CHAPTER 9 - 1919 to 1935 - Surviving

'... nor can women as a whole owe obedience to men as a whole, as prescribed by modern governments.'
Vida Goldstein

Ruin 914 Remains of Cathedral at Albert in France State Library of Victoria pi000174

Tranter Diary, 22 March 1918: 'As we passed through Albert, the last of the civilians were leaving it - old people, tiny children, all making their way to a safer place, taking with them what few belongings they could. One family we saw resting on the roadside, one tiny child asleep on the baggage and a little girl about 10 years standing with her hands on her hips looking back towards the home they had been forced to leave - a look of defiance and hatred on her face. Scenes like this will live forever.' Bruce Skates & Raelene Frances Women & the Great War, p 33 CUP 1997

1...'WE HAVE SAVED THE WORLD FROM THE GERMANS HEAVEN SEND SOMETHING TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM US 2...THE ARMISTACE 3...THE ZURICH WOMEN'S 1919 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR PERMANENT PEACE  and 4...THE WOMEN'S RESPONSE TO THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES 5...Statement of Principles of the WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM (WILPF) 6...MORE RESPONSE OF AUSTRALIAN WOMEN 7...FROM AUSTRALIA - MR HUGHES DEMANDS 8...WHAT WOMEN GOT Some responses from the Women's Movement were 9.. TRYING TO RECOVER FROM WAR 10..LIVING STANDARDS FALLING 11..1919-20 THE BASIC WAGE BETRAYAL 12..EQUAL PAY?  and 13..1922 ANTI FEMINIST REACTUION 14..THE CLOTHING TRADE UNION  then we look at 15..RETURNED NURSES' CONDITIONS

There were 16..A FEW WINS IN THE ROARING TWENTIES women were 17..AGITATING FOR A MATERNITY ALLOWANCE 18..AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION OF WOMEN VOTERS 19..MORE ANTI-FEMINIST REACTION 20..1930 THE HEAGNEY- RILEY REPORT ON UNEMPLOYED WOMEN  the 21..UNEMPLOYED GIRLS' RELIEF MOVEMENT  then 22..1932 MORE DEPRIVATION  but 23..WOMEN DIDN'T TAKE IT LYING DOWN Women's organisations took action such as 24..THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 25..'INTRUDING INTO ANZAC DAY' 26..1930 WOMEN'S PEACE DEMONSTRTION 27..1931 THEY CELEBRATED INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 28..1932 THEY PARTICIPATED IN THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LEAGUE  and in 29..1934 THEY SUPPORTED ANTI-FASCIST UNIONS   30..1935 EVICTION STRUGGLES

1...'WE HAVE SAVED THE WORLD FROM THE GERMANS. HEAVEN SEND SOMETHING TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM US.'

Although peace had been declared the blockade on Germany was continued -
Woman Voter March 27 1919: 'The Starving Babies of Germany - From Miss Harriet Newcomb comes a letter describing the terrible sufferings of mothers and babies in Germany, the result of that unfortunate "military necessity", the British Blockade. To some minds it contains the absolute condemnation of militarism in each and all of its manifestations ... "The pitiful condition of thousands of poor little babies in Germany cannot be exaggerated. It can only be compared with the state of things known in India during one of the worst famines ... The medical authorities in Germany had appealed to England for 1,000,000 india-rubber teats (as) the starving mothers cannot suckle their infants. (The Women's International League sent 1,000,000 teats to Germany. You can support them by ...)" Baillieu Library

Doris McRae: 'I saw demonstrations of starving people, including women and children, in Germany and realised that there was great hatred of the Treaty of Versailles.' Ruth Crow papers, A Biography of Doris McRae 1893-1988 PHD University of Melbourne

From Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (sent to Vida Goldstein) -
Woman Voter July 3 1919: 'Reflections - Peace has come. Let those who can still deceive themselves celebrate it. It is unspeakable, what there is of it. We have saved the world from the Germans. Heaven send something to save the world from us. A wonderful people we are ... was there ever our like before? We consign to starvation a million people - women, little children and old men - firmly refusing to end our war with them, even when the war with their men has ceased. Meanwhile our parsons bang their pulpit cushions and rant against "those nations that make war on women and children". We bomb defenceless towns from the air, while our press is still yelling for the blood of those who transgressed international law and our gentle women and brave men bear these unnamable things with an equanimity in which can be detected not one quiver of protest ..." Baillieu Library University of Melbourne

Armenian refugee children Auchterlonie Collection State Library of Victoria

2...THE ARMISTACE

Eleanor Moore: '... On November 11, 1918, the war in Europe came to an end with dramatic suddenness. All combatants on both sides instantaneously obeyed the order, 'Cease firing !' thus proving once again how completely the operation of war is within the control of its directors and how perfectly able men are to stop it whenever they will.' The Quest for Peace As I have known it in Australia Eleanor M Moore

3...THE ZURICH WOMEN'S 1919 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR PERMANENT PEACE

'By the time the International Committee of Women summoned a second Congress in May 1919, the predominant mood was one of disillusionment. The Congress did not after all meet side by side with the official Peace Conference at Versailles, since its delegates from the Central Powers (mainly Germany) would not be permitted to enter France. Instead, a neutral location was selected at Zurich, and here the Congress gathered from May 12 to 19, 1919 ... The three Australian delegates - Vida Goldstein, Cecilia John and Eleanor Moore - had travelled ten weeks to attend the Congress ...

