Damned Whores and God's Police

by Anne Summers

  40 This franchise had been given in the following years: New South Wales – 1867; Queensland – 1878; South Australia – 1861; Tasmania – 1884; Victoria – 1863; Western Australia – 1876.

  41 Pamphlets from the Mitchell Library pamphlet file Q324.3/1.

  42 Woman’s Suffrage Journal, vol. 1, no. 6, 17 November 1891, p. 4.

  43 Cited in O’Connor, Genesis of Women’s Suffrage, p. 6.

  44 Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales, Annual Report 1892, p. 5.

  45 The Bulletin, 9 March 1899.

  46 ‘A Citizen’ who has no Vote, Woman Suffrage, p. 7.

  47 Cited in Cobb, ‘The women’s movement in New South Wales’, p. 101.

  48 Alice C Wilson, writing in the Australian Woman’s Sphere, 10 June 1903.

  49 Between 1890 and 1910, when the Bill that raised the age of consent to sixteen and excluded girls under eighteen from working in brothels was finally passed, this single issue elicited more petitions to the New South Wales Parliament than any other issue apart from the Land Tax Bill.

  50 Florence Gordon had shown that the wages paid to dressmakers, the largest occupational group of women apart from domestic servants, were so low that ‘the average payment of the trained hand is barely self-supporting … so low is the average wage paid to grown women that it is astonishing that parents consent to their daughters working at such payment, when it does not relieve their fathers of the burden of their support’. Florence Gordon, ‘The conditions of female labour and the rates of women’s wages in Sydney’, The Australian Economist, 23 August 1894, pp. 425–6.

  51 Norman MacKenzie, ‘Vida Goldstein: The Australian suffragette’, AustralianJournal of Politics and History, November 1960, p. 203.

  52 See Ms Harrison Lee, One of Australia’s Daughters, HJ Osborn, London, 1906.

  53 The Woman Voter, no. 1, August 1909.

  54 Rose Scott, President’s Address to the Women’s Political Education League, 1904, Mitchell Library, Q324.3W.

  55 Wilson, writing in the Australian Woman’s Sphere.

  56 Scott, President’s Address to the Women’s Political Education League.

  57 The Woman Voter, no. 1, August 1909.

  58 McCorkindale, Torchbearers, p. 31.

  59 Women received the right to take seats in parliament in the following years: New South Wales – 1918 (Legislative Assembly) 1926 (Legislative Council); Queensland – 1915; Tasmania – 1921; Victoria – 1923; Western Australia – 1920. New Zealand’s first franchise Bill did not allow for women to sit in parliament.

  60 Jessie Ackerman, Australia from a Woman’s Point of View, Cassell, London, 1913, p. 221. My emphasis.

  61 Vida Goldstein, ‘Should women enter parliament?’, Review of Reviews, 20 August 1903, p. 136.

  62 See, for example, Tom Mann, Socialism, ‘Tocsin’ office, Melbourne, July 1905, pp. 35–6.

  63 The Woman Voter, no. 1, August 1909.

  64 Jill Johnston, Lesbian Nation, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1973, p. 80.

  65 See Anne Summers, ‘Marion/Bill Edwards’, Refractory Girl, no. 5, Summer 1974, for an account of the woman of that name; and Hugh Buggy, ‘The woman who had two lives’ in a magazine entitled Daughters of Death, Melbourne, n.d., which is sold in newsagents, for a rather sensationalist account of the life of female transvestite (and murderer) Eugene Falleni.

  66 Cobb, ‘The women’s movement in New South Wales’, p. 120.

  67 Cobb, ‘The women’s movement in New South Wales’, p. 381.

  68 Cited in Rachel Cookson, ‘The Role of Certain Women and Women’s Organizations in NSW and Victoria between 1900 and 1920’, MA thesis, University of Sydney, 1959, p. 64.

  12 The mobilisation of mum

  1 Carmel Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes: Sexual mythology in Australia 1914–1918’, Hecate, January 1975, p. 7.

  2 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’, p. 9.

  3 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’, p. 8.

  4 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’, p. 12.

  5 J Harris, The Bitter Fight, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1970, p. 236.

  6 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’, p. 9.

  7 Rachel Cookson, ‘The role of certain women and women’s organizations in politics in New South Wales and Victoria between 1900 and 1920’, MA Thesis, University of Sydney, 1959, p. 41.

