Working Matilda: The representation of women and their working lives in Australian cinema

This paper examines the representation of women in Australian films with particular emphasis on the portrayal of women's work. Work-force and domestic roles are compared and contrasted over the historical scope of the Australian film industry. The paper demonstrates that roles have changed only marginally since the incorporation of Australia as a penal colony for Great Britain, although advances have been made in portraying independent, self-sufficient and self-fulfilled female characters. The few films which do break away from stereotypical role models of women are identified, and reasons for their differences are postulated (female directors, etc.). This reflection of Australia's archly conservative patriarchal position can be attributed largely to the oppressive society which has encouraged male bonding from the earliest days of the penal colony, yet has consistently devalued and discouraged feminist solidarity, resulting in the consistent images of "damned whores and god's police.".