Maybanke Anderson

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Maybanke Susannah Anderson also known as Maybanke Wolstenholme (February 17, 1845 - 1927) was a Sydney reformer involved in women's suffrage and federation.

[edit] Early life

Maybanke Susannah Selfe was born at Kingston-upon-Thames,Surrey. Her family immigrated to Australia as free settlers when she was nine years old. Twelve years later in September 1867 she married Edmund Kay Wolstenholme, a timber merchant. The couple had seven children between 1868 and 1879, four of them died from a heart condition before the age of five. The Wolstenholmes built a large house called ‘Maybanke’ in Marrickville. The later years of the marriage were unhappy, Edmund had a number of business failures and became an alcoholic, leaving the family in 1884. Maybanke has to wait for the passage of the Divorce Amendment and Extension Act in 1892 before she could divorce Edmund on the grounds of desertion, the divorce was finalised in 1893.

In 1885 Maybanke opened Maybanke School. Maybanke school is a girls' school that she operated in her home preparing girls for the University of Sydney entrance examination. Operating for 10 years, the school was later known as Maybanke College.

[edit] Woman suffrage activist

Following her divorce Maynbanke took an active role in the promotion of women and children's rights. She became active in the women's suffrage movement, she believed that the vote ‘the kernel for all reform’. She was vice president of the Women’s Literary Society started by her friend Rose Scott, many of the societies members would go on to form the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales (WSL) on May 6, 1891. In 1893 she was elected to the WSL presidency, in the same year she founded the Australasian Home Reading Union, the Union was a program to promote induction by organising small study groups in rural areas.

In 1894 she began publishing the fortnightly newspaper Woman’s Voice. The paper ran for 18 months drawing women's attention to suffrage issues at the national and international level. In 1895 she established the first free kindergarten at Woolloomooloo as the president of the Kindergarten Union, helping the children of working mothers.

The WSLs attempts to have suffrage implemented by the New South Wales government were not fruitful, however in 1897 Maybanke conceived to petition the 1897 Federal Convention in Adelaide. She reasoned that by having the women’s vote written into the Federal agenda. Thus the women from South and Western Australia who already had the vote could not have it taken from them, and if there was suffrage at the federal level it would flow down to the states. At this time she also became involved in the pro-federation movement. Maybanke resigned form the WSL in 1897. Suffrage was extended to the women of New South Wales in 1902.

In 1899 Maybanke married her second husband, Sir Francis Anderson. Anderson was the first Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. They travelled and worked together on voluntary projects, including campaigning to have women stand for local government. Maybanke died outside Paris in 1927.

[edit] References

Maybanke died on the 15th of April 1927 near Paris, France