Professor Marian Sawer BA Hons, MA, PhD ANU
Adjunct Professor

Research and teaching interests: Democratic theory and practice, electoral governance, representation, social liberalism, gender, politics and policy, social movements and the state, symbolic communication in politics

Office: Haydon-Allen 1201
Contact Number: 612 50130
Email: Marian.Sawer@anu.edu.au

Current Positions

Adjunct Professor, School of Social Sciences, ANU 2006-
Vice-President, International Political Science Association 2009-
Member Executive, International Political Science Association 2006-
Leader, Democratic Audit of Australia 2002-08, ANU Director, Democratic Audit of Australia 2008-

Awards

Australian Political Studies Assocation, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009
Member of the Governance Stream, 2020 Summit, 2008
Co-Winner, Wilma Rule Award 2000
Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, 1996-
Officer of the Order of Australia, 1994-

Past Positions

Professor, Political Science Program, RSSS, ANU, 2003-05
Head, Political Science Program, RSSS, ANU, 2000-03
Chair, IPSA Research Committee 19, 2003-06
President of the Australasian Political Studies Association, 1985-86

Current Research

One of Marian's major roles has been leading the ARC-funded Democratic Audit of Australia 2002-08. The capstone book, Australia: The State of Democracy, was launched by Special Minister of State, Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig, October 2009.

Marian has also led an ARC-funded history of Women’s Electoral Lobby , published as Making Women Count (UNSW Press). In March 2008 she co-presented the Pamela Denoon Lecture ‘Recipes for Revolt’ on the theme of the book, which was launched by the Hon. Maxine McKew MP in Kings Hall, Old Parliament House in October.

Together with Manon Tremblay and Linda Trimble she recently convened a four-country comparative project published by Routledge in 2006 (paperback 2008) under the title Representing Women in Parliament: A Comparative Study.

Marian has also been heading an international project on the trajectories of women's movements. The project was workshopped at an IPSA Roundtable in Fukyoka in 2006 and the resulting book, co-edited with Sandra Grey, was published by Routledge in April 2008 under the title: Women's movements: Flourishing or in abeyance?

She has recently won ARC-funding (2008-10) for a new project with Sarah Maddison on the evolution of social movements. It involves the construction of an event database for the Australian women's movement and relating the events data to institutional and discursive impacts (website).

Another international project for which Marian won an International Research Linkage grant in 2009 is on gender and multilevel governance. Workshops were held on the project in Ottawa in 2009 (participants) and a book, co-edited with Melissa Haussman and Jill Vickers will be published by Ashgate in 2010.

Recent Books

2009. Australia: The State of Democracy (with Norman Abjorensen and Phil Larkin), Federation Press,
pp. xii + 322. book
2008. Making Women Count: A history of the Women's Electoral Lobby in Australia , UNSW Press,
pp. xvi + 317 book
2008. Women's Movements: Flourishing or in abeyance? (edited with Sandra Grey), London & New York: Routledge, pp. xvi+183 book
2006; 2008. Representing Women in Parliament: A Comparative Study (edited with Manon Tremblay and Linda Trimble), London & New York: Routledge, pp. xxi + 278 book

2004. Us and Them: Anti-Elitism in Australia (edited with Barry Hindess), Perth: API Network, pp. 286 book
2003. The Ethical State? Social Liberalism in Australia, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. xii+224 (book)
2001. Elections: Full, Free and Fair (ed), Sydney: Federation Press, pp. xv+256 (cover)
2001. Speaking for the People: Representation in Australian Politics (edited with Gianni Zappalå), Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp.xii+330 (cover)

Recent Articles and Book Chapters

2010. ‘The case for Liberal women’, Australian Review of Public Affairs, February 2010. (website)

2010. ‘Women and Elections’, in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds) Comparing Democracies, 3rd edn, London: Sage, pp. 202-21.

2009. ‘Women and the 2007 federal election’, Australian Cultural History, 27 (2), pp. 167-174.

2009. ‘Down with elites and up with inequality: Market populism in Australia and Canada’(with David Laycock), Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 47 (2), pp. 133-150.

2009. ‘Women's work is never done: The Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act and the Pursuit of Equality’. (website)

2009. ‘Bridging the gap between government and the people’, Australian Policy Online, 6 May. (website)

2009. ‘Australian Women: Repertoires of Change’ (with Gwen Gray), in Joyce Gelb and Marian Lief Palley (eds) Women and Politics around the World: A Comparative History and Survey, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Vol. 2, pp. 247-65.

2009. ‘The Trouble with Federalism’, Australian Policy Online, 9 April. (website)

2009. ‘Blind to Gender?’, Australian Policy Online, 5 March. (website)

2008. ‘The State of Democracy: Auditing for Democratic Values in Australia’(with Norm Kelly), Revista catalana de dret public 37, pp. 285-314. (website)

2008. ‘Disappearing Tricks’, Dialogue 27 (3), pp. 4-9.(website)

2008. ‘Framing feminists’, in Yasmeen Abu Laban (ed) Gendering the Nation-State Vancouver: UBC Press, pp. 120-38.

