Our Centenary of Women’s Suffrage
Preparing to exercise the franchise
In the opinion of the Sydney Daily Telegraph ‘at this early period in woman’s political history, every effort should be made to overcome her natural timidity and induce her to record her vote at the polls’.
Women started attending political meetings. Sometimes the organisers offered the inducement of a ‘number of seats reserved for ladies’, often at the front of the gathering. There were also meetings just for women, generally organised by one of the women’s associations. The Women’s Liberal League of NSW was particularly active in this respect, and was well reported in the Sydney papers. The ladies’ meetings were often held in the afternoon, sometimes at private houses; approved candidates might address the gathering, or general political topics be discussed, questions invited and a vote of thanks would conclude the proceedings.
At such meetings quite a fashionable exercise was to hold a mock election, ‘to instruct the new voters in the technicalities of the ballot box’. At a meeting of the Women’s Suffrage Association in Hobart, for example, the Federal Electoral Officer for the division of Denison gave a clear and detailed address explaining the procedure and then superintended the ballot. He received a hearty vote of thanks.
Another meeting in the Western district of Victoria was not so smooth – a lecture was given to the ladies on the ABC of politics by a mere man. ‘The mere man was afterwards much snubbed by the audience, who declared that he must think them children, who had never read a newspaper, to judge by the elementary instruction he gave them.’
The women’s organisations and committees also looked at strategies to ease the process for women attending polling booths. There were proposals for looking after small children, either in someone’s home or in a room at the polling centre. Another suggestion was that women who had more leisure should form committees to relieve others from their domestic duties for sufficient time to enable them to record their vote. Some of the organisations rostered their members to attend the polling booths and give assistance as required by women recording their votes.
A letter to The Age asked for a very particular form of assistance for voting – a list of the current candidates showing who favored and who opposed the granting of the women’s vote.
‘It is very necessary to take precautions so that women may not be cajoled into voting for men like Mr Knox or Colonel Templeton. Both of these have the effrontery to tell women they should not be trusted with the vote, and then ask that they shall make full use of it and vote for them. Yours, A WOMAN VOTER’.
Mr. Knox retained his seat but Colonel Templeton was unsuccessful in the Senate election.
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