CHAPTER 3 - 'United and Representative Agitation'

Should women enter parliament? Of course. Why not?
Vida Goldstein


Women in front of watertank Museum Victoria PA005253

Women at afternoon tea Museum Victoria PA003479

In this chapter is listed some of the methods the suffragists used to win the vote ...THE CAMPAIGN How did they do it? Their methods were many and diverse 1...THEY TOOK TO THE STREETS 2...THEY PUBLISHED   3...THEY USED THE MEDIA 4...THEY LOBBIED AND AGITATED 5...THEY RAN SOCIAL & POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS 6...THEY FORMED GROUPS  also 7...THEY HELD AND ADDRESSED MEETINGS 8...THEY HELD AND ATTENDED CONFERENCES AND CONGRESSES

9...THEY DID THEIR HOMEWORK 10..THEY USED HUMOUR 11..THEY USED CONTROVERSY 12..THEY WERE FLEXIBLE 13..THEY WERE OUTWARD LOOKING 14..THEY ENCOURAGED SUPPORTIVE MEN AND ORGANISATIONS   15..THEY CO-OPERATED WITH THE DOMINANT CULTURE   16..THEY ABSORBED DIFFERENCE WITHIN THEIR MOVEMENT   17..THEY EMBRACED ALTERNATIVE TACTICS  and enjoyed themselves. Also 18..THEY PERSISTED

THE CAMPAIGN

They met in drawing rooms. They met in kitchens. They met at church. They met at the shops and at work. They took to the streets. They networked and agitated and organised and attended conferences. They gave lectures - city, country and overseas. Nothing could stop them.

1...THEY TOOK TO THE STREETS

Vida Goldstein: 'When I first took my stand on the street corner, with my bundle of papers under my arm, I felt numbed mentally and physically. Self consciousness was uppermost. The first thing that roused me was my own white scared face looking hard at me from a convenient advertisement mirror. Then I began to realize what I was really doing.

The people streamed by, some amazed, some amused, others contemptuous. For a long time nobody deigned to even approach me. Then a gruff, bighearted man, muffled in a big overcoat, stopped in front of me. He read my poster apron carefully and said 'Well, here you are, missus. I don't much hold with these suffragettes, but I like your pluck and I'll buy one' ... After a long wait, when I was beginning to lose heart again, a kindly woman stepped forward."I don't know what this is about but I do love enthusiasm"' she remarked as she tucked a paper into her market basket ... An experience like this broadens one's sympathies in every way. Only now do I realize how some of these poor people, who stand for hours selling wares, suffer. I was warmly clad, but I felt the cold intensely.' Woman Voter 1912

Vida Goldstein selling the WSPU paper Votes for Women
Melbourne Herald: For the Cause, Miss Goldstein Sells Papers

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2...THEY PUBLISHED Magazines, journals, letters-to-the-editor, books, etc. They published here and overseas, for each other and for the public.

Joan Curlewis: 'In 1900 Vida started the Women's Sphere, designed to help the campaign but dealing with such topics as prostitution, equal pay, how women can succeed in business. The indignation of women who felt they had no say in the laws that governed them is expressed in this little poem published in the Sphere:

"Did we seek to be forbidden from all trades that pay? / Did we claim lower wages for a man's full work day? / Did we petition for the laws wherein our shame is shown? / That not a woman's child - or her body - is her own?" 200 Women in the House State Library of Victoria

State Library of Victoria

3...THEY USED THE MEDIA

These quotes are also from The Alliance:

Mrs Fryer: 'I have studied the question of women's franchise, and I have been puzzled to know, why it should be called 'Women's Rights' and how it is you men come to have that right ... ' Sep 5 1891

Mrs Josephine Butler:' The drunkard may vote ... the gambler may vote, the larrikin may vote, the land jobber may vote, the libertine may vote. We may have a corrupt Parliament, an Assembly of idle talkers

... Fellow women, ARE YOU ASLEEP? Wake up to life and duty.'

