High-profile Australian activist Jessie Street was seeking a ‘fair go’ for women long before International Women’s Day (8 March) came on the scene. And she wasn’t afraid to go right to the top, nor to use a touch of humour to get her point across.

The National Archives of Australia has found a letter she sent to Prime Minister John Curtin in 1943, enclosing a cheeky parody of the Lord’s Prayer.

‘The Women’s Prayer begins Our Prime Minister, who art in Canberra and goes on to plead that women should have equal status with men,” said National Archives of Australia curator Johanna Parker.

‘Jessie Street used the poem as a humorous way of getting the Prime Minister to pay attention to a serious issue – and it worked.’

As president of the United Associations of Women, Jessie Street had long been active in lobbying the government to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women.

During the Second World War, many women were paid only 54 per cent of a man’s wage despite a ruling by the Women’s Employment Board that this be increased to at least 75 per cent. Even when women had to take over men’s jobs in the factories, some employers weren’t prepared to pay them higher wages. They complained to the Prime Minister the new rates were ‘entirely uneconomic’.

‘We tend to think of Australians pulling together for the war effort but there were many examples of women being exploited despite legislation to improve their pay,’ said Ms Parker.

Just six months before Mrs Street wrote to the Prime Minister, 3000 women in vital industries in Melbourne had gone on strike after the Chamber of Manufactures instructed their members not to pay the higher rates.

Available by email: Copy of letter and poem