Women's Electoral Lobby

The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) is a feminist, non-profit, self-funded, non-party political, lobby group founded in 1972 during the height of second-wave feminism in Australia. WEL's mission is to create a society where women’s participation and potential are unrestricted, acknowledged and respected and where women and men share equally in society’s responsibilities and rewards.

WEL is credited with major achievements for women in Australia in relation to anti-discrimination and equal opportunity legislation, equal pay decisions, the funding of women’s and children’s services.

WEL Australia is currently focused on a range of women's issues.

The Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL) was formed in 1972 to conduct a large-scale survey of candidates for the Federal election of that year. WEL’s intervention in the election campaign was intended to publicise candidates’ views on issues of interest to women and, simultaneously, to mobilise women’s political power. It achieved both ends and WEL grew into a major feminist non-party, political lobby group.

WEL was founded at a meeting called by Beatrice Faust in her Melbourne home in February 1972, and WEL groups formed soon after in other capital cities and regional centres. Growing out of the Women’s Liberation Movement, WEL expressed the desire of some activists to affect politics in a direct and practical way. Working in pairs, WEL interviewers pursued and questioned candidates about issues such as equal pay, abortion, child care and sex discrimination. The WEL members were shocked to discover how ignorant many male candidates were about issues that were important to women, and the results of their interviews were enthusiastically reported in the media.

While it is impossible to determine to what extent WEL’s electoral activities influenced the outcome (the election of the Australian Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam), it is certain that WEL put “women’s issues” on the political agenda. In the longer term, WEL’s actions meant that for decades afterwards political parties took care to formulate and publicise a written women’s policy before each election. This practice ultimately made individual candidate interviews less illuminating, since candidates were able to echo the party’s policy rather than risk exposing ignorance or insensitivity. However, the legitimisation of women’s policy in the political arena gave considerable leverage to those seeking feminist reform, and created accountability in relation to government commitments made in women’s interests.

...
Wikipedia