Home Australian Women
Cultural Artefact

Home | Browse | Search | Previous | Next

Australian Women's Charter (1943 - )

Related EntriesArchival/Heritage ResourcesPublished ResourcesGallery
Feminist Manifesto
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The Australian Women's Charter was a program of reforms put forward by women for incorporation into government planning of postwar reconstruction. Described as ‘the feminist agenda for postwar reconstruction’ and ‘a landmark feminist manifesto’, the charter documented a wide range of issues and objectives that were discussed at the Australian Women’s Conference For Victory in War and Victory in Peace, held in Sydney in November 1943. It ranged over a series of issues – women’s right to paid work, the necessity for adequate child care, the particular needs of rural and Aboriginal women amongst them - and reflected the conference participants’ agenda for women in the post war world, an agenda that was influenced heavily by women’s wartime experiences. A series of publications, programs and follow-up Charter conferences were organized to plan and campaign for the implementation of its aims.

 
Sources used to compile this entry: Marilyn Lake, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1999; Winifred Mitchell, Fifty years of feminism, United Associations of Women, Sydney, 1979; Heather Radi (ed), Jessie Street, Documents and Essays, Women’s Redress Press, 1990; Kay Saunders and Geoffrey Bolton, ‘Girdled for War: Women’s Mobilisations in World War Two’, in Kay Saunders and Raymond Evans, Gender Relations in Australia: Domination and Negotiation, Sydney: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992, pp. 376 – 397.
Related Entries for Australian Women's Charter

Honorary Secretary

Membership

Related Corporate Bodies

Related Events

Related People

Top of Page
Published Resources

See also

  • Caine, Barbara (ed.), Australian Feminism: A Companion, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, 607 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Lake, Marilyn, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, New South Wales, 1999, 316 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Mitchell, Winifred, 50 years of feminist achievement : a history of the United Associations of Women, United Associations of Women, Sydney, [1979?], 106 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Radi, Heather (ed.), Jessie Street : documents and essays, Women's Redress Press, Broadway, N.S.W., c1990, 293 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Saunders, Kay and Bolton, Geoffrey, 'Girdled for War: Women's Mobilisations in World Wat Two', in Saunders, Kay and Bolton, Geoffrey (eds), Gender relations in Australia : domination and negotiation, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Sydney, c1992, pp. 376-397. [ Details... ]
  • Suzanne Fabian, Morag Loh, Left-wing ladies : the union of Australian women in Victoria 1950-1998, Hyland House, Flemington, Vic, 2000, 196 pp. [ Details... ]

Google
Prepared by: Elle Morrell and Nikki Henningham
Created: 4 September 2000
Modified: 19 July 2004

Published by National Foundation for Australian Women on Australian Women's Archives Project Web Site
Comments, questions, corrections and additions: awap@womenaustralia.info
Prepared by: Acknowledgements
Updated: 23 December 2008
http://womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0017b.htm

[ Top of page | Australian Women Home | Browse | Search ]