Until early 1960's, Australian women were still regarded as inferior to men both physically and intellectually. Many of the feminist issues varied from access to employment, education and child care, to equality in the workplace, changing family roles and the need for equal political representation. The Macquarie Dictionary defines feminism as "advocacy of equal rights and opportunities for women, especially the extension of their activities into the social and political life". This definition only came to be accurate when the Feminist Movements first came into existence, which improved women's status not only in Australia, but worldwide.
Australian women had to face male dominance, discrimination and low wages, but little by little, women's demands were conceded. The first women's rights movement emerged in part from women's sense of union with one another and their shared discontents. Women participated in numerous efforts to improve their status. It is said that books like The Subjection of Women written by John Stuart Mill in 1861 and The Feminine Mystique written by Betty Freidan in 1963 encouraged women of all races and classes to fight for what they wanted. These books discussed the role of women in society at that time, pointing out how the patriarchy placed such extreme limits on what women could or could not do. These works raised the consciousness of many women. .
In 1898, came the beginnings of Women's Suffrage, which was a movement intended to allow women the right to vote and consequently with women's access to parliaments and other political activities. This movement, at the present time is also known as the first wave of Australian feminism. This is when the first myth about Australian women and democracy was born. The present myth is that Australian women were the first to obtain the right to vote. In fact, New Zealand was the first country to grant women the right to vote at a national level, while Finland, as well as some American states gave women voting rights at a state level before Australian women obtained that right across the nation.
