Outside, the women changed their slogans, shouted abuse and sang their song of liberation.

But inside, the few women at the ACTU congress showed no desire to be unharnessed from their chains.
Even placards thrust in front of them could register no impact.

Mrs J. Robinson, 45, a delegate from the Health and Research Employees’ Association of NSW, called the demonstration “unfemale.”
More than 100 Women’s Lib protestors yesterday marched from the City Square to the congress, distributing leaflets as they went.

At University High School, Parkville, they jostled the unionists and asked them what they were going to do about Women’s Lib.

Mrs Robinson said: “These women will lose their identity if they carry on this way. This demonstration is nonsense. If these women want something, the best way to achieve it is by sitting down quietly and talking about it.”

Mrs Robinson has been a seamstress at Wollongong Hospital for six years.
She said she would like to see better conditions of employment, but there was “a proper way of doing things.
“That is why I am here,” she said.

Four women, all in their 50s, confronted the ACTU president, Mr R.J. Hawke, in the foyer of the hall after yesterday’s session.
Their demands included one rate for the job, adequate child-care facilities and an end to discrimination in training and employment.