AustLit

'Dame Enid Lyons, the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, was appointed as a Commissioner of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1951. Lyons had already proved to be an adept broadcaster, using radio as part of her campaigns for office, and she was a keen believer in radio’s utility for Australian women. Lyons maintained that radio meant that ‘a woman could do two things at once: cultivate her mind and do her housework’ (1). Women might be largely confined to the private sphere, but radio offered a window on the world beyond, and as Catherine Fisher’s polished, compact study demonstrates, many women broadcasters used radio to build an engaged form of citizenship amongst their listeners in the years between the introduction of radio in the early 1920s and the development of television in the mid-1950s.' (Publication abstract)

'This well-researched and highly readable book is a wonderful contribution to a growing body of Australian feminist-inspired studies that have delved into the archives of broadcasting. Based on the author’s PhD thesis, the core of the book is the story of women’s widening access to the public sphere through the affordances of mass media.' (Introduction)

'Catherine Fisher’s first book explores the ways in which Australian radio, from its origins in the 1920s until the introduction of television in 1956, provided a space for women to engage with social and political issues as active citizens. It focuses on both the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the commercial sector, and country as well as city.' (Introduction)