Australian Woman Head of Knighthood Order

The Record » First Australian woman installed as head of knighthood order

After 20 years as a dame of the Queensland chapter of the legendary Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, Dr Monica Thomson adds a black cape and a gold mantilla to her hooded robes to distinguish herself as the new chapter leader.

Her robes were blessed during the installation by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge. “I am very proud to be the first woman in Australia, and the seventh worldwide,” Dr Thomson, 65, mother of three sons and grandmother of eight, said. “I was one of the original members when our chapter was formed and I hope to carry on the good work during my term as lieutenant.”

Knights and dames of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre are devoted to building up the faith and practice among members, and sustaining the spiritual, charitable, and social works of the Church in the Holy Land including Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.

In 1888, Pope Leo XIII authorised the order to give women similar honours to men.

Read rest of article here at The Record

Meet the feminist pioneers who helped shape Central Australia

Meet the feminist pioneers who helped shape Central Australia - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Life in Central Australia is a tough, isolated existence, and for women in decades past confined by the gender roles of their era, the challenges were enormous.

Bringing up children, trying to cook nutritious meals, and running households thousands of kilometres from family and friends meant these women had to make the most of what was available to them.

The concept of feminism, as we know it today, was not one society recognised, but these tenacious and resilient pioneers certainly left their mark.

ABC Local Radio spoke to family members and others who have been touched by the legacy of these remarkable women.

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Women of Note

From Limelight Magazine:

Australia may be known as the lucky country, but it must not have seemed that way to many of the homegrown female composers of the past century as they struggled to be taken seriously in their field. Margaret Sutherland's psychiatrist husband discouraged her from composing by diagnosing her as mentally insane; Miriam Hyde was advised by a publisher to adopt “M. Hydekovsky” as her nom de plume; Peggy Glanville-Hicks declared that a woman must be not as good as men but better in order to succeed – and she wasn’t just talking about composing.

It is these attitudes to women creating music and making their voices heard that prompt journalist Rosalind Appleby to describe classical composition as a “battleground”. It’s the subject of her new book Women of Note, which has its Sydney launch at the Australian Music Centre on March 8 for International Women’s Day.

Diane Cilento

From the Telegraph:

Diane Cilento, the actress, who died on Thursday aged 78, appeared in films, television shows and stage productions, but was perhaps best known as the first wife of the actor Sean Connery.

Her heyday came in the late 1950s and 1960s, with her most memorable film part being that of Molly Seagrim, the lewd gamekeeper’s wench in Tony Richardson’s 1963 production of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones.

Throughout her life, one Australian newspaper noted in 2006, Diane Cilento was sustained by a mix of rebelliousness, humour, independence and spirituality. Her try-anything-once approach included an early job modelling sports clothes in a Brisbane shop, playing bit parts in films and on television, and riding an elephant in a circus. “I wore the traditional fishnet stockings, incredibly high heels, a bum-revealing little green flared skirt, a pillbox hat and gloves that were shocking pink and sequinned,’’ she recalled of the circus gig.

In 2001 she was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for “distinguished service to the arts, especially theatre”.

Notorious Australian Women

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Australians have made heroes of bushranger Ned Kelly, mutineer Fletcher Christian and cricketer Shane Warne but their female equivalents have failed to imprint themselves on the national psyche in the same way.

The 20 subjects of Notorious Australian Women were well known to their contemporaries but few are still household names. Some were justifiably notorious, others attracted attention simply for breaching social mores and some don't really deserve to be labelled notorious at all.

Kay Saunders has picked her subjects from early settlement (prisoner Mary Bryant, bushranger Mary Cockerill, freedom fighter Walyer), through the 19th century (shipwreck survivor Eliza Fraser, good-time girl Lola Montez, transvestite Ellen Tremayne) to the 20th century (including author Pamela Travers, designer Florence Broadhurst, crime boss Tilly Devine and journalist Lillian Roxon) and they are a diverse bunch.