4...THEY LOBBIED AND AGITATED

Joan Curlewis: 'Three hundred women invade Parliament House!' screamed the headlines. ... The year was 1898 and these women were after the vote.... In the press and pulpit the suffragists were ridiculed, scoffed at and charged with immorality (even though the Women's Christian Temperence Union took a leading part in the suffrage campaign.' Joan Curlewis Women's Lib in 1898 SLV MS11379

Audrey Oldfield: '... Queen's Hall in the parliamentary building. One member of (Legislative) Council accosted two of the younger members of the deputation with the following indecent remark which should have followed by his being consigned to the lock-up: 'You girls don't want votes - you want something else'. p 137 Woman Suffrage in Australia Audrey Oldfield Cambridge University Press 1992

Leslie Henderson: 'Sometimes the suffragists successfully lobbied Parliament. The 1906 Children's Court Act passed, with "the iniquitous clause rendering it possible to imprison a child seven years of age defeated solely through Miss Goldstein's efforts". Goldstein Papers State Library of Victoria

Vida Goldstein: 'Through not having women in Parliament energy and valuable time have to be spent on the often Herculean task of educating members up to the point of seeing the injustices in certain measures affecting women, eg the Federal Public Service Act. It bristled with discrepancies in pay for men and women doing exactly the same work. To get the principle of equal pay embodied in the bill, some of us had to spend days at the House lobbying members - always hateful work - showing them the many injustices in the bill from the women's point of view, and trying to get them to see them as we saw them. We had to tramp around getting petitions signed and write to the press.

Had there been women in the House there would have been no need for such tactics because the injustices were so obvious they only had to be pointed out and most members promised to get them removed. Another example was the Naturalization Bill which completely merged the individuality of a married woman with that of her husband.' (Years later Vida told me within a year or so of passing of the Public Service Act the equal pay clause was quietly removed from it with hardly a protest from women - Leslie M Henderson) LIFE AND WORK Leslie Henderson, State Library of Victoria

Demonstration (Mafeking?) State Library of Victoria mp011102

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5...THEY RAN SOCIAL & POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

SOCIAL - The Queen Victoria Hospital Appeal -
Janice N Brownfoot:'The Queen Victoria Hospital was needed "to give suffering poor women the chance of treatment by their own sex in the presence of women only". Established in 1896 as the Victoria Hospital for Women and Children as a clinic in a local church hall, The Queen Victoria Hospital was one of three hospitals in the world founded, managed and staffed by women, 'For Women, By Women', for the benefit of poor women uncomfortable with male doctors. There were eleven female founding doctors led by Dr Constance Stone.

The Shilling Fund - 'This is the largest endeavour which has yet been made by Victorian women, combining women of all parties and classes in one united effort.' By April 1897 there were approximately 180 secretaries collecting all over Victoria. The individual contribution was deliberately restricted to one shilling to allow all women to contribute ... Money poured in and the Queen Victoria Hospital opened officially in the Old Governesses' Institute in June 1899.' p 43 Janice N Brownfoot Women's Organisations & the Woman Movement in Victoria SLV 1968

The hospital was funded by an appeal coinciding with Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. After three years, there were enough funds to move into separate premises, the old Governess Institute in Mint Lane. Known as the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, the name changed to the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital when the Queen died in 1901.' http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0049b.htm

