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Cowan, Edith Dircksey (1861-1932)

Occupation
child welfare reformer; magistrate; Member of Lower House; political activist; welfare worker; women's activist
Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-706095

Biographies

Australian Women's Register

Edith Cowan, the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament in Western Australia in 1921, was described in her entry in Australian feminism, a companion, as 'a committed, tireless and public campaigner for women's and children's rights from the early twentieth century'. Married at the age of seventeen to James Cowan, registrar and master of the Supreme Court, they had five children. She was the founding secretary in 1894 and later president of the Karrakatta Club, a women's club in Perth, which campaigned for female suffrage. Her commitment to women's well-being resulted in her active involvement in the establishment of the Western Australian National Council of Women in 1911. She was a foundation member of the Children's Protection Society in 1906 and the first woman to be appointed to the Children's Court bench in 1915. She became a Justice of the Peace in 1920. In the same year her work was acknowledged with her appointment to the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to the Western Australian division of the Red Cross Society, of which she was a founding member in 1914. A clock tower at the entrance to King's Park in Perth was erected to her memory in 1934 and in 1995 her portrait was printed on the Australian fifty dollar note.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

COWAN, EDITH DIRCKSEY (1861-1932), social worker and politician, was born on 2 August 1861 at Glengarry near Geraldton, Western Australia, second child of Kenneth Brown, pastoralist and son of early York settlers Thomas and Eliza Brown, and his first wife Mary Eliza Dircksey Wittenoom, a teacher and the daughter of the colonial chaplain, J. B. Wittenoom. Edith's mother died in childbirth in 1868 and she went to a Perth boarding school run by the Misses Cowan, sisters of her future husband; she completed her education with Canon Sweeting, ex-headmaster of Bishop Hale's School. Her adolescence was shattered in 1876 by the ordeal of her father's trials and hanging for the murder, that year, of his second wife. These experiences made her a solitary person, committed nevertheless to social reforms which enhanced women's dignity and responsibility and which secured proper care for mothers and children.

View the full record at Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Related people and organisations

Resources

Selected resources (26)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Bishop Hale and secondary education
    Cowan, Edith Dircksey
    [1930]
  2. Early social life and fashions
    Cowan, Edith Dircksey
    [1928]
  3. Some pioneer women
    Cowan, Edith Dircksey
    [1931]
  4. Cowan, Edith
    Grahame, Emma
    [1998]
    Published: Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria
  5. Breaking the monumental mould: how the Edith Cowan clock was built.
    Bulbeck, Chilla
    [1996]
  6. Edith Cowan
    Cowan, Peter
    [1976]
  7. Mrs Cowan's clock: the location of the Edith Cowan Memorial
    Wycherley, Paul
    [1997]
    Published: Edith Cowan University, Churchlands, Western Australia
  8. Cowan, Edith Dircksey (1861-1932)
    Brown, Margaret
    [2006]
    Published: Australian National University
  9. Edith Cowan
    Steadman, Margaret
    [1988]
    Published: Women's Redress Press Inc, Sydney, NSW
  10. The voice of Edith Cowan, Australia's first woman parliamentarian 1921-1924
    Cowan, Edith Dircksey
    [1996]
    Published: Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia
  11. The National Library of Australia's Federation Gateway
    National Library of Australia
    [2002]
    Published: National Library of Australia
  12. The Complete Book of Great Australian Women: Thirty-six women who changed the course of Australia
    De Vries, Susanna
    [2003]
    Published: HarperCollins, Sydney
  13. A unique position: a biography of Edith Dircksey Cowan, 1861-1932
    Cowan, Peter
    [1978]
    Published: University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia
  14. Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2003]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
  15. 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology
    Radi, Heather
    [1988]
    Published: Women's Redress Press, Sydney
  16. Reflections : profiles of 150 women who helped make Western Australia's history; Project of the Womens Committee for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations of Western Australia
    Popham, Daphne; Stokes, K.A.; Lewis, Julie
    [1979]
    Published: Carrolls, Perth, Melbourne [etc.]:
  17. Making a difference : women in the Western Australian Parliament 1921-1999
    Black, David and Phillips, Harry
    [2000]
    Published: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project, Perth
  18. Women on the warpath : feminist of the first wave
    Davidson, Dianne
    [1997]
    Published: University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, WA
  19. 'In the thick of every battle for the cause of Labor' : the voluntary work of the Labor women's organisations in Western Australia, 1900-1970
    Oliver, Bobbie
    [2001]
  20. Uphill all the way
    Daniels, Kay
    [1980]
    Published: University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld
  21. Liberal women : Federation to 1949
    Fitzherbert, Margaret
    [2004]
    Published: Federation Press, Sydney
  22. Cowan, Edith Dircksey, 1861-1932, letter, 1922 15 December
    [Correspondence : 1922]
    1 item. Manuscript. Letter written to Miss Holland thanking her for her letter of sympathy.
    JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia
    ACC 2125A, 4th Floor, Private Archive Stack
  23. Biographical cuttings on Edith Cowan, former first woman member of an Australian parliament
    [Press cuttings : 1861 - 1932]
    National Library of Australia Newspaper Microcopy Reading Room
  24. Edith Cowan memorial committee minute book, 1932-1952
    [Minutes : 1932 - 1952]
    Manuscript, 4 cm. Battye library, records of the Edith Cowan memorial committee, which was set up to memorialise Edith Cowan, Australia's first woman parliamentarian. The question of a memorial to Edith Cowan was first raised at the monthly meeting of the Western Australian National Council of Women in August 1932, where it was decided to call a public meeting. The public meeting held on 23 September 1932 moved for the formation of a committee to decide on the form of a memorial. After much controversy, the clock tower at the entrance to Kings Park was unveiled in 1934.
    JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia
    MN 927, 3rd Fl;oor, Battye Shelves; ACC 482A, Private Archive stack
  25. Women's Service Guilds of Western Australia Records
    [1909 - 1992]
    State Executive minute books (1926-1970); miscellaneous volumes including minutes of general meetings (1909-1919); subject files; records of Perth Branch, Fremantle Branch and Swanbourne Branch; history (compiled 1977); membership lists (1909-1921); biographical notes, including Daisy Bates and Irene Greenwood; by-laws (1925); newspaper cuttings concerning Aboriginal issues; scrapbooks (1909, 1915-1919, Child Welfare Conference 1916); photographs.
    2.5 m
    JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia
    ACC 2530A, 4343A-4347A
  26. Women's Service Guilds of Western Australia Records
    [1896 - 1959]
    Minute books (1913-1956); annual conference files (1936-1952); general correspondence files (1914-1952); subject files on political, social and moral issues (e.g. immigration, native welfare, maternal welfare); reports on various issues relating to women.
    4.6 m
    JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia
    ACC 1949A

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

  1. 'Cowan, Edith Dircksey (1861 - 1932)' - Australian Dictionary of Biography
    Margaret Brown
    [1981]
    Published: Melbourne University Press
    Series: Volume 8
    pp 123-124.

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  1. Rischbieth, Bessie Mabel. 1874-1967
    autobiographer/memoirist; charity worker; conservationist; feminist; magazine/journal editor; women's activist
    ... Cowan, Edith Dircksey (1861 - 1932) ...
  2. Macdonald, Amelia Morrison Fraser. 1865-1946
    café owner; Girl Guides? leader; social reformer; tailor/tailoress; women's activist
    ... Cowan, Edith Dircksey (1861 - 1932) ...
  3. Geach, Portia Swanston. 1873-1959
    feminist; painter; portraitist; women's activist
    ... Cowan, Edith Dircksey (1861 - 1932) ...