Years prior to 1884 Early suffragists When the
Victorian gold rush began, European immigrant women had hopes that Victoria would be a more liberated environment for women. Women who were present on the goldfields in the 1850s stated it required self-sufficiency to survive, and as such the required independence to write their own rules. The egalitarian spirit of the time allowed people to set aside social gradations, which resulted in political and social inclusiveness, and allowed women a freedom that they were unable to achieve in many other places, leading to them being very involved in the political activism to resist the colonial authorities. In one letter to the papers she stated “We, the people, demand cheap land, just magistrates, to be represented in the Legislative Council, in fact treated as the free subjects of a great nation”. Another woman from the goldfields, Fanny Smith, wrote to the Ballarat Times in 1856 asking whether women with 'Miner's Right' were eligible to be elected as part of the local court just like men. Smith said she had read the legislation and it was 'silent on sex'. Other women such as
Helen Hart and
Caroline Dexter would deliver public lectures, and write to the press on women's rights and suffrage. Later that afternoon the assessors disallowed the women's votes stating "they (the women) had no right to vote". Women who held 'high positions' in the colony lobbied
John Richardson, who subsequently attempt to restore women ratepayers suffrage when a bill to redistribute electorates was being passed through parliament in 1873. Higinbotham supported the motion, and after it passed by two votes. So Higginbotham moved that all adult women be allowed to vote, but this was defeated. Smyth soon formed her own suffrage organisation the
Australian Women's Suffrage Society. Smyth's views on women's rights were considered more radical than many other suffragists. She believed the biggest problem for women was that they did not have the rights to choose when they had children. Smyth was an advocate for contraception, which she sold in her general store. In 1885 an American
Woman's Christian Temperance Union missionary
Mary Clement Leavitt travelled to Australia to promote the
Temperance Movement. She founded local unions around Victoria. In 1887,
Marie Elizabeth Kirk and the Reverend Philip Moses founded a central organisation, the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Victoria (WCTU). Mary M. Love became the first president of the organisation. The organisation's primary focus was on promoting abstinence of alcohol and wished to change the legislation to put controls on the sale of alcohol, so by 1890 they adopted a resolution that as men and women both have to obey laws, they both should be able to elect those who make the laws. The resolution said women's votes would safeguard the home, and women's interests, and this would be good for the whole population.
The Monster Petition of 1891 With their resolution to seek women's suffrage, in 1891, when the Victorian Parliament had their next sitting, the WCTU collaborated with the Victorian Temperance Alliance and sent a deputation to
James Munro the
Premier of Victoria to urge him to introduce legislation for women's suffrage. Munro, an advocate for the temperance movement, agreed only to raise it with his cabinet, and said they would need to provide a united front to agitate for successful suffrage legislation. Taking his advice, the WCTU approached the two other main suffrage organisations, the Victorian Women's Suffrage Society, and the Australian Women's Suffrage Society, who agreed to work together to gather women's signatures for a suffrage petition. For six months the groups sent out canvassers to go door to door in Melbourne, and in the suburbs and towns of Victoria. They gathered nearly 30,000 signatures of Victorian women. The pages were glued to a 260 metre long piece of material, and rolled onto a cardboard spindle. When it was presented to parliament in support of a suffrage bill, it needed several attendants to carry it. It was nicknamed the 'Monster Petition'. The suffrage bill was attached to a bill intending to abolish
plural voting. While it passed the
Victorian Legislative Assembly, Munro was pressured by his supporters to drop Women's Suffrage from the bill to give the abolishment of plural voting more chance of passing in the
Victorian Legislative Council. The bill did not pass anyway. While the suffrage groups were disappointed, the petition had a lasting impact on the suffrage movement. There was now clear evidence that calls for women's suffrage were not just from a small group of radical women. A large proportion of Victorian women wanted to be able to vote.
Years 1894 to 1904 Suffrage organisations uniting Annette Bear-Crawford, a Victorian born suffragist who had recently returned from her schooling, and early career as a social worker in England, identified that the various suffrage groups needed to unite to achieve their goal. She organised the formation of the
United Council for Woman Suffrage, an umbrella organisation with representatives from each group, which could direct the suffrage campaign. Bear-Crawford had the ability to bring the different personalities together on common ground. Vida Goldstein credited Bear-Crawford as a mentor who taught her how to speak confidently on the public stage. Bear-Crawford also recognised that another suffrage organisation was required. Each of the major suffrage groups had broader agendas which were alienating people who wanted to only support suffrage. The WCTU was focussed on restricting alcohol; The Victorian Women's Suffrage Society hoped for broader reforms in women's rights, and was led by women who had reputations for being radical, such as Dugdale who even made and wore her own trousers; and the Australian Women's Suffrage Society actively promoted contraception, which at that time were considered extreme and sinful. So, at a meeting of the WCTU, Bear-Crawford organised the formation of the
Victorian Women's Suffrage League, an organisation with only one agenda, women's suffrage.
