Australian Women's National League - Peak of Power

Peak of Power

At its peak in World War I, the AWNL had 500 registered branches and more than 54,000 members across Australia. Using its massive membership base as a platform for achieving its objectives, it was very active in electoral politics, initially supporting male candidates and forming an important part of conservative political efforts across Australia. They employed women as paid political organisers, raised large amounts of funds and actively supported candidates that sometimes had to go through a preselection process to attract the League's support.

Some years after women had obtained the right to vote and to run for office, most of the first women candidates in Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria were members of the League. While they generally worked with conservative political parties, on occasion they did not. On one occasion when one of their favoured candidates in Queensland was not endorsed as they had demanded, they ran their own candidate, Irene Longman who became the first female member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in 1929.

Actions such as these, the vast size of the League and its highly skilled political operatives made it one of the most effective and feared political organisations in Australian politics at the time. Male journalists at the time complained about the power of the group "Political godmothers rule UAP (United Australia Party) with haughty mien... the political fate of the electorate was controlled by women."