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Australian Law Has Reflected The Status Of Women

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Australian law has reflected the status of women in Anglo-Celtic culture. Today there are women in Australia from widely diverse cultural backgrounds and the law has a role in ensuring the safety, freedom, security and equality of opportunity for them all. As the status of women varies from culture to culture and changes over time, the law has had to adapt and evolve in order to fulfill its role.

Modern Australian law began its existence as British law, applying to 18th- and 19th-century women in their traditional roles. The social and political values of 19th-century Britain and Australia generally did not provide an opportunity for women to achieve public life, to have a career, to own property, to make economic decisions for themselves or to exert any substantial control over decision-making in their lives. Many women did not actively seek to change this situation, because they believed, or at least accepted, the social values of their time.
The primary role of a woman in the 18th and 19th centuries was that of domestic carer. She provided services such as child rearing and housekeeping, and support for her husband or father, who was considered the sole breadwinner and head of the household, and other males such as adult sons who may also have contributed.

Many social changes have occurred over time that have allowed women to gain the same rights that men have had for many years. The Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries changed the work

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