Women's liberation movement in Oceania
[6] By May, the first nationwide conference on Women's Liberation, profiling "Female Conditioning" was organised in Melbourne, spreading the movement quickly across Australia.
[7][8] After police raided the Heatherbrae Clinic, an abortion referral facility in 1970, the Sydney Women's Liberation group organised a protest in July and wrote about it in their newsletter.
[10] The mixture of texts from various countries as well as from different political backgrounds resulted in a commitment to collectivity and divergent ideas on how issues which involved women should be addressed.
[12] As in the US and other places where the movement flourished, small groups of consciousness-raising with a limited organisational structure were the norm[13] and the focus was on changing societal perception rather than legislation.
[14] Prominent in the movement were women like Eva Cox, who would become a professor and social commentator; Justice Elizabeth Evatt, first chief justice of the Family Court of Australia;[9] Eileen Haley of Adelaide; Anne Summers,[15] who would write Damned Whores and God's Police in 1975, which became widely influential;[16][9] Pat Turner, an aboriginal activist and civil servant;[17] and Biff Ward, a writer and social activist.
[18] In the run-up to the elections that year, two of the WLM groups in Melbourne met to strategize over the federal candidates who might be favorable to women's issues.
[19] When Labor won, with Gough Whitlam being elected Prime Minister, WEL began lobbying for the fulfillment of the promises made in exchange for their support.
The Tasmanian University Union Women's Liberation group formed in 1971 and as one of their main initiatives worked to establish a much-needed Child Care Center for students on campus.
[25] In 1974, the Elsie Refuge, Australia's first women's shelter was established by Jennifer Dakers, Anne Summers, Carol Baker and other Sydney WLM activists, including Bessie Guthrie, Robyn Kemmis, Kris Melmouth, Margaret Power, Diana Beaton, Christina Gibbeson and Trudy Brickwood .
Influenced by Erin Pizzey's book Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear, they approached the Church of England in Glebe, which owned many unoccupied properties in search of a suitable dwelling.
[26] When the church failed to respond, the activists selected two derelict houses on Westmoreland Street in Glebe and asserted squatter's rights over the properties after they had renovated them to make them habitable and opened to women and their children.
[28] Sybylla Press was established in 1976[29] and published all the feminist tracts of the WLM of Victoria, including Lesbian News, Scarlet Woman and Vashti, among others, until it ceased operations in 1988.
[31] Though WLM groups were still functioning in 1979, factionalism in the women's movement and a perception by society at large that they were anti-male, had caused liberationists to withdraw from public demonstration to focus on issues such as education, family law, reproductive rights and employment discrimination.
[36][37] In Spring 1972, members of the collective located suitable new premises in an old, two-story building at 25 Alberta Street, just south of Sydney's Hyde Park.
Some of their first actions were to invade the "males only" Bistro Bar at the Great Northern Hotel and demonstrate at the Miss New Zealand Beauty Pageant.
[48] Te Awekotuku and other liberationists protested Greer's appearance, dressing as witches and calling attention to the exclusion of indigenous people, lesbians and undesirables from her welcome.
[39][51] As many members had children, quality child care was an issue and a focus of liberationist groups was to establish centers where women could meet and childcare was provided.
[44] One of these groups, first formed in Christchurch, was Sisters for Homophile Equality (SHE) which aimed to politicise the issues faced by women and gay liberationists.
[43] The last three-day conference on the subject of women's liberation took place in Auckland in February 1978 and highlighted the various types of feminist views ranging from anarchy and socialism to racism and lesbianism.
