Inventing commonwealth and Pan-Pacific feminisms: Australian women's internationalist activism in the 1920s-30s

Gender and History

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 425-448

  Woollacott, Angela ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 11544370095     PISSN: 09535233     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-0424.00112     Document Type: Review

References (85)

1. Leila J. Rupp, 'Constructing Internationalism: The Case of Transnational Women's Organizations, 1888-1945', The American Historical Review, 99 (1994), p. 1575.
2. Antoinette Burton, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865-1915 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill & London, 1994).
3. It is central to my argument here that I disagree with Leila Rupp's lumping the United States, Canada and Australia as the 'neo-Europes' together with Europe itself as a single global formation of women of European origin. Such a collapsing elides white-settler countries, emergent as nations but still in colonial relationships with European imperial powers, with the imperial powers and the US. In doing so, it obscures the colonial status of white women in these countries and their colonising of indigenous inhabitants, as well as their geopolitical locations, all of which were relevant to their positions within feminist internationalism. Leila J. Rupp, 'Challenging Imperialism in International Women's Organizations, 1888-1945', NWSA Journal, 8 (1996), p. 8.
4. Rupp, 'Challenging Imperialism', pp. 11 and 9.
5. 'Australian and New Zealand Women Voters' Committee', The Vote, 22 July 1911, p. 164.
6. A. J. R. (ed.), The Suffrage Annual and Women's Who's Who (Stanley Paul & Co., London, 1913), p. 14.
7. 'Woman Suffrage Union, British Dominions Overseas', Jus Suffragii, 8 (1 January 1914), p. 57.
8. British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union: Report of First Conference and of First Year of Work, pp. 3-6; 'British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union, Third Biennial Conference, 1918', The Vote, 7 June 1918, p. 277.
9. British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union: Report of First Conference and of First Year of Work, pp. 3-6; 'British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union, Third Biennial Conference, 1918', The Vote, 7 June 1918, p. 277.
10. 'Overseas Suffagists: Reception at Minerva Club', The Vote, 6 June 1924, p. 181.
11. Jus Suffragii: The International Woman Suffrage News, 18 (1924), p. 146; 'British Overseas Committee Pavilion', The Vote, 15 August 1924, p. 263.
12. Jus Suffragii: The International Woman Suffrage News, 18 (1924), p. 146; 'British Overseas Committee Pavilion', The Vote, 15 August 1924, p. 263.
13. 'Phyllis', 'In the Looking Glass', The British Australian and New Zealander, 5 February 1925, p. 14.
14. 'Bessie Rischbieth, O.B.E., an appreciation by M. Chave Collisson',International Women's News, 62 (1967) 46.
15. 'British Dominions Women', The Vote 13 February 1925, p. 50; 'British Overseas Committee Conference', Jus Suffragii, 20 (1925), p. 86.
16. 'British Dominions Women', The Vote 13 February 1925, p. 50; 'British Overseas Committee Conference', Jus Suffragii, 20 (1925), p. 86.
17. 'British Commonwealth Women's Equality League', Jus Suffragii, 20 (1925), p. 133.
18. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference 'The Citizen Rights of Women within The British Empire' Caxton Hall July 9th & 10th, 1925. The Fawcett Library at London Guildhall University holds a collection of all the British Commonwealth League conference reports.
19. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference, pp. 32-3.
20. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference, pp. 35-6.
21. Antoinette Burton, 'The Feminist Quest for Identity: British Imperial Suffragism and "Global Sisterhood"', Journal of Women's History, 3 (1991), pp. 59-61.
22. British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union, Report of First Conference and of First Year of Work, pp. 2-3.
23. 'British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union', The Vote, 24 May 1918, pp. 257-8.
24. 'British Dominions Woman Suffrage Union Conference', Jus Suffragii, 12 (1918), p. 156.
25. The Vote, 6 June 1919, p. 214.
26. 'Our Indian Meeting', The Vote, 16 July 1920, p. 123.
27. 'The League of Nations and Women Overseas', The Vote, 26 September 1919, p. 342.
28. Fawcett Library, Vida Goldstein Papers, Box 67, 7/VDG 7, Manifold book - London, July-November 1919, pp. 59-60.
29. 'Pan-Pacific Women's Conference Approaches', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 102 (July 1928), p. 9.
30. Bessie M. Rischbieth, March of Australian Women: A Record of Fifty Years' Struggle for Equal Citizenship (Paterson Brokensha Pty Ltd, Perth, Australia, 1964), p. 123.
31. Rischbieth, March of Australian Women, p. 120.
32. Women of the Pacific and Southeast Asia: A Record of the Proceedings of the Ninth Conference of the Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asia Women's Association (The Australian Committee of the Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asia Women's Association, 1961), pp. 19-20.
33. Women of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, pp. 20-21.
