neo-liberal claims that the maternal state is incompatible with ‘self-reliance’ and a barrier to competitiveness in the world market.

The ethical state-a state committed to the common good and equal opportunity-was a central tenet of the social-liberal theory that emerged in Britain in the late nineteenth century. Here, Marian Sawer explores how the new nation of Australia enthusiastically embraced the ideal. Translated as the 'fair go', and accepted by major policy makers on both the left and right of politics, social liberalism gave rise to the distinctively Australian institution of wage arbitration, and to other aspects of the welfare state such as public education, parks and pensions. For early Australian feminists it offered the alluring prospect of equality with men. A century later, the idea of the fair go may still resonate in political rhetoric, but liberalism has become a somewhat tarnished ideal. The dream of the ethical state lies in tatters, eroded by economic rationalism and user-pays ideology, and degraded by political machination. Has the social-liberal vision of the state as a vehicle for social justice completely run its course? Sawer argues no. Her timely book offers an astute critique of the challenges facing social-liberal thought, and issues a rallying cry for its revival.