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Story: Women’s labour organisations

Unemployed women, 1930s

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This 1932 march of unemployed people through Christchurch is led by women. Elsie Locke, then Elsie Farelly, belonged to the unemployed women's movement in the 1930s. Here she recalls women's part in the movement, and why they organised separately from men.

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Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Reference: 24167

Image: Hocken Collections, University of Otago, SO7-185

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How to cite this page

Megan Cook, Women’s labour organisations – Women and unemployment, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/speech/26372/unemployed-women-1930s (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Megan Cook, published 22 March 2011.