Imagine campaigning for legislative change without a representative voice in parliament. Can you grasp the challenges? During the campaign for women’s suffrage in South Australia women had no voice in parliament. The political rights afforded to men, and not to women, were what the Women’s Suffrage League and others were...
When resistance occurs citizens in a democracy organise to effect change. When Dr Edward Stirling advocated the extension of the franchise to women, the House of Assembly passed his motion affirming the desirability of recognising women’s political rights; but when the Bill was introduced to give effect to the motion,...
It is correct to assume that the achievement of women’s suffrage in South Australia was pragmatically undertaken by women and men. Still today, women’s rights are issues for people of all gender identities, and not only the responsibility of women. One such man, Dr Edward Charles Stirling (1848-1919), a surgeon,...
I’ve never been overly outward with any of my thoughts and opinions before. Who am I to decide what’s right and what’s wrong? What if I make the wrong choice? What if others don’t see eye to eye with my beliefs? Perhaps it is my people-pleasing core that has left...