The marks of war were visible for all to see in the faces of the delegates from the defeated countries. Some had been present four years earlier at the Hague, and the change in them was pitiful. Scarred and shrivelled by hunger and deprivation, they were scarcely recognizable ...' Pioneers for Peace - Women's International League for Peace and Freedom 1915-1965 Allen & Unwin 1965

Eleanor Moore: 'The farewell of the German delegation to us all had been a sad one. Their last message was: "Think of us; we are going back into the night." Dr (Helene) Stocker and I had a long talk in a strange mixture of English and German. She was deeply disheartened. She said that she and other German pacifists had assured their people that, once they discarded their militarism, the Allies, and especially the English, were ready to welcome them into a peaceful family of nations. "But," she said, "it is not so. We have surrendered, and their one thought is to crush and starve us." I tried to cheer her, but indeed it was hard to find anything cheerful in the prospect. We know now what sort of future was even then being engendered by the post-war policy of the victors, and what came of it.' The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia 1949 Melbourne

Gertrude Bussey and Margaret Tims: 'They were shocked and disturbed at what was happening. Their first act was to demand the raising of the blockade in Germany; immediate relief measures; and, if necessary, food rationing in every country. They believed there would be another war in twenty years if the Versailles treaty went ahead and wrote that it would: "create all over Europe discords and animosities which can only lead to future wars. ... this generation in the heart of Europe are condemned to poverty, disease and despair ..." Pioneers for Peace - Women's International League for Peace and Freedom 1915-1965

The New York Times May 15 1919 :'PARIS, May 14 - 'The conference at Zurich also telegraphed to the (Versailles) Peace Conference a resolution, which had been adopted unanimously, deploring the famine and pestilence in Central and Eastern Europe and urging that the inter allied war organization be transformed immediately into an international peace organization to deal with food, finance, and transport throughout the world. The resolution also urged that relief be organized immediately, and that if the supply of food and transport were not sufficient all countries be rationed. It was added that no luxuries should be transported from one country to another until relief had been sent to all peoples. Among the American women who are attending the Zurich conference are Miss Jane Addams, Miss Lillian Wald, Mrs Florence Kelly, and Miss Jeanette Rankin.'

The 'Zurich Women's Conference Says They "Continue Rule of Force and Spoilation". Paris May 14 - 'The Peace Conference today received from the Women's International Conference for Permanent Peace at Zurich the resolution denouncing the terms of peace with Germany.' Copyright http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9807E5DA163AE03ABC4D52DFB3668382609EDE

Macedonian Refugees, Salonika front Australian War Memorial AO3464

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4...THE WOMEN'S RESPONSE TO THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

Gertrude Bussey and Margaret Tims: 'The Zurich Congress, meeting immediately after the allied peace terms were made public, was the first international gathering to consider and pronounce on the treaty of Versailles. Its verdict amounted to an overwhelming indictment of the terms:

"This International Congress of Women expresses its deep regret that the terms of peace proposed at Versailles should so seriously violate the principles upon which alone a just and lasting peace can be secured, and which the democracies of the world had come to accept.
- By guaranteeing the fruits of the secret treaties to the conquerors, the terms of peace tacitly sanction secret diplomacy, deny the principles of self-determination, recognize the rights of the victors to the spoils of war, and create all over Europe discords and animosities which can only lead to future wars.
- By the demand for the disarmament of one set of belligerents only, the principle of justice is violated and the rule of force is continued.
- By the financial and economic proposals a hundred million people of this generation in the heart of Europe are condemned to poverty, disease and despair, which must result in the spread of hatred and anarchy within each nation.

With a deep sense of responsibility, this congress strongly urges the Allied and Associated Governments to accept such amendments of the terms as shall bring the peace into harmony with those principles first enumerated by President Wilson, upon the faithful carrying out of which the honour of the Allied peoples depends.

This resolution, too, was telegraphed to Versailles, but it is doubtful if it even raised a blush.

A more difficult matter for the Congress to agree on was the proposed League of Nations embodied in the Treaty. Although the formation of such a League was warmly approved, the Covenant as drafted was considered unsatisfactory on many points. Certain provisions which were held to be essential for establishing peace were violated or omitted ...

One proviso of the draft Covenant, however, was noted with satisfaction: "that women should be admitted to all positions in connection with the League'. The undeniable advance in the struggle for the political rights of women seemed to the Congress the one bright gleam in an otherwise gloomy outlook. In the years between 1915 and 1919 partial or complete franchise had been granted to women in Austria, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Russia and in many of the American states.

Determined that the gains already made should not be lost, the Zurich Congress adopted a formal constitution incorporating the principles and aims of the international women's peace movement which had grown out of the Hage Congress and been consolidated through the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace ... the name was amended to Women's International League for Peace and Freedom ...' Pioneers for Peace - Women's International League for Peace and Freedom 1915-1965

5...Statement of Principles of the WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM (WILPF)

1. War, the systematic mass killing of human beings, sanctified and directed by responsible rulers, is the supreme atrocity of the modern world.
2. International war and civil war both come under the same condemnation.
3. The WILPF exists as a living protest against the assumption that in the nature of things wars are bound to recur and that preparation for them is necessary.
4. War is a preventable evil and can be brought to an end whenever human beings make up their minds that they will tolerate no more of it.
5. Other and superior means are available for the solution of every problem that can possibly arise. Abolition of the military system would compel statesmen to have recourse to these humane and intelligent methods.
6. To all chivalric, patriotic, picturesque and sentimental sanctions for war the WILPF opposes the experience of womanhood wherever war occurs. The miseries of want and destitution, and the unnamable outrages on women which accompany all war, completely falsify its claim to be an effective defender of the home and the family.
p 188 Appendix No 16 Eleanor M Moore, The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia, 1949

Statement of Aims - See Appendix 1 for Statement of Aims 1915 to 1937

Picasso peace emblem, reproduced with the kind permission of WILPF

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6...MORE RESPONSE OF AUSTRALIAN WOMEN

The women were coming from a different position from the politicians, with a wider world view. This is taken from the Women's Political Association paper, the -
Woman Voter: 'Dear Friend, ... As women are not included amongst the delegates to the Peace Conference of the Powers, it is essential that the Women's Peace Congress should express itself on the question of a Constructive Peace -

1. Because women and children are the greatest sufferers of war.
2. Because post-war problems will vitally affect the children of the future and the status of men and women in industry.

Whether social and industrial freedom are to be worked out by constitutional or revolutionary methods, the community cannot afford to ignore the views of women on Peace and Reconstruction, and Australian women have their contribution to offer to the world's thought about them ... All who desire to see a Constructive Peace which shall safeguard the interests of women, industry, and democracy are asked to contribute to our Peace Delegation Fund.

