Seizing the Initiative brings together a wide range of research to reveal how women in Australia in the twentieth century have negotiated leadership not only in formal politics and political lobby groups, but also at work, in business, in communities and in religious and cultural arenas. The contributors place women’s leadership within the broader setting of historical change in Australia dur-ing the twentieth century: first and second wave feminism, the world wars, growing educational opportunities and increased workplace participation. From colonial concerns to corporate life, the chapters illustrate the many advances made by women and the barriers that still stand between women and leadership roles. It is a collection that uncovers the diverse ways women have performed leadership and confirms that this knowledge is vital to developing broader understandings of leadership.

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Framing the Issues

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Identifying Women Leaders in Twentieth-Century Australia: An Introduction

Rosemary Francis, Patricia Grimshaw and Ann Standish

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Not Just 'Adding Women in': Women Re-making Leadership

Amanda Sinclair

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The New Dominion

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Lady Northcote: Leading Light and Sponsor of the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work

Elizabeth Taylor

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Leading the Call for 'One Vote and No More': Emma Miller (1839-1917)

Deborah Jordan

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'Advertising the Work': Women's Suffrage Campaigns Leading the Way in Modern Media Publicity

Ellen Warne

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A Leader without Authority: Mary Consuelo de la Cruz Batiz and Missionary Women at New Norcia

Katharine Massam

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Daisy Bates: Dubious Leadership

Ann Standish

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Behind the Mulga Curtain and beyond the Grave: Mary Montgomerie Bennett's Leadership in Aboriginal Affairs, 1930-1961

Sue Taffe

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The New Woman Citizen

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'Really Rather Extraordinary': The Leadership of Matron Beryl Campbell in the Australian Army Nursing Service in World War I

Anne Prince

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Fannie Eleanor Williams: Bacteriologist and Serologist

Kirsty Harris

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The 1920s: A Good Decade for Women in Politics

Bridget Brooklyn

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'Housewives' Leader Awarded MBE': Women, Leadership and Honours in Australia

Karen Fox

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Divine Horizons: Religion and Social Class in the Lives of Two Leading Australian Women, Betty Archdale and Kylie Tennant

Deidre Michell

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May Cox: Leading Swimming and Lifesaving Advocate and Patriotic Fundraiser, 1910-1938

Deborah Towns

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Making a Mark in the Professions

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'The Keystone of the Arch': University Education and the Leadership of Early Women Graduates

Alison Mackinnon

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Women Research Leaders in the Australian Learned Academies, 1954-1976

Patricia Grimshaw and Rosemary Francis

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Women and Leadership in the Australian Architecture Profession: Prelude to a Research Project

Gill Matthewson, Naomi Stead and Karen Burns

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Women's Struggle for Top Jobs in the News Media

Louise North

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'What's a Nice Girl like you Doing with a Nobel Prize?' Elizabeth Blackburn, 'Australia's' First Woman Nobel Laureate and Women's Scientific Leadership

Jane Carey

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Volunteers and Activists

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The 'Fully-ordained-meat-pie' Problem: Women Church Workers and Leadership under Australian Democracy

Anne O'Brien

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'Mother to Mother': Mary Paton's Leadership in the Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia, 1964-1975

Karen Twigg and Jill Barnard

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Ruby Langford Ginibi: Bundjalung Historian, Writer and Educator

Patricia Grimshaw

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'Nobody but a Bunch of Mothers': Grassroots Activism and Women's Leadership in 1970s Melbourne

Renate Howe

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Understanding 'Leading that Liberates': Liz Jones and Leadership as Life/Work

Julie Evans

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Empowering Rural Communities through Leadership: Rural Australians for Refugees, 2001-2007

Ann-Mari Jordens

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Gender and Politics

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Queensland Speaks: Women Talking about Leadership

Casey Northam and Danielle Miller

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The Nature of Women's Political Leadership: Women MPs in the Parliament of Victoria

Madeline Grey

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Leadership in the Constituency Service of Women Labor Members of Parliament

Jackie Dickenson

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'Politics as War': Women and Leadership into the Future

Kathryn Gooch

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