• Entry type: Organisation
  • Entry ID: AWE1031

Women’s Electoral Lobby South Australia

(From 1972 – )
  • Occupation Social action organisation

Summary

The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL.) first formed in Victoria, 1972. Conducted on a voluntary, non-profit basis, the W.E.L is a political pressure group that seeks to remove the economic and social disadvantages of women in Australia, to end discrimination against women and to promote equal opportunity. The W.E.L was constituted with a double purpose – to carry to the elected representatives of the community the views and requirements of female electors and to inform those female electors about their representatives’ standard of consciousness of women’s issues.

Details

Since 1972, W.E.L. activities have diversified around the central lobby theme. Sexual harassment, birth control and abortion, child care, parental benefits and child abuse, family law and women in jail, domestic violence, emergency housing, women’s health (including mental health), offensive advertising and pornography, education and employment, environmental concerns, the rights of Indigenous women and religion are some of the areas addressed by W.E.L. As well as a large body of members, monthly newsletters and annual National Conferences, many ad hoc action groups were developed including environmental, law, media, health, women in detention, women in education and the dangers of gambling.

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Archival resources

  • State Library of South Australia
    • Women's Electoral Lobby (S.A.) : SUMMARY RECORD
    • Papers of the Migrant and Indigenous Women Action Group
    • Papers relating to the Women's Information Switchboard (later the Women's Information Service)

Published resources

Related entries


  • Related Women
    • Levy, Anne (1934 - )
    • Southcott, Heather (1928 - 2014)
    • McCulloch, Deborah Jane (1939 - 2021)
  • Affiliated
    • Women's Electoral Lobby Australia (1972 - )
  • Related Organisations
    • League of Women Voters of South Australia (1909 - 1979)
    • Women's Network (1984 - )
    • Adelaide Women's Prison Support Group (1996 - )