The Women's Peace Army and the Women's Political Association also desire to send their delegates to Europe that they may get the most reliable information obtainable from unbiased students of history and economics as to:-

a. Who and what were primarily and secondarily responsible for the war.
b. The position in Russia and Germany.
c. Social and industrial conditions in other parts of Europe, in Great Britain and Ireland, in America, and, if possible, in Japan and South Africa.' Baillieu Library University of Melbourne

Muriel Heagney: 'The causes of war are primarily economic.' State Library of Victoria

7...FROM AUSTRALIA - MR HUGHES DEMANDS

Australia's official response was to send the Prime Minister to Versailles where the peace terms were to be drawn up.

Woman Voter January 30 1919: '(The Prime Minister) Mr Hughes says the following are "Australia's demands for the Peace Conference":

1. Australia wants the German islands in the Pacific and the exaction of indemnities from Germany.
2. She favours the League of Nations, but does not want promiscuous immigration, and claims the right to make whatever economic arrangements she pleases.
3. She opposes "the freedom of the seas" (which feminists supported, to prevent blockades) and the limiting of Great Britain's supremacy.
4. She opposes military intervention in Russia, but is in favour of military support for Poland.

Parliament is not sitting, and the people cannot protest against what their elected "representatives" say and do in their name; moreover, the conviction is rapidly gaining ground in Australia, as elsewhere, that it does not matter very much what politicians say or do, in view of the new order that is approaching.' Baillieu Library

8...WHAT WOMEN GOT

They did not get a "just and lasting peace", but the Covenant establishing the League of Nations included a clause grating equality of opportunity for women after lobbying by women’s international organisations.The war was over, yet it was not over. It seemed everyone had lost someone. Men were home, yet in a sense they were not really home. Oral family history talks of them coming back as different people. Sometimes they said they had changed in nearly five years, away but those at home hadn't. They found it hard to fit in and take up normal life. Sometimes their personality had changed - nightmares, violence, rape, suicide, timidity, fear.

The families hardly recognised the shadows of the strong young men who had left with such confidence and hope. They sometimes came back to unemployment. It could be hidden, as when two great uncles of mine who died violently in the 1920's were not officially unemployed, one said 'Gentleman' on the death certificate, the other said 'Logger', but they were really unemployed. The returned men sometimes couldn't hold down a job, even when it was available. Try going back to "natural life", the papers said. The soldier resettlement schemes were often more heartbreak, more poverty. Everyone coped as best they could.

Patsy Adam-Smith: 'After the War is Over' - The soldiers had sung it during the worst four years armies had ever known. The day dawned that the women who waited at home had feared would never come. ... The war was over - or so the leaders said. Over 400,000 had volunteered, 340,000 saw battle. Of these, our casualties were the highest on the allied side. We sustained 68.5% casualties. "Those not marked in body, or put away in lunatic asylums", the elderly ladies say, "were marked in other ways. All were marked". "The most loving and the most awful men were marked; no man came home unmarked". "That war never ended", say the wives of the men who came home from it. "No man returned from that war unmarked". Australian Women at War Penguin 1984

Helen Palmer & Jessie MacLeod: 'The proportion of casualties to the numbers engaged was greater for Australia than for any other part of the British Empire ... the end of the war was celebrated in cities and country towns by the pealing of bells and by singing and dancing in the streets ... The Armistice found 185,000 Australians overseas', including nurses, and there broke out an influenza pandemic. In Australia over one third affected. NSW was the worst hit and more than 6,000 died in 1919.' pp 168, 169, The First 200 Years Helen Palmer and Jessie MacLeod, Longman Cheshire 1981

Aunty Joy Talks of Fighting for Country - Interview with Joy Murphy: 'So, Coranderrk was closed then officially in 1923 ... the land was supposedly sold up for soldier settlement ... When my Dad, as an ex-serviceman of WW1, returned to Coranderrk, (his home) and like so many of our Aboriginal men at that time, who served not only for their country but for their families so that there might be some equality in life later on ... he’d hoped that when he got back that his Mum would still be there and she was.

And she was one of five people, elderly people who said, “I’m not going. This is my place, I’ve had all my children here, I’ve brought all my children up here, I’ve raised them here. This is my country, this is my home, this is my husband’s place. I want to die here”. And so they were granted leave to stay. But on return from the war, my father had to get permission from the police to visit his Mum and then he had to be escorted onto Coranderrk, and he was only allowed one half an hour with her before he was sent off to Lake Tyers in Gippsland. Voices of Coranderrk http://www.abc.net.au/missionvoices

Handing out rations at Ooldea 1919 State Library of Victoria PA003746

'Land Fit for Heroes?'
Patsy Adam Smith: 'The movies tell of the roaring twenties, cigarettes, booze, Clara Bow lipstick, the Charleston, fast, shining cars and money to burn. True, some did have these things; but the majority did not. For the latter, it was the slough of despair; a courageous ignoring of calamity by day and hunger by night. For most of us whose parents had a job, it was courageous in a different way. For us, it was striving to survive on the reduced wages, a determination to prevail, never to show patches, mended shoes, onion sandwiches, or slates when you were aged 11 and, unable to afford an exercise book for school, must use the wet thumb to rub the slate pencil from the slate so it could be used again ...

