In Her Own Right by Julie Rigg

In Her Own Right

Women of Australia

Edited by Julie Rigg

Thomas Nelson, 1969, [First Edition], full page black and white photographs throughout, black and white photographic frontispiece, coloured endpapers, hardcover with illustrative cover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing and bumping (see photographs)

“In Her Own Right scrutinises Australian women of all ages, in all moods, at work of every kind (from ‘household duties’ to librarianship) and at play.  The survey covers ‘The Girls in Their Summer Dresses’, ‘Here Comes the Bride’, ‘Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady’, ‘Hello Mother, Hello Father’, some ‘Outsiders’ (Aboriginal Women, Migrant Women and Those Who Have Not), ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Housewife’ (Organisation Woman and Mrs Consumer), and ‘A Person in Her Own Right: Women at Work’ leading up to a question for the opposition ‘So Here’s the New Woman – So Where’s the New Man?’.  Ian Turner’s study of the matrix: ‘Prisoners in Petticoats: A Shocking History of Female Emancipation in Australia’ introduces the collection.
All the contributors bring to their articles their own experiences of being (or observing) women in Australia; each probe adds detail from the life and options of the dissector as well as the disectee; the whole sums up the position of women in Australian society today.  The tone is ironic rather than angry – tub-thumping has given place to with and humour – and sympathy is laced with criticism.  The text is illuminated throughout by Russell Richard’s superb studies, photographs which are of international standing.
At this time, with the struggle for equal pay by no means over, the effects of mothers working becoming more serious and the ‘new’ morality undergoing naturalisation, women are news.”