The main groups campaigning for women's suffrage in Queensland 100 years ago:
The groups used various tactics and actions in their campaigns to secure suffrage.
They would put a public notice in the newspaper announcing a meeting, circulate
petitions, send deputations to present their case to the Premier and form resolutions
at public meetings. Debates were at the time a form of entertainment, and some
groups had their own debating teams: “We never lost a debate.
I remember only one fight. It was in Newtown Town Hall and only a few chairs
were broken.” They lobbied candidates and MPs, distributed pamphlets and
leaflets, wrote letters to newspapers and organised lecture tours, particularly
to regional and rural areas. Often the Queensland groups worked together with
petitions and lobbying.
Debate quote above from Maybanke Wolstenholme, President of the NSW Womanhood
Suffrage League, quoted in Oldfield's Australian Women and the Vote.
The Women's Suffrage League 1889-1891 (WSL)
The Queensland Women's Suffrage League was formed in February 1889, the first women's suffrage association in the colony. It was made up of white women (and men) from a wide cross section of the community. They were concerned to improve women's place in society through lobbying and deputations to change oppressive legislation, to employ women in positions of responsibility for other women and to enfranchise women.
The first meeting of the Queensland WSL was held in the home of Elizabeth Edwards in February 1889. Hannah Chewings, a visiting South Australian suffragist, acted as a catalyst; the inspiring Louisa Lawson had also been visiting Brisbane. By the time Elizabeth Edwards resigned as president, in June 1890, there were ninety-six paid up members with many more on the roll. No records of the group survive, however press reports of their first annual meeting held in the town hall, in mid 1890, indicate Mrs Reading, a philanthropist, was elected president. Mrs Clark, the wife of the mayor, was vice-president. There was an elected council and executive with monthly general and committee meetings. Léontine Cooper, the writer, and May Jordan, the advocate of women's unions, were both on the Council. Meetings were held for a time in the rooms of the Young Women's Christian Temperance Union.
The League was especially concerned with acts relating to contagious diseases and the age of consent (then ten and twelve years old). They lobbied successfully for the Married Women's Property Act and formed a deputation to the Premier about the need for women police wardens (unsuccessful). They petitioned Richard Hyne who introduced a private members bill for the women's vote.
The preferred option of the WSL was that of a residential qualification not
a property one. The Boomerang mounted a vitriolic attack on the WSL believing
it to be calling for the property vote. The movement
for women's enfranchisement was deeply divided on this issue of whether to fight
for women to have the vote on the same conditions as men (the property vote)
or for universal suffrage. Most of the active members had resigned by mid 1891.
Women's Equal Franchise Association (WEFA)
(1894-1905)
These strong Labour women emerged as a force in the series of mass suffrage
public meetings held in Brisbane in 1894 after New Zealand women won the vote
- Sarah Bailey moving a motion from the floor and causing chaos in her call
for one woman one vote. The newly formed organisation linked its struggle for
votes for women with the campaign against plural voting
in Queensland demanding universal suffrage. Emma Miller was elected president
(replacing Eleanor Trundle) after the Woman's Franchise League split off from
it. WEFA was probably the most important, perhaps most dedicated organisation
fighting for the rights of women to vote and certainly well placed strategically.
Officially, however, any link with the Labour Party (which was still in its very early stages) was denied. Emma Miller in April 1894 stated 'emphatically the Women's Equal Franchise Association is not allied to the Labour party or any other party. The powerful organisation that backs it up consists of the energies of the Democratic element of which it is chiefly composed' . 1
Soon after its formation, WEFA circulated a questionnaire to all candidates in the forthcoming election on their attitudes to one vote per person. This was a substantial and effective strategy, as all the responses were printed in The Worker. Women from WEFA attended many of the public election campaign meetings and asked prepared questions - where they could not participate they sought to enlist member of the Workers' Political Organisation. Candidates, who supported the women's vote (mostly but not all Labour), were then helped in their election campaigns - in the full gamut of activities right through to polling day. Emma Miller, for instance, was instrumental in getting Frank McDonnell into parliament for Fortitude Valley.
WEFA rode the wave of the emerging Labour Party which eventually supported electoral reform for men and women. Labour Party politicians were especially fêted, and their active participation in the organisation nurtured. Backed by a strong executive and a large committed council, the combined expertise of WEFA through their experience with the women's unions, in the earlier Women's Suffrage League and with charity and benevolent organisations was substantial. Wives and daughters of the increasingly successful Labour politicians were closely involved in executive positions and on the Council; the male politicians chaired meetings and presented papers.