POLITICAL - Nominating for Parliament -
Woman Voter December 1909: 'At a special meeting of the (Women's Political Association) WPA held on November 12 it was unanimously decided to nominate Miss Goldstein for one of the three vacancies in the Senate at the forthcoming elections. Miss Goldstein has accepted nomination:
- BECAUSE even the men most sympathetic to women's interests cannot understand them as a woman can.
- BECAUSE the WPA will make a Federal Equal Marriage and Divorce law and Equal Opportunities for Women in the Public Service the test questions for candidates, and it is desirable to have a woman candidate explain these measures and the need for them.
- BECAUSE it is desirable that Politics, which are the Reflex of National Life, should reflect the opinions of women as well as those of men.
- BECAUSE the non-party attitude towards national legislation is entitled to representation. Party adherents, Conservative, Liberal and Labour, have thirty six representatives in the Senate; Non party adherents are entitled to at least one voice in National Affairs.
- BECAUSE Finland, where women were enfranchised in 1906, has nineteen women members of Parliament, and Norway, which granted votes to women as late as 1907, is running three candidates for Parliament. Australia, which led the world in granting National Suffrage to women, should not lag behind European countries in recognising the claims of women to direct Parliamentary representation.' University of Melbourne

University of Melbourne archives

6...THEY FORMED GROUPS

The associations they formed were largely independent. Vida Goldstein promoted organisations that are 'not by means owned and controlled by men', and most seemed to fit this category. The exceptions were when they wanted to collaborate more closely with men.

In Getting Equal, Marilyn Lake said that during the 1880's and 1890's organisations calling for the granting of political rights multiplied. (p42) There were 95 women's organisations from around Australia represented at just one conference. The United Council of Woman Suffrage was formed in 1894 out of groups that had the political enfranchisement of women as their main object. At one stage it included:

The Australian Women's Sphere: 'Victorian Women's Franchise League; Brunswick Women's Franchise League; Women's Christian Temperance Union; Victorian Lady Teachers' Association; Central Methodist Mission; Women's Political and Social Crusade; Trades Hall Council; Victorian Vigilance Society; Bendigo Women's Franchise League; Castlemaine Women's Franchise League; Victorian Alliance; Australian Church Social Improvement Society; Horsham Women's Franchise League; Ararat Women's Franchise League; Women's Land Reform League; Prahran Women's Progressive League; St Kilda Women's Progressive League; South Melbourne Women's Progressive League; Richmond Women's Progressive League; Metropolitan Women's Progressive League; Essendon Women's Progressive League; Collingwood Women's Progressive League; Ballarat Women's Progressive League; Kew Women's Progressive League; Malvern Women's Progressive League; Canterbury Women's Progressive League; North and West Women's Progressive League; Footscray Women's Progressive League; Hawthorn Women's Progressive League.' State Library of Victoria LTM49 1344

Alice Henry: 'Miss Goldstein was appointed organising Secretary, and Miss Ina Higgins was honorary secretary. The Council directed the policy, published literature, circularised members of Parliament, and candidates for seats, held meetings public and private, and pursued a house-to-house canvass in every district that could be reached.' Marching Towards Citizenship in the Centenary Gift Book ed Frances Fraser and Nettie Palmer, pub The Women's Centenary Council Robertson & Mullens Ltd Melbourne 1934

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7...THEY HELD AND ADDRESSED MEETINGS

Isabel McCorkindale, editor: 'In order to enlist the help of the public in the task of obtaining the franchise for women, a public meeting was called at the Headquarters of the Union (WCTU) in April, 1894, and the Women's Franchise League was organised.' Pioneer Pathways p.25

Audrey Oldfield: 'Suffragist support for the 1899 Woman Suffrage Bill included "a monster demonstration of" approximately one thousand people at the Melbourne Town Hall, and large regional meetings. The imperturbable and tenacious Annie Lowe parried objectors at the Town Hall and Goldstein had her first bloodletting before an audience at Prahran'

'In 1902 ... a large meeting was held at the Melbourne Town Hall to celebrate the granting of the Commonwealth vote to all Australian women. Alfred Deakin, who had moved from the Victorian Parliament to become Acting Prime Minister of the new Commonwealth, was chief speaker. Annie Lowe, Catherine Anne Spence (who was in town from South Australia) and Mrs Press from the WCTU followed him. The meeting turned into a demand for the Victorian Legislative Council to capitulate when next a woman suffrage bill came before it. The veteran Annie Lowe was greeted with loud cheers when she moved:

