Taxing Times for Women: Feminism Confronts Tax Policy

This paper is a transcription of the Dunhill Madden Butler Lecture, given at the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney on April 28, 1999.

The lecture's objective was to provide insight into the research work of feminist scholars on women and tax and to demonstrate the contribution this feminist work can make to our understanding of tax policy. This work is international in scope with scholars from many jurisdictions involved. While the author's work takes place in the Canadian context, in fact both the Australian and Canadian tax systems share similar basic underlying principles. The analysis presented is at the level of principles rather than a detailed analysis of the specific tax rules that vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

First, the author explains what is meant by taking a feminist perspective in tax policy analysis and demonstrates how such an approach builds on the more traditional tools of tax policy analysis. Then four particular aspects of our tax systems are looked at: 1. what is the appropriate tax unit, 2. the impact of the tax system on women's participation in the paid labour force, 3. women's unequal access to tax expenditures, and 4. the proposed Goods and Services Tax.

The author demonstrates the insights that the feminist critique brings and, indeed how women are disadvantaged in comparison to men by tax laws.