WINNER of the 2020 Ernest Scott Prize for History Shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction Australian Book Review's Books of the Year 2019(read more here) In1970 homosexuality was illegal, God Savethe Queen was our national anthem and women pretended to be married to accessthe pill. By the end of the decade conscription was scrapped, tertiaryeducation was free, access to abortion had improved, the White Australia policywas abolished and a woman read the news on the ABC for the first time. TheSeventies was the decade that shaped modern Australia. It was the decade of'It's Time', stagflation and the Dismissal, a tumultuous period of economic andpolitical upheaval. But the Seventies was also the era when the personal becamepolitical, when we had a Royal Commission into Human Relationships and when socialmovements tore down the boundary between public and private life. Women wantedchildcare, equal pay, protection from violence and agency to shape their ownlives. In the process, the reforms they sought - and achieved, at least in part - reshaped Australia's culture and rewrote our expectations of government. Ina lively and engaging style, Michelle Arrow has written a new history of thistransformative decade; one that is more urgent, and more resonant, than ever.'At last, personal politics as national history. In lucid and nimble prose, Michelle Arrow demonstrates that - in the 1970s at least - it was about the relationships, stupid. A revelation.' - Clare Wright

The 1970s was a decade when matters previously considered private and personal became public and political. These shifts not only transformed Australian politics, they engendered far-reaching cultural and social changes. Feminists challenged ‘man-made’ norms and sought to recover lost histories of female achievement and cultural endeavour. They made films, picked up spanners and established printing presses. The notion that ‘the personal was political’ began to transform long-held ideas about masculinity and femininity, both in public and private life. In the spaces between official discourses and everyday experience, many sought to revolutionise the lives of Australian men and women. Everyday Revolutions brings together new research on the cultural and social impact of the feminist and sexual revolutions of the 1970s in Australia. Gay Liberation and Women’s Liberation movements erupted, challenging almost every aspect of Australian life. The pill became widely available and sexuality was both celebrated and flaunted. Campaigns to decriminalise abortion and homosexuality emerged across the country. Activists set up women’s refuges, rape crisis centres and counselling services. Governments responded to new demands for representation and rights, appointing women’s advisors and funding new services. Everyday Revolutions is unique in its focus not on the activist or legislative achievements of the women’s and gay and lesbian movements, but on their cultural and social dimensions. It is a diverse and rich collection of essays that reminds us that women’s and gay liberation were revolutionary movements.

How the Personal became Political brings together new research on the feminist and sexual revolutions of the 1970s in Australia. It addresses the political and theoretical significance of these movements, asking how and why did matters previously considered private and personal, become public and political? These movements produced a series of changes that were both interconnected and profound. The pill became generally available and sexuality was both celebrated and flaunted. Homosexuality was gradually decriminalized. Gay liberation and Women’s Liberation erupted. Activists established women’s refuges, rape crisis centres, and counselling services. Crucially, in Australia, these developments coincided with the election of progressive governments, who appointed women’s advisors and expanded the role of the state in the provision of childcare and other services. It was a decade of contestation and transformation. This book addresses the political and theoretical significance of these 1970s revolutions, and poses key questions about the nature of sweeping change. What were the key policy shifts? How were protests connected to legislative reforms? How did Australia fit into the broader transnational movements for change? What are the legacies of these movements and what can activists today learn from them? Scholars from several disciplines offer fresh insight into this wave of social revolution, and its contemporary relevance. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Australian Feminist Studies.

This book explores sexual violence and crime in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, a period of intense social and legal change. Driven by the sexual revolutions, second wave feminism, and ideas of the rights of the child, there was a new public interest in the sexual assault of women and children. Sexual abuse was studied, surveyed and discussed more than ever before in Australian society. Yet, despite this, there remained substantial inaction, by government, from community and on the part of individuals. This book examines several difficult questions of our recent history: why did Australia not act more firmly to eradicate rape and child sexual abuse? What prevented our culture from looking seriously at trauma? How did we fail to protect victim-survivors? Rich in social and legal history, this study takes readers into the world of victims of sexual crime, and into the wider community that had to deal with sexual violence. At the core of this book is the question that resonates deeply right now: why does sexual violence appear seemingly insurmountable, despite significant change?

In the 1970s the run-down inner-city suburb of Redfern was a gathering place for Aboriginal intellectuals and ambitious young radicals. Having fled poverty and segregation in rural Australia in the 1950s and 60s, they set about fulfilling their vision - a new way of living, where Aboriginal people could control their own lives - politically, economically and culturally. Redfern: Aboriginal activism in the 1970s is the previously untold story of how they set about fulfilling their dreams. In a fast-paced burst of creativity and hard work, in just three years an Aboriginal health service, a housing cooperative, a legal service, a child care centre and a black theatre in Redfern were established. They had some support, and the promise of self-determination under the newly elected Whitlam's Labor government, but there was also abuse and discrimination. This is the story of how, with hard work, humour and vision, they prevailed to build organisations that have served as models for similar organisations all over Australia. 'A timely and overdue study of one of the most exciting time periods in Aboriginal political history.' -- Professor John Maynard 'The 1960s gave protest a voice. By the early 70s, the Aboriginal voice had become very loud near the heart of Sydney, in Redfern. It was thrilling. I knew at the time that something important was happening, but until reading Johanna Perheentupa's Redfern, I didn't know how important.' -- Bryan Brown, actor