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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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Elsie Women's Refuge, Glebe 1974

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Elsie Women's Refuge, Glebe 1974

By

Drusilla Modjeska

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

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Forty years of the Elsie Refuge for Women and Children Lesbians

Subjects

Children Refuges Residential building Women

Organisation

Elsie Women's Refuge

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Glebe

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Modjeska, Drusilla

National Library of Australia

Lesbians

While desire and sexual encounters between women have been part of life in Sydney for centuries, their history has been largely unknown until recently. Attitudes to lesbians varied from moral condemnation to medical and psychiatric discourses of disorder, until the political and cultural organisations of lesbian feminism and gay liberation ushered in an era of lesbian pride and a vibrant social and cultural scene.

Forty years of the Elsie Refuge for Women and Children

Elsie Refuge, in Glebe, is an icon of Sydney feminism and Australian domestic violence services. Established in 1974 by Women's Liberation, it was the first refuge for women and children organised on feminist principles and was pivotal to the recognition of the social problem of domestic violence. In 2014, after changes to government funding arrangements, Elsie is no longer independently-run, but the story of the foundation of this pioneering service is a vital part of the history of Glebe, of Sydney, and of Australian feminism.

Children

Refuges

Residential building

Women

Elsie Women's Refuge

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Refuge for women and children, the first in Australia, set up in disused houses by women's liberationists in 1974. A visit by Social Security Minister Bill Hayden shortly after it opened led to Elsie receiving Commonwealth funding.

Glebe

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Inner-city suburb named for its original status as Anglican church land granted to Richard Johnson, chaplain of the first fleet in 1790. The Glebe Point area became fashionable in the nineteenth century, while the southern part of Glebe became a working class district.