34. Women of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, pp. 21-3.
35. For example, the 1929 BCL conference was supported by thirteen Australian societies, twelve British societies, two New Zealand societies, and one each from South Africa, India, Bermuda, Ceylon and Canada. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 5th and 6th, 1929, pp. 6-7.
36. Raewyn Dalziel, 'Pan-Pacific and South-East Asia Women's Association 1931-', in Women Together: A History of Women's Organisations in New Zealand, ed. Anne Else (Daphne Brasell Associates Press, Wellington, 1993), pp. 88-90.
37. Doris M. Mitchell, Sixty Years On: The Story of the Pan-Pacific South East Asia Women's Association 1928-1988: Australia's Part (Pan-Pacific South East Asia Women's Association, Australia, 1977?), p. 4.
38. Kumari Jayawardena, The White Woman's Other Burden: Wesfern Women and South Asia During British Rule (Routledge, New York & London, 1995), p. 265.
39. Bessie M. Rischbieth, 'Women's Influence in the Pacific: Where East and West Meet', International Women's News, 35 (1941), p. 65.
40. 'List of Delegates According to Countries', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 105 (October 1928), p. 13; Australian Dictionary of Biography, 9 (1983), p. 304.
41. 'List of Delegates According to Countries', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 105 (October 1928), p. 13; Australian Dictionary of Biography, 9 (1983), p. 304.
42. 'List of Delegates According to Countries', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 105 (October 1928), pp. 13-14; and 'List of Delegates to the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference, Honolulu', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 104 (September 1928), pp. 9-10.
43. 'List of Delegates According to Countries', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 105 (October 1928), pp. 13-14; and 'List of Delegates to the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference, Honolulu', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 104 (September 1928), pp. 9-10.
44. Eleanor M. Hinder, 'Pan-Pacific Women's Conferences in Relation to World Conferences', Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin, n.s. no. 102 (July 1928), pp. 11-14.
45. International Women's News, 62 (1967), p. 46.
46. See, for example, Kate White, 'Bessie Rischbieth, Jessie Street and the end of first-wave feminism in Australia', in Worth Her Salt: Women at work in Australia, ed. Margaret Bevege, Margaret James and Carmel Shute (Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1982), pp. 319-29.
47. Karen M. Koral, 'Reflection of a Changing Empire: The British Empire Exhibition of 1924', unpublished MA thesis, Case Western Reserve University, 1994, p. 20.
48. Koral, 'Reflection of a Changing Empire', fig. 1, p. vi.
49. T. O. Lloyd, The British Empire 1558-1983 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984), p. 279.
50. Lloyd, The British Empire, p. 299.
51. Rischbieth, March of Australian Women, p. 121.
52. National Library of Australia, Bessie Rischbieth Papers, MS 2004/1/49.
53. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 30th and July 1st, 1927, p. 7.
54. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 30th and Juyl 1st, 1927, pp. 9-10.
55. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, 'Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses', in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Mohanty, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres (Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1991), p. 56.
56. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 30th and July 1st, 1927, pp. 25-6, 42-3, 47.
57. 'British Commonwealth League', The Vote, 4 November 1927, p. 350.
58. Stri Dharma, 13, (1930), pp. 83-5. I am grateful to Mrinalini Sinha for sharing this article with me. For a fuller analysis of the Mother India debate, see Mrinalini Sinha, 'Reading Mother India: Empire, Nation and the Female Voice', Journal of Women's History, 6 (1994), pp. 6-44, and her Introduction to Katherine Mayo's Mother India, ed. Mrinalini Sinha (forthcoming, Kali Press, New Delhi, 1998).
59. Stri Dharma, 13, (1930), pp. 83-5. I am grateful to Mrinalini Sinha for sharing this article with me. For a fuller analysis of the Mother India debate, see Mrinalini Sinha, 'Reading Mother India: Empire, Nation and the Female Voice', Journal of Women's History, 6 (1994), pp. 6-44, and her Introduction to Katherine Mayo's Mother India, ed. Mrinalini Sinha (forthcoming, Kali Press, New Delhi, 1998).
60. Stri Dharma, 13, (1930), pp. 83-5. I am grateful to Mrinalini Sinha for sharing this article with me. For a fuller analysis of the Mother India debate, see Mrinalini Sinha, 'Reading Mother India: Empire, Nation and the Female Voice', Journal of Women's History, 6 (1994), pp. 6-44, and her Introduction to Katherine Mayo's Mother India, ed. Mrinalini Sinha (forthcoming, Kali Press, New Delhi, 1998).
61. National Library of Australia, Bessie Rischbieth Papers, MS 2004/7/82, letter from Collisson to Rischbieth, 28 October 1927.
62. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 30th and July 1st, 1927, p. 5.
63. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 30th and July 1st, 1927, p. 19.
