I was sitting at the bar in a Sydney hotel and the fellow next to me said, “I read that a woman wanting to be on the US Supreme Court could not define what is a ‘woman’. What kind of sheila is she?”

“Well”, I said, “it’s not an easy question these days. To get a plausible definition we would probably need a neurologist, a biologist, a psychologist, a sociologist, a priest and a hairdresser. And, a table of local mums to qualify any conclusion the experts happen to reach.”

“Years ago,” I said, “the issue wasn’t ‘what is a woman’ but one of women’s rights. It all started with a Christian woman’s movement to stop excessive consumption of alcohol in 1885. At that time, some 20% of the Australian adult population died of alcohol intoxication. I was reading the new book ‘What a Capital Idea – Australia 1770-1901’ and discovered that the women’s campaign was first successful in Victoria whereby the governor and the legislature agreed to let ratepayers decide on whether to close certain hotels.”

“With this success in the public domain, women were inspired to become more involved in politics, seeking the right to vote. Between 1860 and 1890, each colony passed a form of a Married Women’s Property Act, allowing women the same property rights as men. When education was made compulsory across the colonies, boys and girls were given the same opportunities to free education. From 1861, women of property were allowed to vote across the four eastern colonies in local elections. In 1895, South Australia granted women the right to vote for parliamentary members and to stand for election for state parliament elections. This was the first colony to allow female voting rights and election of female parliamentary members.”

As I looked at a picture of suffragettes from 1898 in the ‘What a Capital Idea’ book, I was taken by the array of hats the women were wearing and have often wondered if you could tell how a woman was feeling by the hat she wore. I tried to imagine how acquiescent the Governor of Victoria must have felt with a group of hats like these in his office.

Women’s Rights – Victoria 1898, National Library of Australia

Christopher Reynolds

You’re going to love the book: https://reynoldlearning.com/australian-history/