Brazen Hussies

This outstanding feature documentary traces the Australian Women's Liberation Movement from its first stirrings in the1960s to its partial fruition in the early 70s in the Whitlam years. Opening scenes of the 1950s zeitgeist recall a time when a woman was referred to by her husband's name, and a time when married women were not allowed to work in the public service. Women in general were 2nd class citizens, prevented from working in all kinds of areas and when they were allowed, they were on a lower payscale. They weren't even allowed into pubs and we see footage of them being violently arrested when they tried to do so. This is an extension of the physical violence they were routinely subjected to without sanction by their husbands and other men. The women's liberation movement was characterised by many as an attack on men's rights, and ASIO was deeply engaged in monitoring these women and girls who were seen as a threat to Australian society.

Female activists were angry, not just towards conservative elements, but calling out phoney Australian masculinity also in their comrades on the left. Union bosses would come to their worksites and have a cup of tea with their bosses rather than support women's claims for a fair go. The film combines old footage with interviews from key activists from around Australia, then and now.

The film shows how women began organising around issues such as equal pay, reproductive rights, affordable childcare, women's refuges and rape crisis centres. They incited women to rebel. Issues of indigenous and gay representation arose, adding further complexity to the struggle, but all strands are woven artfully into this interesting and inspiring film. We see the movers and shakers of the time both then and now, and they are brilliant characters, including Elizabeth Reid who was women's adviser to the Whitlam government, a federal government swept to power with the support of the fledgling Women's Electoral Lobby. At the time, 1972, there weren't even any female MPs in NSW yet the Federal Labor government introduced equal pay, single mothers pension, no fault divorce and Medicare.

Brazen Hussies paints a confronting portrait of recent Australian values and of the brave young women who organized to make profound changes with lasting effects. Among them we meet Eva Cox, Anne Summers, Pat O'Shane, Biff Ward, Germaine Greer and Helen Reddy - outstanding.

A documentary can only give us a small glimpse into the enormously significant and protracted movement that was women's liberation, but this film about the Australian scene in the 1960s and 1970s is snappily edited with some articulate women who were participants in bringing change about.

I got a good sense of just how conservative and intransigent Australian society was - when even the Prime Minister Billy McMahon laughed off serious questions about women's issues as something to ask his wife.

He would have lost his grin when the women's movement pushed for politicians to be accountable for sexist and ignorant policies and attitudes and rudely helped toss him out of government.

While some women were content to keep things the way they were and stay home, these intelligent women put themselves in the firing line and were willing to speak out and even physically place themselves in danger - demanding to drink in the men's bar at the pub, for example - to push for equality.

We've come a long way, but we've still got a long way to go.

Brazen Hussies was made with 20-20 hindsight. Clearly, these women were right in their political activism at the time. And in our present time. Almost all of the things that they fought for are now taken for granted by women and girls throughout the world; not just in Australia. But at the actual time of these events, the world was a very different place. The women who led these movements all over the world were just considered troublemakers, sexual deviants, and mentally unstable, among other unjust characterizations. It was no easy task to be a member, much less a leader of these groups. Girls and young women should view this film (and boys and young men as well) to see the price that was paid for their current lifestyles.