• Entry type: Organisation
  • Entry ID: AWE0807

Liberal Party of Australia Federal Women’s Committee

(From 1945 – )
  • Occupation Political party

Summary

The Federal Women’s Committee ( FWC) was established at the inaugural meeting of the Federal Council of the Liberal Party in August 1945. It is the peak body representing women in the Liberal Party and acts as a voice for women in the development of policy and party organisational matters. Its aims are to promote and encourage women to become involved in political life, to contribute effectively to the formulation of policy and to assist the Party in implementing its decisions through effective community interaction.

Details

Each State and Territory Division of the Liberal Party has a women’s section, with constituted powers and representation at senior Party levels. Another role of the Federal Women’s Committee is to act as a coordinating body of women’s work and activity within the divisional Women’s Sections, receiving and distributing information from the women in the Divisions and reporting to the Federal Executive of the Party through the President of the Committee. The President of the Committee is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Federal Policy. The voting membership of the Federal Women’s Committee comprises the Chairperson of each state and ACT Women’s Section, the woman Federal Vice-President of the Party, the President and Immediate Past President of the Federal Women’s Committee. The Committee usually meets in Canberra three or four times a year to discuss policy issues.

The Liberal Party of Australia was the first political party in Australia to make provision for equal numbers of men and women in some of its senior Party positions, particularly in the Victorian Division, which has had a formal provision for equal representation at vice-presidential level.

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Archival resources

  • National Library of Australia, Manuscript Collection
    • Records of the Liberal Party of Australia, Federal Secretariat, circa 1945-1990 [manuscript]

Published resources

  • Pamphlet
    • The Australian woman: her future and opportunity, Liberal Party of Australia, 1949
  • Book
    • Beryl Beaurepaire, McKernan, Michael, 1999
    • Women of influence: the first fifty years of women in the Liberal Party, Sydenham, Diane, 1996
    • Menzies' child: the Liberal Party of Australia, 1944-1994, Henderson, Gerard, 1994
    • A Liberal nation: the Liberal Party & Australian politics, Simms, Marian, 1982
    • The Australian Liberals and the moral middle class: from Alfred Deakin to John Howard, Brett, Judith, 2003
    • Robert Menzies' forgotten people, Brett, Judith, 1992
    • Liberal women : Federation to 1949, Fitzherbert, Margaret, 2004
  • Resource

Related entries


  • President
    • Worth, Patricia Mary (1946 - )
    • Beaurepaire, Beryl Edith (1923 - 2018)
    • Best, Amelia Martha (1900 - 1979)
    • Giddings, Maureen
    • Breen, Marie Freda (1902 - 1993)
    • Reader, Audrey Tattie Hinchcliffe (1903 - 1989)
    • Miller, Mabel Flora (1906 - 1978)
    • Miller, Mabel Flora (1906 - 1978)
  • Member
    • Brookes, Ivy (1883 - 1970)
    • Battye, Margaret (1909 - 1949)
  • Related Concepts
    • Women in Politics: Liberal Party of Australia

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