While women these days frequently occupy key leadership positions in a number of peak union bodies – for example, at a national scale, Sharan Burrow (Australian Council of Trade Unions), Barbara Byers (Canadian Labour Congress) and Linda Chavez-Thompson (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)) all hold senior positions, while three Australian state peak bodies have women secretaries (Grace Grace in Queensland, Lynne Fitzgerald in Tasmania and Janet Giles in South Australia) – surprisingly little is known about the historical role of women in these collective union bodies (whether at a national, state/provincial or regional scale). In Australia, two recent peak body histories had a common pattern: while there was discussion of early women activists in the 1890s-1910s, women then disappeared from the narrative only to reappear from the 1970s.¹ Where women activists were in the intervening decades was either left to our imagination, on gleaning tantalising snippets from fragmented, incomplete secondary sources or entailed a return to primary sources to redress this 'chronological gap'. 'Re-claiming' and 're-placing' women activists, examining their patterns of activism in peak bodies, exploring the strategies they used and the alliances they forged thus remains critical work (and not isolated to Australian labour history).²

In recent years in Australian industrial relations and labour history, there has been an increasing interest in the under-researched area of peak union bodies. While some of these studies have incorporated spatial insights drawn from geography into the analysis of peak bodies, as yet, however, there has been only minimal attention given to gender. This paper is part of a larger project of 'gendering' our analysis of peak bodies, and argues that, by focusing on explorations of gender, greater insight is gained into the power and spatial dynamics found within peak bodies. The paper begins with a brief discussion of some of the debates about gender and space relevant to 'gendering' our analysis of peak bodies. Remedying the 'chronological gap' encountered by women activists is then begun with reclaiming and replacing women in the history of one peak body, the Melbourne Trades Hall Council, with patterns of female activism identified from the late 1800s to the 1920s.

Gender and space

While recent years have seen an increase in Australian research on peak bodies, they remain comparatively under-researched. Only three full-length histories have been published with many stories, particularly at the state and regional scale, yet to be told. Recent research has included development of a number of theoretical frameworks which have strengthened the existing and new empirical studies. Analysis of these studies highlights a number of key themes, such as the origins of peak bodies; peak body purpose and the relative emphasis given to political and industrial roles. Little attention has traditionally been given to gender; indeed only one woman is mentioned in Hagan's history of the ACTU, with equal pay discussed without reference to any women activists. While this inattention is an evident omission in the peak body literature, it parallels the treatment of gender in the broader industrial relations literature.³

Peak bodies, like their trade union affiliates, are gendered organisations, shaped by gendered patterns of power and space. These patterns were imprinted from the outset as the historical masculinity of nineteenth century trade unionism was transposed to peak bodies upon their formation. Just as the gendered nature of trade unions needs interrogating, so too do those collective bodies formed by trade unions.

While the agency of male trade unionists is just assumed as peak body founders, activists and leaders, recognition of women's agency is equally central to understanding peak bodies and their role in the wider labour movement. Analysing the activities of the Organising Committee of the Labor Council of New South Wales (NSW) between 1900 and 1910, Cooper, for instance, argues the impact of women activists 'well exceeded their representation'.⁴ Contemporary developments have also shown how women unionists, through affirmative action positions and women's committees, have influenced the policy agendas of peak bodies.⁵ What we lack, however, is an understanding of the ebb and flow of women's peak body activism, of a sense of both their presence and their agency (heeding Cooper's reminder that 'it is the agency rather than the mere presence of feminist women in unions that has the capacity to challenge the masculinist status quo within labour organisations'), and how historical patterns have (or have not) shaped how contemporary women unionists approach this scale of activity.⁶

As well as being gender-blind, much industrial relations research is also 'space-blind'. The process of gendering our analysis of peak bodies can be further enriched by examining the spatial dimensions of industrial relations. A growing dialogue between geographers and industrial relations researchers has identified how an appreciation of the central geographical concepts of scale, space and place can broaden our understanding of trade unionism.⁷ Peak bodies reflect how trade unionists engage at a variety of scales, whether they be organised at a regional, state or national scale. With a number of peak bodies formed by male trade unionists in the nineteenth century, such as the Melbourne Trades Hall Committee (in 1856) and the Labor Council of NSW (in 1871), this early scalar organisation of labour was a masculinised one, which was then compounded by the creation of peak body spaces and places by men.⁸ How did women fit (or awkwardly fit or not fit) into these spaces? How did their presence and agency influence (or fail to influence) the scalar organisation of labour? In considering the historical role and agency of women unionists and the impact on their contemporary scales of activism, these issues need examination.

