The Scholarship of Sandra Coney

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UC Research Repository The Scholarship of Sandra Coney By Kimberley Hayes A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand 2015 Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 1 Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter One: Historiography and the New Zealand Second Wave Feminist Movement ......... 7 Chapter Two: Second Wave Feminism and Broadsheet Magazine ........................................ 30 Chapter Three: Challenging the Dominant – Women’s Health .............................................. 70 Chapter Four: Recovering ‘Herstory’ ...................................................................................... 95 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 123 Appendix A: List of Broadsheet material relevant to the scholarship of Sandra Coney....... 125 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 137 1 Acknowledgements I would like to thank a number of people for their support over the time that I researched and wrote my thesis. To my primary supervisor Professor Katie Pickles and secondary supervisor Doctor Joanna Cobley, for their time and commitment with my thesis. It has been inspiring working with you both. I have appreciated all your advice and feedback, and always left our meetings feeling motivated to progress with the next stage of my work. Thank you to the Canterbury History Foundation who financially contributed to my Wellington research trip in July 2014, and provided me with an opportunity to speak about my research at an AGM. Thank you to all the staff at the Alexander Turnbull Library and National Archives New Zealand, who helped me during my time in Wellington. A special mention to Jocelyn Chalmers who organised access to the archive items I had requested and made it possible to view the Standing in the Sunshine television series. And finally, thank you to my friends and family. Your support in countless ways, and interest in my work, has meant a lot to me. 2 Abstract This thesis analyses the scholarship of Sandra Coney from the 1970s through to the present day. I argue that Coney’s scholarship has made an important contribution to understanding New Zealand society from a feminist perspective. Coney’s scholarship provides an important representation of feminism. Through her scholarship Coney has constantly questioned dominant ideals within New Zealand society. The recovery of New Zealand women’s history has also been a focus of Coney’s scholarship. This thesis examines New Zealand’s feminist magazine Broadsheet, to which Coney contributed numerous articles from the beginning of the second wave feminist movement. It also draws upon archival sources and Coney’s extensive published books. What influenced Coney’s work and the context of time periods is discussed and analysed. Key themes suggested by Coney’s scholarship are the importance of: women’s voices and experiences, women having authority over their own representation, a second wave feminist perspective of New Zealand society, and the importance of recovering the past and recording it for the future. 3 List of Abbreviations ACWA Advisory Committee on Women’s Affairs ALRANZ Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand AMAC Auckland Medical Aid Centre AWHC Auckland Women’s Health Council COW Committee on Women CSA Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act DPB Domestic Purposes Benefit IUD Intrauterine Device IWY International Women’s Year NWH National Women’s Hospital SOS Sisters Overseas Service SPUC Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child TVNZ Television New Zealand THAW The Health Alternatives for Women UWC United Women’s Convention WL Women’s Liberation WLM Women’s Liberation Movement YWCA Young Women’s Christian Association 4 Introduction As the work of someone who was heavily involved with the New Zealand second wave feminist movement from its origins, Sandra Coney’s scholarship provides great insight into the position of New Zealand women. This is not only from the times of her involvement within the movement, but also the position of New Zealand women from earlier times through the stories that have been recovered. Central to her work is the belief that the history of New Zealand women had an important place in the conscience of New Zealand second wave feminists. Sandra Coney’s scholarship presents a feminist perspective of New Zealand society which challenged preconceptions, and spoke on a public level for a generation of women. This generation of women fought hard to overcome gender inequality, and more broadly different forms of oppression. The New Zealand second wave feminist movement was intertwined with what was happening in New Zealand society. The context at this time is important – the ‘New Right,’ protest era e.g. Springbok Tour and the Maori movement, government policies and legislation, and the increased interest in women’s history at certain times, being such examples. Coney’s scholarship was produced in an environment where there was much challenge in regards to the social, cultural and political arenas of New Zealand society. New Zealand women were the central focus of much of Coney’s scholarship, and it is interesting to see how the various texts created were interpreted at the time they were produced, and how these texts are interpreted from a perspective more distanced from those times. Sandra Coney was one of many New Zealand feminists who contributed to the New Zealand second wave feminist movement. This does not suggest that Coney’s work is insignificant; on the contrary, what Coney’s scholarship allows for is an in-depth representation of the movement from her perspective, in the context of those times in New Zealand society and the people she was acquainted with. Coney appeared to be on a similar ‘wave length’ to the feminists she worked with.1 Although, it would be inaccurate to say that every feminist shared the same perspective because 1 Christine Dann, Up From Under: Women and Liberation in New Zealand, 1970-1985 (Wellington: Allen and Unwin: Port Nicholson Press, 1985). Dann acknowledged Sandra Coney’s influence in her acknowledgments section. 5 acknowledgement of difference came to be an important aspect of this movement. Further reasons why her work deserves greater recognition include the way Coney used her public position to support many individuals. She had a high level of experience with feminist activism, and she had the respect of her fellow feminists. The voices of various feminists are interwoven throughout this analysis, and I think that this demonstrates how connected these women were with their objectives, whilst allowing room for debate at the same time. It would be impossible to write a thesis about Coney’s scholarship without taking into account the second wave feminist movement and the feminists who were part of that movement alongside Coney. The sources primarily used in this analysis include articles that Sandra Coney contributed to New Zealand’s feminist magazine Broadsheet (1972-1997), as well as the diverse and extensive amount of published books that Coney has produced. Another source that will receive some attention throughout this thesis is an archive collection which was donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library by Coney (referred to throughout this thesis as the Sandra Coney Papers). Drawing upon this collection allows for an interesting observation of certain aspects of the second wave feminist movement. These sources convey how a space for women was made, whether it was through having a feminist-run publication, historic research that included women’s stories that had not been told before, or being part of collaborative women’s projects, and the act of record keeping.2 A noticeable feature of Coney’s scholarship was that connections were often made between the work she produced in terms of the topic discussed and the second wave feminist movement. Her published books were often seen worthy of feminist reflection within the feminist framework of Broadsheet magazine, for example, discussions of her newly released books and book reviews. Coney also wrote a number of newspaper and journal articles over the years, however, the main focus of this thesis included Broadsheet magazine articles, published books and the Sandra Coney Papers.3 Major themes were conveyed through Sandra Coney’s scholarship, which are discussed throughout this thesis. These include women’s voices and experiences being positioned 2 Sandra Coney, Christine Dann and Phillida Bunkle have submitted archive collections to New Zealand libraries. 3 Although Sandra Coney’s published books Out of the Frying Pan: Inflammatory Writings 1972-89 (Auckland: Penguin, 1990), and Into the Fire: Writings on Women, Politics and New Zealand in the Era of the

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