People Australia

Eileen Powell, 1935

Labor Daily (Sydney), 30 April 1935, p 1

Eileen Louisa Powell (1913-1997) shop assistant, trade union official, women’s activist and journalist

Birth: 3 August 1913 at Petersham, Sydney, New South Wales, daughter of Albert James Powell (1878-1942?), an engineer, born at London, England, and Margaret Maria, née Feltham (1881-1947), born in Melbourne, Victoria. Marriage: 24 June 1949 at the Registrar General’s Office, Sydney, to a widower with two children, Frederick Coleman-Browne (1902-1974), journalist, born at Brisbane, Queensland. She retained her maiden name after her marriage. Death: 19 July 1997 in Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards; usual residence Edwin Street, Crows Nest, North Sydney. 

• Eileen was introduced to Australian Labor Party meetings by her mother, Margaret, whilst still a child, after her parents’ divorce in 1920. She began attending debating clubs and feminist meetings with her younger sister following the death of her elder sister in the influenza epidemic of 1919.
• Eileen started working life as a shop assistant at Grace Bros, Broadway, Sydney. She joined the Stanmore branch of the ALP aged 15, becoming assistant secretary at 16.
• In 1929 she joined Labor Daily after teaching herself shorthand and typing, then worked at the Trades Hall for six months as secretary to ALP organising secretary L. J. Macpherson, before being retrenched. She remained at the Trades Hall, broadcasting for what would become radio station 2KY and working briefly as secretary to Jack Lang. At this time she was also active in the ALP Younger Set.
• In April 1934, with Valerie Budd and Myra Huntress, she stated the case for women workers seeking a higher basic wage for female workers before the Industrial Commission.
• Powell joined the Australian Railways Union (ARU) in 1937, initially working as a clerk for an industrial officer, and began contributing a women’s page to the union journal, Railroad, of which she became editor. With the support of ARU secretary Lloyd Ross, she embarked on a campaign for improved conditions for female railway employees, organising girls employed in country refreshment rooms and gathered evidence for a claim for improved shift arrangements.
• In 1939 she became the first woman to present a case before the NSW Industrial Commission, winning improved conditions for refreshment room women on appeal.
• She was seconded to the Industrial Welfare Division of the Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service during World War II, reporting on conditions of women workers in war industries. She joined the Federated Clerks’ Union.
• In 1942 she was elected union representative on national conference on equal pay. In 1944 she began a successful morning show on radio 2KY, concentrating on women’s issues. She returned to the ARU after the war.
• Powell acted as adviser to Elsie Byth, the Australian delegate to the United Nations Status of Women Commission in Beirut, Lebanon in 1949. In 1951 she was appointed Australian member of the International Labor Organisation’s (ILO) Committee of Experts on Women’s Work, holding the post for twelve years. She was also an executive member of the Australia Association of the United Nations, chairing its standing committee on the status of women. Joined the United Associations of Women.
• In 1949 she became secretary of the NSW Labor Women’s Central Organising Committee (WCOC). From 1949 to 1951 she was a member the NSW ALP Central Executive. She stood as Labor candidate for North Sydney in the 1951 Federal election, resisting insistence by party officials that she use her married name. A condescending newspaper headline read: “a politician in pigtails”. In the early 1950s she became embroiled in internal struggles in the NSW ALP.
• Powell joined the League of Women Voters in NSW and accused the Union of Australian Women leaders of being insincere in their feminism. By 1954 she had left the UAW.
• Throughout 1950s she worked with the ILO. Represented the ARU on the Equal Pay Committee established by the NSW Labor Council in 1956. She was active in the 1958 equal pay campaign. In 1961 she led the Australian delegation to Congress of International Alliance of Women in Dublin.
• Publicity officer for NSW ALP WCOC in 1965-1967, she was WCOC vice-president from 1967 to 1970. She appeared in the Federal equal pay case in 1969.
• After she retired in 1974 she renewed a longstanding interest in reading science and philosophy.
• Cause of death: hypothermia (1 day) and dementia (years).

Sources
Newcastle Herald, 15 December 1939; Northern Herald, 26 November 1987; Sydney Morning Herald, 31 July 1997; W. Mitchell, 50 Years of Feminist Achievement: a History of the United Associations of Women, 1979; information from S. Tracey, 1997; Jim Walshe, ‘A woman of consequence: Eileen Powell 1913-1997,’ Australian Society for the Study of Labour History , The Hummer, vol 2, no. 9, 2024: https://www.labourhistory.org.au/hummer/vol-2-no-9/eileen-powell/