Woman Doudy, Jane Sarah (Jeanne) (1849 - 1932)

Born
1849
England
Died
1932
Occupation
Teacher and Writer
Alternative Names
  • Stanes (Maiden)

Written by Deborah Towns, Swinburne University

Jane Sarah Doudy was born in England in 1849, the daughter of Henry James Stanes and his wife Anne Stanes (nee Thomas, nee Smith) and migrated to Australia with her family. She attended the Adelaide Ladies Academy and tutored at home. Aged fifteen she opened a successful kindergarten in the family home and taught Sunday School. Later she studied to be a teacher and gained a Teaching Certificate in 1876, one of the few women to do so at that time. In 1877 she was head of the girls' department at the Adelaide Model School. Continuing her studies she was awarded a First Class Teachers Certificate in 1878.

In 1879 Jeanne became the foundation headmistress of the Advanced School for Girls, Adelaide, the first government secondary school in Australia. The visiting leading educationist Josiah Martin observed her work and decided, 'that teachers in other colonies could enjoy the benefits of a few lessons from this lady and thus spread more widely her excellent methods of interesting (sic) and instructing' (South Australian Register, 29 December 1879). When she resigned and married Henry Alfred Doudy in 1881 she was the only woman with a First Class Teaching Certificate in South Australia.

When Adelaide University was opened to women students Doudy studied French and German. She also supported the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Women's Suffrage campaign in South Australia. Doudy wrote fiction including, Magic of Dawn, The Story of Sturt's Explorations (1924), Growing Towards the Light (1909), non-fiction The Higher Education of Women: Is it of Benefit to the Human Race? [1914] and as 'Yukunga' she wrote articles for the South Australian Register. The mother of one son, Cecil Roy Doudy, she died in 1932.

Additional sources: Australian Stanes Family Research: http://www.genealogy.com/users/h/y/d/Ken-Hyde/FILE/0001text.txt.

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