'Principles do not alter, but the means by which we attain them change': The Australian Women's National League and political citizenship, 1921-1945

In the wake of the Great War, during which Australian Women's National League (AWNL) membership had climbed to 54,000, the organisation faced a number of challenges. These came from an aging leadership, competing organisations and rapidly changing ideas about feminine citizenship. The AWNL's political programme began to look timid and outdated. In this context, the views of President Margaret Crocker came under question from many younger women, especially in relation to the desirability of women standing for parliament. When May Couchman assumed the presidency in 1927, she began to reposition the League. Though the organisation never regained its unquestioned dominance of the non-Labor women's movement, it was saved from irrelevance and, through Couchman's skills in political bargaining, women gained considerable influence in the nascent Liberal Party from 1945. This article examines the process of challenge, change and accommodation that preceded this and made the inevitable merger possible on advantageous terms.