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Australian Women
Corporate entry
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Women's Service Guilds of Western Australia (1909 - 1997) |
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| Location: Perth, Western Australia, Australia | |||
Founded 25 March 1909 the Women’s Service Guilds of Western Australia formed a core feminist connection for the exchange of feminist strategies and ideas with international feminism for much of the twentieth century. While typified as conservative, the Guilds anticipated many radical trends and were at the forefront of activism which challenged the political and social boundaries that excluded from participating fully in society. They worked to raise the status of women and improve the welfare of children, primarily through legislative reform and initiated a wide range of campaigns on local, national and international levels. |
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From its inception the Women’s Service Guilds shared interests, and in many cases memberships, with other key Western Australian women’s organizations agitating for women’s rights. The Guilds saw the education of women as the most effective way to improve women’s legal status and give them entry into the public sphere. At the local level they lobbied for the direct representation of women in politics, the appointment of women to the judiciary, better conditions for female prisoners, and for women to take key positions in the courts and in welfare work with girls and prostitutes. After many battles they secured the establishment of a maternity hospital that admitted single and married women. In the 1920s the Guilds began a long association with Aboriginal Affairs and campaigned relentlessly to end the injustices experienced by Aborigines, particularly in relation to equality before the law. The Guilds insisted on having a say in shaping government policy and one outcome of many years of political activism was the opening of the first Western Australian Women’s Parliament in 1946. Their interests in environmental preservation pre-dated the conscious raising campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s by more than 60 years. | |
| Sources used to compile this entry: Davidson, D. Women on the Warpath: Feminists of the First Wave, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, WA, 1997; Greenwood, I. Sixty Years of Progress: Highlights of the History of the Women’s Service Guilds of WA Inc., 1909-1969: As presented on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee Celebration, I. Greenwood, Perth, 1969; Rischbieth, B.M. March of Australian Women: A Record of Fifty Years Struggle for Equal Citizenship,, patterson Brokensha Pty Ltd, Perth, 1964; Women’s Service Guilds of W.A.: founded 1909 and incorporated 1924 (non-party): golden jubilee 1909-1959: digest of growth, activities and achievements, milestones in 50 years of community work, Women’s Service Guilds of W.A., 1959; Reekie, G. ‘War, Sexuality and Feminism: Perth’s Women’s Organisations 1938-1945’, Historical Studies, vol. 21, no. 85, October, 1985; Reekie, G., ‘With Ready Hands and New Brooms: The Women Who Campaigned for Female Suffrage in Western Australia, 1895-1899’, Hecate, vol. vii, no.1. 1981, pp.24-35. | |
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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: 4 September 2008 http://womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0803b.htm |