1970 to 1979

1970

• Women's Action Committee formed 2 March. It was the forerunner of the Women's Liberation Movement, and was formed after Zelda D'Aprano Chained herself to the Commonwealth Building on 21 October 1969 in protest against the continuing adverse decisions on equal pay. This act was repeated with other women at the Arbitration Court on the 31 October. page 28
• Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value Case, National Wage and Equal Pay Case. Equal pay was applied for. The hearing concluded 29 November and the next Saturday the Labor Government was elected. The case was reopened and the new government intervened in support of equal pay. The decision was made on the 15 December, to be phased in over two and a half years. page 62
• Tram Ride for Equal Pay where women paid only 80% of the fare to publicise the injustice of women's unequal wage rates. page 28
• First trade union sponsored community consultation on childcare held 13 May. It addressed the need for government sponsored childcare, apart from kindergartens - ie casual care for mothers under stress; emergency care; regular day care; after school and holiday care. page 28

1971

• Melbourne University Women's Liberation group formed. page 28
• Poster featuring a picture of Mr Bolte (Premier of Victoria) and the caption We'd have abortion law reform if men were the one's to get pregnant. page 28
• Anti Miss Teenage Quest demonstration in the Melbourne Town Hall. page 28
• First bank in Australia to grant loans to women without a male guarantor was the Bank of NSW in February, following a campaign run by the Women's Action Committee. page 28
• Women's Action Committee sponsors National Conference on Women in the Workforce and Trade Unions at Melbourne University on August 28-29. page 29
• First abortion reform public meeting and march in the City Square, Melbourne. page 29

1972

• Labor Government elected - 'During the Whitlam era many major improvements were made for all women. Women's centres were establishes, free contraceptives were provided ... for urban women ... job opportunities were widened and in many ways new advantages could be seen ... Aboriginal organisations sprang up in almost every sphere - medical, legal, welfare and children's services etc. Aboriginal women are playing a dominant role in these organisations.' Recollections of older women Koories who were involved in the earlier 1930's land rights struggles, as remembered by Pauline Pickford. page 77
• Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service; establishment of the Aboriginal Health Service Childcare Agency; Education Consultative Group and South Eastern Land Council. page 77
• First Child Care demonstration in Melbourne in the City Square held on 25 February. Women brought their children and demanded free child care. The Community Controlled Child Care organisation grew out of the early period of the Women's Liberation Movement. page 29
• International Women's Day Committee together with the Women's Action Committee, the Union of Australian Women and other organisations organised the first of the new-wave feminist International Women's Day demonstration and march, on 11 march (IWD 8 March) had been celebrated in Australia for many years. page 29
• Women's Electoral Lobby formed in February with initial aim of carrying out a survey of candidates for the 1972 federal election. WEL is a political and strictly non-party lobby, committed to feminist goals of achieving social, economic, educational and sexual equality for women. page 29
• First Women's Liberation Movement Centre opened at 16 Latrobe Street Melbourne, and Women's Action Committee was absorbed into the Women's Liberation Movement on 10 April. page 29
• First issue of Vashti's Voice in July - a quarterly magazine of the Melbourne Women's Liberation Movement page 29
• Federal Childcare Act 1972provided the first direct federal government involvement in childcare policies. page 29
• 'Think WEL before you vote' campaign, organised by Women's Electoral Lobby, surveyed politicians' attitudes to women's rights and needs. It appeared as a liftout in the Melbourne 'Age' on 20 November. page 29
• Successful Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value Case, put forward by the Australian Boot Trades Employees Federation and other unions. The following women's organisations also made submissions: National Council of Women, Union of Australian Women and the Women's Liberation Movement. This claim was supported by the newly elected Labor Government.
  The decision rejected equal minimum wage because of the family component within wages but invited a submission with the next National Wage Case. page 29-30
• Large meeting of women in Assembly Hall formed consciousness raising groups. page 30
• Children's Book Group formed by Box Hill Consciousness Raising Group. page 30
• Women's Theatre Group formed at the Pram Factory. page 30
• Women demonstrated against segregated bars in pubs. page 30
• Visit by Germaine Greer to promote her book The Female Eunuch. page 30

1973

• First Women's Liberation speaker on the platform for May Day at the Yarra Bank. page 30
• Equal pay amendment to the Conciliation and Arbitration Act to empower the Commission to provide for a minimum wage for all adults. page 30
• National Wage Case. Wage-fixing principles. General wage levels and minimum wage for males. page 62
• Paid Maternity Leave for the Commonwealth Public Service. page 30
• First Women's Adviser to the Prime Minister appointed 8 April - Elizabeth Reid. page 30
• First woman appointed Deputy President of the Arbitration Commission on 26 April - Justice Elizabeth Evatt. page 30
• Women's Liberation Conference held at Mt Beauty. page 30
• First national Radicalesbian conference in July at Sorrento, Victoria. page 30
• Huge abortion demonstration 30 July in Melbourne. page 30
• First book of Children's Literature Co-operative - The Witch of Grange Grove - now published as Sugar and Snails. page 30

