| Admin Biographical History | St Joan's Social & Political Alliance (1923-1954) was created in 1923, when the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society (1911-1923) changed its name as the society refocused its aims on a wider scale to consider social issues affecting women. From this time on, its international work expanded, from becoming a founder member of the liaison committee of international female organisations in 1924 to the presentation of a report to the League of Nations on the subject of female status in African and Asian states in 1937. This international work continued after the Second World War. Its areas of interest now included the slave trade, women's education and professional development, employment, divorce, prostitution and marital abuse, advising the United Nations on these matters and becoming recognised as an official consultative body by the UN, UNESCO and the World Labour Organisation since 1952.
The group which continued in the United Kingdom became known as the Great Britain & Northern Ireland Section of the St Joan's International Alliance in 1954. It was active in the international body's efforts to support the introduction of women priests since the Vatican Council of 1961. However, it has declined to become a `Catholic' organisation and remained an `organisation of Catholics' from that time in order to maintain its independence of opinion. |
| Description | The archive consists of early Catholic Women's Suffrage Society material as well as more recent accessions from the St. Joan's International Alliance, both its own papers and those of Joan Morris, a prominent member.
St Joan's Social and Political Alliance: minutes of the committee and the annual general meeting (1911-1952, 1958-1976, 1984-2004); copy minutes with some agendas and papers (1971-1989); Annual General Meeting report (1912, 1913, 1915, 1946) and attendance sheets (1946), agendas and draft minutes (1966-1979), agendas and other papers (1980-1983, 1988-1989); Accounts: annual (1967-1983), cashbook (1958-1973), petty cashbook (1955-1973, 1980-1983), Miscellaneous accounts ([c.1945], 1981-1983); membership mailing lists c1950-1990; biographical notes on members (1940-1984); notices of meetings and circulars; reports of meetings including northern branch (1973-1983), minutes and agendas of Merseyside branch (1959-1961); notes of arrangements for the papal visit and press release; newsletters, publicity leaflets, booklets, sample stationery; newspapers, menus, ephemera. St Joan's International Alliance: Council meeting minutes, programmes, reports, papers, accounts, correspondence, resolutions (1968-1991, 1999); reports, correspondence and papers of committee and other meetings (1965-1966, 1978, 1981-1984, 1985, 1987-1989); copies of constitutions, by-laws and papers on amendments (c.1970-1982); newsletters, leaflets; correspondence files of officials (1969-1985); general correspondence; St Joan's Quincentenary appeal, booklet and autograph volumes; awards certificates; correspondence, papers and press cuttings regarding film `The Tower and The Dove' and supporting tour of the Far East; biographical notes; research notes, drafts, typescripts and translations of `The Hidden History of Women'; copies, drafts, notes, proofs, typescripts and illustrations for `Pope John VIII. An English Woman', with lecture notes. Typescripts, research notes, copies of `The Pentecost', `Dual Cathedrals in the Middle Ages', `History of the Role of Women in Church Government', 'Women Doctors of the Church' (with lecture notes), `Eucharistic Celebration by Women', `The True tradition of Women in the Church', `Women in Male Disguise; texts of lectures and published articles; research papers and notes on sources; reports on meetings.
Subject files on ordination of women, women in the Church, revision of canon law, liturgical language, women's Action Day (1980), International Women's Day, sex equality, abortion; Bulletin of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Section (1984-1986, 1989, 1990); accounts, mailing lists, correspondence, copies of articles sent for publication, paste-ups and editions (1987-1991) of The Catholic Citizen; publications of French, Belgian, Canadian and United States' sections. Papers and correspondence regarding St Joan's Alliance participation in United Nations Commissions and conferences including reports, leaflets, programmes, publicity materials and cuttings. Photographs of members and groups and illustrations; press cuttings, unmounted and in volumes. Newsletters, information sheets, papers, reports and conference reports, publications, periodicals and leaflets issued by other religious organisations and groups dealing with status of women. |
| Publication Note | St. Joan's International Alliance, a short history 1911 - 1977, by Anne Marie Pelzer, Brussels 1977, published in The Journal of St. Joans International Alliance, 1992, pp. 1-16, English translation by Françoise Awre, Bath (UK).
As at 2004 the Australian Women's Archives Project had an entry for the TWL entry. Kennedy, Sally, Faith and feminism: Catholic women's struggles for self-expression, Sydney: Studies in the Christian Movement, 1985; Campbell, Ruth and Morgen, Margaret, ' Brennan, Anna Teresa (1879-1962)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol 7, Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 395-96.
Kennedy, Sally, Faith and feminism: Catholic women's struggles for self-expression, Studies in the Christian Movement, Sydney, 1985, 301 pp. |