Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 2. March 5 1979
The Women's Charter Movement
The Women's Charter Movement
After World War II the thread of the cause of women was held briefly by the Women's Charter Movement from 1947 to 1949. This movement emphasised democratic education, supporting international unity and vigilance against fascism, the right of women to enter all industries and professions; it advocated day care centers, workers' holiday homes, home and nursing aides, mid-day meals' for school children, equal pay and opportunity in training and promotion and the end of the exploitation of women as cheap labour. They insisted on the right of married women to work. The Women's Charter groups in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch published leaflets on such subjects as China, Greece, Indonesia and the Atom bomb as well as on subjects particular to women. In 1949 the organisation was declared black by the Labour Party, whose leadership had joined the Cold War against social and economic emancipation, and it gradually faded out.