Underbelly Razor - When Women Ruled Crime

It is 1927 and feared vice queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh are battling for control of the underworld in a crime war that will scar Australia.Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh are the undisputed crime queens of Sydney. 

 

 

Australian Dictionary of Biography - Tilly Devine

Australian Dictionary of Biography - Kate Leigh

Sydney Morning Herald - Let's Kiss & Make Up

ABC - Razor Gang Feuds

Evergrowing Mt TBR - Australia History

Just a few more titles to add to the every growing "Mount To Be Read":

Mary Reiby: From Convict To First Lady Of Trade by Kathleen J. Pullen

"Mary Reibey is the woman on the Australian $20 note. She gained this honour because she was Australia’s first lady of trade. This is her moving biography, a tale of love and triumph. Mary came to Australia as a convict in a lice-infested ship at the tender age of 14. She seemed doomed to a life in the filthy Botany Bay prison colony, until she caught the eye of one of the ship’s Lieutenants. The union of the two saw them rise to the top of the commercial ladder. Find out how Mary became one of Australia’s first female tycoons, head of a vast trading business and a tireless fighter against oppression and exploitation. This is a rich and authentic portrait of a woman in early colonial times."

The Diaries of Ethel Turner by Philippa Poole

"Ethel Turner was the author of some of Australia's bestselling children's novels including Seven Little Australians. This book features an intimate collection of her diaries from 1889 to 1930. Shining a spotlight on this literary icon, it presents Ethel’s reflections on Sydney's literary and social scene, her marriage and motherhood, the war years, and the tragic loss of her daughter."

Miles Franklin - Her Brilliant Career by Colin Roderick

"Few people can be compared to Miles Franklin. Genius writer, feminist and years ahead of her era, she is best known for her book My Brilliant Career and her establishment of the prestigious Miles Franklin Award for Literature. Miles Franklin was born in 1879 in country Australia. Determined to make her mark at a time when women were repressed, she wrote novels, as well as several non fiction books and articles. Colin Roderick, a confidante of Miles, presents an in-depth biography. He reveals Miles as a woman often uncertain about her place in the world, maintaining her feminism while indulging in the attention of suitors and counting Norman Lindsay, Henry Lawson and J.K. Moir among her peers."

Females On The Fatal Shore by Susanna De Vries

"Follow the stories of 12 fearless women who inhabited Australia during its young years in Females On The Fatal Shore. Many of these incredible women had ideals far ahead of the constraints of their time period. For example, Fanny Macleay lacked a dowry and she lived in a time where marriage was a priority for women. Her mother encouraged her to marry “up”, but the witty and artistic Fanny had her own life plan. Discover the fascinating females behind some of Australia’s heritage houses and even the currency, like Mary Reibey, the woman on the Australian $20 note. Some of these stories mention places that are in existence today which adds extra interest to the tales of these strong women."

The Floating Brothel by Sian Rees

"Repackaged as a new edition, this critically acclaimed Australian bestseller recreates the riveting story of 200 female convicts bound for Botany Bay. The Lady Julian was described as a “floating brothel” by Lieutenant Riou, commander of the HMS Guardian, but the reality was more complex and interesting. In this book, author Siân Rees combines meticulous research with a vibrant narrative to tell the story of this late 18th century sea voyage to the colony of New South Wales. She also reveals the fate of many of Lady Julian’s ladies and crew.  Described by the Sunday Age as “thoroughly entertaining popular history”, The Floating Brothel is a passionate, diligently researched account."

Women & Warfare

From the Waverley Leader - Remembering our ANZAC Women:

WHILE most of the focus on Anzac Day highlights the many soldiers who fought for their country in military conflicts, a strong group of ladies will also pause on April 25 to remember their contribution.

Oakleigh Carnegie RSL life member Verna Phillips will be one of them.

