HISTORIAN Clare Wright still gets chills standing before the controversial Australian banner carried in British feminist marches early last century.
This is from a time when the world looked to Australia, a democracy in its infancy, as a trailblazer and inspiration for women’s rights.
La Trobe University’s history associate professor says Australia seems to have forgotten its past and lost its way as a world leader in human rights and female representation.
Dr Wright’s new book explores five key female drivers in the right to both vote and stand for federal parliament for Australian white women in 1902. These were suffragettes vilified for physical appearance, sexuality and their status as wives and mothers.
“Yes, everything has changed since then. And no, far too little has changed,” Dr Wright said.
Dr Wright will arrive in Ballarat on Saturday fresh from a visit to Parliament House in Canberra. Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s official portrait was unveiled there last month, a profile from the shoulders up largely in a bid to negate what had been relentless critique of her outfits.
Two months earlier, then-Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had walked the halls perhaps best known for her fashion sense and fitness.
Dr Wright said there still seemed to be that sticking point to treating women in political movements with dignity.
You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians who won the vote and inspired the world is the second book in Dr Wright’s democracy trilogy and follows Stella Prize-winning The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka.
“Women’s right to vote seems absurd and ridiculous now but this was the live issue at the time and the great moral challenge of the day. Every country was grappling with how to respond politically and indeed culturally and socially,” Dr Wright said.
“Australia is no longer a world leader and has forgotten we once were. We’re so used to lagging behind now.”
Ballarat Libraries will host An Afternoon with Dr Clare Wright today at 2pm. The talk is held in conjunction with the fashion exhibition Women of Empire, showcasing stories from women doing their part for King and Country during World War I in regional Victoria.
Dr Wright said academics had long looked at women’s roles through history, but it seemed to now be starting to break through into mainstream representation as part of the “main game” – and this was important.
“I hope to see the day though where people don’t say I’m going to read a book about women and democracy or a women’s history exhibition but rather, it be about Australian history with the women written back in with important roles,” Dr Wright said.
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