History of Feminism in Australia

1. History of Feminism in Australia

2. What is feminism?

3. Why are the words used so important? • How does language shape how we see something?

4. A joke… A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies instantly, and the son is taken to the nearest hospital. The surgeon comes in and exclaims "I can't operate on this boy." "Why not?" the nurse asks. "Because he's my son," the surgeon responds. How is this possible?

5. The surgeon is the boys mother.

6. What is feminism?

7. What is feminism? • Used by those who supported women’s suffrage (1870’s and 80’s) • Used scornfully – to denigrate women who did not fit in • Used to signal change from – ‘women’s movement’ for the vote when they wanted new things • Used to signal a desire for - political revolution and social revolution

8. What is feminism? • Often seen in polar opposition to ‘women’s liberation’ movement • Often questioned in making people different – different types of feminism – or including everyone under a imperialist framework. • Sometimes seen as problematic – creating a binary distinction between men and women

9. What is feminism? • Feminism is generally focused on giving rights to women • Ideas of equality • A changing term reflecting a changing viewpoint about what is equality and what should peoples rights be?

10. Waves of Feminism in the world • Sometimes feminism is talked about in waves. Particularly as a worldwide movement. • First Wave – suffragettes 1800’s – 1910’s – official inequalities • Second wave – women in the 1960’s-70’s – unofficial inequalities • Third wave – 1990’s – now – in response to backlashes

11. In Australia • Often seen to be five phases 1. ‘Woman’s Movement’ 2. ‘Woman Citizen’ 3. ‘Equality of opportunity’ 4. ‘Sexual freedom’/ ‘Women’s Liberation’ 5. ‘Post-colonial feminism’ These phases often overlapped.

12. Women’s Movement • 1880’s – 1890’s • Campaigned for social reforms to protect women • To ‘protect’ women and children • Liquor reforms and restricting men’s sexual access to women and children

13. Aims • Wanted to create an Australian identity with strong women as well. • ‘New world’ of Australia was idealised as a secure and prosperous place for all. • The Woman question was also a Man question. • Freedom of women linked to the restriction of men’s liberties. • Women as the moral agents of society have a ‘civilising nature’. Create an ideal country.

14. Aims / Identity • Women wanted universal suffrage. There had been male suffrage in the eastern colonies since the 1850’s. • Tried to raise age of consent (sometimes to as high as 21) • In South Australia it was raised to 16 in 1885 (echoing Britain who also raised it to 16 in the same year)

15. Women’s Christian Temperance Unit of South Australia

18. ‘What next’ • Bulletin 1896 • Bicycles and pantaloons

19. Show clip from Australian screen education history women

20. Rose Scott secretary of the New South Wales Womanhood Suffrage League Deplored the fact “boys are taught by public opinion that it is manly to know life! To drink, to gamble and to be immoral…”

21. Concerns • Why was alcohol a concern? • Why did it become a ‘women’s issue’? • Why was the age of consent a big issue? • Why might men have been against these campaigns?

22. Progress • 1884 first female suffragette society began • Creation of the WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) which had a number of different branches. The most powerful being suffrage. - this helped to create a feeling of nationhood rather than different colonies connection (Australian rather than Victorian) • 1895 first votes for women in South Australia (for all women including Aboriginal women) • 1900 women get right to vote in Western Australia

23. Woman Citizen • 1900 – 1930’s • Women balancing desires between maternal mission of protection with feminist emphasis on independence. • Moving in different directions from former ideals and focuses. • Demands for equal pay, motherhood endowment, working with aboriginal women.

24. Aims • To mobilise the woman’s vote • To protect women by having women in public position as police/gaol wardens, health inspectors and doctors so that they were not in the hands of men. • Still a protectionist role. • Wanted a motherhood endowment • Wanted women’s right to economic independence. • Sex and citizenship seen as a contradiction.

30. Enid Lyons So we take comfort, Heinemann, London, 1965pp. 117 “Two months before the new baby was born I was asked to speak at the opening of the Federal election campaign [1922]. At five o’clock on the day of the meeting I was totally unprepared. I had had a particularly trying day, with no time to make a note or even collect my thoughts. And now it was nearly the children’s bedtime. I felt desperate... I was tired to death. The baby on my knee was crying with fatigue, the other children were quarrelling noisily. Suddenly I burst into tears. This was not fair. No man was expected to endure such things. When Joe prepared a speech I silenced the whole house so that he could concentrate on his task.”

31. United Association of Women (Pamphlet) – formed in 1929 “Woman’s point of view is not the same as man’s. Her sense of values is different, she places greater value oh human life, human welfare, health and morals.”

32. Report of the Royal Commission, WA Parliamentary Papers 1935 p.225 “No department in the world can take the place of a child’s mother and the Honorable Minister does not offer any valid justification for the official smashing of native family and community life.” Concerns about Aboriginal women.

33. Mary Bennett “Economic dependence is the root of all evil.”

34. Concerns • Why were women still focused on ‘protection’ rather than equality? • In order for there to be equality who had to be involved? • What did equality mean in those times? • Why were Aboriginal women a concern for these feminist groups? • Why is economic dependence the root of all evil?

35. Progress • 1902 – Federal suffrage • 1903 – first women stand for Parliament Vida Goldstein, Nellie Martel, and Mary Ann Moore Bentley • 1904 – votes in Tasmania • 1909 – votes in Victoria. Victoria was the last to allow women voters. • 1921 – First woman elected to Parliament Edith Cowan

36. Progress • Creation of Maternal and Infant welfare clinics • Women’s hospitals • Maternity allowance • Child endowment • Custody and maintenance rights • Appointment of women to ‘protectionist’ roles like police and health inspectors • Censorship of film and books • Restrictions on the sale of alcohol

37. Equality of Opportunity • 1940’s – 1960’s • Women wanted more involvement in public life • No longer saw that women should be given the vote because they were ‘different’ and more moral. • The maternal guardian was turned aside to become equality for all citizens.

38. Aims/Issues • In the 1930s’ scapegoating of women workers • Women were forced to defend the right of married women to work • Wanted representation in parliament and not just to use their vote.

46. National Health and Medical Research Council Report 1944 pp. 70 -73Statements made by women to state why they were limiting their families “We women are on strike and we will stay that way until we get a fair deal.” “Confinement is generally understood to mean only the period of labour, but for many women life is ‘solitary confinement’ for long periods of time.”

47. Women’s comments (contd) “My family would have been bigger if I could have been sure of (1) reliable permanent domestic help, (2) freedom from financial worry, (3) a decent home. These are in order of importance.” “It is simply – we desire security. We desire to express our personalities in our own way, we desire obsolete customs eliminated, and certainly we desire a voice in our own destinies.” “You men in easy chairs say, ‘populate or perish’. Well, I have populated and I have perished – with no blankets.”

48. Women’s comments (contd) “The lack of medical science’s power to enable women to have painless childbirth. If scientists were to enable man to have the first child there would not be a third…”

49. Editorial, The Australian Women’s weekly, 25 September 1943 p. 10 “Both Dame Enid and Miss Tangney should have something worthwhile to contribute to the councils of legislators in the Federal capital. Their election is a step forward for the women’s movement here. Their achievements will greatly influence the future success of Australian women who seek parliamentary honours.”

50. Concerns • What had changed during this time period that would affect the way that women and women’s roles were seen? • What did equality mean for these women? • Why were married women who worked scapegoated? What impact would this have?