2008. ‘Canada sets a radical example on campaign funding’, Australian Policy Online, 20 May. (website)

2008. ‘Presence and the Price: Women and the 2007 Australian federal election’, Australian Feminist Studies 23(56), pp. 263-69.(website)

2008. ‘The State of the Discipline: Australasian Political Science’, International Political Science: New theoretical and regional perspectives, IPSA, Montreal, 30 April - 2 May(website)

2008. ‘Introduction’ (with Sandra Grey), in Sandra Grey and Marian Sawer (eds) Women's Movements: Flourishing or in abeyance? London and New York: Routledge, pp. 1-13.

2008. ‘Changing frames: Liberal and feminist perspectives on Harvester’, Dissent, 26, pp. 45-49.

2008. ‘Cartoons for the Cause: Cartooning for Equality in Australia’, in Robert Phiddian and Haydon Manning (eds), Comic Commentators: Contemporary Political Cartooning in Australia,Perth: Network Books, pp. 101-24.

2008. ‘Managing the woman issue: The Australian state and the case of women in agri-politics’(with Barbara Pini and Ruth Panelli), International Feminist Journal of Politics 10 (2), pp. 173-97.

2007. ‘The Fall of the Femocrat’, in Joyce Outshoorn and Johanna Kantola (eds), Changing State Feminism, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 20-40. (website)

2007. ‘Liberalism’(pp. 320-23), Gender’ (pp. 224-27), EMILY's List’ (p. 182), in Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian Politics, Oxford University Press.

2007. ‘Property voting in local government: A relic of a pre-democratic era?’, Representation, 43 (1), pp. 45-52. (website)

2007. ‘Wearing Your Colours on Your Sleeve: The Role of Political Colours in Social Movements’, Social Movement Studies, 6 (1), pp. 39-56. (website)

2007. ‘Red, White and Blue,What Do They Mean to You?’, Papers on Parliament, 46, pp. 111-36.(website)

2006. With Manon Tremblay and Linda Trimble, ‘Introduction: Patterns and Practice in the Parliamentary Representation of Women’, in Marian Sawer, Manon Tremblay and Linda Trimble (eds), Representing Women in Parliament: A Comparative Study, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 103-19. (website)

2006. ‘When women support women...EMILY's List and the Substantive Representation of Women in Australia’, in Marian Sawer, Manon Tremblay and Linda Trimble (eds), Representing Women in Parliament: A Comparative Study, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 103-19. (website)

2006. ‘Generations of Advocacy’, in Louise Chappell and Deborah Brennan (eds), No Fit place for Women? Women in NSW Politics, Sydney: University of NSW Press, pp. 200-24.

2006. ‘Property Votes - OK?’, Democratic Audit of Australia Discussion Paper 23/06. (website)

2006. ‘Harder to vote, easier to donate’, Australian Policy Online, 8 June. (website)

2006. ‘From Women's Interests to Special Interests: Reframing Equality Claims’, in Louise Chappell and Lisa Hill(eds), The Politics of Women's Interests, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 111-29. (website)

2006. ‘Damaging Democracy? Early Closure of Electoral Rolls’, Democratic Audit of Australia Discussion Paper 5/06. (website)

2006. ‘Above-the-Line Voting: How Democratic?’ Representation, 41 (4), pp. 286-90.

2005. ‘Mums and Dads of Australia’, in Marian Simms and John Warhurst (eds), Mortgage Nation: The 2004 Australian Election , Bentley, WA: API Network, pp. 243-9.

2005. ‘The Senate and electoral democracy’, Green: The magazine of the Australian Greens 17 (website)

2005. ‘Framing Multiculturalism - From Social Justice to Ethnic Grievance Industry’, Mosaic 11 (3), pp. 6 - 10.

2005. ‘The Elites - Who Are They Really?’, The Sydney Papers 17 (2), pp. 12 - 19.

2005. ‘How Mr Fat Became Ms Bleeding Heart: Market Populism and the Future of the University’, Journal of the Public University Vol. 2. (website)

2005. ‘The Senate Changeover - Implications for Democracy’, Democratic Audit of Australia, July (website)

2005. ‘Canadian Elections - How Democratic?’, Australasian Canadian Studies, 22 (2) and 23 (1), pp. 5-12. Also available at Democratic Audit of Australia (website)

2005. ‘Australia and New Zealand’ (with Sandra Grey), in Yvonne Galligan and Manon Tremblay (eds), Sharing Power: Women, Parliament, Democracy, Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 171-87.

2005. ‘Parliamentary Terms’(with Norm Kelly), Democratic Audit of Australia, February (website)

2005. ‘Audit Values: Reflecting the Complexity of Representative Democracy’ , Democratic Audit of Australia, January (website)

2005. ‘Gender Equality in the Age of Governing for the Mainstream’, UNDAW Expert Group Meeting on National Machinery, Rome, Nov-Dec. 2004 (website)

2004. ‘The Impact of Feminist Scholarship on Australian Political Science’, Australian Journal of Political Science 39 (3), pp. 553-566 (website)

2004. ‘The Power of Us and Them’, Australian Financial Review, 22 October (website) Reprinted in Cameron Schraner (ed), 2005 Peace Yearbook, Surry Hills, NSW: People for Nuclear Disarmament NSW.

