Jill Julius Matthews

Jill Julius Matthews
Born1949 (age 74–75)
Adelaide, South Australia
Occupation(s)Social and gender historian
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
ThesisGood and Mad Women: A study of Gender Order in South Australia 1920–1970 (1978)
Academic work
InstitutionsAustralian National University

Jill Julius Matthews (born 1949) is an Australian social and feminist historian. She is emeritus professor in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University.

Matthews was born in Adelaide in 1949.[1] She studied at Grange Primary School and then won a scholarship to Methodist Ladies College in Adelaide. She then went to the University of Adelaide where she began a law degree, changed to arts/law and graduated with a BA (hons) in 1970.[2] While tutoring at Flinders University, Matthews began a PhD, supervised by Hugh Stretton, at the University of Adelaide. While completing her PhD she worked as part-time tutor and lecturer and a number of tertiary institutions in Adelaide.[2]

She rewrote her PhD thesis, which was published as Good and Mad Women: The Historical Construction of Femininity in Twentieth Century Australia by Allen & Unwin. In her 1987 review, British historian Catherine Hall considered it to be an "essential starting point for British readers into the rapidly extending world of Australian feminist history".[3]

Matthews was awarded a Nancy Keesing Fellowship by the State Library of New South Wales in 2004.[4] Her 2005 book, Dance Hall and Picture Palace, won the prize for best monograph presented by the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand. It was also shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for History.[2]

Her papers are held in the Australian National University Archives.[5]

  1. ^ "Matthews, Jill Julius". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "Matthews, Jill Julius". The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  3. ^ Hall, Catherine (March 1987). "Book Review: Good and Mad Women: The Historical Construction of Femininity in Twentieth Century Australia". Feminist Review. 25 (1): 113–114. doi:10.1057/fr.1987.13. ISSN 0141-7789.
  4. ^ "Jill Julius Matthews". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Jill Matthews papers". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 14 January 2022.