Hard fight for equal rights

AFTER many years of campaigning, women gained the right to vote in Australian federal elections in 1902 and in Victorian state ballots in 1908.

In 1894, South Australia had paved the way with a universal franchise for most men and women over the age of 21.

Section 41 of the new Australian constitution guaranteed that this right would be maintained, and legislation was enacted to extend these voting privileges across all of the new states after federation in 1900.

It was a hard-won victory for the campaigners and they had faced fierce opposition to their cause mainly, but not always, from men.

On 16 August 1900, the McIvor Times reported on a petition sent to the McIvor Shire Council from Carrie Reid and Freda Durham, representing the Women’s Anti Suffrage League of Victoria.

It claimed “many women have neither the time nor opportunity to inform themselves concerning great public questions without neglecting the training of their children and the comfort of their homes.

“Suffrage for women will force them from the peacefulness and quiet of their homes into the arena of politics, and impose upon them in addition to their present duties.”

Councillors unanimously agreed to help gather as many signatures as they could to support the league’s views.

The shire president said every council and councillor in the state “should oppose female suffrage, unless the ladies generally were in favour of it.”

He also claimed that “the females would be turned out of their factories in hundreds to vote for a certain class, and that would give too much power to Melbourne.”

A fortnight later the paper gave direct editorial support to the anti-suffrage movement, although it still opened its pages to correspondence from seasoned pro-suffrage campaigners such as Vida Goldstein.

The Australian suffrage movement had emerged in the 1880s, alongside the burgeoning temperance movement and many women were ardent supporters of both causes as they saw the vote as a way to influence politicians to support their anti-alcohol platform.

Often portrayed as killjoy wowsers, the temperance advocates were unpopular with many people.

They threatened the livelihood of those who relied on the sale of alcoholic beverages and were seen as overly controlling by many others who did not share their views.

This image problem plagued the suffragettes.

They were characterised as strident, noisy and unrepresentative.

Many politicians refused to see them as equals and spoke about them in patronising terms.

In March 1889 the McIvor Times repeated comments made by colonial MP James Shackell at a public meeting in Heathcote.

“To grant every woman of 21 a vote would, in his estimation, be a decided mistake, and to which he was strongly adverse, picturing how 9 out of 10 would vote for a young man simply for his good looks, in preference to an old buffet like himself,” it reported.

This blatant sexism was shared by many political candidates of the era.

In 1894, a Mr JW Mason took his campaign to Heathcote and said, to rousing cheers, that he was not in favour of women’s suffrage as he “had too much respect for them.”

But the tide was changing: in 1891 30,000 Victorians signed a petition supporting votes for women.

By 1908 there had been 18 previous legislative attempts to make this law and on 24 November all non-Indigenous Victorian women over 21 finally won the right to vote.

It did not, however, rate a mention in the McIvor Times.