Analysis of the gendered dimension of space found in the work of feminist geographers and others provides useful insights into the intersections of gender, space and place. The issue of 'appropriate' spaces for women is considered, with assessment of the consequences for women of moving out from accepted 'feminine' private space into 'masculine' public space. Damousi, for example, has argued that when women were perceived to challenge notions of masculinity in the public domain, thus moving beyond their accepted roles in the private sphere, their activities became more intolerable, and resisted by men, as seen in the World War I debates over conscription. Even when women were accepted into the public domain, men-only spaces were often maintained through the creation of women-only spaces. Spain argues women are disadvantaged by such 'gendered spaces' whereby gendered spatial segregation 'separate[s] women from knowledge used by men to produce and reproduce power and privilege'.⁹ This raises issues of gendered power and the degree to which such segregation adversely affected women. There clearly have been negative effects of such segregation, yet women activists have also strategically used spatial segregation in a deliberate attempt to create gendered space to increase their voice, as Cobble argues in her study of waitress unionism.¹⁰ For example, separate organising has been used as an explicit strategy by women activists over time. As we will see, in Australia, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, women formed their own unions, providing space for women's voices and enabling women's agency, while women's committees are a more common contemporary form. We now turn to the story of women unionists in Victoria and their experiences, in the period from the 1880s to the 1920s.

Patterns of women's activism

In building this picture of Victorian women unionists and their involvement with the Trades Hall, the lack of recognition of women is compounded by the absence of a comprehensive history of the THC or the broader Victorian union movement. A number of secondary sources have assisted in identifying key women activists, but little is known about their peak body activities. What follows is a preliminary chronological locating of Victorian women unionists from the 1880s to the 1920s, establishing their presence as a precursor to analysing the nature of their agency: a necessary stage as Melanie Raymond found when researching this period in the late 1980s:

It is normal … to find mentioned the strike by the Victorian Tailoresses' Union in 1882 as the one and only example of early female involvement in the labour movement. A great leap forward is then made to the equal pay campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s led by equal pay activist Muriel Heagney. But in between these two events there is an enormous gap where working women seem to have disappeared from the political and union stage.¹¹

1880s and 1890s

The first time that Victorian women unionists are usually discussed in the context of the THC is in relation to the 1882 Tailoresses' strike and the formation of the Victorian Tailoresses' Union. Notable for the militancy of the women, the strike is regarded as critical in contributing to the increased industrial role of the THC, as it assumed tactical and financial responsibility for the strike. Here, then, we have a clear case of women affecting the strategic direction of the THC, their agency and activism having a direct effect on the peak body. As Frances highlights, 'the fact that the strikers were women is particularly important here, although to date historians have neglected the role that gender played'.¹²

It is, however, the impact on the THC that dominates Brooks' analysis (which remains the standard account of the strike). He focuses on the role of the THC and its male secretary to the exclusion of the role of the union. Indeed, the women unionists are curiously absent from his discussion and so little is learnt about the striking tailoresses or their leaders.¹³ Given this was a very overt incursion into public space by the striking women workers, organised into a women-dominated union with women strike leaders (with a membership estimated to number 2,300 after the strike), engaging in industrial action usually the province of male unionists, the impact and consequences of this dispute in challenging the traditional place of women should have elicited further investigation.

As well as helping shape the role of the THC, the impact of the strike had other spatial consequences for labour's space. Following a deputation from the Tailoresses' Union including Mrs. Ellen Cresswell 'to tender their thanks for the valuable assistance', the TH Committee undertook to build a hall for the women.¹⁴ The Female Operatives Hall, opening later that year in 1883, provided dedicated space for women unionists, arguably giving them a place of their own (as well as reinforcing the gendered space of the THC).

The other critical legacy of the 1882 strike was it ushered in the first generation of women union activists who would leave their mark on the union movement. Tailoresses had been organising in their workplaces in the 1870s, with the first unionising of tailoresses in 1874 and a strike in 1879, and the union drew on these women's experiences. Women activists and leaders included the Scottish-born Mrs Helen Robertson, Mrs Lucy Moodie, Mrs Ellen Cresswell, Miss Mary Wise and Mrs Sarah Muir.¹⁵
As Jean Daley would later acknowledge:

the foundation they laid is standing under the new edifice [of the union] and whatever there is of advantage gained for women by the Trade Unions it has been gained on the first instance by the pluck and self sacrifice of the Pioneer.¹⁶

