Kaye Schofield is a consultant to governments and industry on vocational education, training and employment issues in Australia. She was the first woman appointed as Chief Executive Officer of a State Department in TAFE in Australia. This article is an edited version of a paper presented at the Women, Power and Politics conference held in Adelaide, South Australia, in October 1994.

1. 1972 was a defining year of change for women in Australia. In December the conservative Liberal federal government, in power since 1949, was defeated by the federal Labour Party committed to equity and social justice and to fundamental social and community reforms. The new government was influenced by and in turn supported feminist demands. For example, in health and community services, the principal policy goals were legal and cheap abortion, rape crises centers, women's shelters and increased expenditures on child care. In education and training the agenda included access to child care, re-entry programs for mature aged women, Aboriginal women and women from non-English speaking backgrounds, elimination of sexism in curriculum materials and teaching practices, increased participation of women in traditionally male areas of training, equal employment opportunity and the appointment of women to specialist positions within government to support and achieve change.
   
   
2. In Australia, TAFE colleges are the publicly funded training providers, managed and largely funded by state government departments.
   
   
3. The eight items on the Agenda are: Competency Based Training; Competency Standards; National Recognition of Training; Curriculum Delivery and Assessment; Entry Level Training; Open Training Market; Access and Equity; and Funding for Training.
   
   
4. Lyndall Ryan, "Feminism and the Federal Bureaucracy, 1972-1983" in Sophie Watson, ed., Playing the State: Australian Feminist Interventions. Verso: London, 1990, p.83.
   
   
5. Stephen Bell & Brian Head, "Australia's Political Economy: Critical themes and issues" in Stephen Bell & Brian Head, eds., State, Economy and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994.
   
   
6. Helinka Williams & Wendy Burns, Flexible Training Strategies for Women: A Report on Research Undertaken in 1993. A national project funded by the National Plan of Action for Women and TAPE. Open Learning Unit, South Australian Department of Employment, Training and Further Education, Adelaide, 1994, p.iii.
   
   
7. Wyn Grant (with J. Sargent), Business and Politics in Britain. Macmillan, London, 1987, p.246, quoted in Stephen Bell & Brian Head, "Australia's Political Economy," p.21.