CHAPTER 20 | 1950s – Boom Times Again
Trade Employees Union, a winery was not a fit place for women to work. In July 1951, 40 men at the Mile End cellars of Thomas Hardy & Sons stopped work in protest against the management’s plans to hire women. An eight-week strike followed in September across 16 metropolitan Adelaide wineries, disrupting business. After fractured negotiations, women were permitted only to work in the bottling departments and stores, and men had to make up at least 50% of the workforce in these restricted work areas. Although employers asked for unrestricted employment of females, the unions proposed that the ratio should be one woman to every six men. Meanwhile, many small family vineyards and wineries quietly got on with the job, with women driving tractors and helping with vineyard work or in the cellars. Whilst the first Grange vintage ushered in a new era of modern wine, the attitudes of working men were still aligned to 19th- century outlooks and a belief that their jobs should be protected for life. This was also a period when US culture permeated suburban Australian life. With almost full employment and a boom economy, the population steered away from the thrifty make-do attitude of post-war Britain and embraced the emerging American consumerism. Music, television, and radio created new aspirations for wealth and lifestyle. In the meantime, the Cold War between the West and the East was giving rise to extreme political tensions, engendering fears of conflicts and the development of nuclear weapons.
Women working on the bottling line at Hamilton’s Ewell Winery, Marion, South Australia, 1950s. [Hugh Hamilton Collection]
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