Visions, nightmares, dreams: Women's history, 1975

Abstract

This paper examines four key texts in Australian women's history—Miriam Dixson, The Real Matilda: Woman and Identity in Australia 1788 to 1975, Penguin, 1976; Anne Summers, Damned Whores and God's Police: The Colonization of Women in Australia, Penguin, 1975; Edna Ryan and Anne Conlon, Gentle Invaders: Australian Women at Work, 1788–1974, Nelson, 1975; and Beverley Kingston, My Wife, My Daughter, and Poor Mary Ann, Nelson, 1975. The paper discusses the context within which these texts were produced and then examines them as works of history, noting especially the continuities and discontinuities between these texts and current work in Australian women's history.