 | |
| Abbreviation | UAW |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | New Housewives' Association |
| Formation | 31 July 1950 |
| Dissolved | 1995 (national), 1999 (Queensland branch) |
| Type | Social action organisation[1] |
| Headquarters | Sydney (1950–1996), Melbourne (1996–) |
Membership | approx. 200 (1995, Victoria)[2] |
Key people | Freda Brown, Dorothy Hewett, Audrey McDonald, Anne Sgro, Eva Bacon, Cath Morrison |
| Affiliations | UNIFEM, WEL, Women's International Democratic Federation,[3] WILPF |
| Website | uaw |
The Union of Australian Women (UAW) is a left-wing women's organisation concerned with local and international issues regarding women's rights, international peace and equality.
The UAW was established in Sydney on 31 July 1950 in New South Wales. Branches in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania soon followed. In 1956 a national UAW was set up, with an executive committee based in Sydney and representatives from each state organisation.
The UAW's self-published magazine, Our Women, mixed mainstream content such as recipes with news from the trade union movement, tracts on women's equality and articles on Aboriginal rights. Although the UAW was never officially affiliated with any political party many of its founding members were in close contact with Communist Party of Australia. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) kept the organisation under surveillance during the 1950s and '60s.
The UAW campaigned for women's rights to work, with equal pay and conditions, affordable childcare, Indigenous rights and the environment, and strongly protested against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. The UAW vigorously protested against the South African apartheid movement.
International Women's Day was almost solely organised by the UAW in the early years after World War II and the UAW organised the first United Nations-sponsored international conferences for women in 1975, International Women's Year.
The UAW enjoyed success in the 1950s and 1960s with their combination of the conventional and subversive, being a "product of both mainstream and left culture" but were considered conservative by the post-Vietnam Women's liberation movement.
By the late 1980s and 1990s, the UAW began winding down. Currently the Victorian UAW continues. The UAW (Vic) is currently the National body as well as the Victorian body.