When a history of the Australian environment movement was published several years ago, the joke that went around the environment movement was that the first (and sometimes the only thing) purveyors of the book would read was the index to check whether their names were there. If some of the reports we have heard from around the bookshops of Brisbane are true, Radical Brisbane has received a similar response. We feel for Ray Evans and Carole Ferrier, the editors of Radical Brisbane, because everyone who has been around the activist scene in Brisbane over the last 40 years will want to see themselves, or at least their organisations, represented. Inevitably, given the limitations of such publications, many have been disappointed. The point of this review essay is not to critique the inclusions and omissions in order to assuage individual egos, but to further an understanding of the basis of radical politics and to interpret why Brisbane has been the seat of dissent as much as of development in this state.

We women of the twenty-first century owe the early women seekers of female franchise a considerable debt. Without their intellectual and sometimes physical bravery, we would not have the range of privileges we now take for granted as our right.

A century ago, there was a very real concern that if women moved into what was then considered an entirely masculine sphere, it would somehow be very damaging to their femininity. The notion of women in Parliament — something that was yet to be achieved — was considered unbecoming.

In some ways I feel like I don't quite fit today's celebration of the centenary of suffrage for Queensland women in Parliament. So far we've been hearing much about the state Parliament and very little about federal Parliament, I must somehow or other balance that up.