Women with Disabilities Australia

The Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA), formerly known as the Women with Disabilities Feminist Collective (WDFC), is an Australian social support organization representing women, girls, feminine identifying, and non-binary people with disabilities, which first engaged in feminist political action in the 1980s.[1][2]

Women with Disabilities Australia
AbbreviationWWDA
Formation1980s
Websitewwda.org.au
Formerly called
Women with Disabilities Feminist Collective

Lesley Hall was one of the founders. One of its earliest actions was to protest the Miss Australia Quest, a beauty contest which raised money for what was then known as the Spastic Society. The WWDA objected to the contest's focus on physical perfection "as the norm all must maintain if they are to be fully accepted into society."[3] The group disrupted the 1982 Miss Victoria contest, invading the stage with a banner reading "Equality Not Charity."[4]

References

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  1. ^ Women with Disabilities Feminist Collective (1987), Women and disability an issue, Women with Disabilities Feminist Collective, ISBN 978-0-7316-0968-0
  2. ^ Howe, Keran (December 1999), "Violence against Women with Disabilities - an Overview of the Literature", Women Against Violence: An Australian Feminist Journal (7): 11–19, ISSN 1327-5550
  3. ^ Joy Damousi; Kim Rubenstein; Mary Tomsic (2014). Diversity in Leadership: Australian women, past and present. ANU Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-925021-71-4.
  4. ^ Iain McIntyre (2013). How to Make Trouble and Influence People: Pranks, Protests, Graffiti & Political Mischief-Making from Across Australia. PM Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-60486-880-7.
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