The Australian Women's Register

From its inception the Women’s Service Guilds shared interests, and in many cases memberships, with other key Western Australian women’s organizations agitating for women’s rights. The Guilds saw the education of women as the most effective way to improve women’s legal status and give them entry into the public sphere. At the local level they lobbied for the direct representation of women in politics, the appointment of women to the judiciary, better conditions for female prisoners, and for women to take key positions in the courts and in welfare work with girls and prostitutes. After many battles they secured the establishment of a maternity hospital that admitted single and married women. In the 1920s the Guilds began a long association with Aboriginal Affairs and campaigned relentlessly to end the injustices experienced by Aborigines, particularly in relation to equality before the law. The Guilds insisted on having a say in shaping government policy and one outcome of many years of political activism was the opening of the first Western Australian Women’s Parliament in 1946. Their interests in environmental preservation pre-dated the conscious raising campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s by more than 60 years.
The Women’s Service Guilds of Western Australia affiliated with many international feminist organizations and acted as a conduit for the dissemination of ideas and information coming into Australia.