'In the thick of every battle for the cause of labor': the Voluntary Work of the labor Women's Organisations in Western Australia, 1900-70.

Abstract

This paper examines the voluntary contribution of the Labor women's organisations in Western Australia from 1900 until the end of the 1960s. It discusses the various voluntary contributions of the women to the ALP and the wider community and the motivation for these activities. In particular, it examines the women's struggle for equal representation within the Party. The paper concludes with an assessment of the contribution of this work to the development of the ALP and to the Western Australian community. By the early 1970s, women's organisations, both inside and outside of the ALP, began adopting more militant tactics to gain social, political and economic equality for women, assisted at last by a commitment from the ALP and the Trades and Labor Council. Consequently the year 1970 provides a logical point at which to conclude a study of this type of work by Labor women.