Defending "The Purity of Home Life" Against Socialism: The Founding Years of the Australian Women's National League

The paradigm of maternal citizenship has been variously understood by historians as enabling and restrictive of women's action in the public sphere. This paper considers the use to which the maternal paradigm was put by the founders of the Australian Women's National League, focussing in particular upon their campaign to link the Labor party with socialism and "free love". It observes the ease with which the ideal of the maternal citizen — central to the liberal feminism of the day — could be turned to the conservative class interests of elite women.