Women's Electoral Lobby (1972 - )

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.

• WEL
• WEL Australia

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.

Affiliated

• Women's Electoral Lobby (South Australian Branch) (1972 - )

  [1972 - ]

Director/s

• Leonard, Marjorie (Helen) (1945 - 2001)

  [1998 - 2000]

Employee

• Carnahan, Yvonne

  [1980 - 1981]

• De Leo, Maria

  National Coordinator

  [1978 - 1979]

• Denoon, Pamela (1942 - 1988)

  Pamela Denoon was the National Coordinator of WEL

  [1982 - 1983]

• Elix, Jane

  [1985 - 1986]

• Gallagher, Lynne

  Lynne Gallagher was National Convenor of WEL

  [1984 - 1985]

• Lee, Lynn

  [1986 - 1988]

• Morgan, Joanne

  [1984]

• Taylor, Joy

  [1988 - ]

• Thompson, Lorelle

  [1983 - 1984]

Founding member

• Bielski, Joan
• Ryan, Susan (1942 - )

Member

• Bacon, Eva (1909 - 1994)
• Buckland-Fuller, Dorothy (1922 - )
• Burton, Clare (1942 - 1998)
• Conway, Josephine (1920 - 2007)
• Dowse, Sara (1938 - )

  Dowse was a founding member of the WEL's ACT branch.

• Greenwood, Irene Adelaide (1898 - 1992)

  Foundation member of WEL (WA)

• Lobato, Tamara (1971 - )
• Nicholson, Joyce Thorpe (1919 - )

  Foundation member of the Co-ordinating Committee (1972-1975) and co-editor and editor of Broadsheet (1973-1976)

  [1972 - ]

Membership

• Cameron, Barbara
• Edwards, Meredith Ann (1941 - )
• Reid, Elizabeth Anne (1942 - )

  Reid was active in WEL prior to her appointment as women's advisor in the Whitlam government

  [ - 1973]

Related Corporate Bodies

• Australian Women's Organisations Conference (1999 - )

  WEL was one of the organisers of the innaugural AWOC

  [1999 - ]

• Centre for Research for Women (1993 - )

Related People

• Graham, Diana
• Ryan, Edna Minna (1904 - 1997)
• Vick, Lesley Helen (1945 - )

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... ]
• 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... ]

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... ]
• 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... ]
• 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... ]