longman

Irene Longman

from State Library of Queensland

• ep_jhu said:

  Great shot!

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  Some powerful words "The women leaders that Longman admired were rebels, but in a constructive sense, 'women who revolted against evil conditions and false conventions ... the few who thought today what the rest of the world would think tomorrow' and sought to bring about change rather than revolution (Queenslander, 11 July 1929). Women, she believed, needed to 'possess their own souls' before they could effectively help others (quoted in Fallon, p. 114). Central to possession of the soul was economic autonomy, either through an equal right to work, or through direct payment to mothers whose service lay in raising children at home (Fallon, p. 138). 'I do not see that it would be any worse for a woman to be paid the basic wage than a single man who may never marry', she insisted, 'because if a woman should marry she would always help towards the upkeep of a home' (Brisbane Courier, 31 August 1933). Marriage should be an 'equal partnership' with wives entitled to a share in 'any house or business which they might have helped to build' (Courier-Mail, 18 September 1936). She also argued that women should take control of their bodies (Fallon, p. 142-3). 'Intelligent women are no longer breeding machines ... They recognise the right of children to be well born ... And yet there are no signs of a decrease in either maternal or paternal love' (Northern Miner, 14 July 1933). Source: www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0196b.htm