Quest for grace: fraternal authority and feminine resistance in colonial Australia

The emergence of feminism in Australia, as elsewhere, was grounded in personal experience. This paper explores the small and private rebellion of one woman against fraternal authority, an episode that took place before women had access to a feminist ideology with which to express their feelings of oppression. It argues that an examination of the tissue of domestic life – in this instance, a tiff about piano-playing – can be read at a number of levels: as a metaphor of inarticulate resistance and as an important precondition for feminism.