Australian women tell about World Congress (Tribune, 14 Oktober 1953)

Tribune (1953-10-14) - Australian Women Tell About World Congress Source: Trove, National Library of Australia - https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212471768 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 14 Oct 1953 - AUSTRALIAN WOMEN TELL ABOUT WORLD CONGRESS Tribune (Sydney, NSW: 1939 - 1991), Wednesday 14 October 1953, page 6 AUSTRALIAN WOMEN TELL ABOUTWORLD CONGRESSLAST June in Copenhagen, 12 Australian women attended the World Congress of Women. There, 1187 women (647 delegates, the rest observers and visitors) from 70 countries, met to discuss and plan how women everywhere "can unite in the struggle to ensure to every woman full enjoyment of her rights and to every child security and well-being, and to build a world in which humanity can live in peace." (Congress Appeal.) Some were sent with full approval of their entire people and governments; some suffered great sacrifice and hardship to reach Denmark at all those from Korea, Vietnam and Malaya were refused visas by the Danish Government and remained in Berlin. The following accounts of various aspects of the Congress are from three Sydney delegates interviewed by a Tribune reporter.Equality means security Flo Davis, Secretary. Hotel, Club and Restaurant Union.Congress sessions were a series of extremely mov-ing happenings and speeches. SOMETHING I'll never forget is the reading of speeches and greetings from the absent delegates of Korea, Vietnam and Malaya, while their national flags were held on the platform by French and Bri-tish women. I was able to attend the special "Little Congress" arranged for them in Berlin. To get to the Congress the Viet-namese delegates had to begin by walking for four whole nights. They had to walk because the trainlines were bombed out, and to travel by night because in the daytime they would have been under fire. One of them was a woman of 74, mother of a famous Resistance hero-ine murdered by the imperialists. And what's more, they had to walk back to their areas the same way. A Korean delegate, a peasant woman, told us how her entire fam-ily of 16—husband, relatives, chil-dren-were wiped out by the Ameri-can aggressors. Immediately after liberation from the Japanese by the Red Army the peasants received land. "Life was beautiful," she said. "For the first time we could grow our own grain, live our own lives; the children could learn." But only for a little time. The Americans instigated the Korean war. American bombs destroyed her home, killed two of her children. "At first I cried a lot," she said. "Then I learnt not to cry." The country, and the People's Army needed grain. This woman organised other women nearby to grow rice. Returning one day from the fields she found her third child machine-gunned. She carried on organising the wo-men and was decorated twice by the North Korean Government. She came to tell Congress that if they relaxed in the fight for peace they, too, could suffer similar horrors of war. * * * CONGRESS worked in various Commissions and groups. I at-tended the Commission for equal rights and reported to Congress on women's rights in Australia.Our Commission heard reports of conditions in colonial and non-self-governing countries where wages are pitifully low. Whole families work in plantations — sugar, rubber, cof-fee... just to keep alive, and neither the men nor the women have any rights. In capitalist countries women's rates of pay vary from the Japan-ese 43.8 per cent of the male rate to Sweden's 70 per cent and Aus-tralia's 75 per cent. Although in Italy and France the principle of equal pay is stated in the Constitution, this is not honored. In contrast with the struggle to live and for their rights, by the women of capitalist and colonial countries, I felt that the tremendous thing for the women of the develop-ing Socialist countries, the splendid fact for them, is their security. For the first time after centuries of op-pression and no rights at all, eco-nomic equality and political rights have given them security for their children, their homes and themsel-ves. So their enthusiasm is bound-less to play a full part in building their new life and ensure that no war will threaten the happy future before them and their children.Great unity achieved Joyce Egan, Secretary, Union of Australian Women, NSW.On the ship, going to Europe, I was asked sev-eral times, "Do you think women can stop war?" I SAID, "Yes, if women through-out the world can achieve unity." The world Congress of Women confirmed this belief and it showed me and all the women who went there that such unity can be won. Congress scenes like this proved it:— Dutch and Indonesian women ex-changed flowers saying "Your liberty is our liberty." An Indo-nesian woman handed a bouquet of flowers to a Dutch woman whose son is in prison for refusing to fight. Polish women embraced women from