  8 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’, p. 11.

  9 Margaret Harland, Woman’s Place in Society, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1947, p. 39.

  10 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’, p. 14.

  11 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’.

  12 Shute, ‘Heroines and heroes’.

  13 Ethel Turner & Bertram Stevens (eds), The Australian Soldiers’ Gift Book, Voluntary Workers’ Association, Sydney, n.d. (c. 1916), p. xiii.

  14 Mrs Jamieson Williams & Mrs Andrew Holliday (eds), Golden Records: Pathfinders of Women’s Christian Temperance Union of N.S.W., John Sands, Sydney, 1926, p. 41.

  15 This information was given to me by Dr Heather Radi, Department of History, University of Sydney.

  16 The Register, (South Australia), 27 November 1928.

  17 Norman MacKenzie, Women in Australia, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1962, p. 305. The following information about the CWA is all taken from this source.

  18 Adapted from table compiled by Jean I Martin & Catherine MG Richmond, ‘Working women in Australia’ in Anatomy of Australia, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh’s Third Commonwealth Study Conference, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1968, p. 197.

  19 Frances Fraser & Nettie Palmer (eds), Centenary Gift Book, Robertson & Mullens, Melbourne, 1934, p. 141.

  20 Florence Gordon, ‘Equal pay for equal work: Effect on the male worker’, TheForum, 19 December 1923, p. 4.

  21 Peter F McDonald, Marriage in Australia: Age at first marriage and proportions marrying, 18601971, Australian Family Formation Project, Monograph No. 2, Australian National University, Canberra, 1974, pp. 172, 184.

  22 Racial Hygiene Association of Australia, Minutes and Press-cuttings Book, 25 May 1926 – 31 October 1927. I would like to thank the Family Planning Association of New South Wales for kindly permitting me to examine these records.

  23 Racial Hygiene Association of Australia, Minutes and Press-cuttings Book.

  24 Racial Hygiene Association of Australia, Minutes and Press-cuttings Book.

  25 Racial Hygiene Association of Australia, Minutes and Press-cuttings Book.

  26 Constance M D’Arcy, ‘The problem of maternal welfare’, Medical Journal ofAustralia, 30 March 1935, p. 389. Regular Wassermann tests (to detect syphilis) were conducted on all parturient women at the Melbourne Women’s Hospital, the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne, and the Crown Street Women’s Hospital, Sydney.

  27 Sydney Morning Herald, 5 May 1927.

  28 Maybanke Anderson, ‘Women and the drink trade: In favour of prohibition’, TheForum, 15 August 1923, p. 6.

  29 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, no. 29, 1938, p. 577.

  30 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia.

  31 Official Year Book of New South Wales 1927–28, Sydney, 1929, p. 154.

  32 Official Year Book of New South Wales 1927–28.

  33 Official Year Book of New South Wales 1927–28, p. 155.

  34 Official Year Book of New South Wales 1927–28, pp. 150–1.

  35 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, no. 26, 1933, p. 805.

  36 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, no. 58, 1972, p. 167.

  37 Racial Hygiene Association of Australia, Minutes and Press-cuttings Book.

  38 SJ Marsden, Parenthood Controlled: Methods of Birth Control Explained andCriticised, Private circulation only, n.p., n.d., (Melbourne, 1923).

  39 Adapted from Lincoln Day, ‘Divorce’ in AF Davies & S Encel (eds), AustralianSociety: A Sociological Introduction, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1965, p. 171.

  40 Day, ‘Divorce’, p. 170.

  41 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia
, no. 24, 1923, p. 948.

  42 Don Aitken, Michael Kahan & Sue Barnes, ‘What happened to the depression generation ?’ in Robert Cooksey (ed.), The Great Depression, (Labour History no. 17), Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra, 1970, p. 179, original emphasis.

  43 Robin Gollan, ‘Some consequences of the Depression’, in Cooksey, The GreatDepression, p. 182.

  44 Russel Ward, Australia, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1967, p. 139.

  45 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, no. 28, 1935, p. 550.

  46 Victorian Census figures, taken from Muriel Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’sJobs? A Survey of Women’s Work in Victoria with special regard to Equal Status, Equal Pay and Equal Opportunity, Milton and Veitch, Melbourne, 1935, p. 16.

