Henrietta Augusta Dugdale ( Worrell; 14 May 1827 – 17 June 1918) was a pioneer Australian who initiated the first female suffrage society in Australia. Non-conformist, provocative and quick-witted, her campaigning resulted in breakthroughs for
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
in Australia.
Life
Henrietta Augusta Worrell was born at
St Pancras London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
on 14 May 1827,
the second surviving daughter of John Worrell and Henrietta Ann (''née'' Austin). Her claim of a first marriage at 14 does not fit with her official marriage in 1848 to a merchant navy officer J. A. Davies, with whom she came to Australia in 1852. After Davies' death she married ship's captain William Dugdale in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
in March 1853. They settled at
Queenscliff where sons Einnim, Carl and Austin were born. Dugdale was a
vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism m ...
.
After separating from William Dugdale in the late 1860s, she moved to the Melbourne suburb of
Camberwell
Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
where she remained until a few years before her death on 17 June 1918 at
Point Lonsdale
Point Lonsdale is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia. The town is divided between the Borough of Queenscliffe and the City of Greater Geelong. Point Lonsdale is also one of the headlands which, ...
. Her third husband Frederick Johnson, whom she married in 1903, predeceased her.
Her campaign for 'equal justice for women' began with a letter to Melbourne's ''
Argus'' newspaper in April 1869. It peaked during the 1880s in radical public debate as a member of Melbourne's Eclectic Society and the Australasian Secular Association, through her
utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
''A Few Hours in a Far-Off Age'' and in the formation in May 1884 of the
Victorian Women's Suffrage Society, the first of its kind in Australia. That same year, Henrietta wrote a scathing judgement of the Victorian courts, and their inability to protect women from violent crimes. Published in the ''Melbourne Herald'', her words cut straight to the core of the issue: 'Women's anger,' she wrote, 'was compounded by the fact that those who inflicted violence upon women had a share in making the laws while their victims did not.'
She was acknowledged as a suffrage pioneer when Australian women attained the vote and the associated right to stand for federal parliament in June 1902 (a world first) and when the State of Victoria
belatedly followed suit in December 1908.
Dugdale died on 17 June 1918 in Point Lonsdale, Australia.
Legacy
A street in the
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
suburb of
Cook
Cook or The Cook may refer to:
Food preparation
* Cooking, the preparation of food
* Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food
* Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry
* ...
is named for her.
In 2013, she was nationally recognised as a critical first-wave Australian feminist, and The Dugdale Trust for Women & Girls, is named in honour of her life's work. Dugdale was inducted into the
Victorian Honour Roll of Women
The Victorian Honour Roll of Women was established in 2001 to recognise the achievements of women from the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The Honour Roll was established as part of the cele ...
in 2001.
The Dugdale Trust for Women & Girls is a national harm-prevention institution for which The Victorian Women's Trust operates as trustee.
See also
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the public ...
*
List of women's rights activists
This article is a list of notable women's rights activists, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed.
Afghanistan
* Amina Azimi – disabled women's rights advocate
* Hasina Jalal – women's empowerm ...
*
Women and government in Australia
Government in Australia is elected by universal suffrage and Australian women participate in all levels of the government of the nation. In 1902, the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia became the first nation on earth to enact equal suffr ...
*
Politics of Australia
The politics of Australia take place within the framework of a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system under its Constitution, one of the world's oldest, since Fe ...
*
Human Rights in Australia
Human rights in Australia have largely been developed by the democratically-elected Australian Parliament through laws in specific contexts (rather than a stand-alone, abstract bill of rights) and safeguarded by such institutions as the indepen ...
*
Suffrage in Australia
Suffrage in Australia refers to the right to vote (usually referred to as franchise) for people living in Australia, including all its six component states (before 1901 called colonies) and territories, as well as local councils. The colonies of Au ...
*
Women's suffrage in Australia
Women's suffrage in Australia was one of the early achievements of Australian democracy. Following the progressive establishment of male suffrage in the Australian colonies from the 1840s to the 1890s, an organised push for women's enfranchi ...
*
Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
''Australian Dictionary of Biography''''Australian Women's History Forum ''''Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House ''''Utopia Girls – How Women won the Vote''. Website for ABC TV production about women's suffrage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dugdale, Henrietta
1827 births
1918 deaths
19th-century Australian people
19th-century Australian women
20th-century Australian women
Australian suffragists
Australian vegetarianism activists
Australian women's rights activists
English emigrants to Australia
People from London