• Entry type: Organisation
  • Entry ID: AWE0735

United Council for Woman Suffrage

(From 1894 – 1908)
  • Occupation Women's Rights Organisation

Summary

The United Council for Woman Suffrage was originally formed in Melbourne in 1894 largely due to the efforts of Annette Bear Crawford who became its foundation president and secretary. Its aims were: to coordinate and amalgamate suffrage societies and to lobby members of parliament and municipal councillors about women’s suffrage; to educate the public about women’s suffrage; to educate the public about women’s suffrage; to educate the public about women’s suffrage and to train women speakers to address meetings. Those involved included representatives from suffrage societies, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Victorian Trades Hall Council and the Vigilance Society. The Council conducted extensive lobbying during the Victorian municipal elections in 1896 and the Commonwealth Constitutional Conventional in Melbourne in 1898. The Council floundered with Bear Crawford’s illness and then death in 1898. The following year, however, Vida Goldstein became its organising secretary-which in 1900 became a full-time, paid position. Goldstein allowed a broader spectrum of organisations to affiliate with the Council, considerably expanding its support base-by 1900 it had 32 member organisations. While Goldstein resigned in 1901, the Council continued as an effective co-ordinating body for the suffrage campaign, often working with Goldstein’s new group, the Women’s Political Association, until Victorian women’s gained the vote in 1908.

Details

Archival note:
As of 2003, it appears that there is no specific collection of papers relating to the Society. Its activities were, however, extensively reported in the Melbourne press and women’s journals, particularly, for the years 1900-1905, Vida Goldstein’s The Australian Woman’s Sphere.

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Published resources

  • Book
    • Woman suffrage in Australia : a gift or a struggle?, Oldfield, Audrey, 1992
    • Votes for women : the Australian story, Lees, Kirsten., 1995
    • The Australian Woman's Sphere, 1900-1905
  • Resource

Archival resources

  • Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection
    • Scott Family (Rose Scott) papers, 1777-1925 [MLMSS 38/1-79]

Related entries


  • Secretary
    • Goldstein, Vida (1869 - 1949)
    • Locke, Lilian Sophia (1869 - 1950)
  • Affiliated
    • The Victorian Women's Suffrage Society (1884 - 1908)
    • Victorian Woman's Suffrage League (1894 - 1908)