
Rose Scott photograph neg.5514 National Library of
Australia
|
THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S FEDERATION
GATEWAY
SCOTT, ROSE (1847-1925)
Social reformer, Rose Scott was
born at Glendon, near Singleton, NSW, on 8 October, 1847. Rose Scott was one of
the key figures in the turn-of-the century movement committed to the universal
suffrage and a general improvement in the condition of women. She lived at home
and did not marry, she devoted her life to the women's movement.
In
1889 she helped form the Women's Literary Society in Sydney and it was out of
this society that the Womanhood Suffrage League developed in May 1891. She
wrote and debated and lectured and argued until in 1902 the Women's Suffrage
Act became law in New South Wales. She lobbied for the establishment of
Children's Courts for juvenile offenders, for the 'age of consent' to be raised
from fourteen to sixteen for girls (Crimes (Girls' Protection) Acts 1910), and
for a more comprehensive and equitable system of family maintenance to be
established.
She opposed Federation and, in later years, conscription.
She was president of a local branch of the London Peace Society, formed in
1907, and international secretary of the National Council of Women of New South
Wales, formed in 1896.
One of the most important figures of her time
she died in Sydney on 20 April 1925.
Books of
interest
Scott, Rose. (1919). Two Papers Read at the
Women's Council Meeting, May 29th, 1919 /by Rose Scott and the President
of the State Children Relief Board. Sydney: Australian Baptist Publishing
House.
Harwood, Marian Fleming. (192-?). Reminiscences of the Late
Miss Rose Scott as Founder, President, and Life-long Friend of the Peace
Society, New South Wales Branch: a Paper /read by Mrs. Septimus Harwood at
the Hague anniversary meeting on May 18, 1925, in the Royal Society's Hall,
Elizabeth Street, Sydney. [Sydney?: Peace Society, New South Wales Branch?.]
.
Allen, Judith. (1994). Rose Scott: Vision and Revision in
Feminism. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Manuscript material
includes a 1907 letter from her to publisher George Robertson (MS 3584) and a
1914 letter to her from Ada Holman, the wife of the then NSW premier (MS 9055).
Copies of her papers at the Mitchell Library are available at mfm G
28059-28061. |