Votes For Women: The Australian Story
By Kirsten Lees
Allen and Unwin, 1995. $24.95(pb)
Reviewed by Bernie Brian
The next time Paul Keating promotes his minimalist republic with little or no change to the Constitution, we should remind him that Australian women had almost no role in its framing.
When elections were held in 1897 for delegates to the constitutional convention, only South Australian women had won the vote (in 1894). Women in Western Australia were the next to win the vote, in 1899. Victoria was the last state to grant the franchise to women, in 1908. And the new federal constitution actually stripped some Aboriginal Australians of the vote.
The centenary of the South Australian victory has inspired a number of new books on the Australian suffragists. Most of these books have challenged the previously popular view among historians that Australian women were given the vote without even asking for it — a gift from the benevolent male legislators operating in the democratic spirit of frontier Australia.
In just under 200 pages, Kirsten Lees refutes this argument and reveals how many thousands of Australian women fought a determined campaign over half a century to win the vote.
In a lively and spirited narrative, Lees tries to recreate the atmosphere of those times. What sort of women fought for the vote, what obstacles did they face and how were they treated by the male section of the population? She takes us through the campaigns in each colony/state and reveals in clear and accessible language the inspiring story of Australia's pioneer feminists.
Interspersed are short biographical sketches of some of the leading feminists: women like Mary Lee from South Australia, Louisa Lawson of NSW (Henry was her son), Emma Miller and Margaret Ogg from Queensland and Vida Goldstein from Victoria.
These sketches prove that the stereotypical construction of these early feminists as aged, privileged, moralistic spinsters is inaccurate. Vida Goldstein was in her late 20s when she took over the leadership of the Victorian movement. Many of these women had known hardship, and even the wealthier women, like Rose Scott of NSW, fought for better conditions for exploited women factory workers. Some of them were temperance activists, because alcohol was seen as a significant cause of male abuse of women.
Lees also reveals the women as astute strategists, especially in their ability to unite women of diverse classes and ideologies into a united campaign.
Some of these early feminists endured considerable hardships to spread their message. Jessie Rooke of Burnie travelled 200 miles in "draughty train and rickety coach" during the Tasmanian winter to lecture on votes for women. Margaret Ogg travelled extensively through outback Queensland during the campaign. When banned from speaking in town halls, she turned her sulky into a mobile speaking platform.
After the vote was won, many of these women continued to fight for other reforms. Many participated in the peace and anti-conscription movements during the war. Emma Miller and several hundred women tailors were involved in a pitched battle with mounted Queensland cops during the 1912 Brisbane general strike. Apparently their hat pins were used to great effect on that day.
Lees also includes a chapter on the struggle of Aboriginal women and men for the vote, with emphasis on the role of Faith Bandler and Pearl Gibbs in this campaign. Aboriginal Australians were not able to vote in federal elections until 1967.
Lees' book is welcome. Its avoidance of academic prose will make it accessible to many people, especially high school students.