Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism sets out to cover the history of feminism in Australia during the period between 1877, when Charlotte Elizabeth McNeilly unsuccessfully petitioned the Sydney court for a divorce from her abusive husband, and now when Helen Osland is currently serving a gaol sentence for the murder of her husband after a married life of brutal abuse.

This history is shaped by Lake’s project of ‘correcting common misconceptions’ about Australian feminism, that: there were two waves of activism with not much action in between; having won the vote early Australian feminists failed to capitalise on this win; political failure derived from failure to enter parliament; Australian feminists exclusively ‘advanced the interests of white, middle class, career women.’