HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894'' was an Act of the
Parliament of South Australia The Parliament of South Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia. It consists of the 47-seat House of Assembly ( lower house) and the 22-seat Legislative Council ( upper house). General elections ar ...
to amend the South Australian '' Constitution Act 1856'' to include
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
. It was the seventh attempt to introduce voting rights for women and received widespread public support including the largest petition ever presented to the South Australian parliament. The proposed legislation was amended during debate to include the right of women to stand for parliament after an opponent miscalculated that such a provision would cause the bill to be defeated. Once passed,
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...
become the fourth state in the world to give women the vote and the first to give women the right to be elected to parliament.


Background

The first resolution in the
South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was crea ...
to give women the vote was introduced by Sir
Edward Charles Stirling Sir Edward Charles Stirling (8 September 1848 – 20 March 1919) was an Australian anthropologist and the first professor of physiology at the University of Adelaide. Early life Stirling was born at "The Lodge" Strathalbyn, South Australia, t ...
in 1885, and was passed but not acted upon. Six bills were introduced unsuccessfully into Parliament over the subsequent decade. The campaign for women's right to vote in South Australia was led by the
Women's Suffrage League The Women's Suffrage League, founded in 1888, spearheaded the campaign for women's right to vote in South Australia. In 1894 South Australia became the first Australian colony and the fourth place in the world to grant women's suffrage. At the s ...
, formed in 1888, with key
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to member ...
s including Mary Lee,
Mary Colton Mary Colton (née Cutting; from 1891, Lady Colton; 6 December 1822, was an Australian philanthropist and suffragist. Early life and family Colton was born in London, the eldest of three children of Samuel Cutting, bootmaker, and his wife Hanna ...
and
Catherine Helen Spence Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of e ...
. They collected signatures from across the colony, resulting in the largest
petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...
ever presented to the South Australian parliament, long with over 11,600 signatures, which was presented to the parliament by
George Stanley Hawker George Stanley Hawker (7 May 1894 – 17 February 1979) was an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Burra from 1947 to 1956 for the Liberal and Country League Liberal or liberalism may refer to: ...
.


Passage

The ''Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Bill'' was first presented to the Legislative Council by
John Hannah Gordon Sir John Hannah Gordon KC (26 July 1850 – 23 December 1923) was a Scottish-Australian politician and judge. He was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1888 to 1892 and from 1893 to 1903. He was a minister under four Prem ...
on 23 August 1894. John Warren noted the common objection that the vote would "make women masculine" and John Darling said the Bill was "too much for him" as "Woman's place was at the head of the household, to adorn, and assist her husband..." Nevertheless, the
third reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming, ...
of the Bill was carried by 13 votes to 9. Various amendments to the Bill were proposed during the ensuing debates, including restricting women from voting in the House of Assembly, restricting the vote to women over 25, and allowing women to vote by post in certain circumstances, all of which were defeated. The Act was initially only intended to extend the right of an adult male to vote to adult women. In an attempt to thwart the passage of the
bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pla ...
,
Ebenezer Ward Ebenezer Ward (4 September 1837 – 8 October 1917) was an Australian politician and journalist. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1870 to 1880 and from 1881 to 1890, representing Gumeracha (1870–1880), Burra (188 ...
, an outspoken opponent of women's suffrage, moved an
amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. The ...
in the
upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...
"to strike out Clause 4 barring women from being members of parliament". This would give women the right to stand for
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...
, a right not even the suffragists had been arguing for. Ward's intention was that this would seem so "ridiculous" that the whole Bill would be voted out. His efforts have been dubbed a "great miscalculation", leading to South Australian women becoming at the time "the most enfranchised women anywhere in the world". As the bill proposed
constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, ...
, a two-thirds majority was required to pass it into law. The bill was introduced for the third time by John Cockburn on 17 December and debate went on long into the night, with conservative members
stonewalling Stonewalling is a refusal to communicate or cooperate. Such behaviour occurs in situations such as marriage guidance counseling, diplomatic negotiations, politics and legal cases. Body language may indicate and reinforce this by avoiding contact ...
. The bill was eventually passed in the House of Assembly on 18 December 1894, 31 votes to 14, with about 200 women present watching and cheering. It was given
royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...
by
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
in March 1895.


Effect

The Act was the first legislation in the world to grant the right for women to be elected to a
parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, and made the colony the fourth place in the world to give women the vote after the
Isle of Man ) , anthem = " O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europ ...
(1880),
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
(1893) and
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
(1893). The Act enfranchised female citizens of South Australia, including
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
women. However, indigenous Australians who were not already on the
electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...
by 1901 were specifically excluded from voting after
federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
by the ''
Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 The ''Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902'' was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which defined a uniform national criteria of who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections. The Act established, in time for the 1903 Australian feder ...
'', a
right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...
that was not restored until the ''
Commonwealth Electoral Act The ''Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918'' is an Act of the Australian Parliament which continues to be the core legislation governing the conduct of elections in Australia, having been amended on numerous occasions since 1918. The Act was introdu ...
'' was amended in 1962. South Australian
Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
Charles Kingston Charles Cameron Kingston (22 October 1850 – 11 May 1908) was an Australian politician. From 1893 to 1899 he was a radical liberal Premier of South Australia, occupying this office with the support of Labor, which in the House of Assembly ...
called the legislation the colony's "greatest constitutional reform", but Queen Victoria called it a "mad, wicked folly." South Australian women voted for the first time the year after the Act was passed, with a higher percentage of eligible women than men turning out to vote in the
1896 South Australian colonial election Colonial elections were held in South Australia on 25 April 1896, excepting the Northern Territory, which voted on 2 May. All 54 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent liberal government led by Premi ...
. The first female political candidate in South Australia was
Catherine Helen Spence Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of e ...
, who was a candidate for the Federal Convention in 1897. The first women to stand for election to the parliament were Selina Siggins and
Jeanne Young Sarah Jane Young (; known as Jeanne Forster Young; 1 July 1866 – 11 April 1955) was an Australian political reformer. Born at Unley in Adelaide to smith John Forster and Sarah Jane, ''née'' Jarvis, she received a private education before bec ...
in the 1918 state election: both stood as
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...
s and were unsuccessful. Ironically, South Australia was the last state in Australia to have a woman elected to state parliament, with the election in 1959 of
Jessie Cooper Jessie Mary Cooper (née McAndrew; 29 June 191428 December 1993) was elected as a Liberal and Country League representative to the South Australian Legislative Council at the 1959 election. She was one of the first two women elected to the Parl ...
to the Legislative Council and
Joyce Steele Joyce Steele (29 May 1909 – 24 September 1991) was an Australian politician and one of the first two women elected to the Parliament of South Australia, the other being Jessie Cooper. Steele was elected to the House of Assembly and Coop ...
to the House of Assembly.
Nancy Buttfield Dame Nancy Eileen Buttfield, ( Holden; 12 November 1912 – 4 September 2005) was an Australian Senator and the first woman to serve in the Australian Parliament as a representative of the state of South Australia. Early life Buttfield was ...
had been elected to the federal Senate representing South Australia four years earlier at the
1955 Australian federal election The 1955 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 10 December 1955. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives and 30 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. An early election was called to bring the House and Senate el ...
. The Act was
repeal A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...
ed along with the 1856 Constitution and replaced by the ''
Constitution Act 1934 The principles of the current Constitution of South Australia, also known as the South Australian Constitution, which includes the rules and procedures for the government of the State of South Australia, are set out in the ''Constitution Act 193 ...
''.


References

{{reflist


External links


Images of the signed Act
1894 in Australian law South Australia law Women's suffrage in Australia