Zelda D’Aprano

Zelda D'Aprano was a feminist, trade unionist, writer and dental nurse, and lived a rich and varied life that saw her stand up time and time again for the rights of women and workers.

As an active unionist, and activist in the women's movement, she chained herself across the doors of the Commonwealth Building, and later the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in Melbourne, in protest against the inadequacy of the decision on the Equal Pay case in 1969. 

D'Aprano was one of the initiators of the Women's Action Committee in 1970, and the Women's Liberation Movement in Melbourne in 1971. She was a current member of the Australian Women's Party and was a member of the Communist Party of Australia from 1950-1971.

D'Aprano was also involved in establishing the Women's Liberation Centre in Little Latrobe St, Melbourne, and was a representative of the Women's Liberation Movement on the International Women's Year committee, 1975.

She self-published an autobiography, Zelda: the Becoming of a Woman, in 1977; this was republished by Spinifex Press as Zelda in 1995. Spinifex Press later published D'Aprano's Kath Williams - The Unions and the Fight for Equal Pay in 2001.

In 1995, she received a Special Mention Award from the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies (Canberra) for An Outstanding Contribution to Australian Culture. She received a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Macquarie University in 2000.

She died in February 2018 in Melbourne, aged 90.

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