This is a fascinating biography of VIDA GOLDSTEIN, a trailblazing Australian woman, and shows how the treatment of women in politics and society has not changed much in certain aspects even today a hundred years or more later.
Jacqueline Kent has written acclaimed biographies of Julia Gillard, pianist and social activist Hephzibah Menuhin, and pioneer book editor Beatrice Davis.
The book itself is of medium size and thickness, divided into four parts and twenty two chapters with an introduction and an epilogue. Notes and references, an extensive bibliography and a great index are included at the back. In the middle there re several pages of photographs.
Vida Goldstein was an inspirational leader, the first woman to stand for Parliament, a campaigner for women’s rights and social justice. She also fought for a far more equal distribution of wealth and help for the poor, and was a campaigner for peace and anti-conscription.
Goldstein grew up in a relatively well-off middle class family in late nineteenth century Melbourne. Both her parents were social activists, campaigning to help train and support the poor, especially during the drought and depression of the 1890’s. Goldstein stood for office five times between 1903 and 1917, traveling all around Victoria in exhausting campaigns, speaking at numerous small country town meetings, braving derision and a patronising, misogynist attitude. She was never elected. While Goldstein did receive marriage proposals, she didn’t marry or have children, often regarded as standards of success both then and still to some degree now.
Goldstein developed both a national and international profile. In the US and UK she was a Personage, regarded as the pioneer she was, the first woman to run for elected office. Invited to both countries, she met the leading politicians of the time, became great friends with George Bernard Shaw, as well as fellow suffragettes, in particular the Pankhursts (whose methods she basically supported) and the prominent Americans who supported the suffrage, as well as women from Germany, Turkey, France and elsewhere and returned full of ideas for reform.
Goldstein was great friends with Stella (Miles) Franklin and Cecilia John, pacificist, feminist and singer and did much work for women’s health rights too. An astute political commentator, Goldstein discovered and used her voice, as a coordinator, a fiery speaker, and a vibrant writer. She established a monthly magazine, The Australian Women’s Sphere, which not only promoted the suffragist cause but other social issues and causes Goldstein passionately believed in, such as conditions for women workers and their children, women in prisons and education for girls. Goldstein’s involvement with Christian Science is given due importance.
Kent, in the epilogue, reviews the progress of women in politics from Vida’s time until now. Has much has changed? We see how some inspirational changes provoked a vehement reaction, how achievements have been ignored and the hidden campaigns of disruption, misogyny and belligerence are just as familiar today.
The ludicrous attitudes and events, sometimes dangerous that Goldstein faced at times are explored by Kent and placed in historical context.
Most of Goldstein’s policies, at the time viewed as revolutionary, are now almost taken for granted. Some, however, are still challenging today. How she dealt with antipathy, her use of badinage and charisma are reflected in the way contemporary female politicians deal with them now – Kent makes comparisons with,for example, Julia Gillard.
Goldstein was ahead of her time, an inspirational force, non-partisan in her philosophy and politics and individualistic in her lifestyle.
Kent’s biography is vividly written, an engrossing life of an important Australian woman, full of determination and integrity.
Available now from Penguin books.
• Published: 15 September 2020
• ISBN: 9780670079490
• Imprint: Viking
• Format: Trade Paperback
• Pages: 336
• RRP: $34.99
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/vida-a-woman-for-our-time-9780670079490