The Australian Women's Register

Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches lists more than 700 women candidates who stood for New South Wales Parliament, recognising their significant contributions and achievements, despite, in most cases, their lack of success. Archival materials and secondary sources have been used to create a searchable database that allows users to: browse alphabetical listings of women candidates; browse women candidates by political party; browse women candidates by seat; browse women candidates by year and browse women candidates by jurisdiction.

Biographical entries about a selection of women have been prepared, some containing links to further bibliographical and archival resources.

Dr Emma Grahame was principal researcher for the project and Rachel Grahame was a research associate for the project.

The project was funded in 2005-2006 by the Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government Committee, an initiative of the New South Wales Government Premier’s Department.

Being Seen and Heard: Migrant Women Organising in Australia, A Documentary History aggregates and makes accessible to a broad audience, information about culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women’s records in Australian repositories and private hands. It links research findings (current in 2006) to the Australian Women’s Register. Researchers can search for information about a select number of CALD women, their organisations, key events and historical information about the various multicultural communities that they represent.

Dr Nicola Henningham was principal researcher for the project.

Funding for this project was provided by the National Archives of Australia.

Brilliant Ideas and Huge Visions: ABC Radio Australian Rural Women of the Year – 1994-1997 provides information about women across Australia who were recognised as ABC Radio Rural Women of the Year. Between 1994 and 1997, over 150 women were recognised at a regional, state or national level. The award was an important first step towards getting rural women the public recognition they so thoroughly deserve.

Users can: read stories about selected winners; browse an alphabetical list of all nominees; browse a list of national winners; browse a list of state winners; browse alphabetical lists of selected archival and published resources. All this information is linked to the Australian women’s register.

This exhibition is a project of the National Foundation for Australian Women, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, as part of the Foundation’s ongoing initiative, the Australian Women’s Archives Project.

Work on this project was generously funded in 2010 by The Fred P Archer Charitable Trust managed by Trust Company Ltd.

The principal researcher for the project was Dr Nikki Henningham. Ailie Smith and Helen Morgan from the ESRC at the University of Melbourne provided technical support.

In Her Gift: Women Philanthropists in Australian History aggregates and makes accessible to a broad audience, research about Australian women’s philanthropy and women philanthropists since the mid nineteenth century. It links research findings (current in 2007) to the Australian Women’s Register. This project links to a database containing biographical notes on over thirty Australian women philanthropists, along with details of relevant bibliographical and archival resources and a thematic essay.

Users can: browse an alphabetical list of philanthropists; browse alphabetical lists of archival and published resources; browse images and search the register of Australia Women

Dr Barbara Lemon was principal researcher for the project.

Funding for this project was provided by the Australian Research Council and the National Foundation for Australian Women