"That this meeting expresses its gratification that the Commonwealth Parliament has affirmed the principle of woman suffrage in the passage of the Uniform Franchise Bill, and naturally concludes that the Legislative Council will now no longer withhold the State franchise from the women of Victoria". p 147 p 150 Woman Suffrage in Australia Audrey Oldfield CUP 1992

Public speaking was important to them -
Vida Goldstein: 'I accepted nomination (for Federal Parliament - women couldn't stand for State Parliament until 1923) because I saw what a splendid educational value the campaign would have. I know I would attract much larger audiences as a candidate than if I were advertised to give a lecture on woman's part in the federal elections, or some such subject. I believed that people would come to my meetings out of curiosity to see the wild woman who sought to enter parliament. They came, they saw, I conquered, that is, my arguments did, for no fair-minded person can hold out for five minutes against arguments for women's suffrage unless they seek to deny the right of self-government, and in these days of storm and stress one has no time to argue with such people ... I thoroughly enjoyed my campaign.' Review of Reviews Jan 1909

'Every woman of every political party should endeavour to secure the return of the woman candidate, as All the Men in Parliament cannot represent One Woman as adequately as One Woman can represent All Women'. State Library of Victoria

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8...THEY HELD AND ATTENDED CONFERENCES AND CONGRESSES

Alice Henry: 'Australian women were represented internationally in 1902 at the Conference of the newly formed International Suffrage Alliance, where Miss Vida Goldstein was the delegate for both Australia and New Zealand.' See Appendix 1 for the Declaration of Principles that came from this conference Marching Towards Citizenship in the Centenary Gift Book ed Frances Fraser and Nettie Palmer, pub The Women's Centenary Council Robertson & Mullens Ltd Melbourne 1934

Marilyn Lake: 'It seems we did not send delegates, but after most Australian (not Aboriginal) women had won the vote in Federal Parliament, the 1906 Copenhagen Conference was informed about: "the activities of enfranchised women in Australia. What is it they vote for? ... the questions they take up, the measures they get passed? Well, they take first Local Option or some measure for minimising the drink devil, then children's courts, the care of neglected and feeble minded children, a more scientific method of treating habitual criminals, the closing of drink bars on election days and, regards legislation for women specially, equal divorce laws, the raising of the age of consent and the Testator's Maintenance Act (preventing a husband from willing away his property from his wife and family)." p.67 Getting Equal The History of Australian Feminism Marilyn Lake Allen & Unwin 1999

9...THEY DID THEIR HOMEWORK

The temperance newspaper THE ALLIANCE had a section from the Women's Christian Temperance Union, edited by Mrs Harrison Lee for many years. This is part of an extract from July 11, 1891 quoting famous men who supported women's suffrage:

'PLATO - In the administration of a State, neither a woman as a woman or a man as a man has any special functions, but the gifts are equally diffused in both sexes.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN - I go for all sharing the privileges of government who assist in bearing its burdens, by no means excluding women.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW - Women's suffrage is undoubtedly coming and I for one expect a great deal from it.' etc.

Matriculation 1884 State Library of Victoria

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10..THEY USED HUMOUR

Henrietta Dugdale: ''Telko', Riversdale Road Camberwell Victoria

'To "Working Man", You did not think women were such delicate creatures? You have our sympathy. It is hard indeed to think that a woman who leads her husband to believe that she is strong enough to drop a card into the ballot box should break down when only required to walk six miles down a mountain and carry back a week's supply of groceries and then run down into a wet paddock and pull grass for a hungry cow before taking her bonnet off. We agree with you that it is a most aggravating proceeding on her part to get sick after thirty years patient wifely service. We have read of parallel cases in other countries, but did not expect to find womanly unreasonableness so near our door.' Henrietta Dugdale between 1889-95 The First Voice of Aust. Feminism: Excerpts from Louisa Lawson's THE DAWN

Hansard: 'The West Gippsland Gazette reported on the 1st December 1903 that 'A favourite (anti suffrage) argument was that the woman's sphere was in the home'. They quoted "Miss Goldstein" saying that: "the fact was not denied. Home was the chief sphere of woman. It was also the sphere of man, and one which he too often neglected".

