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Australia 1920's - Cohesion and Division

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The end of World War I brought much tension as well as great optimism to the global community. In Australia, it was a time when feminism and the development of the independent woman began to rapidly take effect paving the way for females for the future generations. However, this period was not kind to all groups within Australia. Aboriginals faced unfairness and mistreatment due to racism reinforced by the general ideology by white Australians that Aboriginals or anyone who wasn’t of the same race were inferior. Also, returning soldiers from the First World War saw themselves as exceptional in comparison to the rest of Australian society and created a wider divergence between the two. Women, Aboriginals and ex-soldiers were groups that aided the cohesive and divisive concepts in Australia during the 1920’s. The women’s movement can be examined as a cohesive force during the 1920’s politically and in a way, economically. Before the First World War, women were generally very traditional, expected to devote their entire lives to their family and if they worked, were paid at extremely low wages. By 1928, the average male wage was £10 40s a day, whilst the average female wage was £8 80s a day. This wage gap was deemed as acceptable in Australian society at the time as it was believed that women were not capable of doing the same job as men. Marriage was an economic necessity for women at this point of time, as they did not earn enough money to make a living alone. This ideology began to shift as demand for females to work increased due to many men leaving their jobs to join the war effort. The movement from household duties to the workforce made many women feel very liberated and independent. This also united Australia in the way that everyone was working together to help and support one another during the hardship of the war. Approximately 1,600,000 women joined the workforce during the First World War. In March 1921, Edith

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