Sound Citizens the Public Voices of Australian Women Broadcasters, 1923-1956
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SOUND CITIZENS THE PUBLIC VOICES OF AUSTRALIAN WOMEN BROADCASTERS, 1923-1956 Catherine Alison Maree Fisher March 2018 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University © by Catherine Fisher 2018 All Rights Reserved DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is entirely my own original work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. Catherine Fisher Date ………………………. …………………. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process of writing this PhD thesis has been transformative both personally and professionally, and I am grateful to many people. Firstly, I would not have been able to complete this project without the guidance and support of my supervisor, Dr Karen Fox. She is an incredibly kind, dedicated, and conscientious scholar who has always gone above and beyond in her role as my supervisor. Throughout the project she has read and commented on innumerable drafts, been a sounding board for my ideas, and fully supported my career development. It has been a pleasure to work with her for the past three years. My other panel members have also provided me with exceptional support and advice. Professor Angela Woollacott is an inspiring and generous historian who has always believed in me and pushed me to produce the best work possible. Dr Amanda Laugesen has provided regular encouragement and sharp-eyed feedback that has immeasurably improved the final product. Thank you all. I am indebted to the many collections staff who have enabled me to complete this project, especially the collections access staff at the National Film and Sound Archive, Verity Rousset at Murdoch University Archives, and Pamela Barnetta at the National Archives of Australia. I would also like to thank the staff at the National Library of Australia, the State Library of NSW, the State Library of WA, the Australian War Memorial, and the Women’s Library at LSE. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. I was also fortunate to be awarded a National Archives of Australia/Australia Historical Association postgraduate scholarship in 2016, which provided me with funds to copy many of the ABC scripts that I rely on in this thesis. In 2017 I was awarded a place in the AHA/CAL workshop at the Australian Historical Association Conference, and was fortunate to receive the mentorship of Dr Alison Holland to produce i a journal article. I also received an ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Travel Grant in 2016 which enabled me to travel to the UK for research, as well as a bursary from the International Association of Media and History that supported me to travel to their conference in Paris in 2017. I have greatly benefitted from the community in the School of History, especially the postgraduate ‘Coombs Cohort.’ I especially thank Daniel May, Nick Hoare, Eamonn McNamara, Alice Rumble, Samantha Khaw, Annemarie McLaren, Emily Gallagher, Ben Huf, Will Scates Frances, Robyn Curtis, Jayne Regan, Rhianne Grieve, Wilbert Wong, Rory McLeod, and Steph Woodbridge. The academic staff in the school have also provided an intellectual community that I am proud to belong to, especially Dr Carolyn Strange, Professor Nick Brown, Dr Malcolm Allbrook, Professor Melanie Nolan, Dr Karen Downing, Dr Rebecca Jones, and Dr Maria Nugent. I also thank the School’s administrative staff for their patience and assistance, especially Karen Smith. Outside of ANU, I have been kept sane by many supportive friends, including Eriko Sumitomo, Leo Bremanis, Allanah Stewart, Scott Wilson, Grant Nicholas, Yuan Xu, Angie Xu, David Liddle, Saskia Lillywhite, Oliver Munoz, Boris Ceko, Bryan Lessard, Christiana Muratidi, John Reschke, and Djulain Taylor. I especially thank Jessica Boh who read and commented on the entire thesis. For their love and support I thank my family, especially my parents Stephen and Judith, my brother James, my parents-in-law Kaye and Alan, and my brother-in-law Mark. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my husband Simon, whom I was lucky enough to marry during the writing of this thesis. His unfailing love and support has sustained me over the past three years. This thesis is dedicated to him. ii ABSTRACT In 1954 Dame Enid Lyons argued that radio had ‘created a bigger revolution in the life of a woman than anything that has happened any time’ as it brought the public sphere into the home and women into the public sphere. Taking this claim as its starting point, this thesis examines how a cohort of professional women broadcasters, activists, and politicians used radio to contribute to the public sphere and improve women’s status in Australia between 1923 and 1956. There is a small, but growing, body of scholarship on the history of women’s broadcasting in Australia, however the medium’s role as a key part of the broader history of women’s citizenship and advancement has been given little attention. This thesis contributes to Australian women’s and feminist history, the international historiography on women’s