2004. ‘Inventing the Nation through the Ballot Box’, in Pierre Boyer, Linda Cardinal, David Headon (eds) From Subjects to Citizens: A Hundred Years of Citizenship in Australia and Canada , Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, pp. 61-80.

2004. ‘Replacing Plurality Rule with Majority Preferential Voting: Creating a Three-Party System’,in Josep M. Colomer (ed) The Handbook of Electoral System Design , Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 475-86.

2004. ‘When Women Support Women: EMILY’s List and the Representation of Women in Australia’, paper to APSA 2004, University of Adelaide (website)

2004. ‘The Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act: Aspirations and Apprehensions’, Women, Work and Equity: Special Forum to Mark the 20th Anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Act (website)

2004.‘Election 2004: How democratic are our elections?’, Australian Review of Public Affairs, September (website)

2004. ‘Suffrage Centenaries in Comparative Perspective’, Australian Canadian Studies 22 (1), pp. 115-36.

2004. ‘Comment: The Australian Settlement Undone’, Australian Journal of Political Science 39 (1), pp. 35-7.

2003. ‘Constructing Democracy’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 5 (3), pp. 361-5.

2003. ‘The Proliferation of Identity Politics in Australia: A Critique’, Australian Journal of Political Science 38 (3), pp. 557-60.

2003. ‘Enrolling the people: Electoral innovation in the new Australian Commonwealth’, in George Williams, Bryan Mercurio and Graeme Orr (eds), Realising Democracy: Electoral Law in Australia , Federation Press, pp. 52-65.

2003. ‘From Laborism to Equal Opportunity: Reinventing the Labor Party’, in Jenny Hocking and Colleen Lewis (eds), It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor , Melbourne: Circa, pp. 373-92.

2003.‘They do things differently there - Democracy in Western Australia’, Democratic Audit of Australia, November (website)

2003.‘Down with Elites: Up with Inequality’, Drawing Board 27 October ( website)

2003. ‘The Right to Stand but not to Sit: A Century of Women Candidates for the House of Representatives’, About the House 17, pp. 20-23.

2003.‘Anti-Elitism at the Turn of the Millenium’, Dialogue 22 (1), pp. 10-16.

2003.‘The Life and Times of Women’s Policy in Australia’ in Shirin Rai (ed) Mainstreaming Gender, Democratising the State? Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women Manchester University Press, pp. 243-63. Republished in paperback by Transaction Publishers, 2007.

2002. ‘Australia: The mandarin approach to gender budgets’, in Debbie Budlender and Guy Hewitt (eds) Gender Budgets Make More Cents London: Commonwealth Secretariat, pp. 43-64.

2002. ‘Representation of Women: Meaning and Make-Believe’, Parliamentary Affairs 55 (1), pp. 5-18. Republished in Karen Ross (ed)Women, Politics and Change Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 5-18.

2002. ‘Governing for the Mainstream: Implications for Community Representation’, Australian Journal of Public Administration 61 (1), pp. 39-49.

2002. ‘Cartoons for the cause: Cartooning for equality in Australia’, Ejournalist 1 (2), pp. 1-14 ( Website) .

2002. ‘Waltzing Matilda: Gender and Australian Political Institutions’ in Geoffrey Brennan and Francis G. Castles (eds) Australia Reshaped: 200 Years of Institutional Transformation Cambridge University Press, pp. 148-80.

2002. ‘Making Democracy Safe for Students’, Drawing Board , 26 August (Website)

2002. ‘In Safe Hands? Women in the 2001 Election’ in John Warhurst and Marian Simms (eds) 2001: The Centenary Election University of Queensland Press, pp. 253-59.

2001. ‘Inventing the Nation through the Ballot Box’, Papers on Parliament 37, pp. 69-81.

2001.‘Pacemakers for the world?’ and ‘Political parties, partisanship and electoral governance’ (with James Jupp), in Elections Full, Free and Fair Federation Press, pp. 1-27 and 216-233.

2001.‘Representing Trees, Acres, Voters and Non-voters: Concepts of Parliamentary Representation in Australia’ and ‘A Matter of Simple Justice? Women and Parliamentary Representation’ in Speaking for the People: Representation in Australian Politics Melbourne University Press, pp. 36-63 and 162-188. Also Introduction and Conclusion (with Gianni Zappala), pp. 1-15 and 272-292.

2001.‘Women’s Constitutional Activism in Australia and Canada’ (with Jill Vickers), Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 13 (1), pp. 1-36.

2001. ‘Women and Government in Australia’, Year Book Australia 2001 Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics (CAT No. 1301.0), pp. 72-89.

Personal
Marian Sawer was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia for her secondary education. She is married to James Jupp and has three grown-up daughters.