In depressed areas of the country things were bad. In those parts of the cities that many avoid, it was tragic. Families, often mothers and children with the father away 'looking for work', were evicted for failing to pay rent. They squatted in empty houses, tenements. They were thrown out again, any stick of furniture was sold. Abortions were the only way of preventing another mouth to feed, another head to house. (One woman said)

Patsy Adam Smith: "I saw my mother with her foot up on the bath. I was about twelve. I knew it was something terrible but I didn't know what. Mum saw me at the door. She slammed it. It hit me. She screamed to get out. I hated her for it. I ran away. When I got back the next day, she was in bed. There were towels and sheets and things soaking in the bath. She had put old newspapers on top of the water to hide it but the blood was seeping up. I had two brothers and two sisters younger than me. Dad was away half a year or more at that time, being moved on, from town to town to get the dole. He sent some of that home to us." p 95 Australian Women at War Penguin 1984

This continued poverty was a bitter disappointment for many. Expectations of life post-war had been high.
Helen Palmer & Jessie MacLeod '... Dr 'Nugget' Coombs, Director of Post-War Reconstruction, said in 1943: "The people of Australia ... look in the post-war period for such things as planned housing, for the provision of community facilities, schools, libraries, health centres, hospitals and playing fields, for the modernisation and extension of our transport system, for regional development projects ... These things ... can be done effectively in Australia at any rate only by public authorities, and public authorities will play an important part in the planning and carrying out of these projects." p 171 The First 200 Years Helen Palmer and Jessie MacLeod, Longman Cheshire 1981

Troops returning Port Melbourne pier 1919 State Library of Victoria

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9...TRYING TO RECOVER FROM WAR

Eleanor Moore: 'Early in 1920 Miss Goldstein and Miss John decided to disband the Women's Peace Army, each of them having other plans for the future. This left the Sisterhood the only women's peace organisation in Australia. Its members then agreed to become the Australian section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and the group was thenceforward known by that name, or, for convenience, by its initials, WILPF. The need for such a society was by no means over. People were more willing now to hear peace talk, but the prejudices and practices of war were not to be dislodged easily or quickly. ...

'The "Educational Gazette" (Victoria, June, 1918) contained the following instruction to teachers - "History - For the prescribed stories of notable deeds to be told in the third and fourth grades, substitute stirring stories of heroic deeds in the present great conflict. ... Do not dwell on the horrors inseparable from war, but emphasize the qualities which will make such stories immortal." Among the "prescribed stories of notable deeds" which were thus required to be put aside in favour of current war stories were an account of the introduction of Christianity in Saxon England and the story of Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery. The following numbers of the School Paper (Victoria) contained no lesson on any other subject than war: April, May, July, 1918 Grades VII and VIII.' The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia Eleanor M Moore

Marilyn Lake: 'By the 1920's women's work in the home had not so much shifted from production to consumption as some historians have suggested, but rather the 'products' of their production had shifted from foodstuffs, medicines and clothing to healthy children and adults. The widespread circulation of germ theory at this time (germs became a mother's 'grim and deadly foe') had the effect of increasing women's work of maintaining hygiene. Washing and cleaning became much more frequent (the consumption of soap increased by 3 pounds per head annually in the 1920's) ... p 180 The Limits of Hope: Soldier Settlement in Victoria 1915 - 1938 Oxford University Press 1987

10..LIVING STANDARDS FALLING

Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh: 'The percentage of women in the paid workforce and the percentage of married women in the paid workforce dropped well below what it had been at the start of the century. The number of social justice measures such as those that had been brought in after women won the vote, stopped, except for schemes to alleviate conditions for returned soldiers - and these were too few and too little. After the war, in 1918, there was massive industrial unrest - strikes and disputes - because living standards were falling. The basic wage ... was below the 1907 equivalent, average wages were low and many people were unemployed.' p 117 The Changemakers Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh Jacarandah Press 1983

11..1919-20 THE BASIC WAGE BETRAYAL

Suzane Fabian and Morag Loh: 'In 1919 Muriel began work as an investigator for a Royal Commission set up to inquire into whether the basic wage was enough for a family to live on ... the judge (Justice Higgins) had read an article by Vida Goldstein which listed budgets of desperately poor families, but no thorough official investigation of Australian conditions had been made. ... As an investigator for this important Royal Commission, Muriel travelled to six capital cities and to Newcastle gathering evidence on living standards and the cost of living. She took into account such basics as food, rent and clothing, but also included the cost of fuel, haircuts, newspapers, fares and schooling, which had never before been considered (as Vida Goldstein had noticed) in wage fixing.The evidence was comprehensive and conclusive. Muriel found that the basic wage did not provide adequately for a family and that living standards had indeed fallen ...

The Commission recommended an immediate increase. Furthermore, it recommended that the basic wage should be given to a husband and wife and that the children's needs be met by child endowment. (see Appendix 1 Papers) ... Both the Federal Arbitration Court and the government rejected the Commission's findings. Justice Higgins of the Arbitration Court made it clear that the basic wage was not to be a 'proper' wage guaranteeing adequate diet, clothing, shelter and education. It was to cover only the bare needs of 'the humblest class of worker'. ... An easy-to-read and comprehensive reply to the government, 'The Basic Wage Betrayal', (written by Muriel Heagney) was widely circulated throughout Australia by an interstate conference of trade unions.' p 118 The Changemakers Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh Jacarandah Press 1983

Kay Hargreaves: 'In 1919 the female rate was set at 54% of the male rate' p 16 Women at Work - Kaye Hargreaves Penguin 1982

Match Factory c1910-1930 State Library of Victoria b32047

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12..EQUAL PAY?

Cheryl Griffin: '1921-2 Melvina Ingram of the Victorian State Schools Teachers Union argued in a deputation to Minister Alexander Peacock that if the argument that women will not marry if they receive a salary equal to that of a man is to be accepted, then: "We must look on the Education Department as a matrimonial bureau, forcing its women into matrimony by giving less than the men and penalising the remainder who do not marry by exhorting a fee - the difference between a man's and woman's salary."She presented it as a "spinster tax" and asked the Minister "where is the bachelor tax, though". ...