Unlike their British counterparts, WEFA did not get to the stage of resorting
to tactics of militant direct action. These women, many in the prime of their
power, were skilled and capable; the community in which they worked small enough
to allow face to face contact. The long-lasting combination of President and
Secretary was important; the executive exerted a strong control over the membership,
where meeting procedure was emphasised and radical dissent suppressed. Mass
public meetings and resolutions were part of their fare, as were deputations
most often to the Premier - introduced by the Labour Party leader. Less well
known are the flamboyant yearly cruises down the Brisbane River, three hundred
people aboard one of the government's vessels often with the Metropolitan Brass
Band. There were regular 'at homes', and 'socials' - essentially formal dances
or balls with live music.
WEFA ordinary meetings were held monthly; on alternative fortnights the Council
met in committee. The presentation of papers and lectures was developed as a
high art form, and powerful members of the community invited to have their say.
New members continued to join - and by April 1895 Miller claimed that WEFA was
a 'power in the land'. 2 As the 'only non
sectarian women's franchise association', WEFA 'would accept the hand of any
or all white woman'. They were 'a crew armed to the teeth and ready for every
emergency'. 3
One of the myths about women suffragists in Australia was that these women
were from the middle-classes. The women prepared to become involved in the suffrage
movement, came from diverse backgrounds with widely varying experience and class
expectations. Older women held the executive positions. It should be remembered
that most of them were new immigrants and not all were British, although only
a few had been for more than one generation in the colonies. Emma Miller made
twelve gentlemen's shirts a week and when she appeared before the Royal Commission
on working conditions it was as a sweated labourer. Such were the trappings
of social convention we can wonder how many non working class women entered
the doors of Trades Hall? It well may have been that many great suffragist women,
following the pattern in Victoria, had to come to terms with the broader issues
of humanitarianism because of their feminism.
Deb Jordan
1 'One-Woman-One-Vote', Courier, 1 April 1894.
2 Worker, 4 April 1895.
3 Worker, 21 March 1895.
Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Queensland [WCTU](1885 - )
Part of a joint suffrage deputation to the Premier Philp in 1900, the redoubtable
Agnes Williams of the WCTU told him she represented 1500 women: 1
'who earnestly desired the vote for the protection of the sanctity of their
homes. Women were deeply interested in laws concerning education, morality,
etc., and they were bound to fulfil all the obligations of citizens, and yet
they were not allowed any representation. Many of the laws pressed heavily on
women. They wanted the vote for their own protection, for was it not true that
in their own city the virtue and honour of women was held in less regard than
the well-being of a horse?' 2
By the turn of the century there were thirty branches throughout Queensland,
averaging thirty members each.
We only know the barest outline of the women in Queensland who belonged to this first international woman suffrage movement. Ellen Carol DuBois describes them as 'an amazingly ambitious, politically aggressive women's organisation' and finds the circulation of advanced ideas within the movement was a way to 'combat the sense of isolation on the periphery.' 3
The local Union in Queensland was first formed in September 1885. In 1886 at the first colonial convention, the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Queensland was established. The Union is primarily dedicated to promoting total abstinence from alcohol and other harmful drugs and all members sign a pledge to this effect. Under its broader agenda of 'home protection' and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, however, and in the belief that the dangers of alcohol could not be tackled in isolation, the group has pursued a very wide-ranging reform agenda mostly relating to the welfare of women and children. 4 We need to re-examine the political and ideological roots of the WCTU, as Tyrrell argues - their critical perspective on the commercial and material preoccupations of advancing capitalism, as too their role in the political upsurge in Populism. 5 Their first petition was a joint one with the Social Purity Society on the age of consent in 1887.
In 1886 Elizabeth Brentnall was Colonial President, (a position she was to hold to1899). Agnes Williams, acclaimed as the most capable feminist orator in the state, was the vice-president. Both women were committed suffragists. In 1890 Jessie Ackerman, the Australasian President, visited Queensland speaking in favour of the power of the ballot box. By that time there were 17 branches. At the 1890 Convention the WCTU compromised on the issue of women's suffrage leaving the local Unions free to decide for themselves. The decision was reversed at the 1891 Convention following the lively discussion that a letter from Jessie Ackerman provoked. A Colonial Suffrage Department was formed with a Miss Williams as Superintendent.
Two Unions are listed in Brisbane for 1891-2 - that of the Ackermann Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. 6 Brentnall was president of the first, Mrs Carvosso was the corresponding secretary. Brentnall was the vice-president of the second, to a Mrs Sager. Meetings were held weekly, in the Temperance Hall. That year they changed their name to the Woman's instead of Women's union.
