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‘Principles Do Not Alter, but the Means by Which We Attain Them Change’: the Australian Women’s National League and Political Citizenship, 1921–1945

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09612020500440879

1747-583X

Judith Smart,

Historical Gender and Feminism Studies

Abstract In the wake of the Great War, during which Australian Women's National League (AWNL) membership had climbed to 54,000, the organisation faced a number of challenges. These came from an aging leadership, competing organisations and rapidly changing ideas about feminine citizenship. The AWNL's political programme began to look timid and outdated. In this context, the views of President Margaret Crocker came under question from many younger women, especially in relation to the desirability of women standing for parliament. When May Couchman assumed the presidency in 1927, she began to reposition the League. Though the organisation never regained its unquestioned dominance of the non‐Labor women's movement, it was saved from irrelevance and, through Couchman's skills in political bargaining, women gained considerable influence in the nascent Liberal Party from 1945. This article examines the process of challenge, change and accommodation that preceded this and made the inevitable merger possible on advantageous terms. Notes [1] Argus (21 October 1944), cited in D. Sydenham with the Executive Committee of the Women's Section of the Liberal Party of Victoria (1996) Women of Influence: the first fifty years of women in the Liberal Party (Melbourne: Women's Section, Liberal Party of Australia, Victorian Division), pp. 50–51. [2] Woman IV (6), August 1911. [3] Woman, III (10), December 1910, p. 716. [4] Woman XX (2), April 1927, p. 45, for newly elected president Couchman's reference to 50,000 members. Later in 1927, Mrs Cooper, a country vice‐president, referred to the membership as 40,000. Woman, XX (11), January 1928, pp. 344–348. [5] In October 1930, Mrs Couchman used the figure 36,000. Woman XIII (9), November 1930, p. 233. [6] Sydenham, Women of Influence, p. 47. [7] By linkage to the British Commonwealth League and to the International Women's Suffrage Association. See M. Lake (1999) Getting Equal: the history of feminism in Australia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin), pp. 154–163, and F. Paisley (2000) Loving Protection? Australian feminism and Aboriginal women's rights 1919–1939 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press), pp. 19, 39–40. [8] R. Oldfield (1989) The Early Years of the Housewives' Association of Victoria 1915–1930, (BA Hons thesis, Monash University), pp. 22, 29, 43. [9] Housewife, July 1937, p. 21; December 1937, p. 30; June 1938, pp. 3, 35; December 1940, p. 6; July 1941, pp. 10–11. [10] Country Women's Association of Victoria (1978) Years of Adventure: fifty years of service by the Country Women's Association of Victoria 1928–1978 (Melbourne: CWA of Victoria), pp. 4, 8. The figure of 10,000 is guesswork and may well be an underestimate. NSW had 18,000 members at the end of 1938 (H. Townsend [c.1987] Serving the Country: the history of the Country Women's Association of New South Wales [Sydney: Doubleday], p. 112), and the fiftieth anniversary publication of the Victorian association in 1978 refers to 646 branches and 80,000 members at that time (1978). [11] Woman, XII (7), September 1919, pp. 258–259; XIII (1), March 1920, p. 21. [12] Woman, XIII (8), October 1920, p. 227; XIII (9), November 1920, pp. 256–260. [13] Woman, XV (9), November 1922, pp. 260–261; XVI (2), April 1923, p. 37; XVII (2), April 1924, p. 36; XIX (8), October 1926, pp. 232–236; XXIII (9), November 1930, p. 231. [14] Woman, XXI (2), April 1928, pp. 40–41. [15] July 1928 quarterly meeting of office‐bearers, reported in Woman, XXI (6), August 1928, pp. 167–168. [16] Woman, XV (4), June 1922, pp. 99–103, and XV (5), July 1922, pp. 131–134, for descriptions of trips to the Gippsland and Sunraysia districts. The increase in country vice‐presidents was decided at the March council meeting—XV (2), April 1922, p. 39. [17] Woman, XXI (6), August 1928, pp. 167–168; XXI (6), August 1928, p. 184. [18] These women played a role similar to the wives of members of the aristocracy in Britain in both Conservative constituency organisations and the Women's Institutes. For example, Mrs Alan Currie, president of the Learmonth branch, made her 'beautiful home and grounds at Ercildoune' available for a meeting of 300–400 electors of the Windermere, Learmouth, Burrumbeet and Waubra districts in March 1922. Woman, XV (2), April 1922, p. 64. She again held a garden party there in January 1925 for 250 with strawberries and cream and tea to organise 'against the forces of socialism which are ever gaining strength'. Woman, XVII (12), February 1925, p. 361. [19] See, for example, Woman, XVII (11). January 1925, pp. 343–345 re formation of the new Caulfield West Branch under the wing of the St Kilda branch. [20] Woman, XIX (11), January 1927, p. 327 re increasing importance of organisation and voter education now that voting was compulsory in the state. [21] Woman, XXI (2), April 1928, pp. 41–42. [22] Woman, XXI (4), June 1928, p. 116. [23] Woman, XVII (8) October 1924, p. 337; XXI (9), November 1928, p. 267. And in 1933 selling raffle tickets for charity was forbidden to branches. Woman, XXV (11), January 1933, p. 232. [24] Mrs Couchman in the 'Branch Paper', Woman, XXIII (9), November 1930, p. 231; see also XXV (6), August 1932, p. 124. [25] This was the case with the New Settlers' League, the Australian Society for Combating Venereal Disease, the National Safety Council (Home Committee), the Empire Shopping Week Council, the National War Memorial, the Travellers' Aid Society, and, of course, the National Council of Women (NCW), which coordinated agitation on a range of issues to do with women's rights, status and welfare. 'What the League Does', Woman, XXV (6), August 1932. p. 124. [26] Woman, XV (12), February 1923, pp. 376–377. [27] On the earlier work, see Marian Quartly (2003) 'The Time Is Not Yet Ripe': the AWNL and modernity, 1903–1922, paper presented at the International Federation for Research in Women's History Conference, Belfast. On the revivification of this work in the early 1920s, see, for example, 'Council Notes' for 7 November, in Woman, XVI (10), December 1923, p. 308; 'League's Important Work', reprinted form the Argus, in Woman, XVII (5), July 1924, pp. 132–133; 'Suggestions for Election Work for Branches' in Woman, XVIII (8), October 1925, pp. 229–230; 'Electoral Redistribution' in Woman, XIX (8), October 1926, pp. 228–230. [28] Mrs Hughes, in Woman, XV (2), April 1922, p. 47. [29] May Couchman, in Woman, XXIII (12), February 1931, p. 356, cited in Sydenham, Women of Influence, p. 41. [30] December 1921 Council meeting, reported in the Woman, XIV (11), January 1922, p. 331. [31] Woman, XX (11), January 1928, p. 372; XXI (8), October 1928, pp. 230–231; and XXI (9), November 1928, pp. 269–270. [32] Woman, XXII (5), July 1929, p. 149. Council decision, June 1929. [33] Woman, XXII (2), April 1930, p. 33. [34] Woman, XIX (8), October 1926, pp. 232–236, Annual Report; XIX (11), January 1927, p. 343 (Couchman at Belgrave branch meeting). [35] On the Housewives' Association membership claims at this time, see Housewife, June 1938, pp. 3, 35. [36] White Ribbon Signal, 8 July 1929, p. 103. [37] The Australian Federation of University Women, the