Federation Press

Jessie Street’s autobiography should be compulsory reading for anyone who seeks political change. In the dedication to her mother’s book, Belinda Mackay writes that she hopes ‘the women of today will be inspired by the spirit of Jessie Street and her visions’. To describe this autobiography as inspiring is an understatement. It is an extraordinary record of a remarkable life. Indeed, it is difficult to know how to explain Street’s immense contribution to women’s right welfare economics, social justice and peace studies.

It has long been claimed that women were the backbone of the pre-World War II Australian Liberal Parties and a crucial strengthening agent for the new Liberal Party that Robert Menzies formed in 1945. Labor supporters said this was because women were conservative, easily led by their husbands, and didn’t understand much of the world outside the home. Liberals argued that it was just because they did understand the importance of domestic life that they supported the party best able to protect it. Margaret Fitzherbert has written the story of these Liberal women and, in so doing, has added to our knowledge both of the history of the Liberal party and of Australian women’s political activism.