  47 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, no. 28, 1935, p. 550.

  48 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, no. 28, p. 552.

  49 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, pp. 34–5.

  50 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, pp. 59–62. It is worth considering why the firm decided to employ girls in the first place. The employers contended that they intended to give the girls equal wages, as they expected production to increase with this changed employment policy. The work involved was extremely repetitive and boring, and boys previously engaged on the job had shown little interest in doing it: they were inattentive and uninterested and this led to a drop in production. The first female employees increased productivity by more than 60 per cent by their application to the work. No doubt the high wage provided an incentive to work hard to keep the job, but it is probably also an early instance of the now common practice of employing women to do dreary and monotonous process work that men will not do.

  51 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 34.

  52 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 76.

  53 FA Bland, ‘A note on unemployment relief in New South Wales’, Economic Record, May 1932, p. 100.

  54 Caddie, Autobiography of a Sydney Barmaid, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1966, p. 148.

  55 Bruce Mitchell, ‘The New South Wales Teachers’ Federation’, in Cooksey, TheGreat Depression, p. 68.

  56 Cited in Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 114.

  57 Rosalie Stephenson, Women in Australian Society, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1970, p. 28.

  58 Cited in Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 115.

  59 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 110.

  60 Report on Relief of Unemployed Girls … August 1930 – July 1932, incorporated in Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, pp. 116–24.

  61 Report on Relief of Unemployed Girls … August 1930 – July 1932, p. 121.

  62 Cited in Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 111.

  63 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?.

  64 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?.

  65 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 114.

  66 Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 112.

  67 Ruby Keating, ‘A Note’, Golden Jubilee Souvenir of the Labor Women’s CentralOrganizing Committee, Sydney, 1954, p. 18.

  68 Macarthy, ‘The Harvester Judgement’, pp. 184–5.

  69 John C Caldwell et al., ‘Australia: Knowledge, attitudes, and practice of family planning in Melbourne, 1971’, Studies in Family Planning, March 1973, p. 54.

  70 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, no. 58, 1972, p. 167.

  71 LE Goodisson, ‘Sex education: The need for racial hygiene’, The Progressive Journal, (Sydney), 1 August 1935, p. 32.

  72 Norman Haire, Sex Problems of Today, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1943, p. 29.

  73 Haire, Sex Problems of Today.

  74 Goodisson, ‘Sex education’.

  75 D’Arcy, ‘The problem of maternal welfare’, p. 386.

  76 Adapted from Official Year Book of New South Wales, no. 61, 1971, p. 321.

  77 Official Year Book of New South Wales, no. 61.

  78 Official Year Book of New South Wales, no. 61, p. 297.

  79 . Heagney, Are Women Taking Men’s Jobs?, p. 121.

  80 Cited in Judith Mackinolty, ‘Sugar Bag Days – Sydney workers and the challenge of the 1930s Depression’, MA thesis, Macquarie University, 1972, p. 56.

  81 D’Arcy Niland, Gold in the Streets, Horwitz, Sydney, 1970, p. 43.

  82 JT Lang, The Turbulent Years, Alpha Books, Sydney, 1970, p. 92.

  83 Australian Women’s Weekly, 23 September 1933, p. 2.

  84 Australian Women’s Weekly, 6 October 1934, p. 10.

  85 ‘President’s Message’, The Progressive Journal, (Sydney), 5 April 1935.

  86 Andree Wright, ‘The Australian Women’s Weekly: Depression and the war years, romance and reality’, Refractory Girl, no. 3, Winter 1973, p. 10.

  87 Mollie Bayne, Australian Women at War, Left Book Club of Victoria, Melbourne, 1943, p. 14.

  88 Bayne, Australian Women at War, pp. 14–15.

  89 Bayne, Australian Women at War, p. 17.

  90 Dymphna Cusack & Florence James, Come in Spinner, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1951, p. 207.

  91 Control of Manpower in Australia: A General Review of the Administration of theManpower Directorate, February 1942 – September 1944. Issued by WC Wurth, Director General of Manpower, Government Printer, Sydney, 1944, p. 20.

  92 Bayne, Australian Women at War, p. 29.

  93 For details of this struggle see Bayne, Australian Women at War, pp. 29–33; and S Encel, N MacKenzie & M Tebbutt, Women and Society: An Australian study, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 155–8.

