Term Paper # 119076
The Australian Pub and Gender Relations

The paper discusses the exclusion of women from the symbolic representation of the Australian national identity conveyed by a typically masculine drinking culture. The paper also discusses how women were always present as workers in the pub, which seemed representative of their exploitation, but this work also provided women with a form of economic independence and feminine empowerment. The paper then describes how women had to fight for their presence in the pub as customers. The paper shows how far from being a space in which women were absent, the pub presents itself as a site of contested gender relations where gender codes were constantly negotiated across the century.

"Throughout the twentieth century emerged a typically Australian drinking culture shaped by the licensing laws implemented during the early years of the century. The powerful temperance movement's and religious leaders' reaction against modernity led them to focus on campaigns against public drinking (Kirkby and Luckins 2006, p.78). The Housewives Associations and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in particular, concentrated on the issue of prohibition (Smart 1998, p. 215). During the Great War, wartime patriotism added to the general mood of temperance and resulted in introducing the 'six o'clock' or 'early closing' of pubs and hotels in all states except Western Australia and Queensland (Luckins 2007, p.08.2). It was considered a temporary measure, to be tolerated until the end of the war; however it became permanent in 1919 (Luckins 2008, p.297). The general impression was that it was the 'wowsers' (Dunstan 1968), or even women - who were prominent in temperance organisations - who caused the emergence of a new, 'uncivilised' mode of drinking: the 'six o'clock swill' (Luckins 2007, p.08.2). Indeed, although patrons and publicans resisted the new regulations through after hours trading and sly-grogging (Luckins 2008, p.296), for the law-abiding, drinking in pubs became something to do on the way home from work - at the time of the day when women were preparing dinner and bathing children. This resulted in the emergence of the 'six o'clock swill', when men rushed into the public bar to gulp down as many beers as possible before closing, marking the cessation of the pub as a place for entertainment and its emergence as 'a segregated place for drinking, in both the popular imagination and in actuality' (Kirkby and Luckins 2006, p.79). The major consequence of early closing was to turn 'the public bar, where men drank with other men during the rush period between five and six pm, into the focus of the pub business and consequent representations of Australian public drinking culture' (Kirkby and Luckins 2006, p.78). By the time early closing came to an end - between 1955 and 1967 depending on the state - 'six o'clock swill' had become in popular imaginary a 'crude characterisation of an Australian way of drinking' (Luckins 2007, p.08.12) - from which women were excluded."

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