Edith Cowan : the first australian woman in the Parliament

    Hi ! Today I will talk about the first woman to be a member of the Western Australian Parliament. Her name is Edith Cowan.

Portrait of Edith Cowan

  First of all, Edith Cowan was born on 2 August 1861 at Glengarry in Western Australia. Her mother died when she was only seven years old. Then she was sent to a boarding school in Perth. In 1876, when she was fifteen, her father was hanged for the murder of her stepmother (he shot her). After this event, Edith moved to Guildford with her grandmother until her marriage at eighteen with James Cowan (at this time he was the registrar of the Supreme Court). 

 

Edith Cowan worked for the women's and children's rights. In 1894, she was one of the founders of the Karrakatta Club, the first women's social club in Australia. Then, she became the president of this club. The Karrakatta Club was involved in women's suffrage campaign. In 1999, the campaign finally succeed to gain the vote for women. 

 Postage stamp of Edith Cowan

Later, she decided to give more attention to the welfare issues. She was really concerned about women's health and the welfare of disadvantaged (such as children.) In 1909, she helped the formation of the Women's Service Guilds and was the co-founder of the Western Australia's National Council of Women. She was the vice-president of this council from  1913 to 1921 and stayed as the vice-president until her death.

 In 1921, Western Australian government allowed women to stand for parliament. So, Edith Cowan stood as the Nationalist candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat for West Perth because she thought social issues didn't have enough attention. People were surprised that she had won against Thomas Draper ( he was the first general attorney to lose his seat at a general election). At the other side, Edith Cowan became the first woman in the Australian parliament. Then, she campaigned in women's right in parliament. She also succeed in placing mothers, in an equal position, with fathers when their children died without having made a will. However, lost her seat in 1927 and didn't regain it at 1927 election.

On 9 June 1932, Edith Cowan died of a pancreatic cancer at 70 at the Avro Hospital in Subiaco. She is now resting at the Karrakatta Cemetery.

Two years after her death (in 1934), the Edith Cowan Memorial Clock was built at the entrance of Perth's King Park. It's the first civic monument to an Australian woman. In 1975, her portrait was featured on an Australian postage stamp as a part of the "Australian Women" series.

 Then, sixteen years later (in 1991) the Western Australian College of Advanced Education was renamed the Edith Cowan University. Since 1995, she is appearing on the reverse of Australian's fifty-dollar note.  She was also added to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001. And finally, four years ago (in 2020) Trevor Todd, an Australian author and playwright, wrote a play about Edith's life named With Fire in Her Heart: The Edith Cowan Story.

 

Edith Cowan University

Reverse of an Australian's fifty-dollar note

 
 Thanks you for reading my article. I hope you enjoyed it. I chose to talk about Edith Cowan because she really played a role for women's suffrage in Australia and fought for equality between women and men.