39% of Australian parliament is women. Sure, obviously we should get that to 100%, 😏, but 39% is such an accomplishment given the obstacles women have had to go through to get here. Australians can in part thank Edith Cowan, the first Australian woman elected to parliament, for that 39%.
Edith overcame a lot in her childhood. I’m going to attempt to keep this piece more lighthearted, and so, instead of describing the details of her trauma, I will say Edith grew up without her parents.
Eventually Edith married and had five children. Somehow, she still found the time to study the cases that she saw through her husband’s work. Her husband was a registrar of the Supreme court and then later a police magistrate. She saw the issues of poverty and inequality in the systems that favored Australian men. Of her five children, four of them were girls. She raised those girls to fight and argue in the home, so that they would be prepared to fight against what society would give them as women.
One of the things Edith took issue with is children being tried as adults in court. She helped bring children’s courts to Australia through her work within the Children’s Protection Society.
Women in Australia were barred from running from parliament until 1920. The very next election after women were given these rights, Edith ran and won. Edith was progressive for her time. She campaigned on state kitchens, child endowment payments and day nurseries for working women. If you don’t speak Australian, this means feeding the poor, a payment from the government when you have a baby, and childcare. “T” joins us now with more on Edith.
Edith was only able to be in office for one term. She lost support by being too radical. She’s honored on the Australian fifty dollar note, which is pretty neat.
If you want to learn more about Edith, I suggest Whiteboard, Docs & a Boa: Edith Cowan and the Making of Political Women By Tara Brabazon and Breaking New Ground by Adrian Farrell.
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Brilliant one! But we’re three days AHEAD here in Australia, or something like that. 😝