International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Here at the ANU Library, we are marking this occasion by highlighting some of our resources by, about and for women. 

ANU Archives display

The ANU Archives have installed two displays in the R.G. Menzies Library to mark Women’s History Month. Check them out in the foyer and outside the Archives Reading Room throughout March.

• Find out more about women in trade unions and the Labor movement from the late 1800s to 2000s. Items on display include minute books of trade union equal pay committees; pamphlets and badges relating to feminism and the women’s movement; photographs and short biographies of prominent women in trade unions; and various records from the Union of Australian Women.
• Discover the history of the ANU Women’s Studies Program, which ran from 1976-2000. Items on display include a variety of posters, pamphlets, magazines, correspondence and short biographies of those associated with establishing and running the program including Ann Curthoys, Jill Matthews and Susan Magery.

ANU Library resources and display

A Women and Gender Studies exhibit is on display on Level 2 of the J.B. Chifley Library.

We have also recently acquired a number of eBook titles for the Gender Studies collection including:

• Building womanist coalitions: writing and teaching in the spirit of love
• Contemporary feminist research from theory to practice
• Dangerous ideas: women’s liberation - women’s studies - around the world
• Hungry translations: relearning the world through radical vulnerability
• The maternal in creative work: intergenerational discussions on motherhood and art
• Shared selves: Latinx memoir and ethical alternatives to humanism

Women’s Studies database

ANU Library users now have access to the Women’s Studies database, which is a digitised version of microforms lost in the 2018 Chifley flood.

Launched in February 2020, Women’s Studies contains a breadth of sources over four centuries, providing a vast range of perspectives on the changing roles of women in history. This collection offers access to the works and legacy of many notable and influential women, but also a chance to hear the voices of forgotten and ordinary women.

ANU Press resources

The ANU Press have a number of titles on the subject of women and women’s studies available for free download, including:

• Situating Women: gender politics and circumstance in Fiji
• Maori and Aboriginal Women in the Public Eye
• Reaching for Health: the Australian women’s health movement and public policy
• Gender Violence and Human Rights
• Tax, Social Policy and Gender
• Transformations of Gender in Melanesia
• Julia 2010: the caretaker election
• Power and International Relations: essay in honour of Coral Bell
• Wives and Wanderers in a New Guinea Highlands Society