64. See for example British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held lune 30th and July 1st, 1927, pp. 28-34; British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 5th and 6th, 1929, pp. 28-9; British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 18th & 19th, 1930, pp. 34-40; National Library of Australia, Bessie Rischbieth Papers, MS 2004/7/300 British Commonwealth League Annual Report, June 1931 to May 1932.
65. See for example British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held lune 30th and July 1st, 1927, pp. 28-34; British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 5th and 6th, 1929, pp. 28-9; British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 18th & 19th, 1930, pp. 34-40; National Library of Australia, Bessie Rischbieth Papers, MS 2004/7/300 British Commonwealth League Annual Report, June 1931 to May 1932.
66. See for example British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held lune 30th and July 1st, 1927, pp. 28-34; British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 5th and 6th, 1929, pp. 28-9; British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 18th & 19th, 1930, pp. 34-40; National Library of Australia, Bessie Rischbieth Papers, MS 2004/7/300 British Commonwealth League Annual Report, June 1931 to May 1932.
67. Fiona Paisley, 'White Women in the Field: Feminism, Cultural Relativism and Aboriginal Rights, 1920-1937', Journal of Australian Studies, 52 (1997), p. 114. See also Fiona Paisley, 'Citizens of their World: Australian Feminism and Indigenous Rights in the International Context, 1920s and 1930s', Feminist Review, 58 (1998), pp. 66-84.
68. Fiona Paisley, 'White Women in the Field: Feminism, Cultural Relativism and Aboriginal Rights, 1920-1937', Journal of Australian Studies, 52 (1997), p. 114. See also Fiona Paisley, 'Citizens of their World: Australian Feminism and Indigenous Rights in the International Context, 1920s and 1930s', Feminist Review, 58 (1998), pp. 66-84.
69. Fiona Paisley, 'No Back Streets in the Bush: 1920s and 1930s Pro-Aboriginal White Women's Activism and the Trans-Australia Railway', Australian Feminist Studies, 12 (1997), esp. pp. 121-2. See also Fiona Paisley, 'Feminist Challenges to White Australia, 1900-1939', in Sex, Power and Justice, ed. D. Kirkby (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996), pp. 252-69.
70. Fiona Paisley, 'No Back Streets in the Bush: 1920s and 1930s Pro-Aboriginal White Women's Activism and the Trans-Australia Railway', Australian Feminist Studies, 12 (1997), esp. pp. 121-2. See also Fiona Paisley, 'Feminist Challenges to White Australia, 1900-1939', in Sex, Power and Justice, ed. D. Kirkby (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996), pp. 252-69.
71. National Library of Australia, Bessie Rischbieth Papers, MS 2004/7/98. Form letter from Chave Collisson written on BCL letterhead, 23 July 1929.
72. Catherine Martin's The Incredible Journey (Jonathan Cape, London, 1923) addressed the issue of Aboriginal children being taken from their mothers by telling the story of one such mother's heartbroken determination to get her child back. Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo (1929) represented both Aboriginal women's sexual exploitation by white men and, perhaps more controversially, the possibility of love between a white man and an Aboriginal woman.
73. Catherine Martin's The Incredible Journey (Jonathan Cape, London, 1923) addressed the issue of Aboriginal children being taken from their mothers by telling the story of one such mother's heartbroken determination to get her child back. Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo (1929) represented both Aboriginal women's sexual exploitation by white men and, perhaps more controversially, the possibility of love between a white man and an Aboriginal woman.
74. Paisley, 'Feminist Challenges to White Australia', p. 268.
75. Constance Ternent Cooke spoke on Aboriginal women not only in the Commonwealth/imperial forum of the BCL, but also at the international forum of the PanPacific Women's Conference in Honolulu in 1930; Mitchell, Sixty Years On, p. 4.
76. Paisley, 'Citizens of their World', esp. pp. 68-9.
77. Burton, 'The Feminist Quest for Identity', p. 49.
78. Minutes of the board meeting of the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship in Brussels, 9-10 September 1936; Fawcett Library Archives, International Alliance of Women Papers, 2/IAW/10.2
79. British Commonwealth League, Report of Conference Held June 18th & 19th, 1930.
80. Rischbieth, March of Australian Women, p. 121.
81. Rischbieth, March of Australian Women, p. 122.
82. Rischbieth, March of Australian Women, p. 122.
83. len Ang, 'I'm a Feminist But ... "Other" Women and Postnational Feminism', in Transitions: New Australian Feminisms, ed. Barbara Caine and Rosemary Pringle (Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1995), pp. 60-61.
84. Bessie M. Rischbieth, 'The Geneva of the Future: An Australian Woman Looks Ahead', The International Women's News, 35 (1940-41), p. 42.
85. Marilyn Lake, 'Between Old Worlds and New: Feminist Citizenship, Nation and Race, the Destabilisation of Identity', in Suffrage and Beyond: International Feminist Perspectives, ed. Caroline Daley and Melanie Nolan (New York University Press, New York, 1994), pp. 290-91.