No more “waves”: ‘Revolution and Reform: The Women's Liberation Movement and the Whitlam Years’

It was one of those extraordinary evenings to remember ~ full of connection, stimulation, hope and possibility ~ looking backwards, while always keeping our collective eyes on the future. It was a night to celebrate the phenomenal, dogged, legacy of Elizabeth Reid ~ among so many other things, the first ever Women’s Advisor to a National Government in the World. I was lucky to be there. I was honoured to be asked to speak on an exemplary panel, and alongside ER.

Back: John Juriansz, Senator Katy Gallagher, Michelle Arrow, Virginia Haussegger, Andrea Connor

Front: Mark Kenny, Margaret Jolly, Elizabeth Reid, Cathy Eatok, Sharon Crozier-De Rosa

Thank you to Virginia Haussegger for the image, 2023

We tend to be told that feminist history happened in disconnected chunks – in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and now 4th “waves”.

We are told that women’s libbers regarded the women who actively campaigned for reform before the 1970s as obsolete and conservative in their demands and tactics; and, that those now older women scorned women’s liberation for its radicalism, its bra-burning and wot-not.

While there were certainly generational differences, if we peel back the curtains on this one failed reform in Elizabeth’s Legacy Paper, what we find is a rich history of multiple generations of feminists, whatever their differences, all working together to protect and preserve feminist memory – knitting the feminist past, present and future together – all campaigning for a women’s library and archive.

Read my 8 minutes (yes, we were warned that the amazing VH would sound a gong should we surpass our time, which, as my Irish clan would say, put the fear of god in me!) here.