1974

• Aboriginal Affairs Transfer Bill came into effect and the administration of Aboriginal Affairs in Victoria finally passed to the Commonwealth. page 77
• First woman Speaker in Parliament was Gloria Liles (later Joan) Child, Australian Labour Party, Henty, Vic. page 57
• Australia's first Women's Community Health Centre opened 29 January at Leichhard, Sydney. It was government funded and autonomous. page 30
• First Victorian Women's Health Collective opened at 85 Johnston Street, Collingwood on 11 September. It was a voluntary service, free of cost to all women. Three thousand visits were recorded in fifteen months, during the three weekly sessions which the collective operated.
  The service ceased 12 December 1975. Funding from the Federal Labor Government was conditional on State Liberal Government funding, whose guidelines would not allow autonomy for the Health Collective and therefore funding was not obtained.
  The Rape Crisis Centre and the first Home Birth Group also operated from this address. The Rape Crisis Centre became Women Against Rape and has operated from the Women's Liberation Centre continually since 1979. page 30-31
• First Victorian Women's Liberation Movement Halfway House refuge for battered women opened in August in Kew. page 31
• First Australian survey on migrant working women conducted in September. This was published as A Preliminary Survey of Migrant Women in the Clothing Trade by Datrina Brown and Des Storer. page 31
• Minimum Wage Case (Printing and Allied Industries Union) test case. Submissions put by the Women's Electoral Lobby, Union of Australian Women, and the National Council of Women. page 31
• Minimum Wage Case established equal minimum wage for females and males. page 63
• Planned Parenthood Clinic started by Women's Action Group of Prahran College of Advanced Education in September at 341 High Street, Prahran. They provided advice and general gynaecological, contraception and abortion services. page 31
• Royal Commission on Human Relationships - 21 August. The final report on 21 November 1977 noted that they had received 1264 written submissions and 374 people gave evidence at public hearings. The Commission dealt with education, sexuality, fertility, the family, discrimination, rape and incest, health and medical education and made over 500 recommendations. page 31
• Women's Liberation Halfway House Collective formed. page 31
• Women and Madness conference held in Melbourne 9-10 August. page 31
• First National Feminist and Socialist Conference at University of Melbourne on 5-6 October. page 31
• Women's Centre moved to 50 Little Latrobe Street on 21 October. page 31

1975

• Aboriginal Women's Refuge opened by the VAAC with Federal funding. page 77
• In Victoria an Aboriginal Housing Board was appointed to advise the State government. page 77
• The first Australian International Women's Day celebrations to be funded by the federal government. On 8 March the IWD reception at Customs House, Flinders Street, Melbourne was opended by the Prime Minister - Gough Whitlam. A feature was a tribute to many women who had broken new grounds in occupation and work who were present. page 32
• First Working Women's Centre opened in Melbourne on 15 September - an initiative of the Australian Council of Salaried and Professional Associations (later became part of the Australian Council of Trade Unions). It was funded by the Federal Government and instrumental in formulating the Working Women's Charter. It ran the first trade union training courses for women only. page 32
• Melbourne's first woman tram driver appointed. Joyce Barry took her place at the wheel after a twenty year struggle for that right. page 32
• Family Law Act (amended 1883) introduced a no-foult system. Irretrievable breakdown of marriage was the only grounds for divorce. Legislative recognition of the economic value of women's traditional work in the home was given in the division of assets on divorce. page 32
• Paid Maternity Leave of 12 weeks and eligibility to join the superannuation fund was granted to Victorian Teachers. page 32
• Jury Act to amend the 1967 Jury Act gave women equal footing with men for jury service. page 32
• Federal Racial Discrimination Act brought in. page 33
• International Women's Year declared by the United Nations. A series of conferences for and about women's issues were funded by the Federal Government. page 33
• First national Women and Politics Conference opened in Canberra at the Australian National University on 19 September. page 33
• First national Women's Health in a Changing Society conference opened in Brisbane 25-29 August. Landmark conference because of the breadth of discussion subjects, particularly relating to sexuality and abortion issues. page 33
• International Women's Year Conference convened by the United Nations and held in Mexico City in June. Delegates represented governments from all over the world. A Plan for Action for Women's Equal Rights was prepared and agreed to by this official UN conference.
  A Tribuna conference for non-governmental participants was held simultaneously. 2,000 delegates representing organisations and ind individual women with a whole world spectrum of viewpoints on wom'e issues were present. The Tribuna was also sponsored by the UN and the two conferences exchanged information and viewpoints. Some 60 women attended from Australia. page 33
• Women's Abortion Action Campaign - national conference on abortion and contraception held 6 December. page 33

