The Women Should Have a Voice - Edith Cowan's Legacy of Social Justice in Western Australia

By Toni Church

“The women should have a voice” – Edith Cowan MLA OBE, Inaugural Speech to Western Australian Parliament, 28 July 1921.

On 28 July 2021, it was 100 years since Edith Cowan delivered her inaugural speech to the Western Australian Parliament – the first woman in Australia to do so. Marking this centenary, an exhibition was launched at the Old Court House Law Museum focusing on Cowan’s legacy of social justice. “The Women Should Have a Voice”: Edith Cowan’s legacy of social justice in Western Australia commemorated Cowan’s enduring influence in her community, displaying objects loaned by the organisations she established and supported that are still operating in Western Australia today.

Edith Dircksey Brown was born on 2 August 1861 at Glengarry, her family’s homestead on a large pastoral station near Geraldton, Western Australia. 1 The descendant of prominent colonial Swan River families, Brown and Wittenoom, Edith was raised in a well-regarded family and was sent to boarding school in Perth at the age of seven, after her mother died in childbirth.

In 1876, Edith experienced the lifealtering personal tragedy of her father’s hanging after he was found guilty of the murder of Mary Ann Tindall, his wife and Edith’s stepmother. The emotional effect of such violence and the ensuing fight for justice in her early life had a profound influence on Edith Cowan’s later advocacy work. 2

On 3 January 1876, Kenneth Brown shot Tindall, at the culmination of what was later proven to be years of shocking and sustained domestic violence by Brown. Criminal proceedings against Brown commenced from 5 April 1876 before Chief Justice Archibald Paull Burt at the Supreme Court of Western Australia – held in the Old Court House. The trial attracted national attention not only for its shocking content, but also for the rumoured perversion of justice by two hung juries populated by Brown’s influential friends and colleagues. 3 The Brown family were wealthy pastoralists, members of whom also served in the ranks of magistrates, and so held power and influence in the colony. Burt’s frustration at this influence culminated in the Chief Justice closing the court at the end of the second trial, selecting members of the jury himself from those in the public gallery before swiftly carrying out the final trial on the same day the former ended: 26 May 1876. 4 This third trial jury promptly returned a guilty verdict and Brown received his death sentence. 5

On 12 November 1879, Edith Brown married James Cowan, a Registrar and Master of the Supreme Court of Western Australia (and the brother of her boarding school headmistress). By 1891 Edith and James had five children, and James had been appointed Perth Police Magistrate. 6 The Cowan’s household dynamic was unusually modern, with both parents working outside the home as Edith took an increasingly public role from the 1890s; engaging with social justice causes, establishing various societies and organisations to advocate for change in the wider community.

As displayed in the new exhibition at the Old Court House Law Museum, among her many commitments and

causes, Edith Cowan worked for over 30 years with the House of Mercy which provided ‘shelter and reformation’ for unmarried mothers from the early 1890s. 7 Over a century later this organization has transformed into Ngala; an inclusive and diverse community service organisation, focused on the well-being and development of children and young people across Western Australia. 8

Edith Cowan (seated) with Marion Ethel “Ettie” Burt, c.1882-3. Cowan and Burt were members of the St Georges Reading Society, which supported many of the causes for which Cowan is known. Ettie Burt was married to Alfred Earl Burt, son of the first Chief Justice of Western Australia: Archibald Paull Burt. Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia BA2843/22.

Concerned for the welfare of horses, Cowan and fellow female members of the St George’s Reading Society established the Western Australian chapter and objectives of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1892. 9 Today the modern RSPCA WA continues to educate and advocate for the prevention of cruelty to animals in the community. 10

Cowan was a foundation member of the Children’s Protection Society in 1906, which highlighted the extent of child cruelty and neglect within the community; emphasising that children were victims rather than criminals. This advocacy work was instrumental in establishing the Children’s Court of Western Australia in accordance with the State Children Act 1907. 11 Cowan was elected as a Magistrate of the Children’s Court in 1915 and the legacy of her focus on early intervention and rehabilitation continues in the modern work of the Children’s Court of Western

