The Bulletin
Men's Weekly


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Australia’s first women’s shelters were acts of radical grassroots feminism

  • Written by Emma McNicol, Research Fellow at Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University

50 years ago, there wasn’t a single women’s shelter in Australia.

Then feminists squatted two terraces in Sydney, opening “Elsie”, Australia’s first domestic and family violence refuge.

Commissioned by Elsie co-founder Anne Summers, I’ve recorded oral histories with the women who built and sustained...

Read more: Australia’s first women’s shelters were acts of radical grassroots feminism