The 88-year-old joined the Australian Army during World War II in 1942 after seeing notices posted in the city encouraging women to take on administration and office jobs.

From Third Coast Digest - Band of Sisters:

America’s female soldiers are breaking new ground both here and abroad. They are fighting and dying just like the men do.

It is this phenomenon that led author Kirsten Holmstedt to focus two books on the stories of female soldiers, both in the Iraqi theatre and after they returned home.

From the Arizona Republic - Woman Who Spied For The Union:

"Nurse," written by Marissa Moss, tells the true tale of teenager Sarah Emma Edmonds, who dressed as a man and enlisted in the Union Army under the name Frank Thompson. Thompson rescued the wounded on battlefields, nursed them and served as a spy, disguising herself as a slave to get behind Confederate lines.

Lucy Anne Ward (1856 - 1935)

Founder of Outback Maternity Home

Lucy was born six years after her parents first arrived in Australia from England. She became a milliner and operated a shop in North Adelaide, South Australia. Aged 22yo Lucy married Henry Ward. She left city life and travelled by horse and buggy to Willachra - 400km away. She and her husband had to clear the land, fence it and build their house - times were hard so they both took extra work wherever they could.

For the birth of Lucy's first daughter Lucy Evelyn (1880) there was probably no doctor and only assistance from her mother-in-law. She gave birth to another daughter (1882) who died (1885). She adopted her baby niece after the death of its mother but it later died aged 5yo - Lucy was aged 33yo. She had no more children of her own but adopted two more babies.

When relatives in the Hawker district decided to leave, Lucy and Henry bought the house. Lucy was not a trained nurse, but she acquired considerable practical knowledge through her own experiences and in the homes of other women. Lucy began to take in women far from any kind of help. With the difficulties of travel, many of these women from outlying areas often needed to stay for several weeks, and often brought their other young children with them. Since the ability to pay was never an issue, finances were not easy. Lucy cooked, cleaned, carted water, washed, and supplied milk and butter from her own dairy.

Soon the demand became greater than the house could accommodate, and so Henry built extra rooms, and "the Gables", as the house became known, was registered as a Lying-in Home (1909) under the State Children Act (1895). When a severe influenza epidemic struck (1910), Lucy set up tents to accommodate the many local people who fell ill and sought her help.

Three years after the opening of the Hawker Hospital (1928), as the Gables had become, 72yo Lucy recorded her last patient. Over 30 years, she helped deliver between 400-500 babies.

The Parramatta Female Factory

From the Parramatta Sun:

Local MPs and Parramatta Heritage Centre members are furious that work has begun to turn one of Australia’s most important buildings into an IT centre.

The Parramatta Female Factory, now part of Cumberland Hospital, is the oldest surviving female convict structure in Australia.

To Parramatta Heritage Centre curator Gay Hendriksen it is an irreplaceable piece of women’s history.

Parramatta Federal MP Julie Owens called it ‘‘incredibly important’’ and said to not preserve it would devalue women’s contribution to Australia.

But when The Sun visited the site last Monday work had already begun on the third-class sleeping quarters building despite assurances that the renovations had not yet been approved.

Mary Glowrey - Saint in Waiting

From the Herald Sun:

Mary Glowrey, a Melbourne University graduate who went on to work as a missionary in India, looks set to become the nation's second saint after the first stage of the long process began yesterday.

Glowrey was born in 1887 in Birregurra, 135km southwest of Melbourne, but moved to Melbourne to study medicine.

After graduating with a bachelor of medicine and a bachelor of surgery, Ms Glowrey worked for a short time in Sydney before moving to Melbourne's Eye and Ear Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital. She later opened her own practice on Collins St.

She said she had her religious calling at East Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral in 1915 after reading a pamphlet about the plight of children in India.

In 1920 she migrated to Bangalore, where she joined the Congregation of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and carried out missionary work there until her death in 1957.

