Dunedin Collective for Woman

The Dunedin Collective for Woman (DCW) was a feminist group active in Dunedin, New Zealand in the 1970s. Set up as an umbrella organisation for special interest groups and projects, its four foundational aims were equal pay, quality childcare, women's control of their own bodies, and an end to sex stereotyping.

Dunedin Collective for Woman
Formation1971
Dissolved1982
PurposeWomen's rights

In its ten years of existence, members of the Collective set up a preschool and a women's refuge, published books and exhibitions, and promoted better and legal access to fertility control and abortion services in New Zealand.[1]

Formation

The first eight members were Denny Boothe, Jocelyn Harris, Pat Lawson, Andrée Lévesque, Judith Medlicott, Edith Mercier, Penny Moore, and Diana Strang.[2]

The Collective was organised non-hierarchically, with shared decision-making and shared responsibilities. It ran from 1971 to 1982.[2] As it grew, new cells of eight members were founded, each with a nucleus of experienced members. Growth was rapid; the Collective could call on over 80 active, committed members within a few years.[2]

Some of the original members were academics or had accompanied academic husbands to America and Canada,[3] and returned with radical ideas learnt from feminist groups agitating for change there.[4]

Activities

The Collective had a very active public profile. All members were encouraged to write and produce the “Woman” newsletter, and to stand up and speak at many different public engagements to numerous community groups. They participated in radio talkback shows, ran courses in Women’s Liberation and Women’s Studies, and protested particularly against beauty contests.[5]

In a 1972 survey the DCW found that 75% of the public wanted liberalised abortion laws.[6]

Collective members with a common interest in fertility control set up Knowhow, an advisory service on sexual matters, in 1973. First Sex, Second Sex was a published booklet on sex role stereotyping in learn-to-read books for school entrants.[7][8] After New Zealand's abortion laws were tightened in 1975, Knowhow transformed into Sisters Overseas Service (SOS), helping women to go to Australia for abortions.[5][9]

A preschool founded by the Collective in 1973 moved to a house in Frame Street in 1974, which it shared with a women's centre.[2] Collective members and supporters protested outside the Supreme Court in Dunedin in 1974 on abortion law reform.[10]

During International Women's Year (1975), the Collective produced the Cure-All-Ills All Star Travelling Women's Medicine Show.[11]

Herstory, an exhibition on women in New Zealand history, led to the first Herstory Diary published in September 1976.[12] For each week, the diary features words and pictures about a woman or an event involving women from New Zealand's past. The idea was new and popular, and has been continued in New Zealand.[13][14]

Members were active in introducing a university extension women's studies course, became involved in the founding of the Dunedin Community Child Care Centre, and went on to set up Dunedin's first women's refuge.[2]

Collective members opened New Zealand's first feminist bookshop, Daybreak, which ran for six years from 1976 to 1983. The name referred to a nineteenth-century New Zealand women's journal with a socialist and feminist viewpoint.[2]

Legacy

Ōtepoti Collective Against Sexual Abuse (ŌCASA) was founded as Rape Crisis Dunedin in 1980.[5]

The Dunedin Community Child Care Centre has grown into a network of four centres, now called Pioneers.[15]

References
  1. Else, Anne, ed. (1993). Women Together A History of Women's Organisations in New Zealand : Ngā Rōpū Wāhine O Te Motu. Wellington: Daphne Brasell Associates Press;Department of Internal Affairs. ISBN 9780908896295.
  2. Harrison, Elizabeth. "Dunedin Collective for Woman 1971 – 1982". New Zealand History. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Manatū Taonga. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  3. Brookes, Barbara (April 2020). "Wedded to the University". University of Otago Magazine. Dunedin (50). ISSN 1175-8147.
  4. Brookes, Barbara (2016). A History of New Zealand Women. New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books. ISBN 9780908321469.
  5. "Ōtepoti Collective Against Sexual Abuse (ŌCASA)". Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  6. Coney, Sandra (1993). "Health organisations". NZHistory. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  7. "Ephemera of approximately A4 size concerning birth control, collected by Bert Roth". National Library of New Zealand. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  8. "First sex, second sex : images of male and female in infant readers / [Andrée Lévesque Olssen and Jocelyn Harris]". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  9. "S.O.S". Radio New Zealand. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  10. "Dunedin Collective for Women & others on Steps of Supreme Court Dunedin". Hocken Snapshop. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  11. Simpson, Adrienne. "Organisations in the Performing Arts". New Zealand history online. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  12. Dunedin Collective for Woman (1976). New Zealand Herstory 1977: A New Zealand Woman's Calendar. Dunedin: McIndoe. p. 118. ISBN 9780908565245. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  13. Dann, Christine (2015). Up from Under. Women and Liberation in New Zealand, 1970–1985. Bridget Williams Books. ISBN 9781877242731.
  14. New Women's Press (1988). Herstory 1988. Auckland: New Women's Press.
  15. "Pioneers – Dunedin Community Childcare Association". www.pioneers.co.nz. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
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