An edited photograph of a woman known as Vida Goldstein. She is wearing a hat, formal jacket and buttoned up blouse. She is selling the 'Votes for Women' Newspaper.
Credit: T. Humphrey & Co, Courtesy State Library Victoria. This image has been edited.

Who was Vida Goldstein?

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Introduction

Who was Vida Goldstein? Learn more about Vida Goldstein, a leading suffragist, feminist and social changemaker in Australia in the 1900s.

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Vida Goldstein was many things:

  • a leading suffragist (they’re the non-violent form of suffragettes),
  • a Victorian (as in the state of Australia),
  • the first woman to stand for national parliament anywhere in the Western world,
  • a rousing speaker,
  • a peace campaigner through World War I and
  • a lifelong advocate for social justice. 

Vida is best known for her suffrage work, but her world and her actions were broader even than that. 

Vida Goldstein was born in 1869 in Portland, Victoria, and was a product of her upbringing and the support of her unconventional family. Her sister Elsie, for example, was married to the somewhat eccentric activist Henry Howard Champion, and they ran the fabulously named Book Lovers Library, which was a Melbourne institution until 1936. 

Vida was a woman dedicated to her ideals, sometimes to her own detriment (for example, her complete refusal to join a political party limited her likelihood of being elected), a tireless advocate and champion for social justice, who always worked quietly (as in never violently) but incredibly persistently.

She never gave up and was deservedly famous in her own time, especially with her campaigns to be elected to parliament. For her first attempt in 1903, she toured regional Victoria for two months, speaking in country towns all over the state, speeches the local newspapers covered in great detail.

In fact, some of the commentary would be familiar to current female politicians too. The Avoca Standard reported, “Miss Goldstein presented a very pleasing appearance on the platform at Avoca. She was graceful, prettily gowned and wore a most becoming hat.”

At this point Victorian women could not vote in state elections, but they could vote federally and (through a quirk from South Australia when Australia federated in 1901) run for parliament federally.

Australia was one of the first countries to give the vote to women.

It is complicated, though, by the fact that each state allowed women the vote at a state level at different times. The result of the separate federal right to vote, which was granted in 1902, was that there were women from several states who could vote and stand for parliament in federal elections but not even vote in their state elections.

Vida was one of these, and she campaigned hard all across Victoria. She stood as an independent candidate, and she received 51,497 votes for the Senate, about half of that of the top-polling male candidate. She remained philosophical, though, and would go on to run for parliament (in various different jurisdictions) a further four times.

She was never successful, but she succeeded in having her issues heard and paved the way for future female parliamentarians.

It is fitting that an electorate is named after her, though it has been mainly held by male conservatives.

Vida was also very much a part of the international suffrage movement. The State Library of Victoria holds all three volumes of Susan B. Anthony’s A History of Women’s Suffrage, which Susan inscribed to Vida saying 

To Miss Vida Goldstein

Melbourne Australia

From her disenfranchised friend, the city of Rochester, County of Monroe, State of New York, Country of the United States of America- the land of the free who has worked to the best of her ability, for fifty years and more to the get the right for women to vote- and will continue to battle for it to the end of her life-

affectionately.

Susan B Anthony

To Vida Goldstein

Melbourne Australia

Rejoicing that you have gained the national franchise- and hoping your other states will soon grant the local suffrage- while we of the United States of America struggle on-no one can tell how long to the right to vote.

Sincerely yours

Susan B Anthony

Miss Vida Goldstein

(to be given to the public library- when she is done with it)

With the congratulations that the new world of Australia has given to her women all the rights of citizenship- equally with her men- and with love and esteem of her friend

Susan B Anthony. 

Vida also went on a world speaking tour, both to the US and the UK, and was part of the Great Suffrage Demonstration in London in 1911. In the US she met with President Roosevelt, who was very interested to meet a fully franchised woman. She was something of a sensation.

Vida was also very active in the anti-conscription movement in World War I. Vida helped set up the Australian Peace Alliance in the midst of war frenzy, aiming to bring together all the disparate groups advocating for peace, including Trades Hall, quite a few unions, the Quakers, and the Free Religious Fellowship.

The fight for peace was, obviously, not ultimately successful, but the movements did manage to see off the conscription referendum, though the fight got quite nasty at times.

Vida was at the forefront of so many movements, and her persistence (as well as the hard work of a lot of other people) was the core of her often-successful activities.

It’s also not possible to write about Vida, or indeed most of the early campaigners for women’s suffrage, without acknowledging that they weren’t campaigning for suffrage for all women.

While Vida’s campaigns weren’t based on property ownership or class, as some of the UK campaigns were, Vida’s concept of women’s suffrage did not extend to Australia’s First Nations women, or indeed First Nations men.

First Nations people in Australia did not gain full voting rights federally and at all state levels until 1962, and it wasn’t compulsory until 1984.

She also supported the White Australia Policy, was in favour of eugenics, and was concerned about the death of the “British Race” in World War I. Additionally, the suffrage movement, and the colonial structure that it supported, was based on the dispossession and oppression of First Nations people in the first place.

While this doesn’t negate Vida’s incredible work for women’s suffrage and many other social causes, her story and her actions still need to be considered in light of this. Her story can be seen as both a product of her time but also a product of the inherently racist colonial architecture that shaped Australia’s foundation and continues to shape the country.

Vida was an advocate for social change her whole life, and never married. In her later years she became an adherent of the Christian Science Movement and withdrew more from public life. When she died at the age of 80 on the 15th of August, 1949, she didn’t leave much of a financial or material legacy. Her legacy as a trailblazer and advocate was infinitely more important. 

References

Note: This article by author Ellen Coates has been adapted from two posts from their blog, Historical Ragbag.

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