‘Women—Keep Australia Free!’: Women Voters and Activists in the 1951 Referendum Campaign

Abstract

This article considers three aspects of the women's vote and activism during the 1951 referendum campaign. First, it is argued that the appeal to women was conducted in terms of the democratic right to freedom of expression and protest especially as it connected to domestic issues. Second, women's engagement in this campaign has been overlooked, but was influential, diverse and prominent, as evidenced by the involvement of activists such as Millicent Preston Stanley and Margot Mahood. Finally, the campaign directed at the woman voter points to the increasing appeal by the major parties to women as independent voters.

Notes

* I wish to thank Mary Tomsic for the research assistance she undertook for this article and Ann Curthoys for her valuable editorial assistance, suggestions and guidance.

¹‘Do Your Children Get the Milk They Need?’ Union of Australian Women (hereafter UAW) pamphlet in collection of leaflets, circulars and other publications, Union of Australian Women, Victorian Section (hereafter UAWVS), F1110, 1951 file, Fryer Library (hereafter FL), University of Queensland, Brisbane.

²Claes H. de Vreese and Holli A. Semetko, ‘The Dynamics of a Referendum Campaign’, in Political Campaigning in Referendums: Framing the Referendum Issue, ed. Claes H. de Vreese and Holli A. Semetko (London: Routledge, 2004), 4.

³See Pat Ranald, ‘Women's Organisations and the Issue of Communism’, in Better Dead than Red: Australia's First Cold War: 1945–1953, eds. Ann Curthoys and John Merritt (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1986), 41–57.

⁸ Australian Women's Weekly, 22 October 1949, 22.

⁴Judith Brett, Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People (Sydney: Macmillan, 1992), 56.

⁵Judith Brett, Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People (Sydney: Macmillan, 1992), 58.

⁶ Australian Women's Weekly, 8 October 1949, 38.

⁷ Australian Women's Weekly, 15 October 1949, 20.

⁹ Australian Women's Weekly, 10 December 1949, 17.

¹⁰ Australian Women's Weekly, 22 June 1950, 4.

¹¹Lisa Hill, ‘Women's Interests and Political Orientations: The Gender Voting Gap in Three Industrial Settings’, in The Politics of Women's Interests: New Comparative Perspectives, eds. Louise Chappell and Lisa Hill (London: Routledge, 2006), 68.

¹²Christian Leithner, ‘A Gender Gap in Australia? Commonwealth Elections 1910–96’, Australian Journal of Political Science 32, no. 1 (1997): 36.

¹⁴ Australian Women's Weekly, 12 April 1951, 18.

¹³See Susan Sheridan with Barbara Baird, Kate Borrett and Lyndall Ryan, Who Was That Woman? The Australian Women's Weekly in the Postwar Years (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2002); John Murphy, Imaging the Fifties: Private Sentiment and Political Culture in Menzies’ Australia (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2000).

¹⁵ Australian Women's Weekly, 12 April 1951, 18.

¹⁶ Australian Women's Weekly, 12 April 1951, 18.

¹⁷ Advertiser, 16 March 1951, 4.

¹⁹ Advertiser, 24 April 1951, 4.

¹⁸ Advertiser, 16 April 1951, 2.

²⁰ Argus, 5 September 1921, 1.

²¹ Examiner (Launceston), 22 September 1951, 8.

²² Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 19 September 1951, 5.

²³Warwick Eather, ‘The Liberal Party of Australia and the Australian Women's Movement Against Socialisation 1947–54’, Australian Journal of Politics and History 44, no. 2 (1998): 192.

²⁴Warwick Eather, ‘The Liberal Party of Australia and the Australian Women's Movement Against Socialisation 1947–54’, Australian Journal of Politics and History 44, no. 2 (1998): 195.

²⁵Heather Radi, ‘Preston Stanley, Millicent Fanny (1883–1955)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography (Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1988), http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/preston-stanley-millicent-fanny-8107/text14153.

²⁶ Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 1951, 11.

²⁷ Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 1951, 13.

²⁸ Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 1951, 13.

²⁹ Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 1951, 13.

³⁰ Sydney Morning Herald, 28 July 1951, 11.

³¹ Sydney Morning Herald, 28 July 1951, 11.

³² Argus, 14 June 1951, 5.

³³Suzanne Fabian and Morag Loh, Left-Wing Ladies: The Union of Australian Women in Victoria, 1950–1998 (Melbourne: Hyland House, 2000), 1.

³⁴‘Victorian Woman Set Up No Committee’, Building Workers’ Organiser, 27 August 1951, 2, in Clem Reference Documents file, CPA 2 Communist Party Dissolution Bill 1951, box 114, Communist Party of Australia, Victorian Branch (hereafter CPAVB), University of Melbourne Archives (hereafter UMA), Melbourne.

