Women’s Movements 1880-1960

Spreading rapidly, by the first Triennial Conference in 1891 (minutes held in 2010.0016 Unit 2 and programme held in 2010.0016 Unit 14), the WCTU had fifty-seven branches across the colony of Victoria. It was in this network of local Unions that all members, with their white ribbon bow insignia pins, signed a pledge to abstain from alcohol and other drugs. This temperance pledge was (and continues to be) representative of the individual and social reform agenda of the temperance union, which conceptualised individual and social issues and morality as linked, informing its commitment to reducing male violence and improving women’s welfare.

The Victorian Union officially committed itself to women’s suffrage at its 1890 Convention, stating that ‘as men and women are alike in having to obey the laws’ they ‘should also be equal in electing who make the laws’. This was grounded in the belief that ‘the ballot in the hands of women would be safeguard to the home’, and that women would have a moralising influence on politics and society.^[iii]

As a mass organisation with strong religious links, the Union’s activism for women’s suffrage heralded a shift in the movement away from being a vision of a radical minority, towards being the demand of a significant number of women from a variety of socio-economic classes and geographic regions. Indeed, minute books held by the University of Melbourne Archives are regionalised, therefore providing researchers with the opportunity to compare the conditions and activities of branches throughout Victoria and Australia.

The Minutes of the First Intercolonial Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Held in Victoria for the Purpose of Forming a Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Australasia (1891) is located in 2001.0085, Unit 18. It was at this convention that the Suffrage Department was formed which was instrumental in the coordination of what became known as the “Monster Petition.”^[iv]

The WCTU itself can also be regarded as a microcosm of the transnational flow of ideas about women’s rights and social activism.  For instance, 2001.0085 Unit 79 contains a copy of the Woman’s Centenary Calendar (1899), edited by American suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt.^[v]

Regarding the WCTU’s early activism, 2001.0085 Unit 1 contains the minutes of the Executive Council Meetings. Unit 77 contains the papers of South Australian leader Elizabeth Nichols (President of the South Australian WCTU, Superintendent of the Suffrage Department, Vice President of the World’s WCTU), including correspondence relating to suffrage and women’s political rights (1894-1933). The Union was one of four initial groups to become members of the National Council of Women of Victoria in 1902.^[i]

Apart from women’s political rights, the WCTU, from its foundation has been committed to children and women’s welfare. In 1909, the WCTU established a Free Kindergarten in Richmond (refer to 2001.0085 Unit 1 and 7-9 for manifestos, minutes, and wage records). This was closely followed, on 28 June 1909 by the establishment of a School for Mothers, providing education and information on maternal and child health.^[ii]

This school was under the leadership of Mrs Spurr, who had previously worked at the equivalent school in London (refer to collection 2001.0085 Unit 85).

For more collections relating to women and early childhood education see this subject guide’s page titled “Female Dominated Professions.”

At the first National Convention in 1891, the Union had also established a group, known as the Loyal Temperance Legion, for children between the ages of seven and fourteen. Files relating to the early Legion are held in 2001.0085 Unit 11; whilst post-World War Two records and programme materials are held in Units 34, and 78. The Union’s Headquarters, Isobel Somerset House, also housed working girls. Records relating to it can be found in 2001.0085 Unit 21.

The University of Melbourne Archives also holds a variety of other collections of late nineteenth-century temperance groups. This includes the Independent Order of Rechabites, who drew their name and philosophy from Rechab, an Old Testament leader whose followers abstained for alcohol, and whose Victorian association was founded in 1847. The restricted collection 1979.0091 contains files from 1861 to 1977 such as minutes, correspondence (1930s-1970s) and quarterly returns (1860s-1977). To access the collection, contact UMA.

The Bendigo Temperance Groups (1876-1950) collection 1984.0113 also contains minute and letter books for the women’s organisation Daughters of Temperance. A significant number of digitised photographs taken by Benalla photographer William John Howship in 1920 are also thought to be of temperance society members, like this photograph of Miss McCoy.^[viii]

When searching the finding guides of these collections, it would be advisable to search for key years rather than using thematic search terms.

Lady Janet Clarke, wife of Victoria’s largest landowner and a prominent philanthropist, first held a meeting of approximately three hundred women in her Toorak home, Cliveden, in August 1903 to discuss the forming of an organisation. This followed the success of conservative women campaigning in the Corio and Balaclava electorates in the first federal election including women voters in 1903.  However, it was not until a meeting in 1904 at Melbourne Town Hall that the Australian Women’s National League was formed with Clarke as president^[ii]

In contrast to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s official position of political neutrality, the AWNL had close ties to the conservative United Australia Party. Historian Marion Quartly has highlighted how the AWNL had roots in earlier anti-suffrage movements, rendering it ‘born in opposition to this triumph of democracy and also complicit within it.’^[iii]

Ideologically the League was committed to a platform of loyalty to the crown, protecting Australia from socialism, women’s education and the interests of women, home and family. Cohering with this understanding of women’s citizenship, the League advocated for greater provision of domestic science courses in schools and coordinated Empire Day Celebrations in Melbourne (1905-1945). Whilst maintaining a conservative philosophical core and envisioning men and women as occupying different societal “spheres”, the League did, from 1906, support Victorian state women’s suffrage and its publication, Woman, was an early promoter of equal pay for professional women.

The collection 1987.0141 contains 159 photographs of the League’s foundation members and this early history. These photographs are valuable for the history of conservative politics in Victoria and evidence upper-class women’s political engagement.

“Mrs Cato”, Sarony Studios, Australian National Women’s League, 1987.0141.00046

After 1918, the League shifted its focus towards maternal health, significantly being involved in “Baby Week” which included a series of health lectures and campaigns under the banners “Mothers are Nation Builders” and “No Babies, No Industries, No Nation”, and was also key in the establishment of Baby Health Centres and guarantee of pure milk in Victoria.^[iv]

The Australian National Women’s League was later significant in its support of the Australian Liberal Party’s foundation, and the organisations eventually amalgamated. For files relating to the foundation years of the Liberal Party Victorian Division see the collection 1985.0148.

Yet, a minority of its leadership resisted the eventual merge with the Liberal Party, continuing to emphasise the importance of women’s separate political representation. For more detail on the Australian Women’s National League refer to 1987.0141 which contains a history celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.