Religious Right Groups
Endeavour Forum
(known until 1986 as ‘Women Who Want To be Women’ or ‘4Ws’)
| Leadership: | Mrs Babette Francis is the ‘National and Overseas Coordinator’, overseeing a flotilla of ‘State Coordinators’ and ‘Regional and Overseas Contacts’. |
| Date formed: | March 1979 |
| Area of operation: | Based in Victoria but has a national reach, with the Queensland branch having been particularly active in the past. |
| Estimated membership: | Active membership is estimated at no more than a few dozen. Larger numbers may attend special functions. |
| Finances: | Runs on a shoestring budget. Babette Francis’s pet project. |
| Main objectives: | To ‘enhance the status of uniquely female roles’ while strongly opposing feminism and the right to abortion. |
| Main activities: | Publishing, holding public meetings, lobbying politicians. |
| Links with other groups: | This group has a kind of men’s auxiliary called the Memucan Institute of Men’s Studies, run by Alan Barron, a veteran supporter of Religious Right causes. |
| EF has a wide variety of Australian and international affiliations. It cooperates closely with Salt Shakers and draws inspiration from Mrs Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum in Illinois. EF claims to be an ‘NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN’. | |
| Publications: | Endeavour Forum Inc. Newsletter, published approx. quarterly - its cover is always pink. |
| Sample quotes: | “FEMALE LEADERS IN AUSSIE POLITICS - Well, they haven’t been a great success, have they? Not really shining role models for aspiring schoolgirls. We’ve had economic disasters during Joan Kirner’s regime in Victoria, and forgetfulness by Carmen “Lawrence of Amnesia” in Western Australia, and as for Australian Democrats leaders, they don’t exactly exude the image of strong women in power suits. Former leaders, Senator Janet Powell and Senator Cheryl Kernot were both teary-eyed when their love affairs with fellow politicians ended. Why were these feminists so easily seduced by male politicians?” (Endeavour Forum Inc., October 2002, 10) |
| “In my view, assuming ‘women’ are identical with ‘feminists’ is not just assuming apples are identical with oranges, but that apples are the same as rotten apples.” (Babette Francis, ‘Feminist’ is not equal to ‘woman’, New Life, 22 May 2003) | |
| Assessment: | Seems to have little trouble persuading conservative politicians to address its meetings (Francis’s husband is a former State MP). While the group appears fundamentally under-resourced, it is not without influence in the formulation of women’s policy, where it acts primarily as a ‘blocker’. |
| Contact details: | 79 Church Street, Beaumaris, Vic. 3193 www.endeavourforum.org.au |
