Louisa Lawson
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Louisa Lawson (February 17, 1848 - August 12, 1920) was an Australian writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist.
Louisa Lawson was born at Guntawang and grew up around Mudgee, New South Wales. Her family was typical of that time and place. Her father was a labourer and contractor in the Mudgee area, and the home he built for his family in 1856 is still occupied today. Louisa was the second eldest of twelve children, and typically she left school at the age of thirteen. In 1866 Louisa married Norwegian miner Niels Larsen (Peter Lawson). Usually working for his father-in-law, her husband was often absent leaving Louisa to raise four children, Henry, Charles, Peter and Gertrude (Annette died at eight months), in the company of her mother and sisters. In 1883 she took her children and moved to Sydney. She managed boarding houses and saved money that she used to buy a share in the radical pro-federation newspaper The Republican in 1887. With her earnings and experience from working on The Republican she was able in May 1888, to edit and publish The Dawn.
The Dawn was Australia’s first journal produced solely by women; it was published monthly and distributed throughout Australia and overseas. The Dawn had a strong feminist perspective, and discussed issues such as the women's right to vote and assume public office, women's education, women's economic and legal rights, domestic violence, and temperance. The Dawn was published monthly for seventeen years (1888 - 1905) and at its height employed 10 female staff. Her son Henry Lawson also wrote poems and stories for the paper. The Dawn press printed Henry's first book Short Stories in Prose and Verse in 1894.
In 1889 Louisa founded The Dawn Club, which became the hub of the suffrage movement in Sydney. In 1891 the New South Wales Women's Suffrage League formed to campaign for women's suffrage, she allowed the League to use the Dawn office to print pamphlets and literature free of charge. When it was finally achieved in 1902 with the passing of the New South Wales Womanhood Suffrage Bill, Louisa was introduced to the members of Parliament as 'The Mother of Suffrage in New South Wales'. For the women at the time universal suffrage was not the key issue, Louisa did not criticise the government for failing to give Indigenous Australians the vote.
Louisa retired in 1905 but continued to write for Sydney magazines and published The Lonely Crossing and Other Poems, a collection of 52 poems, until 1906 when she entered Gladesville mental hospital where she died in 1920. She was buried with her parents at Rookwood Cemetery.
In 1975 Australia Post released a stamp in honour of Louisa.
[edit] External Links
[edit] References
- State of Victoria. Great Australian Women, Louisa Lawson (1848-1920),
- National Library of Australia. Federation Gateway, Lawson, Louisa (1848-1920)
- Henry Lawson and Louisa Lawson Online Chronology
"A Shepherd From Kent" C1988 Alison Brooks
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lawson, Louisa |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Willibrordus Surendra Broto Rendra (full name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Contermporary Indonesian poet and dramatist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 17, 1848 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 12, 1920 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Gladesville, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
