1848 - 1920
Louisa Lawson
Louisa Lawson was a country woman who divorced from her husband in 1883, and moved to Sydney with her children. The only way for her to survive was by doing sewing and other peoples washing.
Louisa dreamed of being a writer, and believed that women should have equal rights and opportunities to men.
While in Sydney she mixed with a group of radicals and republicans. Republicans did not want Australia to federate.
All of them wanted the new nation to be democratic!
With the help of her son, Henry Lawson, the poet and storywriter, she took over and ran the newspaper Republican.
In 1888, she started her own newspaper The Dawn. It was all about women’s rights.
Louisa Lawson was one of the big campaigners for womas rights.
Lawson only ever implode women for her newspaper.
In 1889 Lawson founded The Dawn Club, which became the source of the suffrage movement in Sydney.
In 1891 the New South Wales Women's Suffrage League formed to campaign for women's suffrage.