This paper analyses the relationship between women's eman cipation, modernisation and suicide in Australia using data for the period 1901-85. The main finding of the paper is that mod ernisation/women's emancipation, as measured by an index composed of the female participation rate in the labour force, and the urbanisation rate, the female-male education ratio and the female-male employment ratio, is positively related to the male-female suicide ratio. Another finding of the paper is that while the female suicide rate in Australia rose steadily between 1901 and 1965, it has been falling significantly since that time. We discuss several reasons for this change in trend.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adler, F. (ed.) (1984), The Incidence of Female Criminality in the Contemporary World, New York , New York University Press.
2.
Adler, F. (1975), Sisters in Crime, New York , McGraw Hill.
3.
Adler, F. and Simon, R.J. (1979), Criminology of Deviant Women, Boston, Houghton Mifflin.
4.
Austin, R. (1982), 'Women's liberation and increases in minor, major and occupational offences', Criminology, Vol. 20, 407-430.
5.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Yearbook of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics, various issues.
6.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing, Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
7.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1985), Social Indicators Australia, Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
8.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1984, 1985), Deaths, Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
9.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1983), Suicides: Australia 1961-81, Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
10.
Black, C. (1966), The Dynamics of Modernization, New York, Harper and Row.
11.
Bonnell, S., Dickson, P. and Meagher, C.A. (1984), A Description of Income Distribution in Australia: 1973/74 to 1981/82, Canberra, Economic Planning Advisory Council.
12.
Bradbury, B., Doyle, J. and Whiteford, P. (1990), 'Trends in the disposable incomes of Australian families, 1982-83 to 1989-90', Discussion Paper No. 16, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales.
13.
Burvill, P.W. (1980), 'Changing patterns of suicide in Australia, 1910-1977 ', Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia, Vol. 62, 258-268.
14.
Chodorow, N. (1974), 'Family structure and feminine personality' in M.Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere (eds), Women, Culture and Society, Stanford, Stanford University Press.
15.
Cullen, F.T., Golden, K.N. and Cullen, J.B. (1979), 'Sex and delinquency', Criminology , Vol. 17, 301-310.
16.
Degler, C.M. (1981), At Odds: Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the Present, New York, Oxford University Press.
17.
Department of Social Security (1986), Social Security Review 1, Canberra, Department of Social Security.
18.
Durkheim, E. (1966), Suicide, New York, Free Press.
19.
Gilligan, C. (1982), In a Different Voice, Cambridge , Harvard University Press.
20.
Giordano, C. and Cernkovich, S.A. (1979), 'On complicating the relationship between liberation and delinquency', Social Problems, Vol. 26, 467-481.
21.
Greenwald, M. (1980), Women, War and Work: The Impact of WW I on Women Workers in the USWestport, Greenwood Press.
22.
Gujarati, D. (1978), Basic Econometrics, New York , McGraw Hill.
23.
Hagen, J., Simpson, J. and Gillis, A.R. (1988), 'Feminist scholarship, relational and instrumental control, and a power-control theory of gender and delinquency', The British Journal of Sociology, 39,3, 301-337.
24.
Hagen, J., Simpson, J. and Gillis, A.R. (1985), 'The class structure of gender and delinquency: toward a power-control theory of common delinquent behaviour', American Journal of Sociology,90,1151-78.
25.
Hagen, J., Simpson, J. and Gillis, A.R. (1987), 'Class in the household: a power-control theory of gender and delinquency', American Journal of Sociology ,92, 788-816.
26.
Hassan, R. and Tan, G. (1989), 'Suicide Trends in Australia, 1901-1985: An Analysis of Sex Differentials', Silicide and Life-Threatening Behaviour , 19,4, 362-380.
27.
Jensen, G.F. and Eve, R. (1976), 'Sex differences and delinquency: an examination of popular sociological explanation', Criminology, Vol. 13, 427-448.
28.
Leonard, E. (1982), Women, Crime and SocietyNew York, Longmans.
29.
Lester, D. (1972), Why People Kill Themselves, Springfield, Charles C. Thomas.
30.
Norland, S. and Shover, N. (1977), 'Gender, roles and female criminality: some critical comments', Criminology, Vol. 15, 187-204.
31.
Oliver, R.G. and Hetzel, B.S. (1972), 'Rise and fall of suicide rates in Australia: relation to sedative availability;, Medical Journal of Australia , Vol. 11, 919-923.
32.
Pollak, O. (1950), The Criminality of Women, Philadelphia, The University of Pennsylvania Press.
33.
Smart, C. (1976), Women, Crime and CriminologyLondon, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
34.
Stack, S. (1980), 'The effects of marital dissolution on suicide ', Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 42, 83-92.
35.
Stack, S. (1978), 'Suicide: a comparative analysis', Social Forces, Vol. 57, 566-584.
36.
Stack, S. and Danigelis, N. (1985), 'Modernization and the sex differential in suicide, 1919-72', Comparative Social Research, Vol. 8, 203-216.
37.
Stewart, A. and Winter, D.G. (1977), 'The nature and causes of female suppression', Signs, Vol. 2, 531-553.
38.
Treas, J. (1983), 'Trickle down or transfers? post-war determinants of family income inequality', American Sociological Review , Vol. 48, 546-560.
39.
Vamplew, W. (ed.) (1987), Australians: Historical Statistics, Melbourne, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon.
40.
Wasserman, I.M. (1984), 'A longitudinal analysis of the linkage between suicide, unemployment and marital dissolution', Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 46, 853-859.
41.
Withers, G., Anders, T. and Perry, L. (1985), Australian Historical Statistics: Labour Statistics , Canberra, Australian National University, Department of Economic History, Source Paper No. 7.