1976

• Australian Union of Students Women's Department established in January. page 34
• Holden Street squat by Melbourne Women's Liberation Halfway House Collective. It lasted 5 years. Maroondah Halfway House started. page 34
• Mabel feminist newspaper started in December. page 34
• Start of the United Nations Decade for Women as a flow on from the UN International Year of Women 1975. page 34
• Ms Penny Ryan appointed Women's Advisory Officer in April. The State government opened a Women's Advisory Office at 536 Collins Street to initiate research and prepare recommendations on the needs of women. page 34
• National Trade Union Women's Conference held 6-8 August at Sydney University Women's College - organised by the Women's Trade Union Commission in Sydney and funded by the federal government. The Victorian co-ordinator was the Working Women's Centre. This conference endorsed the Victorian Working Women's Centre Charter. page 34
• First Australian Sex Discrimination Act (1975 South Australia) came into operation of 12 August. It was complaints based legislation, wider in application than other State Acts, proscribing indirect discrimination. page 34
• Victorian Western Region Centre for Working Women was formed in August under the Australian Assistance Plan to Regional Councils. It is now the Centre for Working Women Co-operative. page 34
• Australian Council of Salaried and Professional Associations adopted the Working Women's Charter in October. page 34
• Sybylla Press Co-operative started operating from the Women's Liberation Building. It printed the Women's Liberation journal Vashti's Voice. page 34
• First woman elected as Depot Delegate in the Tramways Union in November. Lorri Manning was a member of the Union of Australian Women and was a strong force in the struggle for women to train and become tram drivers. page 34
• Family Planning Association opened the Action Centre, cnr Elizabeth Street and Flinders Lane on 6 December. They provided information and advice to young people on personal and sexual relationships. It is now at 268 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. page 34

1977

• Women's Centre moved to 100 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Western refuge opened in July (the Collective started in 1975). page 35
• Appointment of Co-ordinator on Women's Affairs acting as advisor to the Victorian Premier was Yolanda Klempfner. page 35
• Council of Australian Government Employee Organisations in May endorsed in principle a Working Women's Charter. page 35
• Anti Discrimination Act 1977 came into operation in NSW in June - the second state to introduce such legislation. page 35
• Western Region Women's Learning Centre held 12-14 August to take action un urgent issues of the Charter and to prepare and put proposals and resolutions to the 1977 ACTU Congress. page 35
• Australian Congress of Trade Unions Congress in December adopted a Working Women's Charter. page 35
• First woman to lead a Parliamentary Party was Janine Haines, Australian Democrats, SA. page 56
• Three women stood as representatives of the Women's Party in the Senate election on 10 December. These women were: Carolyn Ingvarson, Alma Morton and Marie Quinn.
  Among other policies they called for a guaranteed minimum income; Aboriginal self-determination and land rights; a new order of economic priorities and the statement the reproductive system of women is not the subject for discussion and decision in parliament page 35
• Substantial amounts of money became available for women's refuges for the first time in the Government Budget. page 35

1978

• First Victorian Equal Opportunity Act came into operation of 3 April (the Act was passed on 24 May 1977) and the Equal Opportunity Board was established. The first Equal Opportunity Commissioner was appointed, Mrs Fay Marles. The Chairman of the Board was Mrs Deirdre Fitzgerald. see page 65-69
• First Woman and Labour Conference held in May. It was co-sponsored by the School of History, Philosophy and Politics, Macquarie University and the Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra. The papers were published. page 35
• Education Resource Centre opened 14 April - a centre for non-sexist educational resources used by the the education community. Funded by the Victorian government - it was originally funded by the Commonwealth Schools Commission. page 35-36

1979

• Women's Cultural Palace opened at 74 Moore Street Fitzroy and Women's Liberation switchboard started operating in February. page 36
• Sisters publishing started in August and published books under the imprint of McPhee and Gribble and Sisters. page 36
• Reclaim the Night march 16 November organised by Women Against Rape. page 36
• United Nations International Year of the Child. page 36
• First ACTU sponsored Child Care Centre opened in Moorabin, Victoria. It was funded by the Department of Social Security through the Federal Office of Child Care. page 36
• Maternity Leave Case (several unions) - unpaid Maternity Leave granted. All employees (on application). Part-time workers included (not casual or seasonal). Up to 52 weeks. Compulsory six weeks after confinement. Continuity of employment not to be severed on account of maternity. Seniority retained but no accrual of other entitlements. page 63
• ACTU Maternity Leave Case - this was a test case and resulted in unpaid maternity leave provisions being inserted in most awards. The decision guaranteed continuity of employment. Women's organisations intervened in support of the claim. page 36
• Union of Australian Women convened the first meeting on 14 September on the use of Diethylstilbestrol, a powerful artificial hormone prescribed to pregnant women fro the 1940's which caused genital tract abnormalities, sterilisation and cancer in offspring. The UAW sponsored a luncheon and public meeting and DES Action was formed. page 36

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Last updated: June 28, 2007