Date of Award

2025

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy (School of Arts and Sciences)

Schools and Centres

Arts & Sciences

First Supervisor

Associate Professor Leigh Straw

Second Supervisor

Dr Annemarie McLaren

Abstract

War is a gendering activity. As media is one of the many sites where gender is constructed, this study aims to investigate through a discourse analysis of serials produced by women for radio in the 1940s, the ways these programs represented or challenged social and cultural expectations placed on women. The themes female dramatists explored through the genre of radio serials, and the statements these programs made about life as a woman during the Second World War, are under-researched areas in Australian scholarship. While it must be acknowledged that the war was not a turning point in the status of all Australian women, the study of media from 1939 to 1945 provides insights into how gender in ‘popular media’ was constructed during wartime. This study will examine the key themes of work, motherhood, sexuality, and politics, and how these were expressed through the genre of radio serials during the Second World War. Programs such as Their Finest Hour, written by Catherine Duncan, and episodes of the popular radio serial Dad and Dave from Snake Gully, written by Lorna Bingham, will be analysed using a feminist methodology, placing women front and centre of the analysis. It is through a discourse analysis of more ‘popular’ forms of radio content that a greater understanding of media's potential as a site of reflection or contention on issues of gender can be gained.

Download Complete Thesis

Included in

History Commons

Share

COinS