Opting to Work at Home: European Migrant Women and Garment Outwork in Victoria’s Clothing Manufacturing Industry, 1945–70

The clothing manufacturing workforce in the Australian state of Victoria underwent rapid demographic change as the industry expanded in the post-war period. However, the industry’s systems of production and labour remained rooted in the past, often ignoring the specific needs of its new, largely European, female migrant workforce. In response, some women garment workers sought alternative employment in what is often regarded as the industry’s disreputable underbelly – outworking. This article applies a gendered lens to examine the structural systems of labour within the industry, the workplace issues that marginalised non-English speaking women and the union’s indifference to their problems. It contends that for some women, especially working mothers, outworking became a desirable alternative to the factory, and was a strategic response to a lack of industry, union and wider community support. Utilising oral histories, newspapers and archival materials, and centring the voices of migrant women, this article re-evaluates outwork as a strategy rather than as unequivocal exploitation in the post-war period.