Woman to Woman: Australian Feminists’ Embrace of Radio Broadcasting, 1930s–1950s

ABSTRACT

This article demonstrates the crucial importance of the radio medium in the post-suffrage era as a space in which women could expand their sphere of influence and enact their responsibilities as citizens. It challenges previous scholarship which has argued that during the early decades of radio women were confined to the world of the everyday and the domestic. In the interwar years, Australian feminist organisations were quick to take advantage of the still-developing radio medium, which they used to publicise their activities to mass audiences. One such organisation was the United Associations (UA), founded in Sydney in 1929 by Jessie Street and Linda Littlejohn. Perth feminist Irene Greenwood was introduced to radio broadcasting as a member of the UA in the 1930s, and she later drew on these media skills and her extensive feminist networks to create her own innovative and interactive radio program in Western Australia, Woman to Woman (1948–1954). Correspondence between Greenwood and her audience shows that the program provided women from diverse backgrounds with the opportunity to engage publicly with significant political debates, to create a new imagined community of listeners, to communicate across geographical and class boundaries, and to become media producers themselves.

Acknowledgements

Jeannine Baker developed this article as a participant in the AFS Mentoring Programme for New Academic Writers. She wishes to thank Justine Lloyd, Wendy Michaels, Richard White, the editors of Australian Feminist Studies, and the three anonymous reviewers, for their invaluable comments on previous versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Jeannine Baker is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. She is the author of Australian Women War Reporters: Boer War to Vietnam (2015), and co-editor (with Justine Lloyd) of a special issue of Media International Australia (November 2016) on ‘Gendered labour and media’. Jeannine has also produced several radio documentaries for ABC Radio National, including ‘Holding a Tiger by the Tail: Jessie Litchfield’ (2015).

ORCID

Jeannine Baker http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0326-5752

Notes

1 Journal, 23 February 1948, Irene Greenwood collection [hereafter Greenwood collection], Murdoch University [hereafter MU], QB24/14.

2 The Federation was originally named the Australian Federation of Women’s Societies for Equal Citizenship.

3 Littlejohn to Rischbieth, 16 February 1933, Bessie Rischbieth papers [hereafter Rischbieth papers], National Library of Australia [hereafter NLA], MS2004/5/1530.

4 Littlejohn to Rischbieth, 20 April 1933, Rischbieth papers, NLA, MS2004/5/1568

5 Street to the Feminist Club, 14 October 1929, Jessie Street papers [hereafter Street papers], NLA, MS2683/3/22.

6 United Associations, Minutes of meeting of council, 19 March 1930, United Associations of Women records [hereafter UA records], State Library of New South Wales [hereafter SLNSW], MSS2160, Y477/1.

7 United Associations, Minutes of meeting of council, 14 December 1933, UA records, SLNSW, MS2160/ Y477/1.

8 Littlejohn to Rischbieth, 16 February 1933, Rischbieth papers, NLA, MS2004/5/1530.

9 H. Bennett to Rischbieth, 14 February 1933, Rischbieth papers, NLA, MS2004/5/1529.

10 Norman Lyons to Secretary, United Associations, 7 July 1941, Street papers, NLA, MS2683/3/211.

11 Street to Basil Kirke, 25 July 1941, Street papers, NLA, MS 2683/3/214.

12 Greenwood to Street, 2 October 1940, Street papers, NLA, MS2683/3/160.

13 HVC Thorby to John Curtin, 18 October 1940; Greenwood to John Curtin, 1 November 1940; Secretary WCTU to Editor Daily News, 14 October 1940, Greenwood papers, MU, QB24/ 91.

14 Greenwood to Street, 2 October 1940, Street papers, NLA, MS2683/3/159-160.

15 Street to W.J. Cleary, ABC Chairman, 8 November 1940, Street papers, NLA, MS 2683/3/174.

16 Greenwood to O. Walters, 12 February 1941; Irene Greenwood to John Curtin, 1 November 1940; Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/91.

17 Littlejohn to Rischbieth, 30 November 1932, Rischbieth papers NLA, MS2004/5/1492; ‘Irene Greenwood’, undated typescript biography, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

18 ‘Woman to Woman. Purposes.’ Undated typescript, Greenwood collection, MU,QB24/ 14.

19 Elaine Brennan to Street, 15 October 1940, Street papers, NLA, MS2683/3/165.

20 Greenwood to George Pittman, 17 January 1949, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/99.

21 Woman to Woman running sheet, 13 May 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

22 ‘50th anniversary of the ABC’, The Coming Out Show, Episode 26, 1982, ABC Radio 2, National Archives of Australia (Sydney), C100, 1378649.

23 Woman to Woman running sheet, 23 December 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

24 Woman to Woman running sheet, 11 February 1953, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/73.

25 Woman to Woman running sheets, 15 November 1948, 4 October 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

26 Woman to Woman running sheets, 17 November 1949, 4 October 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

27 Woman to Woman running sheet, 5 October 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

28 Woman to Woman running sheet, 29 April 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

29 ‘Interested’ to Greenwood, 24 May [1951-52], Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/72.

30 Woman to Woman running sheet, 29 April 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.

31 ‘Housewife’ to Greenwood, 8 April 1952, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/72.

32 Woman to Woman running sheet, 11 October 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/91.

33 ‘Mariana’ to Greenwood, n.d., Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/72.

34 Greenwood to Zoie Bennett, 30 September 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/91.

35 Woman to Woman running sheet, 24 November 1948, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14; Isobel Johnston to Greenwood, 24 July 1951, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/72.

36 Grace Hoskins to Greenwood, 15 May 1951, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/72.

37 Woman to Woman running sheet, 15 September 1949, Greenwood collection, MU, QB24/14.