State Library of South Australia logo Timeline
SA Memory. South Australia past and present, for the future




A question of propriety
Title : A question of propriety A question of propriety
Add To My SA Memory
Source : Critic, 26 August 1899, p. 16
Date of creation : 1899
Format : Cartoon
Contributor : State Library catalogue
Catalogue record
The State Library of South Australia is keen to find out more about SA Memory items. We encourage you to contact the Library if you have additional information about any of these items.
Copyright : Reproduction rights are owned by State Library of South Australia. This image may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires permission from the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form.
Description :

In December 1894, the South Australian Parliament passed a Bill granting women the right to vote and to stand for election to Parliament. Queen Victoria signed Assent for the Bill in February 1895.

South Australia was the first colony in Australia to allow women to vote, and the first place in the world where women had the right to stand for election. This 1899 cartoon depicts a woman from Victoria demanding her right to vote - but the male Conservative Party respondent is not convinced of the positive value of women gaining the vote: 'I assure you they're very unbecoming, ma'am. Just look at Miss South Australia there!'

Subjects
Coverage year : 1899
Period : 1884-1913
Further reading :

Finnimore, Christine. Votes for South Australian women, Adelaide: Old Parliament House, 1990

Jones, Helen. In her own name: a history of women in South Australia from 1836, Kent Town, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1994

Oldfield, Audrey. Woman suffrage in Australia: a gift or a struggle?, Cambridge [England]; Melbourne: Cambridge University, 1992

Stretton, Pat and Kathryn Gargett. 1894: how a parliament of men gave the vote to women, Adelaide: Old Parliament House, 1993
Internet links :

A Matter of Public Importance: Votes for Women [Parliament of Australia]

Documenting a democracy See: South Australia: Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act, 1895

Women & politics in South Australia [State Library of South Australia]

Women in Politics in South Australia [Parliament of South Australia]


Navigation

Home

About SA Memory

Explore SA Memory

SA Memory Themes

Search

My SA Memory

Learning

What's on

Contributors