Women’s History Month

The Women Writers Fund is a pioneering new fund that seeks to redress the historical gender bias in the Victorian State Collection by acquiring works by under-represented 19th and 20th century women writers.

Works from this era often rare or expensive, with many only available through the international market. The Women Writers Fund allows the State Library to compete with private collectors and acquire works that can be made accessible to all through a public collection, giving future generations access to more diverse and representative voices from different times, cultures and disciplines.

Read more about the fund in Good Weekend's article Reader, I bought them: The Aussies helping reel in literature’s ‘great white whales’.

Donate now

In 2022, the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust generously committed $1 million to State Library Victoria to support the Women Writers Fund.

The donation aims to grow the representation of women’s writing, from the past and into the future for all Victorians. The grant will support in securing acquisitions by women writers for the State Collection, alongside public programming including an annual marquee oration featuring an internationally recognised speaker. It was made alongside a commitment of $250,000 to the Stella Prize, supporting the major literary award celebrating women’s writing.

The donation builds on the work of philanthropists Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Helen Sykes, who established the Women Writers Fund to preserve women’s literary and creative work for future generations.

Like many other libraries, most of the books in our collections are arranged by the Dewey Decimal Classification System.

First published in 1876, this numerical system for organising knowledge has been republished 23 times. Ongoing revisions towards making the Dewey system more global and inclusive continue.

For Women’s History Month, we explore Dewey number 305.42, which covers the subject of women and their role in society.

What were the conditions like on the Trans-Siberian railway for women in the 1930s? Which American city was most like Melbourne in the 50s? And does anyone know what to wear to dinner when travelling first-class by ship?

Intrigued? Read about our Travel writing, spectacle and world history database, which brings together more than 150 years of women’s experiences travelling the globe. Expect to see photos, sketchbooks, guidebooks, diaries, postcards, and more.

Unable to study medicine in Australia because she was a woman, Constance Stone left the country to pursue her medical dreams in 1884. She returned to Australia five years later – after studying and working as a doctor abroad in the United States, Canada and England.

In 1890, she became the first woman to be registered as a doctor in Australia.  

Discover her story and learn how Stone overcame numerous challenges to achieve medical success and eventually establish the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women in Melbourne. 

When we think about detective stories, a few names probably spring to mind: Arthur Conan Doyle, or perhaps Agatha Christie.

But have you heard of Mary Fortune? Or her pseudonym ‘Waif Wander’?

Her name may be unfamiliar, but Fortune was one of the earliest female crime writers in the world and the author of the longest running 19th-century crime fiction series published in a periodical – The Detective's Album, published in The Australian Journal.

Learn more about the literary trailblazer.

In 1922 Agatha Christie accompanied her husband on a trip of a lifetime: a round-the-world tour to promote the British Empire Exhibition in 1924.

Despite nearly calling it quits at the first stop in Madeira due to a severe bout of travel sickness, she persevered and eventually made it to Australia.

On her travels through the country, she spent 10 days in Victoria. Find out what she thought.

Madame Weigel's Journal of Fashion was the first of its kind in Australasia, providing women across the region with fashion reviews, serialised fiction, news, recipes, travelogues and most importantly, free sewing patterns.

The journal became a staple for those interested in being well dressed, well presented and well informed during its 70-year run.

Learn more about Johanna Weigel, the woman behind the journal. 

Since its publication in 1963, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath’s only novel, has influenced generations of women who relate to its protagonist and the themes Plath explores.

Is it a feminist classic or a feminist cliché?

Take a fresh look at the novel with the help of some illuminating resources available in the Library’s collection.

Women’s Voices and Life Writing, 1600-1968 provides access to a treasure trove of manuscripts, diaries and oral histories, offering a unique insight into the lives of women, their thoughts, feelings and experiences, told in their own words.

The database features items from archives across the UK and Ireland such as the National Library of Scotland, the British Library and county archives in Shropshire, Suffolk and Hampshire.

Find out more about the database, which features the fascinating Confessions of Witches from the National Library of Scotland and so much more.

The idea of a 'ladies' lounge' in a pub or hotel seems archaic nowadays, but there was a time not so long ago when they were de rigueur. The lounges were a permanent fixture in many Australian pubs from the 1930s until women won the right to drink in public bars.

Sarah Matthews delves into the emergence – and later demise – of ladies’ lounges nationwide on our blog. 

Librarian Daniel Giddens discovers a local connection through the photograph albums of Kathleen Gawler, WWI nurse with the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve.

The collection comprises six albums that record the people, places and experiences she encountered during her service – primarily in Egypt, but also in Turkey, India and Palestine.

Learn more about Kathleen Gawler, her nursing career and contribution to community.

A clairvoyant and a magician – a magical pairing you might say. For the celebrated entertainment duo Mystic Mora and Doc Rowe, it was a union that brought extraordinary success and fame, and a life full of exotic travels and uncommon adventures.

Read the blog about the charismatic pair and their act, The Mahatma Mysteries.

Compared by some to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the ‘lost masterpiece’ Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was written by M. Barnard Eldershaw, the pseudonym adopted by Marjorie Barnard (1897–1987) and Flora Eldershaw (1897–1956). 

Theirs was a remarkable literary partnership that produced novels, short stories, literary criticism, essays and lectures.

Learn more about Barnard and Eldershaw, their enduring partnership and Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow on our blog.

The Library has a huge range of free ebooks – 200,000 and counting! – that are available to read online or to download for up to seven days.

Browse this month's ebookshelf, curated in celebration of Women’s History Month.

When you walk into State Library Victoria today, you will be welcomed by a diverse range of staff – people of different backgrounds, genders, ages and nationalities. But things haven’t always been this way, especially for women.

Discover more about the first female Library staff member on the public service lists.

Overpopulation was a huge social problem in 19th century Britain. Trailblazers like Annie Besant were tireless campaigners for the improvement of living conditions, birth control, and women's rights.

The Malthusian, a collection in the Women's Studies Archive, gives us a vivid lens into the living conditions of the poor and a fascinating insight into the population issues from 1879 to 1921, which laid the groundwork for social reform in the twentieth century. 

Learn more in our Online Collection Spotlight.