Capital, change and Elsie's Place: Understanding the history of safe accommodation in Australia

Gendered violence, specifically, domestic violence, continues to be a global issue impacting the health and well-being of women despite the improvements to women's rights and the expansion of women's health and well-being services in the 1970s. While considerable attention has been given to this period of time, scant attention has been given to understanding the resources and change processes involved in the opening of Australia's feminist-led women's health and wellbeing services from a theoretical perspective. During a Visiting Scholar appointment at the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia I undertook a review of historical documentation and academic literature search pertaining to the opening of Australia's first feminist-led safe accommodation for women fleeing domestic violence: Elsie's Place. The concepts of Bourdieu (1977) Theory of Practice informed my understanding of resources, while Lewin (1947) Change Theory provided a conceptual lens through which to view change within the textual and graphical documents. The findings from this project point to the importance of capital, particularly social capital, in the forms of cooperation, collaboration, and networking, in the supporting of change within this sector during the opening of foundational services for women in Australia.