A Woman's Paradise: Australian Women and American Gender Relations, 1920s–50s

During the early twentieth century, hundreds of white Australian women crossed the Pacific in quest of careers, education and adventure. At a time when most residents of the antipodes yearned for Britain – known as the "Mother Country" – this small but growing cohort made the unconventional decision to try their fortune in America. As they ventured throughout the United States, these women found much to envy in the lives of their local counterparts, who appeared privy to possibilities and pleasures far beyond those available to even the most privileged representatives of Australian womanhood. For some, America even seemed a "woman’s paradise". This paper draws upon archival records, travel writing and periodical sources to examine Australian women’s encounters with US gender relations, making the argument that the "land of liberty" did indeed evince a comparatively high regard for female endeavour. For many women who travelled across the Pacific, America opened the door to unprecedented educational and professional opportunities: some enjoyed the benefits of a university system uniquely open to women, while others climbed the career ladder in professions that remained male enclaves at home. Even those who did not personally benefit from this more egalitarian climate often returned home with an enlarged vision of the possibilities of female endeavour, and a growing discontent with the constraints placed upon women in Australia. These findings point to a tradition of trans-Pacific dialogue on gender politics that long pre-dated second-wave feminism, and suggest that Australia’s contemporaneous drift into the American orbit held particular significance for women. This research also contributes to the broader historiographical project of placing US women’s history in transnational perspective, providing evidence that women’s career prospects in early-twentieth-century America – though dire by present-day standards – still outstripped those elsewhere in the English-speaking world.