Christiane Susanne Augustine "Augusta" Zadow (née Hofmeyer; 27 August 1846 – 7 July 1896) was a German-Australian trade unionist.

Early years

Christiane Susanne Augustine Hofmeyer was born on 27 August 1846 in

Runkel Runkel () is a town on the river Lahn in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Runkel lies in the Lahn Valley on both sides of the river between the Westerwald and the Taunus, some eight kilometres east of Limbur ...

in the

Duchy of Nassau The Duchy of Nassau (German language, German: ''Herzogtum Nassau'') was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what became the Germany, German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a States of the Confederation of th ...

. She was educated at the Ladies' Seminary,

Biebrich-on-Rhine Biebrich is a borough of the city of Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. With over 38,000 inhabitants, it is the most-populated of Wiesbaden's boroughs. It is located south of the city center on the Rhine River, opposite the Mainz borough of Mombach. Bieb ...

, and following her studies became a

governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...

. By 1868 she was working as a tailor in London, England. She met her husband Christian Wilhelm Zadow, a tailor and political refugee from Germany, in London and the pair married in 1871. They travelled to Australia with their young son on the ''Robert Lees'', arriving in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1877.

Union activities

In Adelaide, Zadow became an advocate for women working in clothing factories. She was a major contributor to the establishment of the Working Women's Trades Union in 1890 and was a delegate to the

United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia SA Unions (originally the United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia) is the peak body for trade unions in South Australia. It coordinates political, social, economic, and industrial campaigns between its affiliate members and implements ...

. Mary Lee, David Charleston and Zadow prepared a list of fair wages and prices for use in Adelaide. Zadow spoke in favour of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

and was a supporter of 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 ...

and Mary Lee. Following the franchise of women in South Australia in 1894, she was appointed a

factory inspector A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

by the government of

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 ...

. She inspected factories and monitored working conditions for women and minors.

Personal life

She died on 7 July 1896 of

haematemesis Hematemesis is the vomiting of blood. It can be confused with hemoptysis (coughing up blood) or epistaxis (nosebleed), which are more common. The source is generally the upper gastrointestinal tract, typically above the suspensory muscle of duod ...

following an illness from influenza in 1896 while preparing a report on the ''Factories Act''. She was buried at the

West Terrace Cemetery The West Terrace Cemetery, formerly Adelaide Public Cemetery is a cemetery in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the state's oldest cemetery, first appearing on Colonel William Light's 1837 plan of the Adelaide city centre, to the south-west of ...

Recognition

The Augusta Zadow Scholarship was formed in her honour in 1994. It is awarded annually to individuals involved in women's health and safety issues in South Australia.

References

External links