The scale of these women's activity was not just contained to the workplace as the Tailoresses' Union soon extended its activism to the broader union movement. In 1884, the union sent Ellen Cresswell and Mrs J. Graham, as delegates to the 2nd Intercolonial Trades Union Congress, with the Congress the following year attended by Cresswell and Miss J. Aribin, and Sarah Muir going to the seventh Congress in Ballarat in 1891.¹⁷ While it is not yet clear when she was first credentialled, upon her death Lucy Moodie was described as the first woman delegate to the THC (but with no date given), while Sarah Muir and Miss Scott were credentialled in 1893.¹⁸ The difficulties of the 1890s depression beset the union, with reports of tailoresses reforming a union in 1897.¹⁹

1900s to 1910s

Just as male-dominated unions began to recovery after the strikes and depression of the 1890s, the turn of the century saw women consolidate their place with the women of the Tailoresses' Union continuing to play a key role, in particular Helen Robertson and Lucy Moodie. Their
involvement began to extend and broaden beyond just being a delegate. As well as participating in the THC, the women also participated in the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee which had responsibility for organising the annual eight hours march and celebration: with Moodie elected to the Amusement Committee in both 1900 and 1901 (with Robertson standing unsuccessfully in 1901).²⁰
Structured in a similar way to the Council, the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee comprised affiliates entitled to send delegations determined on their membership. In size and membership, therefore, meetings of the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee were similar to that of the THC. Up until 1925, the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee was separate from the Council, operating under its own set of rules and electing its own office-bearers.²¹ Helen Robertson was elected to the Amusement Committee from 1908 until 1915, and then elected to the executive from 1916 (when it was expanded) until the winding up of the committee in 1925. By then she had been a delegate to the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee for 35 years; a feat recognised by the decision to present her with a 10 pound honorarium 'for services rendered'.²² Through their participation in the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee, she and a number of other women unionists become Life Governors of some key Victorian charitable institutions: Robertson in 1902; Miss M. Rees (Cardboard Box Employees) in 1906, Maude O'Connell (Tobacco Workers) and Minnie Felstead (Domestic Workers) both in 1909 and Mrs A. Jones (Rubber Workers) in 1910.²³

The contesting of THC elections was a critical development in the expansion of women's participation and influence. In December 1900, Helen Robertson was elected to the THC executive, while Lucy Moodie was elected to the THC's Organising Committee.²⁴ Helen Robertson, moreover, retained her position on the THC executive, contesting seven elections as she served from January 1901 to January 1909, thus arguably becoming part of the leadership of the Victorian union movement in this first decade of the twentieth century.²⁵ After Robertson's lengthy term, only three years elapsed before another woman, Mrs A. Jones (Rubber Workers), was elected in the December 1912 executive elections. The following year, after the June half-yearly elections, the executive, likely for the first time, had two women on it when Sara Lewis (Female Hotel and Caterers' Union) joined Mrs Jones until she resigned midterm in November. Mrs Wilson (Tobacco Workers) was defeated in 1914 while May Francis (Clothing Trades) unsuccessfully stood for election twice in 1918 and 1919, while a number of other women withdrew their nominations. It took until 1923 for a woman to again sit on the executive: Nelle Rickie (Theatricals) being elected in December 1923.²⁶

Women's presence on affiliate delegations to both the THC and the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee soon began to broaden. Towards the end of the first decade, while unions formed in other sections of the clothing trades often sent women delegates (like the Dressmakers and Garment Workers, and the by then two separate unions for the Whiteworkers, and Shirt and Collar Workers), other THC affiliates such as the Tobacco Workers, Cardboard Box and Carton Employees and Rubber Workers began to include women delegates from 1909, as had the delegation of the re-formed Domestic Workers Union in 1908. During and after World War I, women delegates appeared on the THC delegations of the Photographic Employees, Ammunition and Cordite Workers and Felt Hat Trimmers, while the Jam, Sauce and Pickle Workers, Hospital Attendants, and Storemen and Packers all included women on the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee delegations.²⁷

The women's unions

Developments in the early 1910s focused attention of the gendered nature of trade unionism and the issue of separate organising as a gendered strategy, used by women to extend women's voice. In the wake of the achievement of female suffrage for Victorian women in 1908, and spurred on by the commitment of Miss Ellen Mulcahy and Mrs Minnie Felstead, two middle-class feminists active in labour politics, a vigorous organising campaign of women workers into separate women's unions, as well as female sections of existing unions, began around 1910. By the end of 1912, it is estimated that, including women representatives of male unions, 31 'forums' representing women workers existed.²⁸ This upsurge in organising women's unions had parallels both interstate and internationally: in the United States, the period up to World War I represented 'the height of the movement for separate female organizations'.²⁹ Not 'merely a product of nor reaction to the discrimination of male workers', Cobble argues that: 'Moreover, although a consensus on separatism as a strategy never existed among working women, in certain periods and in certain trades, women themselves pushed for separate-sex organizations'.³⁰

