Australian Women's Register

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Women's Electoral Lobby (1972 - )

From
February 1972
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupations
Lobby group
Alternative Names
  • WEL
  • WEL Australia
Website
http://www.wel.org.au

Summary

The Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL) was established in Melbourne in 1972 by Beatrice Faust. She was inspired by feminists in the United States who had been rating presidential candidates. The organisation quickly spread to Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra and in 1978 WEL Australia was formed as a coalition of state, territory and regional groups. Primarily a women's political lobby group, WEL surveyed political candidates and their policies affecting women, wrote submissions and developed media skills for women to lobby for the inclusion of women in the area of government policy. Originally the WEL campaign was based on six demands: equal pay, equal employment opportunity, equal access to education, free contraceptive services, abortion on demand and free 24-hour childcare.

Details

In February 1972, feminist Beatrice Faust invited ten women to a meeting in her Carlton house to discuss the forthcoming Federal election. They decided to survey election candidates on issues of special interest to women, as Ms Magazine had done in the USA during a recent presidential campaign.

By the second meeting the initial membership had doubled, and 130 women attended the third meeting a short time later.

Early the following year, there was a Victorian state election, and WEL organised a major forum in Dallas Brooks Hall, bringing together on stage the leaders of all five current political parties to answer the question:
Why should women vote for you?

WEL's first national conference in Canberra in 1973 was attended by 400 women.

Sources used to compile this entry: Caine, Barbara, 'Greenwood, Irene', in Caine, Barbara (ed.), Australian feminism : a companion, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, pp. 429-430; Lake, Marilyn, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, New South Wales, 1999, 316 pp; http://www.wel.org.au/index.htm.

Related entries

Director/s

Employee

Member

Membership

Related Organisations

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Edna Ryan Papers, 1965 - 1986, ML MSS 4786; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Edna Ryan, Further Papers, 19611, ML MSS 4786 ADD-ON 2090; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Pat Richardson scrapbooks relating to the Women's Electoral Lobby and women's events, 1977 - 1999, PXA 634; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Women's Electoral Lobby - records, 1960s - 1990s, Ask for: Original : MLMSS; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Collection of realia and papers relating to women's issues and organisations, 1975 - 1997, MS 8541; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Dulcie Bethune Speeches, MS 5110; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Papers of Dale Sara Dowse (1938-), 1958 - 1998, MS 7365; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Papers of Edna Ryan, 1948 - 1993, MS 9140; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Papers of Meredith Hinchliffe, 1957 - 1981, MS 5139; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Papers of Meredith Stokes, 1971 - 1988, MS 9486; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Records of the Women's Electoral Lobby (Australia), 1972 - 1991, MS 3683; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Northern Territory Archives Service, Darwin Branch

  • Women's Electoral Lobby Darwin, 1975 - 1986, NTRS 1834-1836; Northern Territory Archives Service, Darwin Branch. Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

  • International Women's Day Committee Research Project : Summary Record [sound recording] Interviewers: Celia Frank and Kirstin Marks, 1993 - 1994, OH 210; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

The University of Melbourne Archives

  • Bebbington, Julie, 1970 - 1990, 100/166; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • Bethune, Dulcie, 1971 - 1975, 75/54; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • Cameron, Barbara, 1972, 83/98; Cameron, Barbara; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • Records of Zelda D'Aprano, 1969 - 1975, 75/58; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • Women's Electoral Lobby records, 1972 - 2000, Several accessions; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • Women's Liberation Movement, Accession Number 75 49; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Burnett, Pat, A Brief History of Women's Electoral Lobby WA, WEL (WA), 1985. Details
  • Degens, Pat, A History of Women's Electoral Lobby Coff's Harbour, 1998. Details
  • Fisher, Betty, A Brief History of the Women's Electoral Lobby (SA), WEL (SA), 1986;1996. Details
  • Mc Carron Benson, Julie, WEL Women: Recollections of Some of the First WEL-ACT Women, WEL ACT, 1991. Details
  • Preddy, Elspeth, Women's Electoral Lobby: Australia/New Zealand 1972-1985, WEL Australia and WEL New Zealand, Wellington, 1985. Details
  • Sawer, Marian, Making women count : a history of the Women's Electoral Lobby in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, NSW, 2008, 317 pp. Details
  • Sloniec, Elizabeth, WEL: 21 years in South Australia, WEL (SA), 1993. Details

