Welcome to Jessie Street National Women’s Library
“To keep women’s words, women’s works alive and powerful”
— Ursula K Le Guin
Please note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, film, audio recordings or printed material.
Jessie Street National Women’s Library is a unique specialist library dedicated to the preservation of Australian women’s work, words and history. The Library was established in 1989 and is named after Jessie Street, a lifelong campaigner for women’s rights, the peace movement and the elimination of discrimination against Aboriginal people.
The Library’s charter is to collect, preserve and promote knowledge and understanding of the cultural heritage of all women; social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; international friendship and peace. Patrons are The Hon Quentin Bryce AD CVO; Elizabeth Evatt AC; Dr Beverley Kingston; The Hon Clover Moore Lord Mayor of Sydney; and Professor Emerita Elizabeth Webby AM.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide for the Australian community a specialist library which collects, preserves and promotes the awareness of the cultural heritage of Australian women, facilitating learning, research and communication.
Our Aims
- To collect the published and unpublished materials which document the lives and experience of women of all ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds and of all socio-economic classes.
- To ensure that documents relating to Australian women’s lives and activities are preserved and made accessible.
- To highlight the contribution of Australian women to this country’s development.
- To support the field of women’s history.
History Week 2023 – Voices From the Past
An Invitation : listen to First Nations Women's Voices From Two Sisters, traversing vast desert country, their lives disrupted by the relentlessness of colonial incursions, to Talkin’ up the white woman: Indigenous women and feminism, disrupting the “white subject...
Lunch Hour Talk 24 August 2023
24 August Lunch Hour Talk Speaker: Dr Lenore Coltheart OAM Topic: Jessie Street : a life Co-founder of Jessie Street National Women’s Library Lenore Coltheart has been commissioned by the National Library of Australia to write a biography of Jessie Street. Lenore will...