2025/10/08 by Samantha Baker · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Australian History and Society #Canadian Identity and History #Feminist Studies #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes #Human sexuality #Transgender #Transgender people #Transgender women
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/08164649.2025.2563229
openalex publication_date 2025/10/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
In the 1980s, Australia witnessed the rise of its first transgender advocacy organisations. The most radical and pathbreaking of these was the Sydney-based Australian Transsexual Association (ATA). Leading the ATA from 1981 to 1985 was Roberta Perkins, a transgender activist and sociologist. This article establishes the early activism and research of Perkins by examining her life in the context of the Women’s Movement in 1980s Sydney and drawing on the work of contemporary feminist and Transgender Studies scholars. Blending literary analysis, feminist critique and documentary history, I use the details of Perkins’ work to reflect on the internal tensions and external forces acting upon the Sydney trans community at the burgeoning of transgender activism in NSW. More than a biography of an overlooked feminist figure, this article aims to demonstrate the issues of collective representation and the overlapping struggle for transgender and sex worker rights, central to Perkins’ life and work during this period. Ultimately, I conclude that Perkins’ success as an activist and comparative failure as an academic rested on her ability to reframe and contextualise her subjects, making them credible witnesses to their own experiences and the reasons for their marginalisation.