Inconvenient Women: Australian radical writers 1900–1970

by Jacqueline Kent

Australia’s crusaders for women’s voting rights and the radical feminists of the 1970s changed lives across the country and around the globe. But what about the generation in between?
Throughout the twentieth century, a group of trailblazing women writers challenged the nation’s status quo. Miles Franklin’s forceful voice invigorated the emerging women’s movement, Mary Gilmore was a groundbreaking feminist journalist, and novelists Katharine Susannah Prichard and Eleanor Dark explored the colonial displacement of Australia’s Indigenous people. Kylie Tennant spoke up for battlers during the Depression. Dymphna Cusack, Katharine Susannah Prichard and Dorothy Hewett, all members of Australia’s Communist Party, advocated for social reform. Ruth Park’s The Harp in the South jolted the NSW government into developing slum clearance programs. And the work of First Nations poet and activist Kath Walker (later Oodgeroo Noonuccal) was crucial in achieving constitutional reform for Indigenous peoples.
Acclaimed biographer Jacqueline Kent traces these women’s stories, shaped by the seismic social and political events of their time, and illuminates their immense courage and principled determination to change the world.

Genres: Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2025

Reviews

[Giovanna Walker]

I liked the concept, and wanted to learn some more about women writers in Australia.
The book itself was a little disappointing. Kent goes into great detail about communism in Australia and to be honest, whilst I understand she was trying to add context, it just went on, and on and ON. It could be its own subject. She also talked about a lot of men, taking the attention away from the women.
I did find interesting the trials and tribulations of the publication of Come in Spinner - what a drama!?! (and hello newscorp, some things never change); and that some of the writing in the early 20th century seems either wrong (derogatory) or just a very different style to the modern.
Could have been shorter in my opinion and punchier.

[Jan Lancaster]

This book sounded really interesting, with a focus on women writer trailblazers in Australia between 1900 and 1970.The daughters of the suffragists and mothers of feminists, many were way ahead of their time.
Included are Mary Gilmore, Katerine Susannah Pritchard, Miles Franklin, Eleanor Dark, Kylie Tennant, Ruth Park and more.
For me it turned out to be more of a history of Australia (and men) in those years, and I would have preferred more focus on the women.
I gave up after 100 pages sadly, three stars for the writing and research.

[Rebecca]

Writing style just wasn't for me, but the stories themselves were interesting.

[Ann Koenig]

As a lover of history and women’s lives, I enjoyed reading about the radical women writers.

[Ella Rule]

DNF with 50 pages left. It seems to me that the author wanted to write a book on Communist writers in Australia and was told that the feminism angle would sell better.

[Merceiam]

Began well (I enjoyed learning about Dame Mary Gilmore and the settlement in Paraguay) but soon drifted to dense political history.