Joan Curlewis: 'Legend has it that at a meeting in a hall in Toorak, an elegantly dressed man asked haughtily, "Miss Goldstein, wouldn't you like to be a man?" With honeyed sweetness Vida parried "Wouldn't you?" A man once shouted an interjection, "Are you in favour of a tax on bachelors?" Said Vida "I favour nothing that might induce some men to get married." 200 Women in the House State Library of Victoria

11..THEY USED CONTROVERSY

To America and Back - A Lecture by Vida Goldstein 1902: 'Most of us, I believe, regard America as the most democratic and advanced country politically in the world. It is nothing of the kind. It is conservative as a country can well be. A democratic form of government does not necessarily mean that the people rule. The people of England with a monarchical form of government enjoy more real political freedom than do the people of the great American Republic.' State Library of Victoria SLVTF 305.420994G57T

The Truth About the Suffragettes -
Woman Voter December 1909: 'Meeting November 29, 1909 - 'The meeting held at the Athenaeum when Miss Agnes Murphy and Miss Vida Goldstein told "The Truth about the Suffragettes" was a conspicuous success. The audience was surprisingly large, since the (Women's Political Association) WPA estimate that 75% of the people have had their minds so poisoned by cable lies and misrepresentation that they are not ashamed to say "We don't want to hear the truth about the Suffragettes." Many of those who came to the meeting came thinking that the actions of the Suffragettes "would take a lot of explanation" and they surrounded the speakers afterwards expressing the most cordial thanks for having their darkness lightened by the mass of facts put before them. Miss Murphy's testimony from personal acquaintance of the Militant Suffrage Movement, and personal observation of their methods, was most convincing. So much interest was aroused by the lectures that the WPA has been requested to hold other meetings at which they can be repeated.' University of Melbourne archives

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12..THEY WERE FLEXIBLE

When one action failed they did another. One example was when the age of consent was debated in Parliament -
Ellen Ward: 'The suffragists always had women in the gallery, but seldom left the whole question up to Parliament. When it was knocked back they pushed for sex education for girls in the schools - if they weren't going to be protected they must protect themselves!' Ellen Ward, Suffrage Conference, Melbourne University Dec 07

Kindergarten State Library of Victoria mp009265

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13..THEY WERE OUTWARD LOOKING

They looked outwards to communicate with people unlike themselves and they looked to communicate with, and contribute, to thenational and international suffrage movement.

Letter from Miles Franklin to her publisher:' G.P.O. Melbourne, 11 Jan. '04.

Dear Mr. Robertson, Miss Goldstein wants some one to take up in Sydney the agency of her paper "The Woman's Sphere". I was thinking perhaps it would be a good thing for Mrs. Henry Lawson. What do you think? Don't you consider she would be a plucky & persevering little canvasser? I have written you re the matter as I believe you have always been a friend & helper of the poor little woman. If you think it feasible - Mrs. Lawson being well enough or with leisure enough to do it, would you please find her address for me as soon as possible & Mrs. Goldstein would write to her on the matter.

I have heard never a word of the Lawsons since Oct. perhaps they may be otherwise employed for all I know but there will be no harm done anyhow. Don't mention my address for a week or so please as I don't want it to be generally known just yet.