From the Catholc Archdiocese of Melbourne:

The Catholic Women’s League of Victoria and Wagga Wagga has been working closely with the Society of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in India for the past two years preparing for the commencement of Mary Glowrey’s cause.

The Archbishop of Bangalore, the Most Rev. Dr. Bernard Moras, appointed Fr Paul Puthanangady on 11 November this year to assist and guide the Society of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the preparation of all documents and records needed in the preliminary phase of Mary Glowrey’s cause. The Catholic Women’s League of Victoria and Wagga Wagga hold more than 80% of Mary Glowrey’s personal writings.

From the Catholic Women's League Australia:

The inaugural President of the League was Mary Glowrey, a gifted young doctor whose actions were grounded in an understanding of the absolute inviolability of human life. In 1920, Mary left her thriving career as an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Surrendering herself completely to God’s will, Mary sailed for India to become a medical missionary with the Congregation of the Society of Jesus Mary Joseph in Guntur. Pope Pius XI bestowed a special blessing on her medical mission work and Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, as Mary Glowrey was then known, became the first nun-doctor missionary.

Gertrude Abbott (1846-1934)

Founder of St Margaret's Hospital for Women

Gertrude Abbott began life as Mary Jane O'Brien in Sydney (1846). Her father was a school teacher who moved from New South Wales to Dry Creek, SA and took up farming. "Gertrude" entered Sister Mary McKillop's congregation at Penola, South Australia (1869) and became Sister Ignatius. Influenced by Father Julian Tennison-Woods, she and another young nun claimed to have had visions - there was a scandal when the other nun was found to have faked her visions. Sister Ignatius was blameless but left the congregation (July 1872) two months after she had made her final vows.

She returned to Sydney - but not under her own name, instead she became Gertrude Abbott. She leased a house in the Sydney suburb of Surrey Hills and gathered about her a group of pious women. They lived by dressmaking and adopted the rule of contemplative congregation. Gertrude hoped that the Roman Catholic Church would give the group the status of a religious order.

However, one fateful night, things took a different turn. On that night (1893) a policeman presented a young women at her door. Gertrude had no money or food herself, yet she took the girl in, and one hour later a baby was born. Soon other girls can to her home, and so began what would become St Margaret's Hospital for Women, the third largest obstetric hospital in Sydney.

In the first years of St Margaret's Hospital, Gertrude took in 9 married and 23 unmarried women, and trained 3 nurses in midwifery with the help of her great friend and certified nurse Magdalen Foley (who took a degree in pharmacy so as to dispense medicines). Regarded as a quasi-religious community, the women eventually acquired status within the Catholic Church as their services to the community were recognised. The Hospital was run on donations.

The Hospital began to treat the diseases of women (1904). Soon it had outgrown its present buildings and was forced to move to larger premises in Darlinghurst which Gertrude leased and then bought. Her friend and mentor Father Tennison-Woods died in her care (1889) and left her his entire estate, as did her friend Magdalen Foley (1926). Despite the growth of the hospital she was still quite lonely. Gradually she withdrew as matron and manager.

Gertrude died 48 years after that fateful night, aged 88yo. In the year of her death, the Hospital recorded 760 patients treated, 619 births registered and no maternal deaths. In her will, she passed her Hospital into the hands of the Sisters of St Joseph, whose order she had left unhappily 62 years before.

Remembering "la Stupenda"

From Fox News:

Joan Sutherland's radiant soprano stretched effortlessly over more than three octaves, with a purity of tone that made her one of the most celebrated opera singers of all time.

Acclaimed "La Stupenda," — "the Stupendous One" — during a career spanning more than four decades, Sutherland was known in the opera world as an "anti-diva" diva whose warm vibrant sound and subtle coloring helped revitalize the school of early 19th-century Italian opera known as bel canto.

She died Sunday at her home near Geneva, after what her family described as a long illness. She was 83.

