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Join us for the launch of Fearless Beatrice Faust: Sex, Feminism, & Body Politics, a compelling new biography that celebrates the life of one of Australia’s most transformative feminists activists.
Award-winning political historian and biographer Judith Brett AM will be in conversation with renowned historian Michelle Arrow to discuss the remarkable life of Beatrice Faust - founder of the Women's Electoral Lobby, fearless advocate for abortion law reform, and influential voice in Australian feminism from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Drawing on extensive research and private writings, Brett's biography reveals the complex inner life behind Faust's confident public persona, exploring how she navigated personal struggles while fighting to change both herself and her world.
‘Beatrice Faust’, said Helen Garner, ‘is not scared of anybody.’
Faust was the transformative feminist activist, writer and intellectual who founded the Women’s Electoral Lobby in Melbourne in 1972. She campaigned for abortion law reform, and thought, talked and wrote about sex and feminism, from the sexual revolution of the 1960s through to the neoliberal 1990s, always with her own demanding body as her guide. She was a force to be reckoned with.
She also endured a miserable childhood, and suffered chronic ill health as well as a later-life addiction to prescription drugs. Her letters reveal a complex, troubled inner life that belied the confident charisma of her public persona.
Fearless Beatrice Faust celebrates, explains and questions her struggle to change both herself and her world. Drawing on public records and private writings, award-winning biographer Judith Brett creates a compelling and psychologically nuanced portrait of a gifted, argumentative woman who refused to be a victim.
About the Author and Interviewer:
Judith Brett AM is a political historian and biographer, and emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University. Among her books are Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, which won the , 2018 National Biography Award, and From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, shortlisted for the Prime, Minister’s Literary Award.
Michelle Arrow is professor in modern history at Macquarie University and the President of the Australian Historical Association. She is the author of several books, including The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia (2019), which was awarded the 2020 Ernest Scott Prize for history, and the edited collection Women and Whitlam: Revisiting the Revolution (2023). She is currently working on a biography of the Australian writer and broadcaster Anne Deveson. Her most recent book is Personal Politics: Sexuality, Gender and the Remaking of Citizenship in Australia, co-authored with Leigh Boucher, Barbara Baird and Robert Reynolds (Monash University Publishing, 2024).
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