both East and West Germany. They vowed their sons would never again fight each other. A Japanese woman artist pres-ented to WIDF President, Madame Cotton, a dove of peace. It was sent by the mother-in-law of ayoung girl who had died from the effects of the atom bomb that de-stroyed Hiroshima. Women from Britain spoke, who had loved ones in Korea. They had never before attended a function like the Congress but they were determined to come to urge the sup-port of all women for a cease-fire in Korea. They said they wanted peace not only for their own sons' sakes but for all the Korean people equally. The whole Congress in its events and speeches and in its findings demonstrated that the ordinary woman does not want war and that no matter what their differ-cences in language, race, religion, custom and occupation, women can reach common ground for unity. As citizens, as workers, as wives and mothers we found that we could all take back, not only to hundreds, but to millions of other women, the truth that by negotia-tion and discussion we can reach unity on matters that funda-mentally concern us all. The Declaration on the Rightsof Women adopted by Congress contains in it some rights which Australian women have already won. For example, the right to vote and to be elected. But no encouragement is given our own women to play their right-ful part in this important sphere. This became particularly clear as delegates from Socialist countries told of how their governments pro-vide facilities such as nursery schools and kindergartens, matern-ity care, economic equality, so that women can exercise their political rights. More than that, they con-duct educational campaigns for both men and women to ensure women are drawn into all spheres of activity. Congress findings represent the common aims of women the world over. They were achieved because we worked in a spirit of discussion and negotiation and an intense desire for peace. This was the keynote for Congress just as it was the key-note of our own recent National Convention on Peace and War.Meaning of friendship Fuchsia Lewin, delegate from Aust. Seamen's Union Sydney Branch Women's Cttee.The Danish women did a really colossal job for the Congress. Although Denmark has a population of only four million, over 40,000 Danish women were involved in Con-gress. THE hundreds of yards of blue hangings which made the hall look so beautiful alone must have taken them hours and hours of sewing. Before the morning ses-sion the women were at the hall servicing every facility for the guests — post office, information, cloak room, message exchange, even medical attention. And after 11 at night you could still get a cup of coffee in the splendidly run can-teen. Flags of 58 countries were drapedbehind the presiding committee. Slogans in eight different languages hanging from the ceiling read: "Women of the world unite for the winning and defence of our rights, for the protection of our children and homes, for a peaceful world." What would seem insuperable language difficulties were overcome by interpreters, and an earphone system for each delegate. THE case of Mrs. Hudson, of Gil-gandra and her "Quads," and her hard battle to care for her children, has reminded me several times of an Hungarian woman who addressed Congress. She was a country woman, Ma-dame Josef Elod, mother of nine boys and three girls. She was very proud of the medal she wore. "I am wearing one of the highest honors, presented to me by our Government," she told us. "Beforepeople's Power I could not feed my children. My husband was unem-ployed. The two eldest had no clothes to go to school. Now I receive government aid. I was granted a house for which I pay five per cent monthly of wages, and soon I will own it. "When I think of my children's future I am filled with happiness. They are not faced with unemploy-ment, or insecurity. With the ex-ception of the four youngest they are all studying. They will all be-come trained, educated people." Other delegates from the People's Democracies told of how the women of their countries were helping to build a new life and create the conditions for real equality of men and women. From the Soviet Union, Mme Lydia Kou^charenko told how in her country the position of women is radically different from that of women in most countries of the world.AUSTRALIAN Mrs. Jessie Street was chosen by Congress to read the Declaration on the Rights of Women. Here she is reading the Declaration from the Congress rostrum.AUSTRALIAN DELEGATES to the Congress. Left to right, Mrs. O'Connor (Melbourne), Mrs. Lewin (Sydney), Mrs. Feighan (Newcastle), Mrs. Egan (Sydney). Picture was taken during their stay at a Rumanian village given over entirely to the care of Korean orphans.CONGRESS HALL held over 1100 women, delegates and ob-servers. Galleries, opened to the public, were always full. Danish women put endless labor into decorating and preparing the hall.