Margaret Fitzherbert: ‘So Many Firsts’, The History of Australia’s Liberal Women
The liberal side of Australian politics has a very proud tradition of female involvement which long pre-dates the existence of the modern Liberal Party. Women’s leagues were heavily involved on both sides of the Federation campaign, and organisations like the Women’s Liberal League and Australian Women’s National League were a strong and enduring presence on the centre-right of politics even as that side of politics went through many different political formations in the first half of the twentieth century. The majority of the first women to sit in Australia’s various Parliaments were from the liberal or conservative movement, in strong contrast to modern criticism of a lack of female representation in the current Liberal Party.
This world of female involvement was the one in which Robert Menzies operated and thrived. He was close friends with prominent feminist and Australian Women’s National League President Elizabeth Couchman. His Forgotten People speeches made a deliberate appeal to the family and the home, in contrast to the Labor Party’s emphasis on the workplace, which at the time was an extremely masculine environment. Menzies readily involved existing women’s groups in the formation of the Liberal Party, negotiating with Couchman to secure equal representation for women at all levels of the Victorian division, thus giving them unprecedented political power and influence. He was also responsible for appointing the first female Minister Dame Enid Lyons, even though his relationship with her was often strained.
Joining us to discuss this legacy and its contemporary relevance is Margaret Fitzherbert, the CEO of the McKinnon Institute for Political Leadership. Margaret is a former member of the Victorian Legislative Council and former Ministerial Adviser for the Federal Government. She has written extensively on the history of female involvement on the liberal side of Australian politics, including the 2004 book Liberal Women: Federation to 1949 and the 2009 book So Many Firsts: Liberal Women from Enid Lyons to the Turnbull Era.
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