(For women) promotions were blocked; positions were withheld, status was lowered - their social standing as teachers was nil. At times it appeared to be a deliberate process of elimination of the woman teacher. Peacock's response was that far from supporting the principle of equal pay, he declared that "the need for the male mind and spirit and personality is so vital and urgent that a wise administration will seek to increase rather than decrease the present inequality of pay".The Department responded "the tenure of service of woman teachers is uncertain"; that women resign on account of marriage (catch-22 here - they had to) that women do not have the same family responsibilities as men and so equal pay would give them an "unequal standard of comfort". A Biography of Doris McRae 1893-1988 PHD University of Melbourne

Sheila Jeffries The Spinster and Her Enemies: 'In the 1920's there was an onslaught of propaganda against spinsters, feminists, "man-haters", lesbians'. A Biography of Doris McRae 1893-1988 PHD University of Melbourne

Petra Munro: ' Unmarried women were caricatured as abnormal, asexual or homosexual, - as unfeminine'. A Biography of Doris McRae 1893-1988 PHD University of Melbourne

13..1922 ANTI FEMINIST REACTION

Anti feminist women sometimes supported inequality in the workplace. The State Library of Victoria describes this book, Feminism and Sex Distincion by Arabella Kenealy as -
State Library of Victoria Contents/Summary: 'Kenealy defines feminism as an assault on womanhood and a movement to make women manly. She stresses feminine virtues and encourages women to cultivate their domestic roles.'
Arabella Kenealy: 'Foreward - The purpose of this book is to dissuade women from exploiting a world's misfortunes for their own immediate profit, and to reconcile them, in their profounder and more vital interests and in those of the race, to surrender freely all the essentially masculine employments into which mischance has cast them.' Feminism and Sex Extinction pub T. Fisher London 1920

14..THE CLOTHING TRADE UNION

Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh: 'In 1926 she (Muriel Heagney) helped helped the Clothing Trades Union prepare evidence for their application for men and women to receive the same basic wage ... But such activities were soon overshadowed by the Depression of the late 1920's and 1930's.' The Changemakers Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh Jacarandah Press 1983

Bryant & May 1932 State Library of Victoria b32039

15..RETURNED NURSES' CONDITIONS

Jan Bassett: 'When the armistice was signed, Sister Stilton was working at No 11 AGH at Coalfield. She had arrived back in Melbourne on transport duty in May 1918. "We came home tired and weary; the world seemed completely changed; our thoughts were with our losses, the beastliness, the destruction, the waste; the agonies and endurance", she wrote "..... Their medals (on ANZAC day) tell the story of heroism and devotion by nurses", runs a typical headline. The reality was very different. After returning to Australia, a large number of returned nurses found their hopes and dreams turned to fears and nightmares. The records of some of the funds established to assist former army nurses paint a grim picture of widespread hardship, often caused or exacerbated by wartime experiences ...

Sister Gladys Sumner had nursed in India, Egypt, Salon, and England during the War, had contracted malaria and pneumonia while overseas, and had been demobilized in January 1920. She had attempted to resume nursing after the War, but was forced to keep stopping because of frequent attacks of malaria, some of which resulted in hospitalization ... During the Depression her situation became desperate. In July 1934 she wrote: "I am really worried, as I have no money at all - only 10/-. I live in a room - as I have no home - and have paid for that till the 2w3rd without meals. I have tried every source for work - am trying every day ... I have tried to hang on and not ask for a grant ... but I have had only nine weeks work out of seven months - since last December - at very poor pay." pp 95, 106 Guns and Brooches, Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War Oxford 1992

The Labor Government White Paper on unemployment gives the official figures -
Helen Palmer & Jessie MacLeod: 'On the average during the twenty years 1919 - 1939 more than one tenth of the men and women desiring work were unemployed. In the worst period of the depression over 25% were left in unproductive idleness.' p 244 The First 200 Years Helen Palmer and Jessie MacLeod, Longman Cheshire 1981

1918Edith CameronPA002940 museumvic

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16..A FEW WINS IN THE ROARING TWENTIES

Joan Curlewis: 'When Vida Goldstein retired from politics in 1920, the tide of feminism had receded. It did not rise again for nearly fifty years.' State Library of Victoria Joan Curlewis papers Nevertheless, women kept working and had some wins. From 1921, each Australian delegation to the annual League of Nations General Assembly included a woman.' Australian Women's History Forum website

- 1920, 1921, 1923 -
Yvonne Smith: 'The first woman municipal councillor (Richmond) and first Justice of the Peace was Mary Rogers; the first woman's union journal was issued by the Female Confectioners' Union -The Woman's Clarion. The General Secretary and Editor was Margaret Wearne. Child endowment was introduced but limited to Commonwealth Public Service Employee.' (Taking Time  p19) Women won permission to stand for Parliament in Victoria and Jury Service.

- 1925 -
Jean Daley: 'Inspired by Alice Henry's visit, working women in Melbourne formed a Women's Trade Union League modelled on the organisation for which Henry worked in the United States. Delegates from thirteen unions attended a meeting in July 1925, which adopted a platform aimed at increasing women's participation in their individual unions and on public tribunals. They also resolved to obtain 'for girls and women equal opportunities with boys and men in trades and technical training, and pay on the basis of occupation and not on the basis of sex'. Jean Daley quoted in The History of Australian Feminism Marilyn Lake Allen & Unwin 1999

- In 1926 the Victorian Women's Qualification Act removed disqualification of women to take up (some) judicial offices and in 1928 further provided that they 'shall not by sex or marriage be disqualified from any profession or society'. They continued their activism and education. - '700 employees at Yarra Falls Spinning Mills, 500 of them female, went on strike ... with 3,500 out in Melbourne there were too many to meet in Trades Hall, so the strikers went to the Temperance Hall, the girls marching along Russell St singing!' Rebel Women in Australia, working class history ed Sandra Bloodworth and Tom O'Lincoln Interventions Melbourne 1998

17..AGITATING FOR A MATERNITY ALLOWANCE

Joy Damousi: 'During the 1920's and 1930's, when the political landscape for another war was being forged through the rhetoric of nation building, technological power and racial supremacy, feminists and labour activists agitated for mothers to be granted a maternity allowance granting them economic independence and citizenship status. As Jill Roe and Marilyn Lake have argued, mothers, like soldiers, risked their lives and gave their services to the state.' p 38 The Labour of Loss Cambridge University Press 1999

Women in the Women's Movement wanted an extension of child endowment. Muriel Heagney moved a resolution at the first ACTU Conference held in Melbourne in 1921:

"That this Congress endorses the principle of the endowment of motherhood and childhood, thereby recognising the service rendered to the community by the mother in the care and nurture of the child, such payment to be a charge on the whole community and be recognised as an individual right, and not associated in any way with the economic circumstances of the husband or father."

