Mary Lee
Encyclopedia
Mary Lee (née Walsh) (14 February 1821 – 18 September 1909) was an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n suffragist and social reformer in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
.
Mary Walsh was born in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. She was married in 1844 to George Lee. The couple had seven children however little more is known about her life in Ireland. Her son Ben moved to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Australia. When he fell ill in 1879, Mary and her daughter, Evelyn, immigrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. They travelled on the maiden voyage of the steamship "Orient". Her son died on 2 November 1880.
In 1883 Mary became active in the ladies' committee of the Social Purity Society. The Society advocated changes to the law relating to the social and legal status of young women, advocating an end to child labour to protect girls from abuse and preventing them from becoming prostitutes or child brides. The group's success was a passage in the 1885 Criminal Law Consolidation Amendment Act that raised the age of consent
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
from 13 to 16.
The Social Purity Society also was concerned with the working conditions of women. After the bill was passed in 1885 the group began campaigning for workers' rights began. In December 1889 at a public meeting Mary Lee proposed the formation of a women's trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
. The Working Women's Trades Union was founded in 1890, Mary was the union's secretary for two years. In 1893 Mary attend the Trades and Labor Council meetings, served on the sub-committee which examined conditions in the clothing industry, and on the Distressed Women and Children's Committee which distributed clothes and food to the families hit by the economic depression
Depression (economics)
In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen by some economists as part of the modern business cycle....
of the '90s.
On 13 July 1888 Mary Lee, the Social Purity League, and others met and formed the South Australian Women's Suffrage League. She was the Leagues co-honorary secretary and for six and half years she fought for women's suffrage. Her own letters and reports of her speeches show that she was an astute and logical woman, employing sound argument, wit and humour in her correspondence and public speaking. In 1889 she wrote:
Let husbands, brothers fathers be kept in mind that it is the duty of every free man to leave his daughters as free as his sons. -as women assist in maintaining Government they have a right to a say how and by whom they shall be governed. Nineteenth century civilisation has accorded to women the same political status as to the idiot and the criminal. Such is the basis of our reverence for the person of women and of our estimate of her work.
Lee was active in advocating the rights of the working class, publishing the following thoughts in the Barrier Miner in respect of the 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike
1892 Broken Hill miners' strike
The 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike was a sixteen week strike which was one of four major strikes that took place between 1889 and 1920 in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia....
:
... Sir, this strike has one feature which renders it more profoundly interesting than any of its predecessors...which must secure it a prominent and distinguished page when the history of these colonies shall be written. It is that the women of Broken HillWomen's Brigade (Broken Hill)The Women's Brigade was a labour protest organisation for women formed during the first of several strikes to occur in the mining town of Broken Hill, NSW, Australia between 1889-1920.-Precedents:...
are the first great body of working women who have raised their voices in united protest against the glaring injustice that ‘the present constitution will not allow them a voice in framing the laws ...'
Thee bills to grant women's suffrage were put forth in the South Australian parliament between 1889 and 1893, all failed. Spurred on by the grant of women's suffrage in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Mary Lee, the Social Purity League, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." Originally organized on December 23, 1873, in...
and the Democratic League travelled all over South Australia, which included the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
at the time, collecting signatures on a petition. On 23 August 1894 when the Adult Suffrage Bill was read in the South Australian parliament, the women presented the great petition. The petition contained 11,600 signatures, on paper sheets from all over the colony, that had been pasted together to make a roll 122 metres long. The bill passed on 18 December, it granted women the right to vote and stand for parliament, and was the first legislation worldwide to do so.
Once women had the vote, Mary Lee was active in voter education, encouraging women to enrol and vote. By her 75th birthday 60,000 women had enrolled to vote. In 1885 she was nominated to stand for parliament but refused.
She was appointed to the honorary position of the only female official visitor to the Lunatic Asylums in 1896. During this latter part of her life, Mary Lee struggled financially and had to sell her library. She continued to correspond with women in other states where suffrage was not yet granted.
She died in 1909 from pleurisy
Pleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
following influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
. She was buried with her son Ben.