Women in the Archives

From trailblazers and activists to mass social and labour organisations, the University of Melbourne Archives holds hundreds of collections created by and documenting women. This includes the Germaine Greer Archive and Victorian Women's Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Archives (VWLLFA). Finding women in the archives has been a key project of feminist scholarship. As such, these pages are designed as windows into notable collections, providing glimpses of women’s significant contributions to a broad range of fields, changing gender ideologies and the social fabric of Australian life.

A thematic guide to the diverse collections created by and documenting women in mass movements, political activism and Australian social life held in the University of Melbourne Archives.

  • Women’s Movements 1880-1960

    This guide is designed to highlight some of the University of Melbourne Archive’s wealth of records relating to Victorian and Australian women’s associations. Search the catalogue and refer to finding aids for detailed descriptions of holdings.

  • Women, Migration and the Building of Australia

    This guide provides chronologically organised case studies highlighting the different types of documents held in by the University of Melbourne Archives.

  • Women at the University of Melbourne

    This is a curated selection of the University of Melbourne Archive's extensive collections relating to female academics' and students. Please refer to the advanced catalogue search function 'by profession' for a full list of students and academics as document creators.