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Faith, Fetes and Domesticity in Australia

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09612020600938665

1747-583X

Anne O’Brien,

Irish and British Studies

Abstract To feminists in the 1970s the fete symbolised women's marginalisation in church and society but in the nineteenth century its respectability was far from assured. This article uses the shifting history of the fete and other forms of women's fund‐raising over the years between the 1880s and the 1970s to examine changes in 'ordinary' women's subjective and practical experiences of domesticity. It shows how women used the fete to carve out a place for themselves on the borders of the public and private spheres and, in the process, 'created and sustained communities'; how churchmen overcame their reluctance to allowing women into the public gaze because of the church's financial need and how, as women came to envision a greater role for themselves in the church from the early twentieth century, a strand of resistance to being 'used' as fund‐raisers emerged. The history of women's fund‐raising for the church offers insights into the under‐researched area of women and domesticity. Notes [1] Major studies include N. Cott (1974) The Bonds of Womanhood: woman's sphere in New England, 1780–1835 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press); A. Firor Scott (1991) Natural Allies: women's associations in American history (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press); J. Godden (1983) Philanthropy and the Woman's Sphere: Sydney, c.1870–1900 (Ph.D. thesis, Macquarie University). [2] An exception is Kathleen McCarthy. See her overview of the historiography of women's voluntary church work in K. McCarthy (1998) The History of Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Third Sector Review, 4(2), pp. 15–17. [3] In a reassessment of 'first wave' feminism in Australia in 1996, Susan Magarey listed over forty sources dealing with the subject. S. Magarey (1996) Another Look at First Wave Feminism in Australia, Australian Historical Studies, 27(106), p. 101; since then, two major studies of women's politics have been published: M. Lake (1999) Getting Equal: the history of Australian feminism (Sydney: Allen & Unwin); F. Paisley (2000) Loving Protection? Australian Feminism and Aboriginal Women's Rights, 1919–1939 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press). [4] For a discussion of 1960s feminists' responses to domesticity see L. Johnson (2000) 'Revolutions are not Made by Down‐trodden Housewives': feminism and the housewife, Australian Feminist Studies, 15(3), pp. 237–248. [5] B. Kingston (1975) My Wife, My Daughter and Poor Mary Ann (Melbourne: Nelson), p. 4; J. Matthews (1984) Good and Mad Women (Sydney: Allen & Unwin); K. M. Reiger (1985) The Disenchantment of the Home (Melbourne: Oxford University Press); K. Holmes (1995) Spaces in her Day (Sydney: Allen & Unwin). [6] P. Grimshaw, M. Lake, A. McGrath & M. Quartly (1994) Creating a Nation, 1788–1990 (Melbourne: McPhee Gribble); K. Saunders & R. Evans (Eds) (1992) Gender Relations in Australia: domination and negotiation (Sydney: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). [7] A. Gilbert (1985) The Roots of Australian Anti‐suburbanism, Australian Cultural History, 4, pp 54–70; G. Davison, T. Dingle & S. O'Hanlon (Eds) (1995) The Cream Brick Frontier: histories of Australian suburbia (Melbourne: Monash Publications in History); T. Rowse (1997) Heaven and a Hills Hoist: Australian critics on suburbia, in R. White & P. Russell (Eds) Memories and Dreams: reflections on twentieth century Australia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin). [8] In addition to the work already named see A. Game & R. Pringle (1997) Sexuality and the Suburban Dream, in White & Russell, Memories and Dreams. [9] J. Duruz (1994) Suburban Houses Revisited, in K. Darian‐Smith & P. Hamilton, Memory and History in Twentieth Century Australia (Melbourne: Oxford University Press), pp. 174–191; B. Davison & G. Davison (1995) Suburban Pioneers, in Davison et al, The Cream Brick Frontier, pp. 41–50; J. Murphy & B. Probert (2004) Anything for the House: recollections of post‐war suburban dreaming, Australian Historical Studies, 36(124), pp. 275–293. [10] This was the phrase used by Marilyn Lake, one of the authors of Creating a Nation, in debate with Bob Birrell on ABC radio, 'Is Federation history blokes' history?', Lateline, ABC TV, http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/s286040.htm [11] B. Kingston (1977) Women and the History of Churches in Australia, in S. Willis (Ed.) Women Faith and Fetes (Sydney: Dove Communications with the Australian Council of Churches). See also F. Clarke (1994) 'She Hath Done what She Could': women's voluntary groups in the Methodist church in South Australia, 1945–1977, in M. Hutchinson & E. Campion (Eds) Long Patient Struggle: essays on women and gender in Australian Christianity (Sydney: Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity), pp. 129–138. [12] A. O'Brien (2005) God's Willing Workers: women and religion in Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press), p 74. [13] N. St George Butter (1967) Biography of Alfred Lee and Minnie Lee, Typescript, Mitchell Library MSS, 1508. [14] R. Waterhouse (1995) Private Pleasures, Public Leisure: a history of Australian popular culture (South Melbourne: Longman), pp. 5–6. [15] F. K. Prochaska (1980) Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century England (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 51. [16] M. Sear (2000) Unworded Proclamations: exhibitions of women's work in colonial Australia (Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney), pp 39–40. [17] Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy, pp. 68–69. [18] P. Grimshaw (1993) In Pursuit of True Anglican Womanhood, Women's History Review, 2, pp. 331–347; S. Magarey (2001) Passions of the First Wave Feminists (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press), Section 2. [19] H. Golder (1985) Divorce in 19th Century New South Wales (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press), pp. 257–278. [20] A. O'Brien (1993) A Church full of Men: masculinism and the Church in Australian history, Australian Historical Studies, 25(100), pp. 437–457. [21] D. Hulme‐Moir (1988) The Edge of Time (Sydney: Christian Outreach Book Service), p. 109. [22] Interview, Dorothy Henderson and Shirley Ives, 2 November, 1999. [23] Sear, Unworded Proclamations, p. 38. [24] Sydney Morning Herald (29 April 1882). [25] Sydney Morning Herald (10 May 1882). [26] Cited in A. E. Cahill (n.d.) Archbishop Vaughan and Cardinal Moran as Cathedral Builders, in P. O'Farrell (Ed.) St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, 1821–1971 (Sydney: Devonshire Press), p. 135. [27] Freeman's Journal (3 June 1882). [28] Sydney Morning Herald (8 April 1897). [29] Sydney Morning Herald (8 April 1897). [30] Sydney Morning Herald (10 May 1882). [31] Cahill, 'Archbishop Vaughan and Cardinal Moran', pp. 138–140. [32] L. Wilson (1999) 'Constrained by Zeal': women in mid‐nineteenth century non‐conformist churches, Journal of Religious History, 23(2), pp. 185–202. [33] Forty Years History of Women's Work in New South Wales 1892–1932, p. 3, WOAM, box 3, Uniting Church Archives, North Parramatta, NSW. [34] Ministering Women, May, 1920, p. 2. [35] Ministering Women, May, 1920, p. 1. [36] During the War nearly £14 million was raised from a population of just over 5 million people. Many church workers forsook their organised church work to assist with the war effort and many Red Cross groups built on the existing network of women's church groups. M. Oppenheimer (2002) All Work and No Pay: Australian civilian volunteers in War (Walcha: Ohio Productions), p. 27. [37] Forty Years History of Women's Work, p. 3. [38] Maybanke Wolstoneholme in The Woman's Voice, 20 October 1894, cited in B. Kingston (1977) The World Moves Slowly: a documentary history of Australian women (Sydney: Cassell), p. 136. [39] Magarey, Passions of the First Wave feminists, pp. 