Vida Goldstein

Vida Goldstein
Portrait by Phyl Waterhouse

oil on composition board; 45.5 x 37.6 cm
PIC R3606
National Library of Australia
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S
FEDERATION GATEWAY


GOLDSTEIN, VIDA (1869-1949)

Born in Portland, Victoria of Polish, Jewish and Irish heritage, Vida Goldstein came from a family with strong social views. After attending Presbyterian Ladies College she conducted, with her sisters, a co-educational preparatory school in St Kilda.

Together with Annette Bear-Crawford she campaigned for social issues including women's franchise and the Queen Victoria Hospital for women. After the death of Annette Bear-Crawford (1899), Vida took on a greater public speaking career for suffrage, addressing the United States Congress in 1902 and running for the Australian Senate in 1903 with the support of the Women's Federal Political Association. Her continuing political activism included four more attempts for a seat in Federal Parliament, leadership of the Women's Political Association and editing the Women's Sphere between 1900 and 1908.

She contributed to the foundation of many womens organisations including the National Council of Women. She developed an international presence as a feminist, perhaps the only Australian of this period to be recognised around the world. Vida campaigned for peace and disarmament, as well as birth control and equal naturalisation laws.
Vida Goldstein died, an almost forgotten figure, on 15 August 1949.

Books of interest

Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 9.

Henderson, L. M. (1973).The Goldstein Story, Melbourne: Stockland Press.

Oldfield, Audrey. (1992). Woman Suffrage in Australia: A Gift or a Struggle? Cambridge; Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

Women's Political Association. [ca. 1913]. The Life and Work of Miss Vida Goldstein. Melbourne: Australasian Authors' Agency.

 

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