Australian Women's National League - Merger With The Liberals

Merger With The Liberals

In 1944, the AWNL actively supported the newly-created Liberal Party of Australia and merged with it in 1945. The League's leaders at the time, Dame Elizabeth Couchman, Ivy Wedgwood (later a Senator) and Edith Haynes negotiated a tough deal with Sir Robert Menzies which ensured that women were equally represented at throughout the structures of the Liberal Party, long before the era of affirmative action. It was agreed that the Liberal Party's would reserve certain positions for women, that there would be a Woman Vice-President of the Party and also a Federal Women’s Committee, whose president would also sit on the Party’s Federal Executive.

Menzies regarded Couchman very highly and described "She would have been the best cabinet minister I could have wished for."

Some argue that the League had a major impact on the Liberal Party's direction leading up to the election in 1949, which they won convincingly. In a highly usual move at the time Liberal advertising specifically made reference to women and women's issues. Images of men and women (and in some cases of women alone) were used in political advertising for the first time on a major scale. Their opponents in the Australian Labor Party were largely silent on women's issues.

While the organisation formally resolved to merge with the Liberal Party, some preferred to retain an autonomous group which continued with considerably reduced members and activity for a time.

In 2004 the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, spoke at a function commemorating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the League, and paid tribute to its important role in the history of the Liberal Party and Australia.