Bessie Rischbieth

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Rischbieth, Bessie
Bessie Rischbieth in the 1900s
Born	16 October 1874 Adelaide, South Australia
Died	13 March 1967 Claremont, Western Australia
Occupation	Social Activist, Artist
Spouse	Rischbieth, Henry

Bessie Rischbieth OBE (1874 – 1967), born Bessie Mabel Earle, was an influential and early Australian feminist and social activist. Leading or founding member of many social reform groups, such as the Women's Service Guilds, the Australian Federation of Women Voters and their periodical Dawn, she sought to establish internationally based campaigns for social change and human rights.

Rischbieth's civic service and activism took place during the formative decades of Western Australia and the Australian Federation. She made contributions to conservation, the arts, politics and justice reform both internationally and in Western Australia.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Women's suffrage and civil rights 3 Civic life and the arts 4 Legacy 5 Further reading 6 Published works 7 Notes and references

[edit] Early life

Bessie Earle was born in Adelaide and lived in Burra Burra, South Australia where her parents, William and Jane, owned a farm. She returned, along with her sister, to Adelaide to continue her schooling, living with her aunt and an uncle. Her uncle William Rounsevell, a politician, was influential in the formation of a social consciousness that would guide her future roles, exposing her to progressive ideas of human rights and politics. She attended the Advanced School for Girls in Adelaide and participated in debate within her home on the topics of the day, including Federation and women's emancipation. South Australia was the first Australian state to grant a vote to women, making her one of the first able to do so.

Bessie Earle married a wool merchant, M. Henry Wills Rischbieth, on 22 October 1898. When the couple moved to Western Australia, they established themselves in Peppermint Grove with the residence 'Unalla' (1904). This would remain her home. He successfully traded as Henry Wills & Co and profited from his local investments. The Rischbieths did not have children, which combined with affluence, allowing Bessie to engage her interest in feminism and social reform.

In 1906 Rischbieth founded the Children's Protection Society and joined the Women's Service Guilds of Western Australia in 1909. The Rischbieths travelled throughout Japan and India, and stayed in London during 1908. Women's suffrage was a dominant topic in England at this time; a mass rally, subsequent public debate and prosecutions of activists were occurring. Rischbieths pacifist response to Cat and Mouse Act in particular, fired a passion for the equality movement. After hearing Mrs Pankhurst speak for the Women's Social and Political Union she wrote to her sister, "... as I listened I felt my backbone growing longer, as though you gained courage & freedom from her.".

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[edit] Women's suffrage and civil rights

After attending the suffrage meeting in London in 1913, she became an active feminist through the WSG and helped to found the Australian Federation of Women's Societies (AFWV). In 1915 she was given honorary appointment to the Children's Court and acted on the bench there for fifteen years. She was also the first woman appointed a Justice of the Peace at the Perth Court after a successful campaign to alter remnant legislation forbidding women to be seated at the bench. The Scaddan government's proposed Health Act (1915)- comparable to Contagious Diseases Acts (1864) - was sharply divisive and Rischbieth's WSG challenged the bill while Cowan, Roberta Jull and the National Council of Women supported it. Her contact with the British Dominion League inspired her to form the first national feminist organisation, federating the AFWV in 1921. She immediately affiliated it with the International Women's Suffrage Alliance, an American organisation founded in 1902. Rischbieth was British Commonwealth League of Women foundation vice-president from 1925 and inaugural secretary of the Western Australian Women Justices' Association. The next year she became a board member of International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship. In 1928 she led the Australian delegation to the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference in Honolulu. She lobbied for women's representation in, and was appointed to, the Australian delegation to the League of Nations.

Amongst the many issues relating to the welfare of children and women that Rischbieth became involved with was the welfare of the indigenous population. In 1934 she addressed the Moseley Royal Commission^[5] calling for investigation of the "present alleged practice of taking children of a certain age to the Government mission stations and thus depriving their parents of the custody of their children". She pointed out to Prime Minister Joseph Lyons in 1934 that Australia was a signatory of the League of Nations Covenant and had acquired a responsibility to the indigenous people. Mentor to the activist and author Mary Montgomerie Bennett, their correspondence reveals her ongoing concern for Aboriginal women and children. In England during the war years, she established World for Australian servicemen at Australia House.

