Revolutionary lives: Jean Beadle
The eastern goldfields in Western Australia were a turbulent place at the turn of the 20th century, a hotbed of militancy and the centre of labour politics in the state.
Women had a tough time getting recognition here. According to the social mores of the time, they were expected to cease paid work once married. But many worked to overthrow the notion that a woman’s sphere was a simple four-room dwelling.
Foremost among them was Jean Beadle, a trailblazer who quickly gained a reputation for her feminist ideals, agitational abilities and social conscience.
Born in 1868, Beadle quickly became acquainted with hardship. She left school early to care for her widowed father and worked in the clothing trade in Melbourne. She married militant iron moulder Henry Beadle. They both became dedicated socialists committed to the cause of labour. After they were blacklisted, the Beadles relocated to WA in 1906.
Beadle was shocked by the conditions that women faced and set about organising the Eastern Goldfields’ Women’s Labour League (EGWLL). It brought together women in a range of occupations and was more than just a union. It sought to educate and train women as activists. The league also held socials and dances, which often raised funds for strikes.
Although the league was never large, it became so influential that the vice-president of the Australian Labour Federation (the precursor to the ALP), A.E. Green, remarked in 1911, “It is the most powerful organisation of its sort in the state.”
Men were allowed into the league, but at a higher membership fee. They could speak, but had no voting rights and could be asked to leave the meetings.
One of the league’s first tasks was to organise for the provision of maternity beds in the hospitals on the goldfields. Beadle spent much of her time writing for the papers and journals of the labour movement. She was often sought out to speak at trade union meetings and held many positions in the federations and trade union councils of the goldfields.
She was most concerned with the situation of women shop assistants. The league campaigned for legislation that would give them some protection. A male shop assistants union had already been formed but would not admit women.
In time, they were forced to rely on Beadle when shops in Boulder increased work hours and reduced the pay of their employees. Beadle was able to form a union. She remarked that those who attended its meetings were young girls and asked the question in the Westralian: “Where were all the older women who did all the complaining?” Because victimisation of women unionists was terrible, Beadle constantly was in dispute with employers over unpaid wages.
Women wore their union badges proudly. Other unionists would insist on being served only by a union member. This enabled women to secure their jobs in a precarious environment.
Employer organisations called for deregistration of unions representing women. They scorned women’s suffrage and in the daily papers singled Beadle out. “Who’s minding the baby?”, asked one. The employers’ reaction was to no avail. The solidarity of women held fast as their conditions continually improved. A procession of the EGWLL defiantly proclaimed “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”
In the conservatism that comes with war, many of the unions that Beadle helped organise did not make it through WWI. Despite that, and despite being absorbed into the ALP like many militants of the time, she left behind a legacy of lifting up a whole generation of women activists who not only could take their place in the union movement, but led it.