18..AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION OF WOMEN VOTERS
Bessie Rischbieth founds the Australian Federation of Women Voters, a federated body of Australian women’s political associations, on 12 August 1929, with a programme to liaise with international organisations of women and establish credentials as lobbyists and advisers at the League of Nations. They had a conference in May 1930 at the Registered Teachers' Hall, passing resolutions -

Argus 15 May 1930: "That this conference affirms the desirability of continuing the Pan Pacific Women's Conference, which should be held at not less than three and not more than five year intervals.

"That this conference, realising that economic necessities and the desire and right of women to work and secure for themselves the means of life, demands that all avenues of work should be open to women, and that education for professions and trades should be available for women on the same terms as for men; that all professional posts in the public service be open to men and women with equal opportunity for advancement; that women should receive the same pay as men for the same work; and that the right of all women to work be recognised and bo objections be placed in the way of married women who desire to work.

"That it be recommended to our State organisations that they should pursue the matter of equal pay in every possible direction, and make a special survey of the position which exists between men and women in the State and Federal service."

Anna Brennan: 'Women Discuss Their Right to Work - There is no such thing as "man's work." If one section of the community can dictate to another section you are inflicting on the section dictated to the status of a slave. Many slaves live in the greatest luxury, but they live under the will of some other person. There is no freedom without some economic independence.' p 18 The Argus, undated Royal Historical Society of Victoria 19..

19...MORE ANTI-FEMINIST REACTION

Argus 15 November 1930: 'Objection has been taken by the executive of the Shop Assistants' Federation to married women whose husbands are in employment being engaged as manageresses and assistants in shops. The secretary of the Federation (Mr W H Webber) said yesterday "There are hundreds of capable shop workers out of employment, many of them with dependents, and these unfortunate persons are being kept out of employment by the selfishness of married women who have no necessity to work outside their own homes." State Library of Victoria

Beverly Kingston ed: ' Miss Julie Flynn applied for the position of Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools -
Director of Education of Victoria, 2 August 1928: 'For your information I will state the reasons why I regard this position as being essentially one that requires a man ... For the first time in our history, education for all beyond the primary stage is being provided, and it is essential ... that the education should be adapted to the future needs of adolescent boys and girls ... Some girls enter into wage earning occupations but even of these the great majority will become housewives and opt out of these occupations in a few years. The boys, on the other hand, have to start their life's work, and the educational system shouls be directed to fitting them for their future vocation in the best possible way ... I hold strongly that only a man with the full knowledge of modern conditions and of the educational needs of boys can adequately fill such a position.'The World Moves Slowly a documentary history of australian women Cassell Australia, 1977

20..1930 THE HEAGNEY-RILEY REPORT ON UNEMPLOYED WOMEN

Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh: 'The Heagney-Riley report of June 1930 presented a horrifying picture of the plight of unemployed women. Of the eighteen Melbourne municipalities visited, none gave 'sustenance' to women. For the growing numbers of unemployed women there was no financial relief or unemployment benefits as we know it ... it was reported that unemployed women received no assistance and that thousands were poverty-stricken, ill and suffering psychological stress. Muriel Heagney and F J Riley from the Women's Trade Union Unemployment Committee set out to collect the hard evidence that might bring about a change for the better.' p 120 The Changemakers Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh Jacarandah Press 1983

Poverty State Library of Victoria MP mp010463

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21..UNEMPLOYED GIRLS' RELIEF MOVEMENT

Ryan and Conlon: 'Muriel Heagney was one of those who realised the plight of unemployed women and girls and a "'girls' Week" was organised in Melbourne in 1930 to raise funds for their assistance. The Unemployed Girls' Relief Movement was able to carry on with funds collected for over two years. Centres were organised where girls could drop in, for company and sisterly support, for the opportunity to use a sewing machine and make up some clothing, or to attend education courses which were provided.' p 118 Edna Ryan and Alice Conlon Gentle Invaders Thomas Nelson 1975

Joyce Stevens: '... the Communist Party of Australia saw it as a twin evil - the work of a social fascist and a work of charity. The Girls' Relief Movement existed for two years while the Labor Government was in power and supplied work and other services for between 10,000 and 12,000 women. Muriel Heagney urged "complete government financing and responsibility for all relief payments" and denied that the project was "charity or philanthropic work".

While there may have been grounds of criticism of this project, particularly in respect to wages and conditions, Working Woman's (Communist Party of Australia publication) response seems more than a little extravagant. It urged the "Working women of Melbourne" to realise that ... in demanding the right to live, the biggest enemies you have to fight against are Muriel Heagney and the rest of the Trades Hall social fascists, who with revolutionary phrases on their lips, aid the bosses to crush you. Let your slogan be: "Down with the social fascists, build up the Unemployed Workers Movement". Taking the Revolution Home Work Among Women in the Communist Party of Australia 1920-1945 Sybyilla Press 1984

22..1932 MORE DEPRIVATION

Yvonne Smith: 'The Unemployed Girl's Relief Movement was stopped when the Nationalist Party was returned to Government in 1932.' Taking Time A Women's Historical Data Kit comp and ed Yvonne Smith, Union of Australian Women Women's Time

This was taken from the Herald, 12 December 1932: 'The headline was 'Miss Heagney Ceases Work', but she didn't just cease work: 'Miss Heagney Ceases Work - Relief Organiser - Miss Muriel Heagney, who has been in charge of the workless girls' relief scheme since its inception two and a half years ago has received notice of termination of her appointment from the Minister in charge of Sustenance (Mr Kent Hughes) and from the Central Council of Benevolent Societies. The decision is likely to cause a stir in relief circles. Miss Heagney was the organiser of the suburban work centres, at which homeless girls work two days and workless girls work one day for 12/6 and 7/7 a week respectively - at the peak period she had (2,800?) girls under her charge and it is estimated that she handles 10,000 cases.

