Vida Goldstein: Women's Suffrage

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Vida Goldstein was born in Portland, Victoria in 1869, eldest of five children, raised in an affluent middle-class home and educated at Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne. Vida’s father was an anti-suffragist (A person who is anti-women rights), while her mother was a suffragist (A person who supports women’s rights). During her life, Vida was a feminist, newspaper editor, newspaper owner, pacifist, school administers, women activist and women’s suffragist. She followed her mother into the women's suffrage movement and soon became one of its leaders, becoming known both for her public speaking and as an editor of a magazine for pro-suffrage publications. Victoria was the last Australian state to implement equal voting rights and women not granted the right to vote until 1908. In the …show more content…

She was one of the first four women to stand for federal parliament, along with Selina Anderson, Nellie Martel, and Mary Moore-Bentley. Goldstein ran for parliament a further four times, and despite never winning an election won back her deposit on all but one occasion. After women's suffrage was achieved, Goldstein remained prominent as a campaigner for women's rights and various other social reforms. She was an ardent pacifist during World War I and helped found the Women's Peace Army, an anti-war organisation. Goldstein maintained a lower profile in later life, devoting most of her time to the Christian Science movement. Her death passed largely unnoticed, and it was not until the late 20th century that her contributions were brought to the attention of the general public. Vida’s quotes include: “Nothing was more degrading than for a woman to have to marry for a home. Love should be the sole reason. Surely those with a brain to think, eyes to see and a mind-to reason must realise that the capitalist system must cease and a cooperative system prevail in its

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