VIDA JANE GOLDSTEIN

Who is she?

• She was born on the 13th of April, 1869 in Portland, Victoria.
• She died on the 15th of August, 1949 in South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria due to breast cancer.
• She is of Irish, Polish and Scottish descent.
• She has four other siblings: three sisters and a brother. Their names are Lina, Elsie, Aileen and Selwyn respectively.
• Lina married in 1892, and Elsie married in 1898. The other two daughters did not marry.

HER LIFE

• She was a zealous, attractive and popular woman with a light-hearted social life.
• While her father was against it, Vida’s mother was an ardent suffragist and a passionate worker for social reform.
• Vida’s career started when she was helping her mother gather signatures for the Woman’s Suffrage Petition in 1890.
• She read a variety of political, economic and legislative subjects.

HER LIFE (CONTINUED)

• She attended Victorian parliamentary sessions and learnt procedure while campaigning for a range of reformist legislations.
• In 1899, after her friend Anne Bear-Crawford’s death, she was the undisputed leader for the women’s movement in Victoria. This was when she made her first public plea for woman’s right to vote.
• In 1903, Australian women were among the first in the world to be granted voting rights. She was the first woman to stand for election in a national parliament.

HER LIFE (CONTINUED)

• Naturally, she did not receive any attention or support from the press.
• Throughout World War I, she was an ardent pacifist and became the chairman of the Peace Alliance.
• She established the Women’s Army where her line of focus was social justice issues, women’s suffrage and women’s rights influenced directly by many Acts of Parliament.
• She then died from breast cancer after having made such a profound impact on women’s rights.

HER LEGACY

• She attracted appeal because she defied the stereotypical women in Australia: fraile, vulnerable, a housewife and a mother.
• She was astoundingly articulate in her communication and could wittily handle even the worst abusive remarks.
• In 1903, she was the first woman in the British Empire to stand for election in a national parliament.
• Her contributions to the political rights for women is still as noteworthy today.

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