Vida Goldstein Women's Rights

Women in the nineteenth century lived in a time characterized by gender inequality. At the beginning of the century, women could not vote, could not be sued, were extremely limited over personal property after marriage, and were expected to remain obedient to their husbands and fathers.( women’s suffrage movement 1) In most situations, the men would have to go to work and bring home the money, and the women would have no choice but to stay home, clean the

Before the Suffragettes, women were not able to vote and the move for women to have the right to vote really started in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. Fawcett strongly believed that women should have the right to vote but also believed in peaceful protests, patience and logical arguments. She felt that if any violence occurred then men would believe that women could not be trusted and therefore should not have the right to vote. She also made the argument that if women were made responsible for sitting on school boards and paying taxes that they should be part of the process to make the laws and should have the same rights as men. A main argument of hers was that even though some women who were wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who were able to vote but women still could not, regardless of their wealth and social class. However, the progress of Fawcett was very slow and although she converted some of the members of the Labour Representation Committee (The Labour Party) but the majority of men felt that women would not understand how parliament functioned and therefore should not take part in the electoral

Women were confronted by many social obligation in the late nineteenth century. Women were living lives that reflected their social rank. They were expected to be economically dependent and legally inferior. No

Women’s suffrage groups existed before the Great War but they received little attention. In the beginning, women did not have any property rights.

In the 19th century, women were seen as a fragile, weak figure who always depended on men. Rules for dressing were very strict as women had to wear a tight corset with their hair tied up at all times; the only time a woman was allowed to wear her hair down was at home for her husband. They did not have a voice in the society and they were especially on the

Other influential women in women suffrage history, such as Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell, formed the American Woman Suffrage Association in late 1869. This group’s goal was to continue Anthony’s and Stanton’s goal and gain voting rights for women through amendments to individual state constitutions. The territory of Wyoming was later the first to pass the women’s suffrage law; and women began to serve on juries there as early as the following year.

To understand the reasons behind some women getting the vote in 1918, one must look back at the history of the women’s movement to fully understand the reason female suffrage was sought and gained. In Victorian Britain there was a longstanding and persistent belief that men and women occupied separate spheres. The

In 1869, The National Women's Suffrage Association was started by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Suffrage became the main goal of the movement. "Leaders of the movement believed that if women had the vote, they could use it to gain other rights" ("Women's Rights and Citizenship Throughout US History"). In order for improvement to occur in regards to women's rights, something had to be done that others will remember. Elizabeth knew nothing would change without a powerful voice stating this information. Both Elizabeth and Anthony contributed "50 years to the woman’s suffrage movement" (“Woman Suffrage: History and Time Line”).

The timeline of women’s suffrage is a one that spans from 1848 to 1920. The women’s rights movement in the United States started in the year 1848 with the first women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. During this convention the ‘Declaration of sentiments’ was signed by 68 women who agreed that women deserved their own political identities. This document set forward the agenda for the women’s rights movement. In the year 1869, Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Women’s suffrage Association which demanded that the 15th amendment be changed to include women right to vote. In the year 1890, The National Women Suffrage Association and the American Women Suffrage Association merged to form National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Colorado was the first state to grant women the right to vote in the year 1893, followed by Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Kansas, Arizona, Alaska, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, New York, Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma. The National Association of Colored Women was formed in the year 1896 to promote the civil rights of colored women. The National Women’s Trade Union League was established in the year 1903 in order to improve the working condition for women and also to bring their wages in par with that of men.

Vida Goldstein was a very inspirational women that helped work for the Australian women suffrages to get equal rights for Australia women, without her women may not have even had equal rights to this day. Vida Goldstein

The day-to-day lives of men and women were quite clearly divided during the 1800s. Women were much more restricted in their movements. Most of their work was done in and around the home. Tasks like sewing, spinning, cooking, cleaning, and gardening were all familiar to most working-class women. Marriage and children were also inevitable for most women, as they provided a certain degree of security and social status. In the late 1800s women were treated poorly because they were treated as secondary citizen, woman suffrage and lack of woman voting right with many people opposing any movement about women should have equal right.

During the period of 1882 and 1894, the women of Australia were doing all they could to be able to have the same rights as men. Finally, in 1894, South Australia took a leap of faith and elected Mary Lee a seat in Parliament, and they also elected that women had the right to vote, but Mary did not get voted in, and the petition didn’t get passed.

The initial fight for women’s suffrages begun as early as the 19th century, while some historians believe that Mary Smith initiated this political crusade when she presented the first women's suffrage petition to Parliament in 1832 (Bartley, 2003). By 1900, women were allowed to own and keep property after marriage through the Married Women’s Property Act that was written by Richard Pankhurst in 1870, although it was heavily altered after it went through Parliament. Despite this, it was was a major milestone for women’s rights. In addition, they were granted the first equal pay resolution thanks to Secretary of the Women’s Trade Union League, Clementine Black, in 1883 (Lambert, n.d.). Successful attempts for women’s suffrages continued in the

Long before Emmeline Pankhurst's approach, there were Victorian suffragettes who used more peaceful and non-violent actions. Comparing these two drastically different looks, historians still argue whether or not the militant actions of Emmeline Pankhurst's suffragettes have proponed the supportive action the government would have taken for women's right to vote. These statements, however, contradicts with the historical facts. Before the militant suffragettes, there were Victorian suffragettes who tried to get the vote peacefully, but their efforts were in vain as the government made it clear that they would not give the right to women without a "struggle" (Wingerden). This brought out the creation of Women's Social Political Union and its aggressive ways 40 years later.

Intelligent, beautiful and well-groomed these words describe Vida Goldstein, she was born on the 13th of April 1869 in Portland Victoria and her culture was Irish, Polish, Scottish and lived with her parents Isabella and Jacob Goldstein. She also had 4 siblings,3 sisters and 1 brother and was the eldest of her siblings. She was an Australian suffragette and social reformer. She died on the 15th of August 1949 in South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia because she was suffering from breast cancer. She believed that men and women should be equal.