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Mary Lee
'I hope Mrs Lee will forgive me indicating that in my youthful opinion she is a turbulent anarchist.' Young South Australian, 1893
Suffragist and social justice advocate Mary Lee was determined to leave the world a better place than she found it. The feisty 59-year-old widow, of limited means and with few family and friends, settled in Adelaide in 1879 and immediately set to work.
Undaunted by the opposition of antagonistic politicians and a conservative public, Mary thrust herself into high profile campaigns in support of female refuge, improving women's working conditions and gaining women's suffrage. In 1894, South Australia became the first place in the world to pass legislation giving women the right to vote and be elected members of parliament, thanks in no small part to Mary Lee's energy and committed determination.
The disappearance of Mary Lee's journals and most of her letters, along with a dearth of recorded women's history, kept her contribution to history hidden for more than 125 years. Undeterred, author Denise George travelled to Ireland and her painstaking examination of local records both there and in Adelaide revealed the compelling story of a woman who took on the Establishment, and won.
Suffragist and social justice advocate Mary Lee was determined to leave the world a better place than she found it. The feisty 59-year-old widow, of limited means and with few family and friends, settled in Adelaide in 1879 and immediately set to work.
Undaunted by the opposition of antagonistic politicians and a conservative public, Mary thrust herself into high profile campaigns in support of female refuge, improving women's working conditions and gaining women's suffrage. In 1894, South Australia became the first place in the world to pass legislation giving women the right to vote and be elected members of parliament, thanks in no small part to Mary Lee's energy and committed determination.
The disappearance of Mary Lee's journals and most of her letters, along with a dearth of recorded women's history, kept her contribution to history hidden for more than 125 years. Undeterred, author Denise George travelled to Ireland and her painstaking examination of local records both there and in Adelaide revealed the compelling story of a woman who took on the Establishment, and won.
- GenresHistory
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2018
About the author
Denise George
74 books28 followersDenise George is an internationally popular writer and speaker best known for creative Biblical application. Denise is married to Dr. Timothy George, executive editor of Christianity Today and founding Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 16, 2018
Mary Lee, Denise George’s biography of a ‘turbulent anarchist’ and her battle for women’s rights is a perfect companion to Clare Wright’s recently published You Daughters of Freedom (which I reviewed here). That’s because Wright’s book about the struggle for women’s suffrage in Australia and beyond – comprehensive though it is – pays scant attention to the event that started it all in Australia: the achievement of the women’s vote in South Australia in 1894. Had it not been for women’s suffrage in South Australia, those ‘founding fathers’ would not have had to negotiate women’s suffrage in the new rules for voting in the very first federal election. As Wright makes very clear, the South Australians were ready to derail federation altogether if their women were not allowed to vote, and it was inconceivable that women in some states could vote and others could not. The parliament was snookered, and so women got the vote!
Yet the South Australian story of women’s suffrage is barely known. Denise George deserves all credit for unearthing the story from obscurity, because as the blurb tells us, Lee’s journals and most of her letters, along with a dearth of recorded women’s history, kept her contribution hidden for more than 125 years. Mary Lee is a woman whose statue should not only be among the gentlemen of the South Australian parliament, she should be prominently acknowledged in our national parliament as well. (I will be delighted if someone who lives in Canberra inspects the building to see if she is).
Mary Lee, suffragist and social advocate, really was an amazing woman. She was nearly sixty when she and her daughter Evelyn landed in Australia to look after her gravely ill son Benjamin, and after he died she threw herself into battle to improve the lives of women.
The list of causes she took on is impressive – everything from raising the age of consent to sixteen (from— can you believe it? ten years old in 1875) to ending capital punishment, but it was her extraordinary determination to achieve votes for women that is her most important achievement.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/10/16/m...
Yet the South Australian story of women’s suffrage is barely known. Denise George deserves all credit for unearthing the story from obscurity, because as the blurb tells us, Lee’s journals and most of her letters, along with a dearth of recorded women’s history, kept her contribution hidden for more than 125 years. Mary Lee is a woman whose statue should not only be among the gentlemen of the South Australian parliament, she should be prominently acknowledged in our national parliament as well. (I will be delighted if someone who lives in Canberra inspects the building to see if she is).
Mary Lee, suffragist and social advocate, really was an amazing woman. She was nearly sixty when she and her daughter Evelyn landed in Australia to look after her gravely ill son Benjamin, and after he died she threw herself into battle to improve the lives of women.
The list of causes she took on is impressive – everything from raising the age of consent to sixteen (from— can you believe it? ten years old in 1875) to ending capital punishment, but it was her extraordinary determination to achieve votes for women that is her most important achievement.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/10/16/m...
December 8, 2019
This is a much-needed book, which brings together more information than every before about Mary Lee, the under-sung hero of Australian women's suffrage. George has done her homework and explored the sources exhaustively to build a picture of a determined, resilient working-class woman who dedicated her life to social justice. By her own admission, George, however, is not an historian and this is reflected in some rather wooden and jerky writing., while some proof-reading howlers also interrupt the flow of the text.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews