Mark Finnane, Andy Kaladelfos and Susanne Karstedt explore the long history of femicide and ask why violence against women has not declined. The recent murders of Hannah Clarke and her three children at Camp Hill demonstrate once again the persistence … Continue reading
Martyn Brown revisits New Zealand’s official history of World War II to understand how and why Cretan women have been elided from the historical memory. Beginning in the 1940s, New Zealand undertook a massive post-war project of writing an official … Continue reading
Vera Mackie, Nicola J. Marks and Sarah Ferber reveal some of the stories that make up the global history of IVF and assisted reproduction. Candice Reed was born on 23 June 1980 in Melbourne. She was conceived through in vitro … Continue reading
Kiera Lindsey reveals how a petition to Queen Victoria shows that early colonial women were more politically active than is commonly acknowledged. One spring morning in 1850 over eight thousand men and women marched through town — many behind brass … Continue reading
Iola Mathews reflects on the process of writing her memoir of feminist awakening and activism, Winning for Women: A Personal Story. From 1984 to 1994 I was fortunate to work at the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) during the … Continue reading
Michelle Staff reflects on the recent Sydney Feminist History Group symposium for early career researchers and PhD candidates. In 2014, Joy Damousi posed the important question: “Does feminist history have a future?”. In her response, she highlighted the various challenges … Continue reading
To mark the launch of Alana Piper and Ana Stevenson’s edited collection, Gender Violence in Australia: Historical Perspectives (Monash University Publishing, 2019), we compiled a growing list of resources about gender violence around the world. Books Allen, Judith A. Sex and Secrets: Crimes Involving … Continue reading
Sharon Crozier-De Rosa and Vera Mackie explore the complex interconnections between the history of women’s activism and its memorialisation in the twenty-first century. In April 2019, Time Magazine released its annual list of the ‘100 most influential people’. Alongside such leaders … Continue reading
Alecia Simmonds explores how the way women’s bodies smell has been regulated across time. Is there anything more regulated than a woman’s body? Plucked, shaved, waxed, bleached, vajazzled, starved, toned, tanned, botoxed, implanted, pulled up, pushed out and underwired within … Continue reading
‘Who was colonial education for?’ Rebecca Swartz asks, in her new book about education across the British Empire, from South Africa to Western Australia. I have recently come to the end of what feels like a long journey, beginning with the … Continue reading