Annie James appears to have been the first suffrage superintendent, reporting at the 1893 Convention that several unions had taken up the suffrage issue, educating themselves while other unions were still considering taking up the issue. By 1895, Eleanor Trundle was the energetic and dedicated Suffrage Superintendent (until 1905). She had been the first elected president of the Women's Equal Franchise Association which had emerged from the series of mass public meetings - and she must have been a well-known and popular figure at that time.
The WCTU emphasised its non-political stance. They appeared to have not responded to calls from the WEFA to co-operate in 1896. Little is known of the specific strategies they evolved - they collected signatures for petitions; Trundle wrote to the press on numerous issues mounting an attack on the current Premier when Nelson said 'I have consulted my matrimonial authority, who thinks that women would be better without the vote'. 7 They adopted strategies from the WEFA and actively lobbied and campaigned for sympathetic political candidates. The "y" referred to the Young Woman's Christian Union. Other non suffrage activities included benevolent work, a girls' club, a boys' club and a reading room.
In early 1897 the Third Triennial Australasian Convention of the WCTU came to Brisbane and leading suffragists from all over Australia were in town for that week. Elizabeth Nicholls, as Australasian President, addressed a public franchise meeting which resolved: 'That in each Colony where woman's franchise has not been won, the Colonies be asked to circulate petitions in favour of the franchise being granted to women on the same terms as it is now or may hereafter be granted to men'. In the next petition 4000 names were collected - not only Union members went canvassing on what Oldfield finds were probably boisterous and rowdy streets - and as far afield as Charters Towers and Townsville.
Each Union had a certain autonomy. The Rockhampton Union sent a deputation to the Premier in 1898. In 1899 the Darling Downs Union stipulated one-adult-one vote when canvassing candidates. The WCTU had official organisers - in 1898 Mrs Payne toured Queensland holding eleven public meetings in country towns. They continued to hold public franchise meetings as part of their yearly conventions. In 1899 they organised a protest meeting, attended by WEFA members, when the Premier accused the suffrage movement of being 'sentimental fireworks and political platitudes'. 8 They were active too in sending deputations in response to the Premier of the time's promise to remove the plural vote, and making no mention of the women's vote.
In response to the formation of QWEL and WWPO the WCTU reiterated its emphasis on non-party politics. In Jubilee year 1888, a drinking fountain outside the Temperance Hall had been funded; it was later removed by the Council to the Gardens. Has anyone see it? The WCTU continues today with offices in Ann Street.
Deb Jordan
1 This account draws on Audrey Oldfield, Woman
Suffrage in Australia, A Gift or a Struggle, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), and A.E. Lather, A Glorious Heritage, 1885 -1965: History of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Queensland (Brisbane: The Union,
1965).
2 'Deputation to the Premier re the Extension of
the Franchise to Women', Flashes, 19 August 1900.
3 'Woman Suffrage Around the World: Three Phases
of Suffragist Internationalism,' in Daley, Caroline and Nolan, Melanie, Suffrage
+ Beyond, International Feminist Perspectives, (Auckland University Press/Pluto
Press, 1994)pp. 258, 259.
4 http://www.womenaustralia.info.biogs/AWE1112b.htm
3/12/04
5 Tyrrell, Ian, 'International Aspects of the Woman's
Termperance Movement in Australia: The Influence od the American WCTU, 1882-1914',
Journal of Religious History, 12/3, 1983, 24-34.
6 Pugh's Almanac, 1893, Brisbane p. 207.
7 Quoted in Oldfield, p. 121.
8 Quoted in Oldfield, p. 122.
Women's Franchise League 1894 - ?
This suffrage organisation was non sectarian and non-party, representing diverse women who believed in an independent women's movement and that the women's vote should be fought for on the same conditions as was or might be for men. It formed as a breakaway group from the Women's Equal Franchise Association because they believed that the struggle for universal male suffrage - the plural vote issue - might delay women's enfranchisement. Many of its members were professional working women and involved in girls' education, and were also closely associated with the Pioneer Club. Léontine Cooper remained its long-term president.
