From

1903
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Occupations

Woman Suffrage Organisation

Alternative Names

• Queensland Women's Electoral Union (former name)

Summary

The Queensland Women's Electoral League (QWEL) was an organisation formed in the last stages of the campaign to obtain woman suffrage for white women in Queensland. While the league claimed to have all women's interests at heart, and that it was to be apolitical, it was very much a liberal-conservative organisation. Although its stated aims included the desire to 'advance political knowledge among women', they also included the desire to 'encourage and preserve private enterprise, and to combat unnecessary interference by the State'. Labor women who attended the QWEL launch in 1903 left once the political agenda became obvious. They went on to form the Women Workers' Political Organisation in opposition. The Women's Christian Temperance Organisation, in response to this political wrangling, called upon its own members to avoid 'the venom of party politics' and concentrate on the task at hand.

Sources used to compile this entry: Daniels, Kay, Murnane, Mary, Picot, Anne and National Research Program (Australia) (eds), Women in Australia : an annotated guide to records, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1977; http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Parlib/Members/women/womenintro.htm accessed 2003-12-23, Young, Pam, 1926-, Proud to be a rebel : the life and times of Emma Miller, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1991, 286 pp and Audrey Oldfield, Woman Suffrage in Australia: A Gift or a Struggle, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp 12-126.