broadcasting, and Australian radio history by revealing a much broader and more complex history of women’s contributions to Australian broadcasting than has been previously acknowledged. Using a rich archive of radio magazines, station archives, scripts, personal papers, and surviving recordings, this thesis traces how women broadcasters used radio as a tool for their advocacy; radio’s significance to the history of women’s advancement; and how broadcasting was used in the development of women’s citizenship in Australia. It argues that women broadcasters saw radio as a medium that had the potential to transform women’s lives and status in society, and that they worked to both claim their own voices in the public sphere and to encourage other women to become active citizens. Radio provided a platform for women to contribute to public discourse and normalised the presence of women’s voices in the public sphere, both literally and figuratively. iii CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract iii List of Abbreviations v List of Illustrations vii Introduction 1 Chapter One Women, Speech, and Australian Radio 31 Chapter Two Establishing the Platform: The Interwar Years 62 Chapter Three World Citizens: Women’s Broadcasting and Internationalism 98 Chapter Four Voicing the War Effort: Women’s Broadcasts During World War II 139 Chapter Five ‘An Epoch Making Event’: Radio and the New Female Parliamentarians 181 Chapter Six Fighting Soap: The Postwar Years 217 Chapter Seven ‘We Span the Distance’: Women’s Radio and Regional Communities 260 Conclusion 300 Appendices 309 Bibliography 311 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABC – Australian Broadcasting Commission AFWV- Australian Federation of Women Voters AIIA – Australian Institute of International Affairs ALP – Australian Labor Party AWNL – Australian Women’s National League AWW – Australian Women’s Weekly BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation BCL – British Commonwealth League CL – Coolbaroo League CPA – Communist Party of Australia CWA – Country Women’s Association HA – Housewives Association ILO – International Labour Organisation IPC – International Peace Campaign IPR – Institute of Pacific Relations JCB – Joint Coal Board LWV – League of Women Voters MP – Member of Parliament NAA – National Archives of Australia v NBC – National Broadcasting Company NCW – National Council of Women NLA – National Library of Australia POW – Prisoner of War PPWA – Pan-Pacific Women’s Association RHA – Racial Hygiene Association UA – United Associations/United Association of Women UAP – United Australia Party WAAAF – Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force WCTU – Women’s Christian Temperance Union WILPF – Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom WIZO – Women’s International Zionist Organisation WRANS - Women’s Royal Australian Navy Service WSG – Women’s Service Guilds vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 2.1 Linda Littlejohn and Jessie Street at the opening of the Australian Women’s Weekly’s Radio Session, Australian Women’s Weekly, 3 March 1934, 21. 75 Figure 3.1 Coverage of Ruby Rich in Brisbane, Telegraph (Brisbane), 24 October 1936, 10. 132 Figure 4.1 An excerpt from one of Dame Enid Lyons’ Radio Talks, ABC Weekly, 30 November 1940, 45. 178 Figure 5.1 Senator Dorothy Tangney and Dame Enid Lyons enter the House of Representatives, 24 September 1943, Australian War Memorial. 193 Figure 6.1 Ida Elizabeth Jenkins on the cover of the ABC Weekly, 7 March 1953. 239 Figure 6.2 Nora Shea and Irene Greenwood in the studio, 1953, State Library of Western Australia. 252 Figure 7.1 Charles Puddicombe and Elma Gibbs at their wedding, Newcastle Sun, 19 January 1942, 4. 277 Figure 7.2 Catherine King, ABC Weekly, 10 January 1948, 15. 291 vii INTRODUCTION In a 1954 interview with radio magazine the ABC Weekly, Dame Enid Lyons, then a former politician and member of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), stated that she had noticed a marked change in women’s confidence in their abilities and men’s acceptance of them as equals over her lifetime. She attributed this shift to the influence of radio, which had ‘created a bigger revolution in the life of a woman than anything that has happened any time’ as it enabled women to engage with world affairs while doing the housework. This, according to Lyons, had given women the ‘confidence’ to accept ‘responsibility in public affairs.’1 Taking this claim as my starting point, in this thesis I examine how a cohort of women used broadcasting to contribute to the public sphere and improve women’s status in Australia from the introduction of radio in 1923 until the introduction of television in 1956. I trace the changing role of radio as a tool for women’s activism, and its wider significance to the history of women’s advancement in Australia. Australian women broadcasters were active citizens who contributed to public debates on a range of issues, worked to educate and empower their listeners, and normalised the presence of women’s voices in the public sphere, both literally and figuratively.