[1930's Feminists]

This recording features Elsie Locke, Connie Birchfield and Freda Cook talking about their political activities in the 1930's during the Depression.

Connie Birchfield recalls in 1932 one-third of the working population of New Zealand were unemployed. She discusses the way women would try and keep a home together on very little income.

Freda Cook says she had a pot of soup on the stove at all times, and she knew how to scavenge rotting vegetables and cut out the good parts to go in the pot. But she had a horror of going hungry. Men could get a three-penny hot meal, which was quite substantial. She talks about the moral judgements people had to make, such as a teacher bringing home left-over food from her pupils' school lunches to feed hungry neighbours.

A third woman [probably Elsie Locke] tells a story about the unemployed men still restricting the role of women in their movement, who ended up forming their own committees and study camps

Freda Cook talks about her involvement in protests at Parliament, shouting out from the Stranger's Gallery, calling for higher taxes on those on higher incomes.