³⁵‘The Women's Vote “No” Committee’ in South Australia spent £26/8/0 on newspaper advertisements. See Leicester Webb, Communism and Democracy in Australia: A Survey of the 1951 Referendum (Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1954), 138.

³⁶‘The Union of Australian Women Report, Nov 8^th 51, on a Year's Activity’, 4, in UAWVS, F1110, 1951 file, FL, Brisbane.

³⁸ Tribune, 26 September 1951, 10.

³⁷‘Victorian Woman Set Up No Committee’.

³⁹Quoted in Barbara Curthoys and Audrey McDonald, More than a Hat and Glove Brigade: The Story of the Union of Australian Women (Sydney: Bookpress, 1996), 9.

⁴⁰‘Women – for the sake of your loved ones – Vote NO’, pamphlet in Posters, Referendums Pre-1967, Riley Collection, State Library of Victoria (hereafter SLV), Melbourne.

⁴¹Quoted in Curthoys and McDonald, 9.

⁴⁴ Advertiser, 21 September 1951, 13.

⁴²Housewives’ Association Organising Committee Meeting, 17 July 1951, Organising Committee Minutes, 1947–54, Minute Book, Housewives Association of Victoria (hereafter HAV), MS 13340, box 2, SLV.

⁴³Housewives’ Association State Conference, Wednesday, 16 May 1951, Minutes, Executive/Annual Council & General Meeting Minutes, 1949–53, Minute Book, HAV, box 6, SLV.

⁴⁵ Tribune, 9 August 1951, 9.

⁴⁶‘The Blood Vote’, HT 29164, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/1769518/leaflet-the-blood-vote-anti-conscription-campaign-world-war-i-australia-1917.

⁴⁷‘Mother What Do You Want’, Building Workers’ Organiser, 27 August 1951, 2 in Clem Reference Documents file, CPA 2 Communist Party Dissolution Bill 1951, box 114, CPAVB, UMA, Melbourne.

⁴⁸‘I am an Australian housewife …’, Communist Publication pamphlet, 2 in CPA Dissolution Referendum, September 1951 file, 1st Accession, box 9, CPAVB, UMA, Melbourne.

⁴⁹‘Facts the newspapers don't tell us’, UAW pamphlet in UAWVS, F1110, 1951 file, FL, Brisbane.

⁵¹‘Have You Ever Said “I'll never let my sons go to war again”!’ UAW pamphlet in UAWVS, F1110, 1951 file, FL, Brisbane.

⁵⁰Radio Speech titled ‘Good Evening Listeners’, 3 in William Morrow Papers UQFL30, box 12, Radio Speeches file, FL, Brisbane.

⁵²‘“Do You Remember?” By a Mother’ Building Workers’ Organiser, 27 August 1951, 2 in Clem Reference Documents file, CPA 2 Communist Party Dissolution Bill 1951, box 114, CPAVB, UMA, Melbourne.

⁵³‘If You Wish to Protest Against Inflation War or Housing Problems, Vote No!’, UAW pamphlet in UAWVS, F1110, 1951 file, FL, Brisbane.

⁵⁴‘Important Women Artists: Opening Exhibition from 2^nd April 1977’, 4 in Important Women Artists Gallery File, no. 1223079, SLV.

⁵⁵‘Margaret Mahood’ entry in McCulloch's Encyclopaedia of Australian Art, eds. Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch and Emily McCulloch Childs (Melbourne: Australian Art Editions and Miegunyah Press, 2006), 656–7.

⁵⁶Marguerite Mahood, The Loaded Line: Australian Political Caricature, 1788–1901 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1973); Alisa Bunbury, From the Earth I Arise: The Ceramics of Marguerite Mahood (Ballarat: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 1997), np in Marguerite Mahood Ephemera File, Shaw Research Library, National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne.

⁵⁷‘The CPA Underground 1940–42—Margot Mahood Remembers’, 3 in 1991.0152 box 5, CPAVB, UMA, Melbourne.

⁵⁸‘The CPA Underground 1940–42—Margot Mahood Remembers’, 5.

⁵⁹‘Don't be taken in by parrot-cries, vote NO’, poster in 1991.0152, box 5, CPAVB, UMA, Melbourne.

⁶⁰Mahood, The Loaded Line, 9.

⁶¹Mahood, The Loaded Line, 9, 10.

⁶²Mahood, The Loaded Line, 281.

⁶³ Courier-Mail, 24 September 1951, 1.