Vida Jane Mary Goldstein (1869 - 1949)

Born 13 Apr 1869 in Portland, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Died 15 Aug 1949 at age 80 in South Yarra, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

Vida Goldstein is Notable.

Vida Goldstein was a part of the Suffragist Movement.

Vida Goldstein was an early Australian feminist politician who campaigned for women's suffrage and social reform. She was the first woman in the British Empire to stand for election to a national parliament, in the 1903 Australian federal election.^[1][2]

Birth & Early Life

The eldest of five children, Vida Jane Mary Goldstein was born in Portland, Victoria in 1869.^[3] Her father, Jacob Robert Yannasch Goldstein, arrived in Victoria in 1858 from County Cork, Ireland.^[4] Commissioned a lieutenant in the Victorian Garrison Artillery in 1867, he rose to the rank of colonel. Her mother was formerly Isabella Hawkins, the Australian-born daughter of Scottish immigrants, who was a suffragist, a teetotaller and worked for social reform.^[5]

After commencing married life at Portland, the Goldsteins moved to Warrnambool, where Jacob ran a general store, and then to Melbourne in 1877. Here Jacob became involved in a number of charitable and social welfare causes. Although an anti-suffragist, Jacob encouraged his daughters to be economically and intellectually independent. Vida and her sisters were educated by a private governess, after which Vida spent two years at Presbyterian Ladies College. When the family income was affected by the depression in Melbourne during the 1890s, Vida and her sisters, Aileen and Elsie, ran a co-educational preparatory school out of the family home on Alma road, St Kilda, from 1892 to 1898.^[5]

Women's Suffrage & Election Campaigns

Vida's introduction to women's suffrage came around 1890, when she assisted her mother in collecting signatures for the Women's Suffrage Petition. She also assisted her parents in their philanthropic works and social reform campaigns. Vida championed impoverished women and children as particularly vulnerable members of society. She was a member of the National Anti-Sweating League, which campaigned against the poor conditions endured by many workers in so-called sweatshops and called for a minimum wage. The group's efforts resulted in wage regulation via the Factory Act of 1896.^[6] Vida also undertook commissions from the Victorian government, to investigate American methods of dealing with neglected and delinquent children, as well as from the Criminology Society and the Trades Hall Council.^[7]

Through this work, Vida met Annette Bear-Crawford. The pair became friends and campaigned together for women's franchise. They also organised an appeal for the Queen Victoria Hospital for women, to mark the Queen's jubilee in 1897.^[5]

Vida was an entertaining public speaker with a clear voice, very passionate and knowledgable about her subject.^[7] Following Mrs Bear-Crawford's death in 1899, Vida took on a much greater organising and lobbying role for suffrage and became secretary for the United Council for Woman Suffrage.^[8] She edited a monthly journal entitled Australian Woman's Sphere from 1900 to 1905.^[5] In 1901 Vida petitioned the Austalian Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, seeking legislation for female suffrage.^[9] In 1902 she travelled to the United States, speaking at the International Women Suffrage Conference and was elected secretary; she gave evidence in favour of female suffrage before a committee of the United States Congress and attended the International Council of Women Conference.^[5]

Australian women of European descent won the right vote in federal elections in 1902, and also the right to stand for election to the parliament.^[10] In the 1903 federal election, four women stood; Selina Anderson for the seat of Dalley in the House of Representatives, and Vida (Victoria), Nellie Martel (New South Wales), and Mary Moore-Bentley (New South Wales) in the Senate. Vida was the first to nominate, and had the support of the newly-formed Women's Political Association of Victoria.^[11] All four stood as independents and all were unsuccessful.^[12]

Vida stood for parliament again in 1910,^[13] 1913,^[14] 1914,^[15] and 1917,^[16] each time unsuccessfully. Her campaign secretary in 1913 was Doris Blackburn, later elected to the Australian House of Representatives.^[1]

Vida planting a holly tree at Eagle House, Somerset in 1911

Vida's visit to England in 1911 as a guest of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a busy one, during which she engaged in many different activities, giving speeches across the nation, taking part in many suffrage demonstrations, and meeting the leaders of almost all of the suffrage organisations.^[17] On a visit to Eagle House, the home of suffragists Colonel Linley Blathwayt, his wife Emily and daughter Mary, in Batheaston, Somerset, Vida planted a holly tree. The house and garden was a place of refuge and recuperation for British suffragettes following their release from prison.^[1]

Other Activism

From 1891 to 1919 Vida actively promoted women's rights in many other ways. She helped to found or supported many women's organizations including the National Council of Women, the Victorian Women's Public Servants' Association and the Women Writers' Club. She also lobbied for many social reforms including birth control, equal naturalisation laws, equality of property rights, raising the age of marriage consent and the creation of a system of children's courts. In 1909 she founded a second newspaper, Woman Voter, which she used for her later political campaigns.^[1]

During the First World War Vida was a pacifist, became chairman of the Peace Alliance and formed the Women's Peace Army.^[5] Adela Pankhurst, recently arrived from England, was recruited as an organiser.^[18] In 1919 Vida accepted an invitation to represent Australian women at a Women's Peace Conference in Zürich.^[5]

Later Years & Death

In the last years of her life Vida's focus turned more to her faith as a solution to the world's problems. She helped found the Christian Science church in Melbourne, and worked as a reader, practitioner and healer of the church for many years.^[5] She had joined The Mother Church in 1902; her mother and sister Aileen joined the following year.^[19]

Vida never married, despite having many suitors; she lived with her two sisters in the last years of her life: Aileen, who also never married, and Elsie, a widow.^[5]

Vida died as a result of breast cancer at her South Yarra, Victoria, home on 15th August 1949. She was cremated and her ashes scattered.^[5][20][21]

Extract from a Letter from Suffragette Vida Goldstein

Good Morning Ladies, and the small number of brave men that have arrived. My name is Vida Goldstein and I am proud to be a suffragist. What is a suffragist? A suffragist is a person who campaigns for National Suffrage, the right to vote for all.