Mary McKillop - Saint in Waiting

(1842-1909)

Co-Founder of the Order of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart

Mary McKillop was born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy of Scots parentage. Mary worked as a shop-girl, governess and teacher to support her family. Mary yearned for penitential form of religious life and so placed herself under the direction of Father Julian Tennison-Woods, parish priest of Penola, South Australia.

Mary founded the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph (19/3/1866) at Penola, South Australia, with the encouragement and guidance of Father Tenison-Woods. The Order was dedicated to the education of poor children. Mary was the first member and the first Superior of the Order. The Josephites spread to Adelaide and other parts of South Australia, and membership grew rapidly.

However, Tenison-Woods came into conflict with the clergy over educational matters and as a result Mary was excommunicated by Bishop Shiel of Adelaide (22/9/1871) for alleged insubordination. The excommunication placed on her was lifted 6 months later. In Rome (1873), Mary obtained papal approval for the Sisterhood. She traveled widely throughout Europe, observing teaching methods.

Back in Adelaide, Mary was elected Superior-General of the Sisterhood. Mary worked tirelessly for the education of the children of the poor, especially in the bush. She founded numerous schools, convents and charitable institutions throughout Australia to that end up till her own death in Sydney (1908).

But Mary soon came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church establishment by insisting on an equalitarian rather than hierarchial organization. Bishop Reynolds told her to leave his diocese (1883) and Mary transferred the Headquarters of the Josephites to Sydney. Mary suffered a stroke (1901) an though she maintained her mental faculties, she was an invalid till he death (1909).

Mother Mary became the first Australian to be formally proposed to Rome as a candidate for canonization (1973), she was beautified (1990s) by Pope John Paul II. The Order of the Josephites works throughout Australia, New Zealand and Peru.

See also my post: Mother Mary McKillop

Rose Scott (1847-1925)

Social Reformer and Suffragette

Rose Scott was born in Glendon, New South Wales (Australia). Like many women of her time, Rose campaigned for suffrage (1891) in Australia, concentrating on better working hours and conditions for shop girls. Through her work and in recogninition of her work, Rose was appointed the first Secretary of the Women's Suffrage League (New South Wales, Australia), and President of the Prisoner's Aid Society.

Rose was also influential in establishing the Childrens' Court (1918). She was a staunch pacifist during the Boer and First World Wars. Rose founded the Women's College at the University of Sydney. Rose was successful in achieving her aim due to her great initiative and her knack for co-operating well with both men and women.

Sister Elizabeth Kenny

Nurse & Battler Against Polio (1880-1952)

Elizabeth Kenny was born in Warialda, New South Wales, Australia, the daughter of an Irish farmer. She spent her childhood on the Darling Downs. Elizabeth had little education and there is no record of any formal training or of her registration as a nurse.

Elizabeth Kenny was a self appointed nurse (c.1910), working from the family home as Nobby on the Darling Downs, and riding on horseback to give her services without pay to anyone who called. She used hot cloth formentations on the advice of Aeneas McDonnell, a Toowoomba surgeon, to treat symptomatically puzzling new cases (c.1911) diagnosed by him telegraphically as infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis - polio). The patients recovered.

During WW1, using a letter from McDonnell as evidence of her nursing experience, Elizabeth Kenny enlisted and was appointed staff nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service, serving on troopships bringing home the wounded. She invented and patented a stretcher for the transporting of the wounded. She was promoted to Sister (1917), a title she used for the rest of her life.

Elizabeth Kenny established (1932) a backyard clinic at Townsville to treat long-term polio victims and cerebal palsy patients with hot baths, forments, passive movements, the discarding of braces and calipers and the encouragement of active moments. Doctors and massuers ridiculed her, considering her explanations of the lesions at the site of the paralysis to be bizzare. Thus began a long controversy at the time when there was no vaccination for polio. The strong-willed Kenny, with an obsessional belief in her theory and methods, was opposed by a conservative medical profession whom she mercilessly slated and who considered her recommendation to discard immobilisation to be criminal.

