“The principle which regulated the existing social relations between the two sexes ... ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, or disability on the other” - John Stuart Mill.
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Those words, written in 1869 by the foremost philosopher of the 19th century, would not be out of place in today’s world.
Before the turn of the 20th century, the attitude to women by society in general was certainly not one of equality.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald on May 29, 1907, women in Germany were employed as policemen to carry home drunken men. This was definitely not equality, but they must have been a sturdy lot.
By 1894, women in NSW were entitled to vote, and in the first decade of the new century two women graduated from Sydney University in professions which had always been dominated by men: law and architecture.
Vera Goldstein unsuccessfully stood for parliament in 1903 and it wasn’t until 1943 that Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney became the first women to be elected.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald on May 29, 1907, women in Germany were employed as policemen to carry home drunken men. This was definitely not equality but they must have been a sturdy lot.
While a baby bonus of five pounds (roughly $10) was granted to mothers in 1912, very little changed until the outbreak of World War II.
When Darwin was bombed and the war moved closer to Australia in 1942, women between the ages of 18 and 40, whether married or single, were conscripted to the workforce.
The country had come to realise that women were more than just housewives and mothers and could make a considerable contribution to the war effort. Women found what they had always known: they were capable of performing work which had long been denied them.
When the war ended though, it was back to the kitchen because men who had served their country needed their jobs, and the government was anxious to increase the birth rate. For the next two decades women were far too busy to look for work outside the home.
The next social revolution was in the 1960s with the introduction of the contraceptive pill which, along with labour-saving household equipment, gave women more control over their lives, and they again ventured into a world dominated by men. It was not easy.
Women were not receiving equal payment for equal work and provision had to be made for the care of children with ageing parents often called from retirement to help.
Over 50 years later, in 2016 and in response to calls for equal representation of women in Parliament, ex-Prime minister John Howard made a controversial remark.
“I’m not sure you will have a 50-50 thing (in parliament) because it is a fact of life that there are still women playing a significantly greater part of fulfilling a caring role in our communities, which inevitably places some limits on their capacity.”
This month the Orange Oral History Group met again to express their thoughts on these controversial issues. We have all lived through these changes, and some of us had experienced the difficulties which were faced.
“I was a single mother from when my daughter was six months old, and I worked hard to support us,” Pauline Jenkins said. “The first bank I went to for a loan refused to give it to me because I was only a woman. Things were very hard for single women in the 1960s.”
Many men in our group talked of a sharing of responsibility with their wives. They spoke of the support and strength which their wives had provided during their time together.
Looking at the confidence and drive of young women today, the group is convinced that we can look forward to a future where women will continue the work of the Suffragettes, who began it so many years ago.
Dick Page pointed out that women often do not have the physical strength for some heavy manual jobs and so we agreed that 'the best man-woman for the job' must surely be a consideration.
Leslye Melville worried about the status of the children in all this and many of us agreed. “I wanted to be at home with my children,” she told us, and and this view was shared by most of the women in the group.
Rosemary Currie observed "children develop attachments to whoever they are closest to and this may not be their parents if they are being cared for mainly by another person".
Bronwyn firmly rejected the idea of quotas in Parliament. “I feel insulted to think women would not be elected because of their ability,” she said.
In many ways women today are being offered a great deal more than they ever had, but whether it is making life easier is a moot point. Many worries about disease and hard manual labour which occupied the minds of women in the past have been replaced by other difficulties, like finding suitable childcare and enough time to do everything they want to do in their busy lives.
Whether it is possible to avoid all stress is debatable. Whether it is possible for women and men to be equal in all ways is also a question yet to be answered.
Looking at the confidence and drive of young women today, the group is convinced that we can look forward to a future where women will continue the work of the Suffragettes, who began it so many years ago.
But, on the whole, the group decided perhaps we should also celebrate the strengths that each of us has. Or, as the French would have it, 'vive la difference'.
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