The year is 1895 and we are here today protesting because women in Victoria do not have the right to vote! Our sisters in New Zealand were the first women in the entire world to achieve the vote in 1893. A year later, our fellow female citizens in South Australia also were given the right to vote for local council. But women here in Victoria and women in the rest of Australia still do not have the right to vote for the people who represent them! What makes us any different?

I quote from my sister in suffrage Elizabeth Bennick.

Are women citizens?

Yes! When they are required to pay taxes.

No! When they ask to vote.

Does the law concern women?

Yes! When they are required to obey it.

No! When they ask for a voice in the representation of the country.

Queens have ruled whole empires, yet other women cannot vote for their local government, let alone state or federal parliament.^[22]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Wikipedia contributors, "Vida Goldstein," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed March 22, 2022).
2. ↑ Standing for her Convictions: the campaigns of Vida Goldstein. (ABC Radio National, 22 Feb 2009, accessed 22 Mar 2022)
3. ↑ Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Victoria. Online index - Birth (accessed 22 March 2022) index entry for GOLDSTEIN, Vida Jane Mary (Father: Jacob Robt.yann GOLDSTEIN, Mother: Isabella HAWKINS, Birth Place: PORTLAND, Australia, Registration number/year: 10836 / 1869).
4. ↑ "Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923". Public Record Office Victoria; North Melbourne, Victoria; Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kindom (refer to microform copy, VPRS 3502); Series: VPRS 14. Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1635 #3767095 (accessed 22 March 2022). Name: Jacob Goldstein; Arrival Age: 17; Birth Date: abt 1841; Arrival Date: 1 May 1858; Arrival Place: Melbourne, Australia; Ship: Arabian.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9} Janice N. Brownfoot, Goldstein, Vida Jane (1869–1949), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1983, accessed online 22 March 2022.
6. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "National Anti-Sweating League," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed March 22, 2022).
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Bomford, Janette. The Lady Politician: Vida Goldstein's First Senate Campaign, chapter 4 in A Woman's Constitution?: Gender and history in the Australian Commonwealth, by Irving, Helen (ed), Hale & Iremonger, 1996, ISBN: 0 86806 596 X.
8. ↑ United Council for Woman Suffrage. (Trove, National Library of Australia : accessed 22 Mar 2022)
9. ↑ Department of External Affairs, Melbourne, NAA: A6, 1901/354, Item details, Female Suffrage (National Archives of Australia, National Archives Australia: 51352 : accessed 22 March 2022)
10. ↑ Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902. (National Archives of Australia, accessed 22 Mar 2022)
11. ↑ Women's Political Association of Victoria. (1903-1919) (Trove, National Library of Australia, accessed 22 Mar 2022)
12. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "1903 Australian federal election," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed March 22, 2022).
13. ↑ Gippsland Times, Victoria, 28 February 1910, page 3, column 6, SENATE ELECTION.. (Trove, National Library of Australia, accessed 23 March 2022)
14. ↑ The Argus, Melbourne, Victoria, 17 May 1912, page 6, column 8, KOOYONG.. (Trove, National Library of Australia, accessed 23 March 2022)
15. ↑ Parliament for Women. To the Women of Kooyong. (Marxists.org, accessed 22 Mar 2022)
16. ↑ Senate Election Manifesto of The People's Candidate, Miss Vida Goldstein. (Reason in Revolt, accessed 22 Mar 2022)
17. ↑ Walsh, Kay, ed. One Hundred Years of Women's Suffrage in Australia. Department of the Senate, Parliament House, Canberra, ISSN 1031-976X, pp 11-12., accessed 22 Mar 2022.
18. ↑ Susan Hogan, Pankhurst, Adela Constantia (1885–1961), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 22 March 2022.
19. ↑ The Mary Baker Eddy Library. "Women of History: Vida Goldstein." Mary Baker Eddy Library, 31 July 2019, www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/women-of-history-vida-goldstein/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2024.
20. ↑ Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Victoria. Online index - Death (accessed 23 March 2022) index entry for GOLDSTEIN, Vida Jane Mary (Father: GOLDSTEIN Jacob Roberts Yannasch, Mother: HAWKINS Isabella, Age: 80, Birth Place: Portland, Death Place: South Yarra, Australia, Registration number/year: 8792 / 1949).
21. ↑ "Australia, Victoria, Index to Probate Registers, 1841-1989," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JV8C-SXS : 2 March 2021), Vida Goldstein, 19 Sep 1949; citing Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, series 416, record 658, Public Record Office, Victoria; FamilySearch digital folder 004105364.
22. ↑ A letter from suffragette Vida Goldstein: Coming to you from an 11 Year Old Georgia. (National Union of Students Women's Department's blog, accessed 23 Mar 2022)

See Also:

• Wikidata: Item Q7927635
• Australian Suffragettes
• Obituaries Australia - Vida Jane Goldstein
• Womens Peace Army