Enacting Intersectionality: A Case Study of Gender Equality Law and Positive Equality Duties in Victoria

Abstract

While intersectionality offers important ideas to advance and extend understandings of inequality, it can be difficult to operationalise in practice. Intersectionality has rarely been integrated into the Australian legal framework. The Gender Equality Act 2020 (Vic) is one of the first discrimination statutes in Australia seeking to operationalise intersectionality. The Act establishes a new positive equality duty for the Victorian public sector, including requirements for ‘defined entities’ to report data on intersectional gender equality. The Act, and its implementation, therefore offers a critical case study for evaluating an intersectional approach to equality. Drawing on legal doctrin..