Edith Cowan

From ArticleWorld

The life of Edith Cowan centered on fighting for the rights of women and children but its beginning was not an easy one. She was born in Western Australia in 1861 and lost her mother when she died in childbirth seven years later. Edith was sent to boarding school when she was eleven, and four years later, her father shot and killed his second wife. He hung for his crime.

Two years after the shooting, when she was seventeen, Edith married the registrar and master of the Supreme Court, James Cowan. Early on in her married life, she became active in the fight for justice and became president of the Karrakatta Club, a self-education group for women. They were also involved in the suffrage movement and in 1894, South Australia became the first state to grant women the right to vote as well as stand for parliamentary office.

Welfare issues

In the early 1900’s, Edith became more concerned with welfare issues, particularly women’s health and disadvantaged groups such as prostitutes. She was active in the formation of the Women’s Service Guild in 1909 and the Western Australian National Council of Women, serving as president of the latter until 1921 and vice-president until her death. She was also instrument in the establishment of the King Edward Hospital for Women in 1916.

Her considerable talents were then turned to the rights of children in the legal system. She was of the opinion that they should not be tried as adults, a situation that had held sway until she founded the Children’s Protection Society which went on to introduce children’s courts into the judicial system.

Public office

In 1915, Cowan was appointed to the bench of the newly established children’s court and remained there for eighteen years. In 1920, she became one of Australia’s first female Justices of the Peace and in that year was awarded the OBE. Her next major achievement came when, at the age of sixty, she was elected as a representative of parliament- the first woman to do so - and used her position to further the rights of women and promote sex education in schools.

Edith Cowan died at the age of 71. Her portrait is visible on the fifty dollar note and, in 1991, the Western Australian College of Advanced Education was re-named the Edith Cowan University to honour this amazing woman who achieved so much.[[Category:Members of the Western Australian Legislative