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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Vida Goldstein was an advocate for women's rights, a campaigner for peace, fought for the distribution of wealth, and a trail-blazer who provided leadership and inspiration to innumerable people.
'Blazing her trail at the dawn of the twentieth century, Vida Goldstein remains Australia’s most celebrated crusader for the rights of women. Her life – as a campaigner for the suffrage in Australia, Britain and America, an advocate for peace, a fighter for social equality and a shrewd political commentator – marks her as one of Australia’s foremost women of courage and principle.
'Vida first came to national prominence as the first woman in the Western world to stand for a national Parliament, in Victoria, for the Senate, in 1903. As a fighter for equal rights for women, and as a champion of social justice, she quickly established a pattern of working quietly against men’s control of Australian society. Her work for the peace movement and against conscription during the heightened emotions of the First World War showed her determination to defy governments in the name of fairness and equity.
'Vida came to adulthood when Australia was in the process of inventing itself as a new nation, one in which women might have opportunities equal to those of men. Her work for her own sex, especially her battles for equality in politics, illuminated issues that persist to this day.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Dedication : 'For Dianne Takahashi (1945-2019), who introduced me to Vida and her story, and to much else, all those years ago.'
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Epigraph : 'To speak humanly from the height or from the depth of human things, that is acutest speech' - Wallace Stevens, Chocorua to Its Neighbor
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Storying the Suffragists
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2020;
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography 'There’s a story that keeps being told. It goes like this: it’s 1902, and the inaugural International Woman Suffrage Conference has drawn women from around the world to Washington, DC. It’s a historic meeting of nations, and the star of the show is a willowy 33-year-old from Melbourne. Her name is Vida Goldstein and she’s there to represent Australia and New Zealand, two nations riding high on their trailblazing political achievements. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893, South Australia in 1894, Western Australia in 1899. Now, in 1902, the new Commonwealth of Australia is about to grant white women the right to vote and stand for federal parliament – a world first. The two British settler colonies are leading the world in democratic innovation and women’s rights.' -
Genital Advantages : A New Biography of the Suffrage Activist
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 425 2020; (p. 34-35)
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography'Miles Franklin used to delight in relating an anecdote about a librarian friend who, when asked why a less competent colleague was paid more, replied succinctly: ‘He has the genital organs of the male; they’re not used in library work, but men are paid more for having them.’' (Introduction)
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Jacqueline Kent, Vida
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 26 September - 2 October 2020;
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography'Hot on the heels of last year’s memoir, Beyond Words: A Life with Kenneth Cook, journalist and author Jacqueline Kent focuses her gaze on the indefatigable women’s rights campaigner Vida Goldstein. Kent has written biographies of pianist and social activist Hephzibah Menuhin – sister of Yehudi – as well as Australia’s first full-time book editor, Beatrice Davis, and, perhaps most notably, two books analysing the life and work of Julia Gillard. Like Clare Wright, her research highlights the lives of women who have made an impact in small or big, but often forgotten, ways.' (Introduction)
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Jacqueline Kent : Vida : A Woman for Our Time
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , September 2020;
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography'In this new biography Jacqueline Kent chronicles the life of political trail-blazer Vida Goldstein and finds parallels with politics today.'
-
Jacqueline Kent : Vida : A Woman for Our Time
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , September 2020;
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography'In this new biography Jacqueline Kent chronicles the life of political trail-blazer Vida Goldstein and finds parallels with politics today.'
-
Jacqueline Kent, Vida
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 26 September - 2 October 2020;
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography'Hot on the heels of last year’s memoir, Beyond Words: A Life with Kenneth Cook, journalist and author Jacqueline Kent focuses her gaze on the indefatigable women’s rights campaigner Vida Goldstein. Kent has written biographies of pianist and social activist Hephzibah Menuhin – sister of Yehudi – as well as Australia’s first full-time book editor, Beatrice Davis, and, perhaps most notably, two books analysing the life and work of Julia Gillard. Like Clare Wright, her research highlights the lives of women who have made an impact in small or big, but often forgotten, ways.' (Introduction)
-
Genital Advantages : A New Biography of the Suffrage Activist
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 425 2020; (p. 34-35)
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography'Miles Franklin used to delight in relating an anecdote about a librarian friend who, when asked why a less competent colleague was paid more, replied succinctly: ‘He has the genital organs of the male; they’re not used in library work, but men are paid more for having them.’' (Introduction)
-
Storying the Suffragists
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2020;
— Review of Vida : A Woman for Our Time 2020 single work biography 'There’s a story that keeps being told. It goes like this: it’s 1902, and the inaugural International Woman Suffrage Conference has drawn women from around the world to Washington, DC. It’s a historic meeting of nations, and the star of the show is a willowy 33-year-old from Melbourne. Her name is Vida Goldstein and she’s there to represent Australia and New Zealand, two nations riding high on their trailblazing political achievements. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893, South Australia in 1894, Western Australia in 1899. Now, in 1902, the new Commonwealth of Australia is about to grant white women the right to vote and stand for federal parliament – a world first. The two British settler colonies are leading the world in democratic innovation and women’s rights.'