Australian Federation of Women Voters, the Australian National Young Women's Christian Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Federal Council of the NCW. White Ribbon Signal, 8 July 1929, p. 103. [38] Ibid. Further information on the Pan‐Pacific movement can be found in F. Paisley (2002) Cultivating Modernity: culture and internationalism in Australian feminism's Pacific age, Journal of Women's History, 14(3), pp. 105–134. On the internationalisation of Australian post‐suffrage women's organisation generally, see Lake, Getting Equal. [39] The earlier move was suggested by the Queensland Women's Electoral League in 1922. Woman, XV (2), April 1922, p. 39. The League's omission from the accrediting committee for conference representation would have been particularly galling given that the 1928 Australian alternate delegate to the League of Nations, May Moss, had been an AWNL vice‐president. See A. Norris (1986) 'Moss, Alice Frances Mabel', in Bede Nairn & Geoffrey Serle (Eds) Australian Dictionary of Biography, 10 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press), p. 599; also Woman, XXI (1), March 1928. p. 9, and XXI (3), May 1928, pp. 77–78. [40] Woman, XXI (5), July 1928, pp. 132–133. [41] Woman, XXI (4), June 1928, pp. 112–115. [42] Woman, XXI (10), December 1928, p. 294, and XXIII (4), June 1932, p. 77. [43] Woman, XXI (4), June 1928, pp. 112–115, 118–119, and 121–122. [44] On the LWIE, see minute books in the Merrifield Collection, LaTrobe Collection, State Library of Victoria. [45] Woman, XVII (7), September 1924, pp. 196–198. [46] Woman, XVII (12), February 1925, pp. 357–359. [47] Woman, XVIII (5), July 1925, p. 133. [48] Woman, XVIII (7), September 1925, p. 197. [49] Woman, XVIII (8), October 1925, pp. 228–229. [50] Ibid., pp. 228–230. [51] Woman, XX (4), June1927, pp. 100–101. [52] Woman, XX1 (3), May 1928, p. 69. [53] Woman, XXI (4), June 1928, pp. 101–104. [54] Woman, XX (12), Feburary 1928, pp. 358–359. [55] Woman, XVIII (2), April 1925, p. 430 (March Council meeting). [56] Woman, XXI (7), September 1928, p. 201 (October Council); January 1933, p. 233; Council meeting July 1932, reported in Woman, XXIV (6), August 1932, p. 128. [57] See short biographical note in Woman, XX (3), May 1927, p. 79; XXIV (8), October 1931, p. 210. [58] See, for example, discussion in J. Smart (2002) Cultivating Class Consciousness in a New Generation: the Labor Guild of Youth in Melbourne 1926–28, Labour History, 82, pp. 49–63. [59] An account of the first meeting is in the Woman, XVII (7), September 1924, p. 209. [60] Woman, XIX (3), May 1926, pp. 72–73; XIX (6), August 1926, p. 187; XIX (9), November 1926, p. 271; XIX (10), December 1926, p. 299. [61] Woman, XIX (10), December 1926, p. 299. [62] Ibid. [63] On relationship to the League and the local 'senior' branch, see Woman, XXI (4), June 1928, p. 115. On gatherings at Central, see for example, Woman, XXV (9), November 1932, p. 203. [64] Woman, XXV (6), August 1932, p. 124. [65] Woman, XX (2), April 1927, pp. 42–43. [66] Former AWNL member and organiser Eleanor Glencross was the most important figure in the founding of the VWCM in August 1922. She was also important after the war in the Women's Section of the Country Party and central to the revival of the Housewives' Association of Victoria in the early 1920s. On her subsequent career, see M. Foley (1983) 'Glencross, Eleanor', in Nairn & Serle (Eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, 9, pp. 27–28; G. Brown, 'Eleanor Glencross and Ivy Weber: in and out of parliament', in M. Lake & F. Kelly (Eds) Double Time: women in Victoria—150 years (Melbourne: Penguin), pp. 344–352, and M. Fitzherbert (2004) Liberal Women: Federation to 1949 (Sydney: Federation Press), chapter 