Sincerely, Miles Franklin.' http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/mss314_31/a798/a798000.html

Australia was not the first country to have an active suffrage movement. It was, however the first country in the world where women won the vote and the right to stand for parliament. Later Vida attributed this to:

Vida Goldstein: '... getting the respect of the workers. It is they who feel the need for reform most, because it is they who suffer most in present social conditions - it is they who are prepared to fight for reform. You want the vote in order that you may help to better social and industrial conditions, but you won't do it without the help of the industrial section of the country. Of this I am convinced. That is how we got it in Australia.' 10/10/1902 letter to the United States after The International Woman Suffrage Conference 1902 from The Australian Women's Sphere P218 SLV

See Appendix 1 for full text of An Open Letter to the Women of the United States

Woman Suffrage in Australia: During 1907 the Women's Political Association ... forwarded the following letter to members of the Commonwealth and State Parliaments of Australia -
Women's Political Association: 'Melbourne, 12th April 1907, Dear Sir, As you are aware the women of England are now making a valiant effort to secure their enfranchisement. We Australian women who have had our right to political liberty granted by the National Parliament and by every State Parliament save one, have been appealed to by the International Woman Suffrage Alliance to help our less fortunate fellow women in other lands, where it is urged by those in authority that the enfranchisement of women means social and political disaster. We propose, therefore, to collect the testimonies of Commonwealth and State Ministers, as to the working of Woman Suffrage here, and to send them to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Will you be good enough to forward us your testimony? Thanking you in anticipation. I am, Yours faithfully, Vida Goldstein, President.' The Victorian Women's Trust www.vwt.org.au

Audrey Oldfield: 'In the month when the bill was waiting to go to the Upper House, Goldstein wrote sixty one letters to members of Parliament on its behalf, and the women submitted 21,000 'declarations' which the Declaration Committee had been gathering since 1907. Councillor Thomas Harwood announced that he would present a a petition against the woman's vote, which he was sure would have 40,000 to 50,000 names. Three weeks later he produced 1207.' Vida Goldstein's diary cited in Woman Suffrage in Australia - A Gift or a Struggle Audrey Oldfiel

Resolution proposed and circulated by letter from the Victorian Women's Political Association, Melbourne, 1911: 'That we workers in the Women's Cause in the State of ... most earnestly ask the Irish Delegates to make use of all their influence to urge the Members of Parliament for Ireland to strain every nerve to get the Conciliation Bill for Women's Suffrage passed within this present session, we having now for ten years used the franchise in the Federal Commonwealth Elections and for over ... years in the State Parliamentary Elections and are fully assured that no one would ever dream of taking our franchise away.' Uphill All the Way - A Documentary History of Women in Australia Kay Daniels and Mary Murnane UQ Press 1980 p 273

Socialist picnic, 1906, Heidelberg State Library of Victoria cc001541

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14..THEY ENCOURAGED SUPPORTIVE MEN AND ORGANISATIONS

This was put in the Women's Christian Temperance Union section of Alliance Record (in spite of the commas). Support from men, both in 'Mariner' and The Victorian Alliance for 'woman suffrage' is evident here -

'To the Editor 15/6/84, Sir, In speaking of the above, to ladies, one is met, by many of them, with the 'not women's place' argument. To strip such argument to the naked truth of what it really confesses, the writer gave the following, which is printed, and kept in type, at the Tribune's Office, Clifton Hill, for the use of the WCTU, and women's suffrage leagues. I am, etc., 'Mariner' The Victorian Alliance will heartily support any effort of the sort.'

This is the sarcastic declaration -
'My Declaration: Having looked at this question from a LADY's standpoint, I hereby declare that the suffrage becomes not woman. I am what is called EDUCATED, yea, I have educated girls, who were educated by me - and, yet, I confess myself as NOT FIT TO HAVE A VOTE. The street rough, the larrikin - standing on his age prerogative of 21 years - is thus QUALIFIED to have, and use a vote. BEING ONLY A WOMAN, I AM NOT. Will a wise woman sign herself "DESERVEDLY-RIGHTEOUSLY-VOICELESS!" Or will she sign 'FOR THE FRANCHISE".

