Welcome to Feminist Acts (Trailer)

When a relationship ends, coercive control doesn't end with it. Sometimes the perpetrator finds a new weapon. Often it's the legal system itself. They flood their ex-partner with paperwork, they book up every available lawyer in a rural town so there's no one left to represent the other side. They drag everything back to court. It's called systems abuse, and Australian courts don't currently recognise it as a form of family violence. So how do we name something that hides behind legitimate legal processes? A recent law graduate rewrote the law to recognise systems abuse as family violence in its own right, with penalties attached. In this episode, you'll learn: What "systems abuse" is, and how perpetrators weaponise legal process to keep controlling ex-partners after separation How someone can draft some of the most striking feminist legislation in this series, despite not identifying as a "feminist" What changes when we teach law students to draft legislation, not just study it Guests: Clarrissa Carson, Law Graduate at AjG Family Law Host: Becky Batagol, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University

One in ten Australians work in construction. But it has the worst gender equity in the country. Only 13% of construction workers are women. Just 2.5% of tradespeople are women. Two-thirds of construction firms have zero women on their boards. The toxic culture that follows produces some of the worst rates of mental ill-health and suicide in any sector. On most building sites, there isn't a single bathroom for a woman to use. So how do you change an industry that hasn't moved in thirty years? In this episode, you'll learn: Why hiring on "merit" in construction means hiring mates, and what happens when the mates are all blokes How the industry loses $8.3 billion every year by keeping women out What construction culture actually looks like for women (and why "you must be the stripper" is the opening line of this episode) Guests: Professor Paula Gerber, Faculty of Law, Monash University Rebecca Dickson, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, Monash University Dr Valerie Francis, Founder, Constructing Equity Hosts: Becky Batagol, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University Kate Seear, Professor, Deakin Law School, Deakin University Mentioned in this Episode: Read Rebecca Dickson and Paula Gerber’s proposal for ambitious quotas for female participation in the construction industry that all contractors seeking to work on government projects must meet, along with a strict compliance regime to ensure that the goal is achieved Read Valerie Francis’ commentary responding to Bec and Paula’s proposal Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Gender Equality Scorecard 2024-25 (27 November 2025) which shows that just over half of companies in the construction industry have no women on boards (see page 34). mentioned by Bec. Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Tackling the ‘pipeline problem’ in construction requires more than employer action (30 May 2024) discusses the kind of cultural change needed to achieve gender equality in the construction industry The National Association of Women in Construction which Paula helped to establish Building Pride, support and advocacy for LGBT+ identifying members of the construction and property industry mentioned by Paula Here’s a UK perspective on the ‘leaky pipeline’ for women architects, Women in architecture: the damaging workplace culture pushing talented professionals out by Lynne Mesher in The Conversation (2 October 2026) This piece that explains how Australia’s “macho” construction workplace cultures lead to poor mental health for the tradies who work in it: Risky business: how our ‘macho’ construction culture is killing tradies by Donna Moore in The Conversation (24 October 2019) The Electrical Trades Union report Nowhere to Go (2021), mentioned by Bec, which details unsanitary, unsafe, inaccessible and unsuitable toilet facilities for many construction workers and how this issue disproportionately impacts women One of the existing pieces of legislation Bec and Paula drew from for their Bill is the Local Jobs First Act 2003 (Vic) which requires the presence of locally-based apprentices and trainees and local supplies and labor in construction projects in the Australian State of Victoria. The other legislation that inspired Bec and Paula was the Gender Equality Act 2020 (Vic) which requires the Victorian public sector, local councils and universities to take action towards achieving workplace gender equality and consider and promote gender equality in their policies, programs and services. Norwegian rules for gender balance on boards mentioned by Paula took effect in 2025, which set a maximum number of board members of the same gender The Victorian government’s Building Equality Policy was discussed by Paula as an example of a program that uses procurement procedures to aim to create training and employment opportunities for women through government procurement on building, infrastructure, civil engineering and any other capital works projects Bec mentioned that the Property Council of

What would Parliament look like if it was remade by and for women? Australia's first female parliamentarian was told Parliament was "no place for a woman". Her name was Edith Cowan. She got elected and helped change the laws governing women’s lives. But within the chambers of Parliament itself, little has changed. Whether it's long stretches away from family, or the shouting matches of Question Time, Parliament still operates by rules designed around men’s lives. In this episode, we take on a political system that needs to change. What if two people could share one MP’s job? What if Parliament made room for caring responsibilities, shared power and a different way of doing politics? In this episode, you'll learn: Why getting more women elected is only part of the battle for better laws What trailblazing women who broke into politics and law can teach us about changing the rules How job-sharing MPs could open Parliament to more people and challenge the idea that power belongs to one person

Toilets are ground zero in a global culture war.

Australia's Constitution has no right to equality. It has no bill of rights. And our last attempt at constitutional change (the 2023 Voice referendum) failed. So we set our sights on 2048. We've re-written the Constitution for a Women's Constitutional Convention 20+ years from now.