Unions of women bookbinders and stationery workers, laundry workers, cigarette workers, office cleaners, matchworkers, female confectioners, women hotel and catering workers all affiliated with the THC. Just as were many of the other female-dominated unions, like the Domestic Workers, Garment Workers, Dressmakers, Shirt and Collar Makers, these unions were organised along occupational lines. While some of the new unions drew on male assistance (such as the cigarette workers initially for their president and secretary and the women bookbinders for wages board representation), their THC delegations included women (as did their Eight Hours Anniversary Committee delegations). For instance, once restaurant waitresses were organised into the Female Hotel and Caterers Union by Mr Strahan, it was announced that the 'spectacle of a union absolutely under the control of ladies may very shortly be witnessed' as he prepared to hand over 'the judicial management to the ladies themselves'.³¹ Workplace-based meetings attracted many women: 300 clothing workers attended a meeting in August 1911, leading to an increase in union membership. Rank-and-file members became active: 'women who kindly consented to act as shop delegates are doing splendid work, and assisting the union materially'.³²

Critical roles were played by Ellen Mulcahy and Minnie Felstead in organising women into unions and then providing leadership support as office bearers. Felstead organised domestic workers, while Mulcahy worked with the women bookbinders, laundry workers and office cleaners, together with Mrs Barry, as well as the cigarette workers. Mulcahy organised the female section of the Clerks Union, and worked on organising women in a variety of trades including clothing and furnishing trades.³³ With their different industrial and political backgrounds, the impact of Mulcahy and Felstead on general union organising campaigns compared to those who organised within their own trade like the clothing trades women activists, needs further examination. How did their strategies compare with those of earlier working class activists like Helen Robertson and Lucy Moodie, and to what extent were their leadership strategies shaped by their differing backgrounds? A number of the women, including Felstead, Mulcahy and Lewis, were also politically active in the Labor Party and its women's committee (as Cooper also observed in her analysis of women activists in the NSW Labor Council's Organising Committee) with Felstead underlining the connection between political and industrial organisation for women workers, with 'industrial unionism as a preliminary to the political'.³⁴

In 1910, a THC committee was appointed to 'thoroughly investigate the conditions of women workers' and to provide a scheme for 'effectively organising' them, while a women's organising fund was then set up.³⁵ When it was then agreed that a THC's women's organiser should be appointed, five women nominated: Felstead, Miss McGrath, Mrs Jones, Miss O'Connell and Mrs Robertson. Felstead's organising abilities were recognised by Trades Hall delegates when they elected her 'by an overwhelming majority'.³⁶ The 1911 report on organising recommended that special attention be given to smaller organisations and to female unions.³⁷ From 1910, there was an ongoing female presence on the THC's Organising Committee, with delegates primarily from the women-only unions. Felstead served two terms in 1910-1911, while Sara Lewis (Female Hotel and Catering Union) in 1912 and Miss Webber (Dressmakers) in 1913 served single terms. Mary Rogers (Office Cleaners) was elected in December 1913 and remained on the committee through to 1920. Jean Daley (Female Hotel and Catering Union) and Miss Parker (Female Confectioners) joined her in 1917, with Lewis returning in 1918, and May Francis (Clothing Trades) in 1919. In 1920, another delegate from the Office Cleaners, Mrs Florence Anderson was elected to the committee together with Mrs Hennessy (Female Hotel and Catering Union).³⁸

This focus on organising has parallels with contemporary organising debates around the role of internal and external organising, the use of 'outside' and 'inside' organisers, as well as the role of peak union bodies in encouraging and sustaining organising campaigns. The need to sustain unions beyond their initial organisation by supporting their rank-and-file leaders and activists is also seen as important. This was the case for the women bookbinders:

even after the formative years when Barry and Mulcahy had moved on … [t]hey continued to receive support from older labour women, in particular … Felstead and Mrs Louisa Cross, both feminists with strong records of organising within the industrial and political labour movements.³⁹

Questions remain about how decisions were made about the type of union organising. Even when separate organising was pursued, it took different forms: whether it was into separate unions competing with male unions, such as the Cigarette Workers or female sections of male-dominated unions, like the Clerks Union. Different patterns of organising were found in female-dominated occupations. As well as the Clothing Workers, in which women were active, there sprung up a plethora of occupationally-specific unions in the clothing industry. Existing unions also responded differently (as seen in the Printers' treatment of Louisa Cross): the attempts to block the Cigarette Workers' affiliation to the THC, while the Tobacco Workers reserved a position for a woman on its THC delegation in 1915.⁴⁰

While the male bookbinders were willing to represent the women bookbinders on their Wages Board, this may well have just reflected a paternalistic 'looking after' of the women and a way of limiting any possible threat through maintaining a level of dependence.