The Victorian Alliance for the Suppression of Liquor Trade clearly assumed support from suffragists, and Vida Goldstein, for example, though -
Vida Goldstein: 'There is always a close connection between anti-suffrage and the liquor traffic. In Victoria it is an open secret that at the bottom of the hostility to woman suffrage of many members of the legislature who are largely interested in breweries and hotels, is the deadly fear that when women get the vote prohibition will rule the land.' p.181 Woman Suffrage in Australia Audrey Oldfield Cambridge University Press 1992

The Victorian Alliance Melbourne Town Hall State Library of Victoria mp005747

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15..THEY CO-OPERATED WITH THE DOMINANT CULTURE

In 1902 Vida Goldstein was sent as a delegate to the International Woman Suffrage Conference in Washington.

Audrey Oldfield: 'She (also) carried a commission from the Victorian Government to inquire into methods of dealing with neglected children, one from the Criminology Society to study the penal system, and one from the Trades Hall Council to inquire into trade unions' p 149 Woman Suffrage in Australia Audrey Oldfield Cambridge University Press 1992

State Library of Victoria pi004509

16..THEY ABSORBED DIFFERENCE WITHIN THEIR MOVEMENT

When differences appeared women sometimes avoided division by forming new groups. There was a problem with some older feminists promoting what others (mainly younger) saw as 'indelicate' material (preventatives). These were thought to promote 'licentious behaviour' in men.

Brettena Smyth disagreed. A freethinker and agnostic, feminist and suffragist, she argued: 'Every woman should say so many and no more (Children) and when she will have them. Marriage should protect her freedom of choice, not make her a slave ... Parents have no right to bring children into the world unless they can give them a good constitution, and this is what mothers cannot give when they have them too often.' Double Time - Women in Victoria - 150 Years Marilyn Lake and Farley Kelly Penguin 1985

The women who supported contraception simply formed a new society - the Australian Women's Suffrage Society.

Vida placed the value of education above a woman's position on suffrage -
Vida Goldstein: 'The chief value of the suffrage at present is its educational value ... But I would sooner see women educated in views diametrically opposed to mine than not educated at all.' Review of Reviews Jan 1904

17..THEY EMBRACED ALTERNATIVE TACTICS - AND ENJOYED THEMSELVES

Letter from Aileen Goldstein to Miles Franklin: 'Bourke Street, Melbourne 1904:

'The Women's Political Association has formed a Mock Parliament which is giving promise of being a tremendous success - we have had two sittings already and each has been splendidly attended. Vida is Speaker, Mrs Moore - Premier, Mrs Malcolm - Clerk of the House, Mrs Maudsley - Attorney General and myself, Postmaster General. The conservatives were originally in the majority - but the Democrats got into power as the Labour Party (being in the minority) followed their platform. When I introduce a Bill I will let you know how I got on. I will have to be well coached. Vida will write to you about your note to her... from Yours affectedly, Aileen Goldstein'

Ladies' Parliament The Australasian June 18 1904 State Library of Victoria

18..THEY PERSISTED

There were 18 suffrage bills presented to the Victorian Parliament from 1889 to 1908, 'a hardy annual', according to Vida Goldstein. It was a long campaign. Many agitated when they were young and persisted for decades - forty nine years of activism in Henrietta Dugdale's case.

They persisted against all odds, arguing -

Mrs McLean, of the Victorian WCTU, 1891: '... and what of the many thousands who have no husbands and many others whose husbands are unfit to represent them?'

Annie Lowe, speaking at the Melbourne Town Hall in 1896: 'I say that not the most chivalrous deference or the most constant attention from man to woman should usurp the place of truth and justice.'

A Victorian WCTU leaflet, 1895: 'We want to be more, not less womanly than we are, [but still] enjoy freedom of thought and action ...'

One of the most powerful weapons used to discourage women from asking to participate in public life was ridicule. Louisa Lawson pinpointed the effect this could have on women's confidence when she wrote:

'This habitual belittlement leads women to mistrust themselves and to silently tolerate jests and innuendos against womankind'.

But the suffragists would not be silenced.

They had enemies, and we look at the anti-suffragist responses to these arguments and at the anti-suffragists in general, in the next chapter, 'Anti-Suffragists'.

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