127–140. [40] Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy, p. 65. [41] See, for example, Mothers' Union, Annual Reports, 1896–1902. [42] Ministering Women, January, 1911, pp. 8–9. [43] Letter from Fanny Fraser to Retta Long, 1907, Aborigines Inland Mission Archives, Lawson, NSW. [44] 'Is Federation Blokes' History?' [45] Helen Fell, Diary, 28 June 1919, ML MSS 114/2. [46] D. Entwhistle (2001) 'Hope, Colour and Comradeship': loyalty and opportunism in early 20th century church attendance among the working class in north‐west England, Journal of Religious History, 25(1), pp. 20–38. [47] St Andrew's Tea Room, Visitor's Book, Series 502 Ferguson Memorial Library, Sydney. [48] Reiger, The Disenchantment of the Home, p. 57 [49] General articles on this subject include M. Tonkinson (1988) Sisterhood or Aboriginal Servitude? Black Women and White Women on the Australian Frontier, Aboriginal History, 12(1–2), pp. 27–39; M. E. Maguire (1990) The Legend of the Good Fella Missus, Aboriginal History, 14(2), pp. 124–151; L. Riddett (1993) Watch the White Woman Fade: Aboriginal and white women in the Northern Territory, 1870–1940, Hecate, 19(1), pp. 73–92; A. Cole, V. Haskins & F. Paisley (Eds) (2005) Uncommon Ground: white women in Aboriginal history (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press). [50] E. Simon (1978) Through My Eyes (Adelaide: Rigby), p. 107. [51] J. Godden (1997) Containment and Control: Presbyterian women and the missionary impulse in New South Wales, 1891–1914, Women's History Review, 6(1), pp. 75–93. [52] Interview, Lillian Wells, 8 November, 1999. [53] Clarke, '"She Hath Done What She Could"', p. 131. [54] St James Church, King Street, Women's Guild, Minute Book, 15 May 1912. St James Church Archives. [55] Ministering Women, June, 1920, p. 2. [56] R. Winch (1982) Wattle Park 1882–1982. The Story of the Wattle Park Uniting Church, Formerly Methodist, and Its Place in the District of Hall, ACT (Wattle Park: Wattle Park Uniting Church), p. 103. [57] M. Porter (1988) Women in the Church: the great ordination debate in Australia (Ringwood: Penguin), pp. 26–28. [58] S. M. Withycombe (2002) Honourable Engagement: St Mark's Church, Darling Point, the first 150 years (Sydney: St Mark's Church), pp. 134–135. [59] Porter, Women in the Church, p. 17. [60] D. Mitchell (1985) Workers Together: the story of the women's auxiliary to the Australian Board of Missions, 1910–1985 (Sydney: Australian Board of Mission), pp. 12, 42. [61] Mrs R. W. Short (1972) Ladies Church Aid, Journal and Proceedings of the Australasian Methodist Historical Society, 92, September, p. 1286. [62] W. T. Riley (1993) Do You Remember? A Story of the People of the Chester Street Uniting Church Congregation 1963–1993. Epping, NSW (Epping: Chester Street Uniting Church), p. 65. [63] D. Hilliard (1997) Church, Family and Sexuality in Australia in the 1950s, Australian Historical Studies, 28(109), pp. 135–136. [64] D. Hilliard (1997) The Religious Crisis of the 1960s: the experience of the Australian churches, Journal of Religious History, 21(2), pp. 209–227. [65] K. Bliss (1952) The Service and Status of Women in the Churches, pp. 49–52 (London: SCM Press). [66] J. W. Burton (1955) The First Century: the missionary adventures of Australian Methodism, 1855–1955 (Sydney: Methodist Overseas Mission), pp. 57–58. [67] Eve Where Art Thou? Women's Role in the Church, Australian Council of Churches Committee on Co‐operation of Men and Women in Church, Family and Society, Sydney, 1967, p. 9. [68] Magdalene, 1973–1975. [69] Porter, Women and the Church, pp. 28–33. [70] For a full discussion see O'Brien, God's Willing Workers, pp. 231–239. [71] Report of the Enquiry into the Status of Women in the Church, Commission on the Status of Women, Australian Council of Churches, NSW State Council, 1974, pp. 61, 36. [72] Hilliard, 'Church, Family and Sexuality', p. 135. [73] Mitchell, Workers Together, p. 42. [74] Report of the Enquiry into the Status of Women, p. 38. [75] See planning documents, St Francis of Assisi Regional Primary School fete, May 2005.