Jenny Morgan

Examining Understandings of Equality: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

This article reflects on the ways in which developments in feminist legal theory, and in particular, the attention paid to theories of equality, have influenced developments in substantive law. The authors review the period between 1990 and 2002; the period of 12 years between the publication of the first and second editions of their co-authored book, The Hidden Gender of Law. They ask why (Australian) courts seem barely to have engaged with the sophisticated discourses of equality that have emerged not only from the academy, but also from some of the jurisprudence developed in other countries, notably Canada and South Africa. While the examples discussed are disparate, what unites them is the theme of equality.

Homicide law reform and gender: Configuring violence

This article charts aspects of the engagement by formal law reform agencies with feminist ideas in the context of homicide law reform. This requires, of course, a concentration on violence against women. The article uses law reform work on the provocation defence to map the ways in which violence against women was an apparent driver of reform. It has Victorian law reform as its focus, and concentrates on the various manifestations of independent law reform agencies in Victoria – the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC), and its two predecessor agencies, the Law Reform Commission of Victoria (LRCV) and the Law Reform Commissioner. The article explores the thesis that when law reform, at least homicide law reform, is driven by the social context in which the legal phenomenon of interest occurs, one is more likely to get progressive legal change than where reform is driven by legal categories. However, that social context had itself to be configured and the paper briefly traces the identification of ‘domestic violence’ as a social phenomenon.

Changing media coverage of violence against women:: The role of individual cases and individual journalists

This article reports on recent research on some of the factors that may have led to changes in the way journalists report Violence Against Women (VAW) in Australia. Until recently, VAW has been largely reported by focusing on seemingly isolated events, rather than reporting VAW as a social problem, which has complex causes and requires a society-wide response. We report here on intensive interviews in two Australian newsrooms, both of which made decisions to campaign for social change on the issue of VAW. Two major themes that were evident in the interviews were, first, the influence of individual cases and, secondly, the important role of individual journalists and editors in driving coverage. We then examine the extent to which participants in our research saw VAW as an issue of gender inequality. We conclude with a brief discussion that places this journalism within the context of the work over more than 40 years of VAW activists and others to have VAW recognised as a social problem.

Changing Media Coverage of Violence Against Women: Changing sourcing practices?

This article reports on recent research concerning the use of sources by journalists reporting violence against women (VAW) in Australia. Until recently, VAW has been largely reported in the media by focusing on seemingly isolated events, rather than reporting VAW as a social problem. The international literature and Australian empirical studies show that journalists rely on law enforcement personnel as the expert “voices” that inform debate in the media, with an absence of survivors of violence, advocates, service providers and researchers. We report here on recent research focusing on intensive interviews in two Australian newsrooms, both of which made decisions to campaign for social change on the issue of VAW. We find that in the case of an “old media” newspaper, sourcing practices have not changed. Law enforcement personnel are still key—but changing attitudes within the police force were a key driver of the newsroom’s recognition of the scale and nature of the problem and the decision to launch a campaign. However, in the case of a commercial broadcast current events programme, social media played a key role both in sourcing practices and in spurring journalists to do more reporting on the issue. Social media was also increasingly being used to source subjects for interview, including survivors of domestic violence. We conclude with discussion of the implications of our findings for the domestic violence sector and its media relations, and question whether the media’s recent attention to VAW as a social issue will be sustained.

On The Hidden Gender of Law: A Public Talk

Reg Graycar and Jenny Morgan’s The Hidden Gender of Law was published in 1990.1 On 10 March 2015, at Melbourne Law School, Jenny Morgan and Reg Graycar gave the annual International Women’s Day lecture. The lecture was organised by Abbey Ley and Amelia Eddy, the 2015 Women’s Officers of the Melbourne Law School Law Students’ Society. Reg and Jenny were invited to stage a conversation in order to consider the production, reception and legacy of their book.