In the USA, however, Eliabeth Kenny's methods became widely accepted and the Sister Kenny Institute was built in Minneapolis. Other clinics were established in her name and Elizabeth Kenny, who remained unmarried, was eulogised in a full-length feature film in the USA. The American Congress (1950) gave her the rare honour of free access to American without entry formalities.

But depsite this success, Elizabeth Kenny remained in bitter controversy, partly because of her intolerance of opposition, and returned to Australia several times with little acclaim. Although Elizabeth Kenny's view of the pathology of polio were generally not accepted it was agreed that she stimulated much fresh thinking on the subject.

Elizabeth Kenny developed Parkinsons Disease (1952), and retired and died in Toowoomba (1952). Her book "My Battle and Victory" was published posthumously (1955).

Vida Golstein

Feminist and Political Activist (1869-1949)

Vida Jane Mary Goldstein was born in Portland, Victoria. She became involved in women's suffrage activities through her mother (1890). Vida soon became active in the National Anti-Sweating League and the Criminology Society. Her primary aim was to achieve women's suffrage - and she campaigned for this (1899-1908).

Australian women were granted the federal vote (1902). Vida stood for the Senate (1903) as an Independent Candidate backed by the Women's Federal Political Association, which was dedicated to the principals for compulsory conciliation and arbitration, equal rights and pay, redistribution of wealth and the appointment of women to official posts. Though she polled well, Vida did not get elected.

Through the renamed Women's Political Association and her own newspaper "Women's Sphere" (owner and editor 1900-1905), Vida began a program of education women voters. She campaigned for and achieved (1908) State Franchise for women. Vida returned to national politics (1908), and founded a second paper "Woman Voter" (1909). Vida continued to stand as Independent Woman Candidate - twice for the Senate (1910 and 1917) and twice for the House of Representative (1913 and 1914). She did not stand again after her second Senate defeat (1917).

Vida also had influence in Australia Legislation with the Childrens' Court Act which she helped draft and which was made law (1906). Vida wrote articles which lead to the implementation of the concept of the basic wage (1907). Vida became increasingly involved with Christian Science, and helped found the Melbourne Christian Science Church. In her last years, Vida lived with her two sisters, one Aileen was also a practitioners within the Christian Science Church. Vida died of cancer (1949) - her death went almost unnoticed - almost.

Australia: Court Stops Arranged Marriage

From SBS World News Australia:

A 14-year old Melbourne girl has been been barred from travelling overseas in a bid to avoid an arranged marriage to a man she's never met, News Ltd reports.

The case came to light when the then 13-year-old, who can not be named for legal reasons, was removed from school ahead of her wedding.

She told child protection officers she had not met the 17-year old boy, and that she had only ever seen a photograph of him.

Child protection officers became convinced after interviewing the girl that she did not understand the sexual or emotional implications of being married.

The teenager told the officers she was not forced into the engagement, and that if she changed her mind after meeting her fiance, she would not have to go through with the marriage.

She said she had not discussed her concern with either of her parents.

Every Body Counts

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Fifteen Perth women ranging in sizes from eight to 16, including one sprightly 60-year-old wannabe model, will hit the catwalk for the Every Body Counts show.

The parade aims to showcase 'real women', as opposed to the typical skinny tall model that graces the average catwalk.

Each of the women chosen to participate have enjoyed a photo shoot and clothes fitting and will get the rundown on ruling the runway this weekend before hitting the stage in front of the Perth Fashion Festival crowd.

Christine Nixon by Stephen Linnell

From Herald Sun:

Somewhat controversially, from the start of her tenure Christine set an ambitious program to substantially increase the ratio of female Victoria Police officers.

When she arrived, just 15 per cent of officers were female. This had increased to about 23 per cent in 2007 - still significantly short of the national average of 31 per cent.

Read the eye-opening extract from Stephen's book in today's Herald Sun.