Minister's Letter - In letters to Miss Heagney, and to the Central Board, the Minister has explained the reasons for the step as follows: "With the absorption of girls into domestic service after training at the domestic art school, it is anticipated that the number of girls employed at the centres will be reduced to between 500 and 600. Under these circumstances, the services of a superintendent will not be required. Mr Kent Hughes sent the following explanation to Miss Heagney on Dec 5: "The reason for notifying you of the decision at this stage was in order to give you as long notice as possible. I thought that this was only fair in view of the excellent services that you have rendered to the Government during the past three years."

4 weeks holiday - "On behalf of the Government I desire to thank you most sincerely for the work that you have done, and I hope that your organising ability will enable you to obtain employment in another sphere." Miss Heagney will be given 4 weeks holiday on full pay from Jan 3, after which her engagement will end. The administrative work will be carried out by the Central Committee in future. Miss Heagney's office staff will probably be retained.'

Also, 'Victoria's Minister for Sustenance declared in 1932 that -
Sandra Bloodworth: "while domestic work was available at any wage, under any conditions, anywhere in the State, jobless women would be denied public assistance!" And: In August Victorian employers cut wages by 15%. This was in addition to the 10% across-the-board cut for all workers two years previously.' Women in Australia, working class history ed Sandra Bloodworth and Tom O'Lincoln Interventions Melbourne 1998

State Library of Victoria 010440 Barnett Collection,SLV

Renate Howe ed: 'Erskine Place North Melbourne (1935) was a right-of-way off a right-of-way with 4 pairs of brick cottages, each 2 storey and of 4 rooms, 2 up and 2 down. There were no windows on the bottom floor facing the right-of-way, and the only light came from the side entrance. "Sunlight can only enter the front room for only 10 minutes per day".' New Houses for Old - 50 Years of Public Housing in Vic. 1938-1988

Children's Bedroom - poverty - 1935 State Library of Victoria mp010454

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Wendy Lowenstein 'Australia had the second highest unemployment rates in the Western world. Only Germany was higher.' Weevils in the Flour, An oral record of the 1930's depression in Australia Scribe 1978

23..WOMEN DIDN'T TAKE IT LYING DOWN

Women's organisations were popular - the League of Women Voters, the Young Women's Christian Association, the National Council of Women, the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Membership was down but they survived. Others, such as the Housewives Association, the Business and Professional Women's Clubs and the Country Women's Association, were formed.

Pam Roberts: 'Tea, Scones and a Willing Ear - The CWA of Victoria 1928-34 -To feminist historians its (Country Women's Association's) role has been ambiguous. On the one hand it stressed (and stresses) the traditional role for women as home makers. Yet, on the other hand, for many women in the Depression it was a godsend, giving them sympathy and encouragement in an unsympathetic world, alleviating some of the loneliness of their isolatedlives. Many women travelled countless miles every month to meetings, and for a brief moment their troubles did not seem so bad. But, because it operated within the confines of the wife/mother/steward model the CWA could only help some of the surface problems of its members: the loneliness, the boredom, the lack of society, and the drudgery of their existence.

The CWA tried to make housewifery a profession to be proud of in a male dominated world where "women's work" was still considered unheroic and unimportant. Co-ordinated and convened by upper class women in Melbourne, it operated on the welfare model: that was, helping the victims of a system its members had no intention of attacking. By avidly emphasizing its non-political status it ignored the root causes of women's oppression: a social system created by men in which the family was used as a structure within which women were contained and repressed. By trying to alleviate women's distress in the countryside, the CWA unwittingly helped continue the problem. Rather than directing its energies to the structures behind women's distress, it emphasized maintaining the status quo, and keeping women within a situation which was often cruel and self-defeating.' Lilith a women's history journal No 1 Winter 1984 Ilka Elkemann papers University of Melbourne

Some things women did weren't ambiguous. '1931 saw the first International Women's Day march in Melbourne.' Joyce Stevens A History of International Women's Day, in Words and Images IWD Press, Sydney 1985

I swear to you,/ I swear on my common woman's head. / The common woman is as common as a loaf of bread / and will rise. anon

24..THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (YWCA)

The Young Women's Christian Association listed some of their activities between 1920 and 1930 as:
' - Sending congratulations to Mrs Rogers, the first woman to be elected a Municipal Councillor in Victoria;
- Urging the Government to appoint at once women Justices of the Peace, and additional Police Women, and to amend the law so that the same electoral roll could be used for both Federal and State elections;
- Protest against the proposed seventy day's camp for military cadets as being opposed to their spiritual and moral welfare;
- Visiting the women's section of Pentridge and the metropolitan prisons. Mrs Beresford Jones appointed first visitor;
- A deputation to the Attorney-General asked for the appointment of women Justices;
- Members gave evidence at sittings of the "Licences Reduction Board";
- A resolution was passed that the Australasian Union be asked to send a cable expressing sympathy of 11,000 White Ribboners in Aust with the aims of the Washington Disarmament Conference ... ;
- Reception given at Carlisle House to Mrs Edith Cowan MLA of WA, the first woman to be elected to Parliament in Aust;
- 1923 was the year of the great Japanese disaster. Financial appeals to help the children - 100 pounds ... ;
- Resolution presented (and adopted) at interstate Maternity Bonus Certificate; Mrs Rees' report said:"We rejoice in the Bill just passed by the State Legislature removing the disqualification of women for public offices and professions ... We rejoice in the progress of the Baby Health Centre Movement in Victoria ... ;
- Appeals were sent out to members and Unions for funds in 1929 as the effect of unemployment and malnutrition was observed in the children attending the Kindergarten. There was a generous response, and nourishing lunches were provided every day, also food and clothing to help the families in the district.' pp 71-79 Pioneer Pathways Sixty Years of Citizenship 1887-1947 ed Isabel McCorkindale WCTU 1948 Melbourne

Carlton Creche 2008

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Feminist women participated in civic life ('beyond the front gate' as Vida Goldstein called it) by joining societies such as the Anti-slavery League - the source of many suffragists fifty years earlier. The reasons were different now. It was treatment of Aborigines, not women, they they were trying to address now.

