{{short description|Australian social historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Miriam Joyce Dixson''' (born 1930) is an Australian social historian and the author of ''The Real Matilda: Woman and Identity in Australia 1788 to 1975''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=Helen |editor1-last=Davison |editor1-first=Graeme |editor2-last=Hirst |editor2-first=John |editor3-last=Macintyre |editor3-first=Stuart |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian History |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=Dixson, Miriam}}</ref><ref name=Leadership>{{Cite web|url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0265b.htm|title=Dixson, Miriam Joyce - The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia|last1=Foley|first1=Susan|last2=Sowerwine|first2=Charles|website=www.womenaustralia.info|language=en-gb|access-date=2018-10-17}}</ref>
==Early life and education==
Miriam Joyce Dixson was born in Melbourne in 1930.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE5054b.htm|title=Dixson, Miriam Joyce - The Australian Women's Register|website=www.women Australia.info|language=en-gb|access-date=2018-10-17}}</ref> She graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BA in history in 1950 and an MA from the same university in 1957 for her thesis, ''The strike of waterside workers in Australian ports, 1928, and the lockout of coal miners on the northern coalfield of New South Wales, 1929-30''.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Dixson, Miriam | title=The strike of waterside workers in Australian ports, 1928, and the lockout of coal miners on the northern coalfield of New South Wales, 1929-30 | date=1957 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18455203 | access-date=17 October 2018 }}</ref>
She was awarded a PhD in May 1966 by the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University for her thesis, ''Reformists and revolutionaries: An interpretation of the relations between the Socialists and the mass labor organisations in New South Wales 1919-27, with special reference to Sydney''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131772775 |title=Degrees conferred |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=40 |issue=11,468 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=14 May 1966 |access-date=17 October 2018 |page=26 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | author1=Dixson, Miriam | title=Reformists and revolutionaries : an interpretation of the relations between the Socialists and the mass labor organisations in New South Wales 1919-27, with special reference to Sydney | date=1965 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8255969 | access-date=17 October 2018 | type=Thesis }}</ref>
==Career==
In 1969 Dixson published a book based on her PhD thesis, ''The role of ideology: Lang and Labor's faction war 1920-1927'', followed in 1975 by ''Greater than Lenin: Lang and Labor 1916-1932''.
Dixson was appointed a lecturer in history at the University of New England, and in 1975 she offered Australia's first course on the history of women.<ref name=Leadership/> In 1976, Penguin published ''The Real Matilda: Woman and Identity in Australia 1788 to 1975''. When its third edition came out in 1994 it was considered one of four key volumes of Australian women's history,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110909607 |last1=Dowse |first1=Sara |title=BOOKS: COLONIAL WOMAN OBSERVED |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=53 |issue=15,700 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=16 September 1978 |access-date=2 November 2018 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118156552 |last1=Pratt |first1=Catherine |title=Catherine Pratt reviews two books which re-examine the place of women in our national identity The real Matildas |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=68 |issue=21,510 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=8 March 1994 |access-date=2 November 2018 |page=16 (THE CANBERRA TIMES BOOK SUPPLEMENT) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> along with Beverley Kingston's ''My wife, my daughter, and poor Mary Ann: Women and work in Australia'', Edna Ryan and Anne Conlon's ''Gentle Invaders: Australian Women at Work, 1788-1974'' and Anne Summers' ''Damned Whores and God's Police: The Colonization of Women in Australia''.<ref name=Leadership/> As one writer commented, "in .. the Australian context, you can't discuss women in history as though ''The Real Matilda'', or ''Damned Whores And God's Police'', had never been written."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213733749 |last1=Lawson |first1=Sylvia |title=Seriously Undertaken |newspaper=Filmnews |volume=13 |issue=3 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=1 March 1983 |access-date=2 November 2018 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> A fourth edition of ''The Real Matilda'' was published in 1999.
Dixson's papers are held by the National Library of Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-553992|title=Dixson, Miriam (1930-) - People and organisations|website=Trove|language=en|access-date=2018-10-17}}</ref>
In 1997 Dixson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of New England.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/governance/une-council/council-committees/media/documents/honorary-degree-recipients-since-1955-and-emeritus-professor-awardees-since-1964|title=Honorary Degree Recipients since 1955 and Emeritus Professor Awardees since 1964|website=www.une.edu.au|language=en-AU|access-date=2018-10-17}}</ref>
==Works== * {{Citation | author1=Dixson, Miriam | title=The role of ideology : Lang and Labor's faction war 1920-1927 | date=1969 | publisher=Australasian Political Studies Association }} * {{Citation | author1=Dixson |first=Miriam| title=Greater than Lenin : Lang and Labor 1916-1932 | date=1975 | publisher=Melbourne Univ. Political Science Department |author-mask=1 }} * {{Citation | author1=Dixson |first=Miriam| title=The Real Matilda: Woman and Identity in Australia 1788 to 1975 | date=1976 | publisher=Penguin| author-mask=1}} * {{Citation | author1=Dixson |first=Miriam| title=The imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and identity, 1788 to the present | date=1999 | publisher=UNSW Press | isbn=978-0-86840-665-7 |author-mask=1 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixson, Miriam}} Category:1930 births Category:Living people Category:Australian National University alumni Category:University of Melbourne alumni Category:Australian women historians