10. [67] Goldstein's organisation was linked to the Women's Social and Liberal Union in Britain and was the principal voice of suffragism and feminism in Victoria from 1903 to 1919. Goldstein had stood unsuccessfully for election to the Commonwealth parliament on five occasions in those years. [68] For example, the Surrey Hills branch representative at the April meeting of Council explicitly requested 'that the A.W.N.L. should reconsider its position with regard to sending women to Parliament' and the Camberwell branch 'asked that the A.W.N.L. should approach the State Government and request that women be eligible for election to the State Parliament'. Woman, XV (3), May 1922, p. 68. See also Camberwell branch meeting with Mrs Hughes in the chair in May, reported in the Woman, XV (5), July 1922, pp. 150–151. Then the Armadale branch, after hearing May Couchman argue that women should start at municipal level, as opposed to Mrs Gatehouse listing the advantages of women entering parliament, voted for Mrs Gatehouse's position with only one member opposed. Woman, XV (7), September 1922, p. 213. [69] Woman, XV (5), July 1922, pp. 142–143. [70] Woman, XV (9), November 1922, pp. 261–265. [71] Tribute on Crocker's retirement as president five years later. See Woman, XX (2), April 1927, pp. 41–42. [72] Woman, XV (9), November 1922, pp, 261, 265. [73] Woman, XVI (9), November 1923, pp. 262–263. [74] Ibid. [75] Ibid., pp. 263–264. Barbara Armstrong felt she could not continue to edit the Woman in these circumstances and resigned. See Woman, XVII (2), April 1924, p. 43. [76] Woman, XVI (12), February 1924, p. 366; XVII (4), June 1924, p. 126. [77] Woman, XVIII (3), May 1925, p. 92. [78] See Oenone Serle (1986) 'Martyn, Nellie Constance', in Nairn & Serle (Eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, 10, p. 430. [79] Woman, XVIII (1), March 1926, p. 416. [80] Woman, XXII (2), April 1929, p. 42. [81] Woman, XXII (4), June 1929, pp. 99–124. [82] Woman, XXII (4), June 1929, p. 125. [83] Woman, XXV (9), November 1932, p. 203. [84] Woman, XVII (5), July 1924, p. 132, 133. [85] Woman, XVII (11), January 1925, p. 367; XVIII (4), June 1925, p. 99. [86] For example, the contest in Toorak in 1927, which saw the League's preferred candidate Stanley Argyle eventually victorious at the polls. [87] Woman, XXI (4), June 1928, pp. 105–124. [88] Woman, XXV (3), May 1932, p. 59. [89] Woman, XXV (6), August 1932, p. 123. The four objectives were: loyalty to the throne, opposition to socialism, political education of women, safeguarding the interests of the home. [90] Woman, XXVI (6), August 1933, p. 397. [91] Woman, XXVI (11), January 1934, p. 425. [92] Sun News Pictorial, 20 May 1931. [93] Sydenham, Women of Influence, p. 47. [94] Sun News Pictorial, July 1945, cited in Sydenham, Women of Influence, p. 47. [95] Sydenham, Women of Influence, p. 48. [96] Sydenham, Women of Influence, pp. 51–53; Fitzherbert, Liberal Women, p. 21. [97] Sun News Pictorial, 10 August 1949; M. Sawer (1989) 'Elizabeth Couchman', in Heather Radi (Ed.) 200 Australian Women: a redress anthology (Sydney: Women's Redress Press), p. 108. [98] Sydenham, Women of Influence, p. 79. [99] Between 1945 and 1987, only nine Liberal women were elected in Victoria—three Senators, four state Members of the Legislative Assembly and two state Members of the Legislative Council. Fitzherbert, Liberal Women, Appendix 4. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJudith Smart Judith Smart is Associate Professor in History at RMIT University. She has published on Australian women's organisations in the first half of the twentieth century, as well as on women and political protest, venereal diseases, the impact of war, and the Miss Australia beauty contest.