  94 MacKenzie, Women in Australia, p. 173.

  95 Bayne, Australian Women at War, p. 25.

  96 Bayne, Australian Women at War.

  97 E Ronald Walker, The Australian Economy in War and Reconstruction, Oxford University Press, New York, 1947.

  98 MacKenzie, Women in Australia, p. 141.

  99 Macarthy, ‘The Harvester Judgement’, p. 189.

  100 Control of Manpower in Australia, p. 95.

  101 Kylie Tennant, Tell Morning This, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1947, p. 229.

  102 Cusack & James, Come in Spinner, p. 266.

  103 MacKenzie, Women in Australia, p. 141.

  104 For example, They Wrote it Themselves: A Book of the W.R.A.A.F., Robertson & Mullens, Melbourne, 1946; and Jessie Elizabeth Simons, While History Passed, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1954, which is the story of the Australian nurses who were Japanese prisoners of war for three and a half years, and which describes the brutal Banka Island Beach massacre of 21 Australian nurses, only one of whom, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, survived to recount the horror.

  105 Haire, Sex Problems of Today, p. 29.

  106 Haire, Sex Problems of Today, p. 42.

  107 Australian Women’s Weekly, 14 August 1943, p. 9.

  108 Australian Women’s Weekly, 14 August 1943, p. 10.

  109 Australian Women’s Weekly, 28 August 1945, p. 18.

  110 Harland, Woman’s Place in Society, p. 18.

  13 Suburban neurotics?

  1 For instance, Julie Rigg (ed.), In Her Own Right, Nelson, Melbourne, 1969. Chapters 9 and 10; Graham Williams, ‘Loneliness of the long enduring housewives’, Sunday Australian, 22 August 1971, as well as many articles in the women’s pages of newspapers over the past three years.

  2 Denise Bradley & Mary Mortimer, ‘Sex role stereotyping in children’s picture books’, Refractory Girl, no. 1, Summer 1972–73, p. 14.

  3 RW Connell, ‘You can’t tell them apart nowadays – can you?’, Search, July 1974, p. 283.

  4 Students were instructed to write an essay entitled ‘Reflections on my life’. No guidance was provided as to how far into the future they were to project since I wanted to try and elicit from them how far their expectations extended. Four groups of girls from three schools were tested: (1) an exclusive private girls’ school, (2) a high-school in a lower middle-class suburb; an ‘A’ stream and a commercial stream were tested,
(3) a technical high school in a working-class suburb. Thus it was hoped to cover a wide spectrum of class and educational differences.

  5 Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, England, 1968, p. 13.

  6 Williams, ‘Loneliness of the long enduring housewife’.

  7 Taken from Facts and Figures, Women and Work, no. 11, Women’s Bureau, Department of Labour, Melbourne, September 1973, p. 5.

  8 Facts and Figures, Women and Work, no. 11, p. 13; The Labour Force, February 1973, Australian Bureau of Census and Statistics, 1975, p. 6.

  9 . Facts and Figures, Women and Work, no. 11, p. 16.

  10 Ladies Line, vol. 6, no. 12, 10 June 1972, p. 50.

  11 Barbara Thiering, Created Second? Family Life Movement of Australia, Sydney, 1973, pp. 19–20.

  12 Reported in The Australian, 26 December 1973.

  13 Reported in The Australian, 15 January 1974.

  14 ‘Australian wives smarter than their husbands ?’, interview in the National Times, 8–13 May 1972.

  15 The Patterson Report or ‘Wooing the Australian Woman’, George Patterson Ltd, Sydney, 1972. Introduction.

  16 ‘It is an article of faith among the Australian market executives I talked to that women make 90 per cent of consumer decisions for the family; an academic survey suggests that they control at least two-thirds of family expenditure and that their influence may be pervasive in decisions about the other third. Even in those families where women have challenged the traditional division of roles, seeking to enter the world of ideas, sharing the task of providing or demanding the assistance of their men in tending home and family, the wife’s role as chief consumer appears to prevail.’ Rigg (ed.), In Her Own Right, p. 136. The same proposition is maintained by Janet Wolff, What Makes Women Buy? McGraw-Hill, New York, 1958, p. 280.