Louisa Lawson

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Louisa Lawson

Louisa Lawson (born February 17, 1848 in Mudgee , New South Wales ; died August 12, 1920 in Gladesville ) was an Australian writer, editor, suffragette, and feminist .

Live and act

Lawson was the oldest of nine children in a poor family and had to leave school at the age of 13. In 1866 she married Niels Larsen. However, her husband was often absent, leaving Louisa alone with four children. In 1882 she moved to Sydney with her children . She managed pensions and saved money in order to acquire a stake in the radical daily newspaper The Republican , which supported the Federation of Australia , in 1887 . With her income and experience from working for the newspaper, she was able to publish The Dawn in May 1888 .

The Dawn was Australia's first journal produced exclusively by women (up to ten). It was published monthly for seventeen years (1888–1905) and distributed throughout Australia and overseas. The magazine had a strictly feminist perspective and discussed topics such as women's right to vote and to hold public office, education, and economic and legal rights for women, domestic violence and the abstinence movement . Louisa's son Henry Lawson also wrote poetry and stories for the magazine. The publisher of The Dawn 1894 also printed Henry's first book Short Stories in Prose and Verse .

In 1889 Louisa founded the Dawn Club , which became the center of the suffragette movement in Sydney. When the New South Wales Women's Suffrage League was formed in 1891 to support the movement, Lawson allowed them to use the Dawn's office to print pamphlets and literature for free. After the "Womanhood Suffrage Bill" was enforced in New South Wales in 1902, Louisa was introduced to members of Parliament as "The Mother of Suffrage in New South Wales". For the women of the time, universal suffrage was not the central issue. Louisa did not criticize the government for denying the Aborigines the right to vote.

Lawson retired in 1905 but continued to write for Sydney magazines and published The Lonely Crossing and Other Poems , a collection of 52 poems. She died in the Gladesville Mental Hospital in 1920 and was buried in a poor grave.

In 1975 the Australian Post issued a postage stamp in her honor .

literature

  • Lawson, Louisa , in: June Hannam, Mitzi Auchterlonie, Katherine Holden: International encyclopedia of women's suffrage . Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio, 2000, ISBN 1-57607-064-6 , pp. 168f.

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personal data
SURNAME Lawson, Louisa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian writer, editor, suffragette and feminist
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Mudgee , New South Wales , Australia
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1920
Place of death Gladesville