Book Sections

  • Grahame, Emma, 'Researching WEL', in Caine, Barbara (ed.), Australian Feminism: A Companion, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, p. 521. Details

Theses

  • Anderson, Peter, ''A Description and Analysis of Aspects of the Women's Electoral Lobby (Victorian Branch)', BA Hons, Politics, La Trobe University', Thesis, 1973. Details
  • Asher, Louise, ''The Women's Electoral Lobby: An Historical Inquiry', MA History, University of Melbourne', Thesis, 1980. Details
  • Gorring, Pam, ''The Political Development of the Women's Movement in Queensland', BA Hons, Govt Dept, University of Queensland', Thesis, 1978. Details
  • Hill, Elizabeth, ''Working Within the System: The Women's Electoral Lobby Fifteen Years On', BA Hons, Government Dept, University of Sydney', Thesis, 1987. Details
  • Hooper, Anne, ''The Emergence of Contemporary Feminist Groups in Australia: With special reference to the Women's Liberation Movement and the Women's Electoral Lobby in the ACT', BA Hons, Political Science, The Faculties, ANU', Thesis, 1973. Details
  • Nicholson, Joyce, ''The Women's Electoral Lobby and Women's Employment: Strategies and Outcomes', MA, Women's Studies, History, The University of Melbourne', MA thesis, The University of Melbourne, 1991, 118 pp. Details
  • Szramka, Annabel, ''The Interrelationship Between Interest Groups and Social Movement Organisations: The Experience of WEL 1972-83', BA, Hons, Politics, University of Tasmania', Thesis, 1986. Details
  • Watson, Louise, ''The Women's Electoral Lobby 1972-1982: Sites of Conflict in Non-Party Feminism', BA Hons, Politics, University of Melbourne', Thesis, 1982. Details

Online Resources

See also

  • Burgmann, Verity, Power and Protest: Movements for Change in Australian Society, Allen & Unwin, 1993. Details
  • Caine, Barbara, 'Greenwood, Irene', in Caine, Barbara (ed.), Australian feminism : a companion, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, pp. 429-430. Details
  • Dudley, Janice & Palmieri, Sonia, 'Can Ladies Work Here Too, Nanna?', Gender and Australiasian Politics Textbooks, Australasian Political Studies Association Womens Caucus, 1999, p. 9, http://www.une.edu.au/apsa/wapsa_text_books.htm. Details
  • Lake, Marilyn, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, New South Wales, 1999, 316 pp. Details
  • Mayer, Henry, Labor to Power: Australia's 1972 Election, Angus & Robertson, 1973. Details
  • McCulloch, Deborah, Report on Women's non-government organizations conference, Beijing, China, August 31 - September 8, 1995 / Deborah McCulloch, Women's Electoral Lobby, Women's Electoral Lobby, Adelaide, S. Australia, 1995. Details
  • Pakulski, Jan, Social movements: The Politics of Moral Protest, Longman Cheshire, 1991. Details
  • Ryan, Susan, Catching the Waves, Harper Collins, 1999. Details
  • Sawer, Marian, 'Femocrats and Ecorats: Women's Policy Machinery in Australia, Canada and New Zealand', United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1996, http://www.unrisd.org/html/op/opb/opb6/op6.htm. Details
  • Sawer, Marion, Sisters in Suits: Women and Public Policy in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1990. Details
  • Scutt, Jocelynne A. (ed.), Women's Voices, Women's Lives, Series of 12 books. Details
  • Summers, Anne; Park Ruth (foreword by), Ducks on the Pond: An Autobiography 1945-1976, Viking, Ringwood, Vic., 1999, 438 pp. Details
  • WEL, From the Gilded Cage, WEL Australia, Sydney, 1974. Details

Elle Morrell and Jane Carey

Created: 12 September 2000, Last modified: 31 January 2013

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