Sawer has divided her book into themed chapters, with nebulous titles such as ‘Organisational Dilemmas’ and ‘Shifting Frames’. More defined chapter sections skip between decades, often charting thirty years in the space of a few paragraphs. Perhaps due to the wealth of information available, people and events have been pared down to bare essentials, losing personal details and sometimes devolving into orgies of facts. Some figures are imbued with life, such as the veteran member Edna Ryan, ‘the tenth child in a working-class family’ who ‘tossed away her girdle’. Frequently, however, personalities are overshadowed by litanies of job descriptions and organisation titles.

Due to the controversial nature of its material, the book is not entirely dry. The bra-burning myth is dispelled, WEL members speak out, and the absurd sexist remarks of some politicians provide a source of amusement and outrage. For the most part, however, Sawer has created a serious, fact-laden account that holds WEL’s accomplishments up to both praise and scrutiny. As an academic reference it is invaluable, but the general reader may not be so absorbed.