Aims of the Project

This research aims to answer key questions about women’s involvement in the anti-nuclear movement, including:

1. Who were these women?

2. What motivated them to join the movement?

3. What were their experiences of the movement like?

4. How did they participate?

5. What protest activities did they participate in?

6. What role did they play in the movement?

7. How did their involvement in this movement influence any later involvement in other social or protest movements, including the second wave feminist movement, the green movement or the anti-uranium movement?

The project aims to broaden historical understanding both of women’s political activity and of the Australian anti-nuclear movement as a whole. It aims to see investigate whether Australian women were more active outside the home in the 1950s and 1960s than has previously been assumed; what expressions that activity may have taken; whether this activity contradicted contemporary gender norms; if so, why they may have chosen to act outside of expected gender norms; and, finally, how their experiences in the movement shaped their lives. This project also aims to understand the Australian anti-nuclear movement, including investigating how prevalent it was in Australian society.