Vida Goldstein

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Vida Goldstein
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Vida Goldstein

Vida Goldstein (1869-1949) was an Australian early feminist reformer and politician.

She was born in Portland, Victoria into a family with strong social views. Her father was a member of number of charities, her mother was a suffragist, a teetotaller and worked for social reform. Goldstein attended the Presbyterian Ladies' College. After the family income was affected by the depression in Melbourne during the 1890s, Vida and her sisters ran a co-educational preparatory school in St Kilda. Through her parents' interests, Vida Goldstein took an early interest in politics.

Vida campaigned with Annette Bear-Crawford for social issues including women's franchise and the Queen Victoria Hospital for women. After the death of Annette Bear-Crawford (1899), Vida took on a greater public speaking career for suffrage. In 1902 she addressed the United States Congress as a delegate from Australia and New Zealand to the International Woman Suffrage Conference.

In 1903, as an Independent with the support of the Women's Federal Political Association, she became the first woman in the British Empire to stand for election to a national parliament. Her bid for a Senate seat failed, but she stood for parliament again in 1910, 1913 and 1914; her fifth and last bid was in 1917 for a senate seat on the principle of international peace.

Her campaign secretary in 1913 was Doris Blackburn who was later successfully elected to the Australian House of Representatives.

Goldstein was a speaker, writer and campaigner. Throughout the First World War she was an ardent pacifist, became chairman of the Peace Alliance and formed the Women's Peace Army. She recruited Adela Pankhurst, recently arrived from England as an organiser. Her continuing political activism included leadership of the Women's Political Association and editing the Women's Sphere between 1900 and 1908.

She contributed to the foundation of many women's organisations including the National Council of Women. She developed an international presence as a feminist, perhaps the only Australian of this period to be recognised around the world. Vida campaigned for peace and disarmament, as well as birth control and equal naturalisation laws.

In 1984 the Division of Goldstein an electorate in Melbourne was named after her. The Women's Electoral Lobby in Victoria has named an award after her.

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