Edith Dircksey Cowan

Born into an influential family tainted by death, drama and drinking. Admitted to a school owned by her future husband’s sisters at age seven. Murder in the family at the age of fifteen. It sounds unreal, like nothing more than the plotline of a movie, but this was real, and the girl who experienced it all grew up to be the first woman elected to an Australian parliament: Edith Cowan.

Edith Cowan in the 1920's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Edith_Cowan.jpg)

Edith Cowan's life always seemed like a movie – from the drama surrounding her early years to all she achieved. From forming the Karrakatta Club, a group of women who helped Australian women gain the vote in 1899, to her work in welfare and women’s organizations, to founding the Children’s Protection Society that helped to introduce children’s courts into society, all of Edith’s work was an exemplary case of what we can achieve in life if we put our minds to it.

However, all of the aforementioned achievements weren’t even Edith’s most significant pieces of work. In her 71 years on this earth, Edith also was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire, was one of the first female Justices of the Peace, was an Australian delegate to the 1925 International Conference of Women, founded the Royal Western Australian Historical Society and help plan Western Australia’s 1929 Centenary celebrations – all amazing feats of determination and perseverance from a woman who suffered through circumstances that would have made it perfectly excusable for Edith to slip into mediocrity for her whole life. What made Edith exceptional is that she did not; she moved past her torrid past to become the first woman elected to an Australian parliament. She was a campaigner for women’s rights within parliament, and passed legislation, which allowed women into the legal profession. She also managed to put mothers in an equal position as fathers when their children died without creating a will. In recognition of all of Edith's achievements, the Australian Government made the decision to place her image on the fifty dollar bill.

Edith Cowan on the Australian fifty dollar bill

Edith Cowan may not have saved anyone from a burning building. She may not have robbed banks, taken money from the rich and delegated it to the poor. But what Edith Cowan did do is pave the way for all women wishing to make a change in the world and do more than simply sit at home. With her election as a parliamentarian, Edith and her other work throughout her life, particularly her work with female suffrage and the Karrakatta Club, Edith rose from exceptional circumstances paved with sorrow and surpassed her past to allow all women to have equal opportunity as men to stand up, be counted, and make a change.