Publisher Description

Our house was a single-fronted cottage in the slum area of Carlton. There were no distinctive features to differentiate it from most of the small cottages ...Zelda D'Aprano, a working-class woman at the forefront of the Women's Liberation Movement in Australia, shows in her autobiography the same raw spirit she evidenced when chaining herself to the Commonwealth Building in Melbourne to protest unequal pay on 21 October 1969. The life of a remarkable woman who often battled alone for what women today take for granted.Zelda is a moving, down-to-earth recounting of the past, an insightful criticism of how society is structured and reminds us of the exuberance of the Women's Liberation Movement.

Author Biography

Zelda D'Aprano was a feminist, trade unionist, writer and dental nurse, and lived a rich and varied life that saw her stand up time and time again for the rights of women and workers. As an active unionist, and activist in the women's movement, she chained herself across the doors of the Commonwealth Building, and later the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in Melbourne, in protest against the inadequacy of the decision on the Equal Pay case in 1969.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsviiAuthor's NoteviiiPrefaceixZelda1Afterword305Appendices401Further Acknowledgements407

Review

"Zelda is a classic in Australian political history and women's history, whose re-publication by Spinifex is warmly welcomed. In this eloquent autobiography, written in the 1970s, leading women's liberationist Zelda D'Aprano tells her personal story of how trade union activism led her to a deep understanding of women's oppression and how to mobilise against it." --Professor Marilyn Lake AO
"Zelda was at the forefront of a new era of women's social and political activism. Here, in her own proud, defiant and charismatic voice, Zelda shows why she was a hero ... of the struggle of the our collective rights and freedoms." --Professor Clare Wright

Review Quote

"Zelda was at the forefront of a new era of women's social and political activism. Here, in her own proud, defiant and charismatic voice, Zelda shows why she was a hero ... of the struggle of the our collective rights and freedoms." --Professor Clare Wright

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