Making, Spending and Saving: Women and Money in Australasia
Symposium: in person or online
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
18-19 July 2024
Banking, capital, credit, investing and earning – how have women accessed and controlled money in Australasia in the last 200 years? Ask any Australasian woman who tried to obtain finance before the 1990s and they will have a story to tell. There are those who had to find a man to guarantee a loan, despite being financially independent, others who struggled to have their income included in a joint mortgage assessment, and a few who even found opening a bank account difficult. Yet many women have long been managing household budgets, conducting ‘side hustles’ or small businesses, and investing in stocks and shares. Some were even money lenders themselves.
Papers are invited that investigate women’s historical access to money and finance in Australia and New Zealand. How did businesswomen get the capital and credit to establish businesses? What were female shareholding patterns? What influence have women had on money in the corporate sphere? What was the relationship between gender and insolvency? How have women earned, saved and spent money? What were the household politics of money? How did class and race affect women’s access to and use of money? Comparative perspectives from other countries will also be considered, particularly if they provide useful comparisons to the Australasian context.
A small amount of funding is available to facilitate attendance. HDR students and ECR academics are encouraged to submit papers.
More information can be found here.
Please send proposals (300 words) and bios (150 words) to Catherine.bishop@mq.edu.au by November 30 2023.
Have a question? Catherine.Bishop@mq.edu.au