The Post-World War I years

The women's unions undoubtedly contributed to an increased voice and arguably influence of women in the pre-war years. The upsurge in women's representation reached prior to the war was sustained during it. Nolan argues that the decline in women's representation in the THC by the early 1920s paralleled the rise and fall of equal pay campaign.⁴¹ With the nature of women's activism in the 1920s and 1930s needing further research, the answer to the decline in women's participation mostly likely lies with the fate of the women's unions. Not many of them survived their first decade: with the fate of some like the Cigarette Workers unclear.⁴² At the same time as they were forming, the THC was debating the issue of 'closer organisation', and the reduction of small craft unions, later encouraged by the argument for the One Big Union.⁴³ While these debates affected the ongoing existence of the small craft unions, irrespective of gender, the outcome of amalgamation would have had a greater impact on women's representation, with fewer places available on merged union THC delegations. Although unions increased in size, the cap of four delegates for unions over 1,000 members remained. Amalgamations occurred between the numerous women's clothing unions and the Clothing Trade Union in 1915 and 1916. For the clothing union activists, their presence in the THC falls by a third or more: from six to one or two delegates.

The Women Bookbinders merge with the Printers (together with the Cardboard Box and Carton Employees) in 1920, and the Office Cleaners and the Miscellaneous Workers Union follow suit in 1921⁴⁴. The variable consequences for women activists following these two mergers can be seen by the differing experiences of the women secretaries, Florence Anderson (Office Cleaners) and Louisa Cross (Women Bookbinders). Anderson became a full-time assistant state secretary in the Miscellaneous Workers Union after her union's amalgamation. Described as 'the iron hand in the velvet glove, that type of lady', she was elected State Secretary in 1930, reputedly 'saving' the branch by the 'hard financial decisions' she then made. Also elected as a federal vice president, she led the Victorian branch until 1946.⁴⁵ In contrast, Louisa Cross was elected as an organiser with the Printers Union, but only after defeating a rival female candidate put up by the male leadership (who hoped the younger woman would soon marry, and replaced by a male organiser). Thwarting these plans by holding this position until 1951, she 'carried out her duties in an atmosphere of more or less mutual suspicion and antagonism', although upon her death, the THC president declared that 'the Labor Movement can ill-afford to lose such of its members of the calibre of the late Mrs Cross'.⁴⁶

Conclusion

From the industrial action of tailoresses in the 1880s to the delegates of the women's unions in the early 1910s, women carved out a place in the Victorian union movement. Helen Robertson, Lucy Moodie, Ellen Mulcahy, Minnie Felstead, Sara Lewis, Mary Rogers, to name just a few, all played a significant role in creating and maintaining a profile for women. While some were working-class rank-and-file activists and others were middle-class political activists, together they were instrumental in reshaping the overt masculinity of nineteenth century trade unionism at the state scale. While this survey of women in the THC adds to the picture of these women, it remains incomplete with questions arising that are not yet answered and contemporary parallels not yet explored. The influence of the different political and industrial experiences of the women union leaders needs further analysis, particularly as the political influences from the 1920s includes the Communist Party with its growing impact on union activists through the 1930s and into the post-war years.

Activism patterns of the 'missing women' of the inter-war and the World War II years still need to be recovered and integrated into the analysis. We have seen how broader political and industrial developments, including female suffrage and the One Big Union affected women's organisation. The impact of the increase in women's participation during the war has been chronicled in terms of the pursuit of equal pay and the experiences of some unions but little is known about the impact on women's broader union involvement and their representation in the THC. Parallels need also to be drawn with the impact of the women's movement on the influx of women into the THC in the late 1970s. A similar pattern emerged: new affiliates with large female memberships and women officials including teachers, nurses, airline hostesses, mothercraft nurses, together with an increasing number of women delegates from older affiliates.⁴⁷ The strategy of separate organising was again used, but this time it was focused on internal measures such as women's committees and affirmative action positions. As women activists grew in number and influence, many of them too had to cope with union amalgamations in the early 1990s, providing yet another avenue for historical comparison with their sisters of the past.