Cooper was elected vice-president of the new organisation emerging from a series of mass public meetings in Brisbane, the women galvinised after the women of New Zealand were enfranchised. A couple of weeks later she resigned to form the Women's Franchise League, a breakaway group from the Women's Equal Franchise Association. This new group believed that women's enfranchisement was the priority and should not be bound to the struggle for universal male suffrage. They also thought that the Woman's Equal Franchise League was dominated by the Labour Party. With a council and executive, it held regular meetings, participated in deputations, collected signatures and lobbied for legislative reform. Members included the women Clark, Jephson, Swanick, Pople and Preston. It was a women-only organisation. No records of the group appear to have survived and press reports are scanty, although there were some shared activities with the Woman's Equal Franchise Association and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In 1899 the Pioneer Club was formed - members included Elizabeth Fewings and Josephine Bedford and Lilian Cooper. The Women's Franchise League seems to have folded with the death of Léontine Cooper in 1903, but this is not clear.
Deb Jordan
Online:
Jordan, D., 'Léontine Cooper and the Suffrage Movement, 1888-1903', Hecate,
30. 2. 2004.
see article by Deb Jordan (.doc document)
Hardcopy:
Jordan, D., 'Léontine Cooper and the Suffrage Movement, 1888-1903', Hecate,
30. 2. 2004.
Ferrier, Carole, and Jordan, Deborah, 'Women's Suffrage Struggles', in Evans
and Ferrier, (eds.) Radical Brisbane, (Melbourne: Vulgar Press, 2004)
: 102-109.
Oldfield, Audrey, Woman Suffrage in Australia: A Gift or a Struggle?
(Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Young, Pam, 'Emma Miller and the campaign for women's suffrage in Queensland,
1894-1905,' Memoirs of the Queensland Museum v.2, pt.2, 31 May 2002:
(223)-230.
Queensland Women's Electoral League (1903 - )
The Queensland Women's Electoral League (QWEL) was formed in the last stages of the campaign to obtain woman suffrage for white women in Queensland. Indeed QWEL was formed largely to mobilise women voters, addressing women as political actors for the first time, after they had received the vote at the federal level in 1903. The political parties, in this instance the liberal-conservatives, sought to articulate what they assumed to be female interests by invoking a set of "women's issues" - political and economic rights, maternity, religion, social welfare and so on. QWEL became an extremely important player in the construction of political identities for women.
A public meeting was called by Mrs Corrie, (the mayoress), and members of the Pioneer Club, the WCTU and WEFA on 21 October 1903. It was proposed to submit the programme of the Victorian Women's Federal Political Association. The League claimed to have all women's interests at heart, and that it was to be apolitical. One of its stated aims included the desire to 'advance political knowledge among women', they also included the desire to 'encourage and preserve private enterprise, and to combat unnecessary interference by the State'. 1
Large numbers of women attended the initial launch of QWEL but once the political agenda became clear radical women and Labor women pulled out and went off to form their own organisation. Mrs Corrie was elected president of QWEL, the secretary was Margaret Ogg. The council was made up of nine men and nine women. Many of the QWEL women were previously involved in the Dinner Club and Pioneer Club. They invited Rose Scott to visit Brisbane in October 1903. (Rose Scott visited the other suffrage groups). By October they formed a deputation to the Premier on women's suffrage.
[The records and minute books of QWEL, the only archives surviving from any of the suffrage groups, are held safely in the John Oxley library, and in 2005 are on display.]
Deb Jordan
1 http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0652b.htm 3/12/04
The Women Workers' Political Organisation (1903 -)
The Women Workers' Political Organisation was formed at a meeting at Trades Hall in Brisbane. The objects of the WWPO, according to Maybanke Wolstenholme*, were 'to secure the just political representation of women in Australia Federal and State Parliaments; to promote and safeguard the interests of women in the body politic; to advance the political education of women by meetings, lectures, the distribution of literature, and all other available legitimate means.' Emma Miller was elected president, Mrs Collings junior was the secretary. Presumably the WWPO was for women only - they were constituted as one of the Workers' Political Organisations and planned to hold meetings in other districts. They held a mock election and other branches were formed at Gympie, Bundaberg, Maryborough and Toowoomba.
Like the Queensland Women's Electoral League WWPO was established to mobilise women voters. White women were being addressed as political actors by the mainstream for the first time, after they had received the vote at the federal level in 1903. WWPO was set up after the WCTU, WEFA, and women from the Pioneer Club convened a meeting in the School of Arts for the women of Queensland to form QWEL. QWEL was anti-socialist so WWPO put forward more progressive views - the Labour movement took this so seriously that the Woman's Equal Franchise Association went into abeyance during the election campaign.
Deb Jordan
* Maybanke Wolstenholme, President of the NSW womanhood Suffrage
League, quoted in Oldfield's Australian Women and the Vote.
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