"(We) would like to draw attention to the fact that the Federal Government has signed Clause 23 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, by which it undertakes as a nation to see that its native peoples are given just treatment. On that account we are as morally bound to consider the welfare of our own aborigines as we are of the natives of the Mandated Territory". from Bain Attwood Rights for Aborigines Allen & Unwin

25..'INTRUDING' INTO ANZAC DAY

Joy Damousi: '... By the 1930's mothers had lost their distinctive contribution to these public commemorations. On Anzac Day women's rituals became universalised as one, thus negating the specificity of mothers ... the categories of 'mother' and 'widow' were conflated into 'women' and they became marginal to the memory of war because they were no longer defined by their 'sacrifice' ... This became a particular issue in Melbourne in 1`938, when mothers and wives were reported to have 'intruded' into the dawn service. Towards 'the end of the procession', 'nearly one hundred women joined the double file of returned soldiers, and walked past the Rock. ... The Age reported the dawn service in 1938 in terms of a sacred site, which was a male preserve where women had no place to be ... The Victorian secretary of the Returned & Services League (RSL) agreed that 'this intrusion tended to break down the spirit of the occasion'. p 36 The Labour of Loss Cambridge University Press 1999

26..1930 WOMEN'S PEACE DEMONSTRATION

Eleanor Moore: 'In November, 1930, a women's peace demonstration at the Bijou Theatre, Melbourne, urged the people of Australia to use to the utmost their powers and influence for the prevention of war and the organizations of the world for peace. The scope of this demonstration will be seen by the names and number of the participating societies and their speakers. It was attended by representatives from: "Australian Church; Australian Women's Association; Baptist Women's Association; Business and Professional Women's Club; Catholic Women's Guild; Congregational Women's Association; Churches of Christ (Social Service Department); Federal Labour Women's Interstate Executive; Federated Mothers' Clubs of Victoria; Girl Guides Association; Housewives' Association (No 1); Housewives Association (No 2); Labour Women's Organising Committee; League of Nations Union; National Council of Women; National Young Women's Christian Association: Overseas Club; Peace Society; Portia Club; Quarterly Club; Returned Army Nurses Club; Society of Friends; Soldiers and Sailors' Mothers' Association; State School Teachers' Union; Theosophical Order of Service; Trades Hall Council; Unitarian Church; Women Citizens' Movement; War Widows and Widowed Mothers' Association; Women's Christian Temperance Union; Women Graduates' Association; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; World Disarmament Movement; Young Women's Christian Association." The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia Eleanor M Moore

27..1931 THEY CELEBRATED INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY (IWD)

IWD Victorian Branch papers: 'International Women's Day originated in demonstrations of women in New York on March 8th 1908. At an International Conference in Copenhagen in 1909, it was proposed that March 8 be commemorated each year to mark the growing international understanding and co-operation of women throughout the world in the struggle to win a better way of life, this day to be known as the IWD. First organised celebration of women in Australia took place in the 1930's. Earlier recognition had been confined to declarations in 'Workers Weekly' and to individual efforts by progressive women. Then a march through Melbourne streets on March 8, 1931, heralded annual celebrations of IWD. State Library of Victoria Papers 1948-81 Preliminary list

Joyce Stevens: '1931 saw the first International Women's Day Marches held in Sydney and Melbourne. The Melbourne rally in 1934 was marked for its concern about Aboriginal rights, and Aboriginal activist, Anna Morgan, speaking at the rally, denounced 'the black flag of the Aboriginal Protection Board' and called for legal changes and access to social welfare.' Joyce Stevens Taking the Revolution Home Sybylla 1987

International Women's Day Melbourne 1931

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28..1932 THEY PARTICIPATED IN THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LEAGUE

Pauline Pickford: In 1932 Aboriginal women in Melbourne were very active in the newly formed Australian Aboriginal League and Mrs Brown and others who came from the Western District centred their activities around the League, and the collection of signatures on a petition (1814 signatures) presented to Prime Minister Lyons in 1937 seeking direct representation in Australia's parliament.' Women member Pauline Pickford's recollections of older women Koories in the 1930's land rights struggles Taking Time p 79 Union of Australian

Also in 1932, the members of the International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) collected 100,000 signatures calling for disarmament for the Geneva Conference of that year.' State Library of Victoria

29..1934 THEY SUPPORTED ANTI-FASCIST UNIONS by, for example, setting up the first Miners Women's Auxiliary in Wonthaggi, Victoria in 1934.

The National Library of Australia holds an interview with Jessie Hansen, dressmaker and secretary of the Wonthaggi Women's Auxiliary and the Pensioner's Committee [sound recording] ref: ORAL TRC 3388/181-
(Jessie) Hansen speaks of ... her work as the Secretary of the Women's Auxiliary and the Pensioner's Committee; the town being a "good labour town" even though it was felt that the Labour government was against the miners; travelling in Victoria to speak about the strikes and the conditions that the miners had to endure; a strong Women's Auxiliary in Wonthaggi which had been formed in 1934 by Mrs Agnes Chambers- people wanted to hear the women not men talk about conditions; boycotting the shops in 1928 and the reasons for doing this ...' http://www.womenaustralia.info/archives/AWE0638a.htm

30..1935 EVICTION STRUGGLES

'They couldn't stand up to the women! -
Sandra Bloodworth: "When a Footscray family was to be evicted in 1935, the husband went as an individual to the local authorities, only to be told to be out before Christmas. But the women of the district had made up their minds that no eviction was going to take place, and they elected a deputation to wait on the Town Clerk and place the case, in its stark reality, before him. This tactic was successful, and just in time because the wife gave birth that day." Women in Australia, working class history ed Sandra Bloodworth and Tom O'Lincoln Interventions Melbourne 1998

Joan Coxsedge: 'We're on the susso now / We can't afford a cow / We live in a tent / And can't pay the rent / We're on the susso now.' p 21 Cold Tea for Brandy Published Vulcan Press 2007

"The politicians hated to see the women ... Oh, they hated them ... biggest cowards on earth. All the blah, blah, blah in the world but they couldn't stand up to the women. When you're hungry and you can't feed your children you get pretty angry!" Unemployed Workers' Movement Newsletter Melbourne University

In the next chapter we look at women's activism leading up to and including WW2.

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