The historical setting
Edith Dircksey Cowan OBE (née Brown; 2 August 1861 – 9 June 1932) was an Australian social reformer who worked for the rights and welfare of women and children. She is best known as the first Australian woman to serve as a member of parliament. Cowan has been featured on the reverse of Australia's fifty-dollar note since 1995. Cowan was born at Glengarry station near Geraldton, Western Australia. She was the granddaughter of two of the colony's early settlers, Thomas Brown and John Wittenoom. Cowan's mother died when she was seven, and she was subsequently sent to boarding school in Perth. At the age of 14, her father, Kenneth Brown, was hanged for the murder of her stepmother, making her an orphan. She subsequently lived with her grandmother in Guildford, Western Australia until her marriage at the age of 18.
Early life
Cowan was born on 2 August 1861 at Glengarry, a sheep station near Geraldton, Western Australia. She was the second child of Kenneth Brown, pastoralist and son of early York settlers Thomas and Eliza Brown, and his first wife Mary Eliza Dircksey Wittenoom, a teacher and the daughter of the colonial chaplain, J. B. Wittenoom. Cowan's mother died in childbirth in 1868 when Cowan was only seven. She went to a Perth boarding school run by the Misses Cowan, sisters of her future husband. Her adolescence was shattered in 1876 by the ordeal of her father's trials and hanging for the murder, that year, of his second wife. He murdered his second wife by shooting her when they were packing.
Cowan was a solitary person, committed nevertheless to social reforms which enhanced women's dignity and responsibility and which secured proper care for mothers and children. After her father's death, Cowan left her boarding school and moved to Guildford to live with her grandmother. There, she attended tuition of Canon Sweeting, a former headmaster of Bishop Hale's School who had taught a number of prominent men including John Forrest and Septimus Burt.
Community work
Cowan became involved with social issues and injustices in the legal system, especially with respect to women and children. In 1894, she helped found the Karrakatta Club, a group in which women "educated themselves for the kind of life they believed they ought to be able to take". In time, she became the club's president, life member, and trustee. The Karrakatta Club became involved in the campaign for women's suffrage, successfully gaining the vote for women in 1899. After the turn of the century, she turned her eye to welfare issues. She was particularly concerned with women's health and the welfare of disadvantaged groups, such as disadvantaged children and prostitutes. She became extraordinarily active in women's organisations and welfare organisations, serving on numerous committees.
The building of Perth's King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in 1916 was largely a result of her efforts. She helped form the Women's Service Guilds in 1909 and was a co-founder of the Western Australia's National Council of Women, serving as president from 1913 to 1921 and vice-president until her death. Cowan was also a Western Australian delegate to the national assembly for 19 years.
Politics
Cowan stood as the Nationalist candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of West Perth because she felt that domestic and social issues were not being given enough attention. She won a surprise victory, defeating the Attorney-General, Thomas Draper, who had introduced the legislation that enabled her to stand. Cowan was the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament. She campaigned for women's rights in parliament, pushing through legislation which allowed women to be involved in the legal profession. She succeeded in placing mothers in an equal position with fathers when their children died without having made a will and was one of the first to promote sex education in schools.
However, she lost her seat at the 1924 election and failed to regain it in 1927. Cowan supported the secession of Western Australia from the federation and was active in the Dominion League. In September 1930 she spoke at the inaugural meeting of the league's Claremont branch alongside leading secession campaigner Keith Watson. She was a delegate to the secession convention in August 1931 and successfully moved a motion calling on members "to support, irrespective of party divisions, election candidates pledged to secession and to the securing of a referendum".