Bessie Rischbieth was again president of the Women's Service Guilds of Western Australia from 1946 to 1950. The WSGWA was a conservatively based and politically independent organisation that helped to advance projects such as a maternity hospital (KEMH) that accepted single women, despite widespread opposition. Her concerns also embraced Mental Health and the further advancement of women within the Police, the Courts and the prison system. Through its journal and activism the association influenced law and public opinion in Western Australia. The WSGWA published a journal known as the Dawn for which Rischbieth was founder editor and a frequent contributor. The journal was reformatted as The Dawn Newsletter in 1949 amidst paper shortages. In 1955 she was made a life member of the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship

Rischbieth has been regarded as the conservative figurehead of women's movements in Australia, in contrast to the notable socialist Street or the communist Katherine Susannah Prichard. In the later years of her life Rischbieth's public dispute with Jessie Street, whom she labelled a communist, was well reported in the media. Rischbieth was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace on 3 June 1935 for 'service with the women's movements'. She aspired to creating 'the sort of civilisation women of all countries dream about'. Despite marked differences between Rischbieth and her colleague's politics they shared much in common which resulted in cooperative or parallel campaigns addressing issues relating to women, indigenous Australians, and pacifism. She was on the executive of the International Peace Campaign which included communists and others. The WSG, under Rischbieth, remained closely linked to the peace movements of the inter-war years. Her work in establishing the Kindergarten Union of WA provided free preschool education and she directly funded the central office.

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[edit] Civic life and the arts

Rischbieth was an artist whose work in copper, wood and embroidery was exhibited by the West Australian Society of Arts. Despite her high profile she never ran for political office. She did however back Edith Cowan's successful campaign and often directly lobbied regarding civil rights and conservation. Her correspondents include Prime Ministers Lyons, Curtin and Menzies. Her position within the establishment and the civil rights movement afforded her a close ear from the influential. A wish for political independence from the emerging two party system could not exempt her presentation as a 'Conservative' figurehead. The Australian Womens Charter had elected Jessie Street during her absence in England and their discourse became public when she returned to Australia after the war. She was a member of the Karrakatta Club and exhibited work at the West Australian Society of Arts. Her book, The March of Australian Women (1964), was a comprehensive survey of the national feminist movement. Rischbieth was also a campaigner for urban planning and natural heritage. Conservation and and environmental issues were dominant themes in her later work.

Rischbieth was an important member of the Theosophical movement; a group that overlapped with feminist and conservation activism in post-federation Australia. She was a Co-Freemason, a movement that was also often linked with Theosophy. She travelled to parts of Asia and was interested in eastern philosophy and culture, staying once at Gandhi's ashram.

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[edit] Legacy

The Women's Service Guilds were responsible for the founding of National Council of Women of Australia, Girl Guides, the Housewives Association, Tree Society, Civilian Widows, Swan River Conservation, and many other organisations dispensing or advocating social justice to women and children across the state and nation.

Rischbieth promoted a Citizens Committee for the Preservation of Kings Park and the Swan River and successfully prevented an olympic swimming pool being built. During construction of the Narrows Bridge, eighty-nine year old Rischbieth symbolically attempted to block it by entering the river ahead of the bulldozers. This was published in the West Australian newspaper and succeeded in generating public discussion of development, although failing to stop land reclamation of the Perth foreshore.

Bessie Rischbieth directed her own, and others, attention to her works. In her copy of the transcript of Irene Greenwood's 1947 broadcast on her life and work she has added; "Rather too personal I think". Her own book, March of Australian Women, mentions only her husband's (posthumous) contribution to the establishment of the state kindergarten system. She was frequently awarded or acknowledged, a cup and saucer belonging to Emily Pankhurst, an O.B.E. and buildings named in her honour are examples. She remained active and passionate in social issues until she died at Bethesda Hospital in Claremont, Western Australia in 1967. Bessie Rischbieth was an important part of the 'first wave' of feminists, playing an influential role in many western women's international emancipation and rights movements. Rischbieth is perennially named in the West Australian's W.A.'s 100 most influential list and a conservation award bears her name. An extensive collection of her papers and other material is archived by the National Library of Australia.

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[edit] Further reading

• Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1962, 17 edn, Colorgravure Publications, Melbourne, 1962.
• Davidson, Dianne, Women on the warpath : feminists of the first wave, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, WA, 1997.
• Matters, Leonard W., (Mrs.), Australasians Who Count in London and Who Counts in Western Australia, London, J. Truscott, 1913. Held at Battye Library, Perth

[edit] Published works

• March of Australian Women: a record of fifty years' struggle for equal citizenship. Perth, Paterson Brokensha, 1964. (177 p. : illus., facsims., ports.)
• the Dawn, journal of the Federation of Women Voters

[edit] Notes and references