A song by Glen Tomasetti © Glen Tomasetti 1969.

Tune "All Among The Wool” Original Version in Australian Tradition

 

Sung here by Helen Oxenham OAM with Sandi McMenamin on vocals/piano for International Women’s Day 2021.

 

Glenys Ann Tomasetti (1929–2003), known as Glen Tomasetti, was a Melbourne singer-songwriter, author and political activist. During the 1960s she appeared weekly on Australian commercial television, performing satirical political songs. She became a household name in 1967 after refusing to pay a portion of her taxes in protest against Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam. She was also an esteemed novelist and poet.

 

Many of Tomasetti's songs dealt with feminism and the situation of Australian women. Perhaps the best known is "Don't Be Too Polite, Girls", a call for equal pay and a feminist call-to-arms. Sung to the tune of a classic 19th century Australian shearing ballad ("All Among The Wool, Boys"), it was inspired by the first ruling on equal pay in Australia, a 1969 Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration ruling that granted equal pay to only 18% of Australian women.

 

The song is still in use in demonstrations in Australia and has been widely used in films and as a theme song for women's radio and International Women's Day celebrations. It was still being sung by the Melbourne Trade Union Choir at the time of Tomasetti's death in 2003.

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