The Australian Women's Register

Mollie Barry’s varied career as an activist, ALP member and mentor for young people exemplifies the commitment to social involvement so common among her generation. She was an ALP candidate for Coogee in 1971.

A lifelong campaigner and activist, Freda Brown is a highly respected figure in the history of Australian women’s organizations. She was a Communist Party of Australia candidate for Newtown in 1947 and a Senate candidate in 1949 and 1961.

Elizabeth Webb Nicholls was born in Adelaide to Mary and Samuel Bakewell in 1850. She joined the Christian Woman’s Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1886, and was elected provisional president in 1888. In 1889 she became Colonial president, a position she held until 1897. From 1894-1903 she was the Union’s Australian President, and post-Federation, she served as State President from 1906 to 1927. She joined the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League and subsequently became a League Councillor. In 1894 Elizabeth Nicholls assumed the role of Colonial Superintendent of the WCTU’s Suffrage Department. She was appointed to the Board of the Adelaide Hospital from 1895-1922 and was a justice of the peace – one of the four first women – from 1915. She died in 1943

Unionist and activist Madge Cope was born in Yorkshire and migrated to Australia in 1915, aged 11. With her parents and two brothers she settled on a farm in Carnamah. She later married her neighbour, Harold Cope, and the pair had four children. Cope himself was born to an English father and an Australian mother.

During wartime, the Copes sold pies at Victoria Park. They grew tomatoes at Geraldton, then Guildford, where they also sold flowers. In 1966, while driving on a gravel road, Madge lost control on a bend and hit a truck. Harold was thrown from the vehicle and died on the road after telling the truck driver to look after his wife, who was trapped in the car.

Madge became involved with the Communist Party in Guildford, and was made a life member of the Guildford Association. She joined the Peace Movement and the Union of Australian Women. She also wrote short stories, two of which were published in the magazine Our Women. Madge died in 2001, aged 97 years.

Joan Williams was a prominent member of the Western Australian branch of the Communist Party of Australia. She was politically active from the 1920s, but began her career in journalism as a young woman already imbued with a strong political consciousness. The networks fostered through her membership in an elite group of Western Australian left-wing radicals were critical to the foundation of numerous Western Australian women’s and peace organisations. Under the pen name Justina Williams she wrote short stories, historical works, poems, biography and her autobiography Anger and Love. She was awarded the Order of Australia Medal accepting it on behalf of her “unrecognized sisters who serve the community”.

A tireless campaigner and activist for over fifty years, Irene Adelaide Greenwood’s interests in feminism and the peace movement were formed through her mother Mary Driver’s involvement with the Women’s Services Guild. The achievements of Greenwood’s life’s work are considerable and her commitment and energy was recognized in the many awards bestowed on her. These include Member of the Order of Australia, the first woman to receive an Honorary Doctorate at Murdoch University, recognition as the strategist behind the implementation of the Chair in Peace Studies at Murdoch University, the United Nations Association of Australia Silver Peace Medal and honorary life membership, Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal, appointment to the National Advisory Committee on Women’s Affairs in 1974 and the naming of the flagship of the State ship’s fleet M.V. Irene Greenwood in her honour. Greenwood was also a life or honorary member of many key international, national and state peace and women’s organizations.

Henrietta Greville established her life-long involvement with the labour movement when she moved to the goldfields at West Wyalong, following the breakdown of her marriage to John Collins. Here she pegged out a claim, sold meals to the miners and helped establish a branch of the Political Labor League, as well as meeting her future husband, miner and union organizer, Hector Greville. To help support her family Greville, at times, worked as a seamstress. Later she became an organizer for the Australian Workers’ Union, the Women Workers’ Union, and for some time acted as its delegate at the Trades and Labor Council. As a Labor candidate, Greville was defeated for the federal seat of Wentworth in 1917 and the state seat of Vaucluse in 1927. Greville became associated with the Workers’ Educational Association of New South Wales in 1914 when she joined an economics class. By 1918 she was branch secretary at Lithgow, became a member of the executive in 1919 and the first woman president in 1920. Greville was still active with the association in 1954, at the age of 94. On 1 January 1958 Henrietta Greville was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for social welfare services in New South Wales.

Joan Bielski was a long time activist for equality for women in employment, education and public life. A founding member of the Council for Civil Liberties, she was also a foundation member of Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) in 1972 and continued her active involvement throughout her life.

In 1988 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to women and girls education. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for her services to women in politics and public life.

Joan Bielski was a long time supporter of the National Foundation for Australian Women.

Dr Pauline Armstrong was a long time activist and her later work as a researcher and historian resulted in the publication of her historical and biographical book Frank Hardy and the making of Power without Glory (2000). She was passionately involved in the Save Our Sons movement during the Vietnam War.

Edna Ryan was a leading figure in three eras of feminism in the 20th century. As a feminist and labour activist she is credited with achieving equal pay for women, maternity leave and work based child care. Ryan wrote numerous articles, conference papers, submissions to government and two books, Gentle invaders (1975) and Two thirds of a man (1984).