It is well-known that men and women typically experience migration differently, and the challenges of balancing work and care in a new setting often leads to the feminization of women's roles. This is because they find themselves taking up more traditional gender roles as wives and mothers. In Australia, migrant women often experience downward occupational mobility and a re-orientation away from paid work and towards the domestic sphere (Ho, 2006). Globally, the key factors that prevent women from rising to the top of their professions are usually very similar. There are four common barriers that usually come into play. These include workplaces that are male dominated, childcare issues, administering family commitments, and a lack of suitable development opportunities (Shi, 2009). The amount of women in leadership positions is going up and yet more are still needed to sufficiently reflect and represent their exclusive needs and views in government and the community. There is also a need to improve the gender balance of leadership opportunities in public life (Leadership, n.d.).

The failure of feminist policy and public influence is also directly related to the downfall of a visible women's movement in Australia along with the failures of second-wave feminism. This includes its failure to include all groups of women and its failure to avoid what is thought to be white feminist imperialism. While there is clearly a strong presence of feminist practice in support for women in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault services, including self-determined services for Indigenous women and women from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, this has been largely silenced by an anti-feminist sentiment prevalent in governmental, political and wider public discourses, and the ongoing incommensurability of the politics arising from structuralism and post modern divides within feminism (Phillips, 2010).

References

17, 1996, pp
18-19.

Bonifacio, Glenda Lynna Anne Tibe. 2009, "Activism from the Margins Filipino Marriage Migrants in Australia." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 30(3), p.142-168

Ho, Christina. 2006. "Migration as Feminisation? Chinese Women's Experiences of Work and Family in Australia." Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies. 32(3), p. 497-514.

McLachlan, Helen and Waldenstrom, Ulla. 2005. Childbirth Experiences in Australia of Women Born in Turkey, Vietnam, and Australia. Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. 32(4), p.272-282

Piper, Nicola. (2004). Gender and Migration Policies in Southeast and East Asia: Legal Protection and Sociocultural Empowerment of Unskilled Migrant Women. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. 25(2), p. 216-231.

Rankin, L. Pauline and Vickers, Jill. 2001, "Women's Movements and State Feminism:

Integrating Diversity into Public Policy." Viewed 27 May 2010,

"Leadership." n.d., Viewed 27 May

Phillips, R, 2010, "Feminism, policy and women's safety during Australia's 'war on terror'."Viewed 27 May 2010, < http://www.palgrave-journals.com/fr/journal/v89/n1/full/fr20089a.html>

Shi, Yu Dan, 2009, "Difficulties for Women on the Rise." Viewed 27 May 2010,