Vida Goldstein (1869–1949)

Speaker, writer and social campaigner, Vida Goldstein’s international activism spanned women's suffrage, labour and property rights, education, and peace.¹ In 1903 she became one of the first women to stand in a federal election, running as an independent candidate for the Senate. Just over 80 years later, a federal electorate in Victoria was named in her honour.

Born in south-west Victoria, Goldstein was the eldest of five children born to Jacob and Isabella. Her family moved to Melbourne in 1877 where she matriculated from Presbyterian Ladies College in 1886. Goldstein's involvement in the suffrage movement began four years later when she worked with her mother collecting signatures for the 'monster’ suffrage petition.²

By 1899 Goldstein had become a leader of the Victorian women's movement through her social welfare activities and roles within the United Council for Women's Suffrage and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.³ She launched two papers, the monthly journal Woman's Sphere and the weekly Woman Voter. Tireless, and a charismatic speaker, she travelled to the USA in 1902 to speak at the International Woman Suffrage Conference, advocating for women's suffrage before a congressional committee. In England in 1911, her speeches campaigning for suffrage drew large crowds.

After the Commonwealth Franchise Act was passed in 1902, Goldstein continued her state suffrage campaign through lectures and through her two newspapers. She was also active in the National Council of Women, the Victorian Women's Public Servants' Association and the Women's Writers' Club. During World War I Goldstein became Chairman of the Peace Alliance and formed the Women's Peace Army with Adela Pankhurst. Her activism continued until her retirement in the late 1920s having (unsuccessfully) contested federal parliamentary elections five times. She died at her home in South Yarra, Melbourne.

References
1. Janice N Brownfoot, 'Goldstein, Vida Jane (1869–1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1983; 'Vida Goldstein', Victorian Government Honour Roll. Websites accessed 27 June 2024.
2. Public Record Office, Victoria, '1891 Women's Suffrage Petition', accessed 27 June 2024.
3. Brownfoot, 'Goldstein', op. cit.