"Doing their bit": female collectivism and traditional women in post-suffrage New South Wales

This paper is based on a study of the biennial reports of the National Council of Women of New South Wales from 1914-1942 and the returns of the more than 140 organisations which were affiliated with the NCW at some point during this time. Organisations referred to include housewives' associations, the Country Women's Association, patriotic organisations such as the Victoria League and church-based groups such as the Young Women's Christian Association, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Catholic Women's League. It is argued that many of these traditional women's organisations shared a coherent ideology which can be described as "female collectivism". Female collectivism is characterised by conservative emphasis on non-party, non-sectarian, voluntary activity by women to support the welfare of their own communities. They asserted gender solidarity against what they perceived to be the destabilising forces of masculine, Labor party politics and sectarian conflict. In the 1920s and 1930s this was a successful ideology which achieved many tangible welfare benefits for women.