Leadership change In the late 1890s two significant people in the suffrage movement died, first Smyth of the Australian Women's Suffrage Society died of Brights disease in February 1898. They society had by this time been largely defunct, as she had been focussing primarily on her lecture tours. She had another tour planned before she fell ill. In November of 1898 Bear-Crawford had travelled to London to attend the
1899 International Congress of Women. Goldstein and
Ina Higgins agreed to run the UCSS while she was away. However, while she was there she caught pneumonia and died in June of 1899, at 46 years of age. This was a blow to the suffrage movement in Victoria. A memorial service for Bear-Crawford was held at
St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, on the 4th of July, which was the first time such a service was held for a woman in Melbourne. Goldstein became the successor as the secretary of the UCSS, despite some members concerns that she was too radical. However, Goldstein soon became the leader of the movement, as she was excellent at public speaking, engaging the press, and audiences responded well to her wit, dignity, and ability to command respect from even those who disagreed with her. During her tenure as secretary, of the UNSS Goldstein expanded its membership, and by 1900 it had 32 affiliated organisations. From 1900, Goldstein was paid to work in this role fulltime. In September 1900, Goldstein launched the ''
Australian Woman's Sphere'' newspaper, which reported on the suffrage cause.
Anti-suffrage petition In July 1900, the
Women's Anti-Franchise League of Victoria was founded by Carrie M. Reid, and Freda Derham when they wrote to
The Argus saying they did not wish to have the vote. They argued that while the 1891 Monster Petition had many signatures, it was unclear how many women chose not to sign and did not want to have the vote. Reid and Derham referred to themselves as 'Victoria's girls', and suggested that as a younger generation of women they had fresher ideas that were more in-step with most of the population. A public meeting in August had a good attendance, but women present did not wish to lead the proceedings, preferring to defer to the men present, which included several members of parliament, including both Reid and Derham's fathers,
Robert Reid and
Frederick Derham who were conservative members of the
Victorian Legislative Assembly. Colonel Jacob Goldstein, the father of Vida Goldstein, and the husband of Isabella Goldstein, was present and was invited to chair the meeting. Goldstein's public involvement in the anti-suffrage movement was the last straw for his already strained relationship with Isabella, and they began living separately. The meeting passed motions stating it would be against nature and God for women to have the vote, and it would therefore would degrade women. Vida Goldstein challenged Reid and Derham to public debates, but they declined stating they were not organised to do so, they were only focussed on the petition.
The Argus stated they were choosing not to enter into debate because it was outside of their concept of the 'woman's sphere'.
The Age responded that by collecting signatures they were already in the public sphere, and by seeking signatures were encouraging women 'to do the very thing which they tell them they are incapable of doing.' The petition that the group presented to parliament on 16 September 1900 contained 22,978 signatures. The signature canvassers were accused of using disingenuous methods to gain signatures, with biased questioning, and there were reports that factory employers were pressuring women employees to sign. However, Coady stated that the signatures were attributed to many addresses from all around Victoria, and points out that there would have been more outrage if there were any large scale subterfuge. Coady also states that it was likely Reid and Derham were aided in the canvassing by Robert Walpole, who would later become an organising secretary of the
Victorian Employer's Federation, who had experience canvassing the state in relation to Federation. The day the petition was presented to the Victorian Legislative Council, and they subsequently voted against the suffrage bill, Jacob Goldstein and Vida Goldstein watched on from the Visitor's Gallery, sitting side by side. After the bill was defeated, the Anti-Franchise League refused to engage in debate with the suffragists, and the organisation disappeared entirely in the following months. Vida Goldstein later stated that there is no better aid to Women's Suffrage than an anti-suffrage league. A few years after the group disbanded, Frederick Derham requested that
Janet, Lady Clarke mobilised the signatories of the anti-suffrage petition to form a group. This group would become the
Australian Women's National League.
Federal voting rights: The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 In 1902, the Commonwealth Franchise Act was passed, giving women the right to vote in federal elections. Even though women's suffrage had been granted at a federal level, conservatives were still primarily concerned about them winning the vote on a state level, because state parliament had the purview of issues that were particularly important to the elite: land, business and finance.
Years 1904 to 1908 In 1904,
Thomas Bent, a known opponent of women's suffrage became the premier of Victoria, and began a campaign of blocking the suffrage movement. Bent and his Liberal and Conservative supporters feared that women would vote for the
Victorian Labor Party. He blamed the newly enfranchised Australian women for the
Australian Labor Party’s victory in the 1903 Federal Election. In November of 1904, Bent refused to receive a deputation from the UCSS stating he had no time for them. Goldstein, now working outside the UCSS grew frustrated with them and announced in January of 1905:"The Council accomplished nothing last year; there is no evidence that there is likely to be any vitality this year, and I for one am not willing to let this policy of drift continue. The U.C.S.S. having been given every opportunity to lead the suffrage army, has failed."She then proposed that her own organisation, the
Women's Political Association, would now focus more on leading the suffrage movement. While the Women's Political Association did step up as an effective suffrage organisation, it did not take over, and worked with the other organisations, including the UCSS, by this time represented by their president
Annie Lowe. Bent was arrogant, stubborn, and held contempt for the suffrage movement, and actively focused on blocking their lobbying. He and his government would continue to block suffrage legislation, until 1908. In 1907, the 36 suffragists from 18 organisations met at the WCTU headquarters and formed a new organisation called the Woman Suffrage Declaration Committee.
The 1908 Adult Suffrage Act In 1908, a bill was finally passed, the leaders of the suffrage movements had their photograph taken on 5 December in the Botanic gardens and then 2 days later threw a victory celebration called a Commemoration Conversazione which had a large attendance. The bill that passed was the 19th women's suffrage bill presented to the Victorian Parliament. The first was 20 years earlier, put forward by
William Maloney in 1889. == Intersectional factors in women's suffrage ==