Vida Goldstein

Vida Jane Mary Goldstein (April 13, 1869 – August 15, 1949) was an Australian early feminist reformer and politician.

She was born in Portland, Victoria into a family with strong social views. Her father was a member of number of charities, her mother was a suffragette, a teetotaller and worked for social reform. Goldstein attended the Presbyterian Ladies' College. After the family income was affected by the depression in Melbourne during the 1890s, Vida and her sisters ran a co-educational preparatory school in St Kilda. Through her parents, Vida Goldstein took an early interest in politics.

Vida campaigned with Annette Bear-Crawford for social issues including women's franchise and the Queen Victoria Hospital for women. After the death of Bear-Crawford in 1899, Vida took on a greater public speaking career for suffrage. In 1902 she addressed the United States Congress as a delegate from Australia and New Zealand to the International Woman Suffrage Conference.

In 1903, as an Independent with the support of the Women's Federal Political Association, she became the first woman in the British Empire to stand for election to a national parliament. Her bid for a Senate seat failed, but she stood for parliament again in 1910, 1913 and 1914; her fifth and last bid was in 1917 for a senate seat on the principle of international peace.

Her campaign secretary in 1913 was Doris Blackburn who was later successfully elected to the Australian House of Representatives.

Goldstein was a speaker, writer and campaigner. Throughout the First World War she was an ardent pacifist, became chairman of the Peace Alliance and formed the Women's Peace Army. She recruited Adela Pankhurst, recently arrived from England as an organiser. Her continuing political activism included leadership of the Women's Political Association and editing the "Women's Sphere" between 1900 and 1908.

She contributed to the foundation of many women's organisations including the National Council of Women. She developed an international presence as a feminist, perhaps the only Australian of this period to be recognised around the world. Vida campaigned for peace and disarmament, as well as birth control and equal naturalisation laws.

Like many first wave feminists, Goldstein did not campaign for suffrage for non white women (notably that of Indigenous Australian women); she fought for women's rights in the name of white civilisation. She is quoted as saying that woman represents "the mercury in the thermometer of the race. Her status shows to what degree it has risen out of barbarism." [See Patricia Grimshaw, 'A white woman's suffrage', in Irving, Helen (ed.), "A Woman's Constitution? Gender and History in the Australian Commonwealth", Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1996, p. 90] Australian feminist historian Patricia Grimshaw [http://www.history.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/grimshaw.html] has noted that Goldstein, again like many prominent white women of her day, considered "barbarism" to characterise Australian aboriginal society and culture; thus Indigenous women in Australia were not believed to be eligible for citizenship or the vote. [See Grimshaw, p. 179]

In 1984 the Division of Goldstein an electorate in Melbourne was named after her. The Women's Electoral Lobby in Victoria has named an award after her.

References

* [http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0218b.htm Australian Women's Biographies published by the National Foundation for Australian Women]
* [http://www.foskc.org/goldstein.htm biography commpiled by Friends of St Kilda cemetery]
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/federation/people/goldstein.html National Library of Australia Federation Gateway site]
* [http://www.awm.gov.au/forging/australians/goldstein.htm Australian War Memorial Federation site recognising Goldstein as a peace activist]
* [http://www.wel.org.au/announce/vidaward.htm Women's Electoral Lobby] [1] See Patricia Grimshaw, 'A white woman's suffrage', in Irving, Helen (ed.), "A Woman's Constitution? Gender and History in the Australian Commonwealth", Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1996, p. 90
[2] See Grimshaw, p.179

External links

[http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/ergo/women_and_politics:_vida_goldstein Photos of Vida Goldstein] from the State Library of Victoria