Elizabeth Reid | Whitlam Legacy Paper Launch

On April 8, 1973 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam appointed Elizabeth Reid as his Adviser on matters relating to the welfare of women and children. It was an historic appointment, the first of its kind in the world. Reid took on the monumental task of identifying and advocating issues that mattered most to Australian women and working for changes from within the new Whitlam Labor government.  

In this new Whitlam legacy paper, Revolution and Reform: The Women’s Liberation Movement and the Whitlam Years, Elizabeth Reid revisits the feminist revolution of the Whitlam years and her place at the nexus of the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Whitlam Government.  

As Reid recounts, her appointment as women’s adviser opened a floodgate and she received thousands of letters from women all over Australia who felt they finally had someone within government who would listen to their issues. And listen she did, travelling around the country to hear first-hand from women about their struggles and what they most wanted the new government to change. But from her early days as an activist in the Women’s Liberation Movement Reid understood that unless reform measures were accompanied by changes to the attitudes that disadvantaged women, progress would only be temporary. 

Describing herself as ‘a revolutionary in a reformist job,’ Reid’s account of her journey through the corridors of power in government is remarkable. Her early involvement in the Women’s Liberation Movement, and the ideas and principles of a social movement that wanted things done differently, highlights the transformation possible when a radical feminist movement works with a progressive government. 

Please join us to discuss the activist and reformist legacy of the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Whitlam years and their enduring contemporary relevance.

Introduced by the Minister for Finance, Women and the Public Service, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, and moderated by Virginia Haussegger AM, the discussion will feature Dr Elizabeth Reid AO, the ANU's Professor Emerita Margaret Jolly AM, First Nations advocate Cathy Eatock, journalist and podcaster Professor Mark Kenny and feminist historian Dr Sharon Crozier-De Rosa.

Presented in partnership with the National Archives of Australia.

DATE: Thursday 28 September
TIME: 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm   | Refreshments 7.00pm - 8.00pm
LOCATION: National Archives of Australia, Kings Avenue, Parkes ACT 2600

www.whitlam.org