A Room Full of Women: lesbian bars and social spaces in postwar Sydney

Abstract

Sydney's lesbian scene changed significantly between the 1940s and 1970s from mixed private social networks to a more gender segregated public scene. For many lesbians in the early post-war decades, private friendship networks defined patterns of socialising and this impacted on the development of lesbian identity, limiting the scope for the emergence of distinctive lesbian subcultures and styles. Increasing numbers of women joined camp men on the commercial scene in the 1960s but the emergence of feminism in the 1970s prompted the development of new women-only spaces and encouraged increasing gender segregation on the commercial scene.