Joyce Stevens AM (1928–2014) was an Australian socialist-feminist activist, communist, and historian,[1] one of the founders of the women's liberation movement in Sydney,[2][3] prominent in the wave of feminism that began in the late 1960s in Australia.
[2] A leading member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), Stevens reconciled feminism with her experience of class politics.
During childhood she developed a strong sense of social justice,[2] influenced by her mother Lucie Barnes.
[2] Her active participation began when she joined the Eureka Youth League in 1942 and its parent body, the Communist Party of Australia in 1945.
She played a significant role in establishing Women's Liberation House in Alberta Street, Sydney from where a contraception and abortion referral service was run.
[1] The Australian Council of Trade Unions adopted an amended version of her Working Women's Charter.
[1] Stevens became part of the CPA working to reconstruct its "socialist vision" by drawing on feminist, environmental, Aboriginal and multi-cultural inputs and aspirations.
[2] While working as an organizer with the Eureka Youth League in the late 1940s, she met her future husband, Jim Stevens.