This ongoing work is represented in the exhibition at the Old Court House Law Museum by the Tree of Life painting shown on the next page. It was painted by detainees at Banksia Hill Detention Centre to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Children’s Court of Western Australia Drug Court program in December 2020. The Drug Court, located within the Perth Children’s Court, is aimed at early intervention by breaking the cycle of disadvantage, drug-use and re-offending for young people in Western Australia. Through the provision of therapeutic rehabilitation services, the Drug Court program assists young offenders who are either battling drug addiction or those whose offences relate to drug use (such as stealing to fund the purchase of illicit substances) and provide regular ongoing support for the duration of their engagement with the justice system. Successful participants ‘graduate’ from the Drug Court program with a lesser sentence than a regular remand court, owing to their achievements in rehabilitation and embracing positive steps towards long-term recovery within their community. 13

Magistrate Andrée Horrigan (left) and Superintendent Michael Heslington (right) photographed with the Tree of Life painting gifted by Banksia Hill Detention Centre for the Drug Court’s twentieth anniversary in December 2020. Courtesy of the Children’s Court of Western Australia.

Cowan significantly contributed to the establishment of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in 1916, the first maternity hospital in Western Australia. She served as the Honorary Secretary of the Hospital’s Advisory Committee from 1909, and was later appointed Secretary of the Advisory Board once the Hospital had opened. 14 It was most important to Cowan that maternity care within the Hospital was extended to both married and unmarried mothers, regardless of their circumstances. 15 Today, King Eddies (as the hospital is colloquially known in Perth) continues as a public hospital for all women in the community; accounting for twenty percent of all births in Western Australia and supporting thousands of premature and unwell newborns in the largest neonatal unit in the southern hemisphere. 16

As a foundation member of the Western Australian Historical Society in 1926, Cowan played a prominent role in the state’s centenary celebrations in 1929 and contributed to a number of articles in the Society’s Early Days publication, which highlighted the experiences of early colonial women well before Australian feminist historiography became established from the 1970s. 17 Today, the Royal Western Australian Historical Society continues hosting events and advocating for history and heritage across the state, as well as operating a Museum with a unique art collection, extensive reference library and photograph archive for researchers. 18

Cowan is most prominently remembered as the first woman elected to a Parliament in Australia. She served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for West Perth, representing the Nationalist Party in the Western Australian Parliament from 1921-24. The election in 1921 was the first in which women were eligible to

serve as parliamentarians in Western Australia. Notably, Cowan was one of four women to run for state Parliament in 1921 but only the second to become a female parliamentarian in the British

During her election campaign and parliamentary career, Cowan received public admonishment from newspapers and commentators about the abandonment of her wifely duties at home, as well as from her political colleagues who frequently interrupted her addresses to Parliament. 20 In her inaugural speech, Cowan emphasised the necessity which existed for women to support one another and serve in positions of power in Western Australia, stating that “the women should have a voice”. 21 Against custom, her inaugural speech was regularly interrupted by her parliamentary colleagues with sexist remarks. When addressing additional costs required to install a women’s toilet in Parliament for her use, Cowan was interrupted by Mr Lambert suggestively asking “Will you invite us to see how the money was spent?”. 22 Needless to say, Cowan’s dignity prevailed in this moment and she continued with a speech that foretold her parliamentary service; steadfast dedication to promoting migrant welfare, infant and maternal health centres, and women’s rights. 23

Although she unseated the serving

Attorney-General with her election in 1921, Cowan was not successful in gaining re-election in 1924. In fact, only three other women were elected to the Western Australian Parliament until 1970. 24 On 13 March 2021, Western Australians elected the 100th woman to the state Parliament and, in stark contrast to 1921, about half of the Western Australian Parliament in 2021 are women.

Upon her death, aged 70 in 1932, Cowan was remembered as a trailblazing feminist who dedicated her life’s work to the welfare of women and children in her community. 25 Her likeness adorns the Australian $50 note, her name was given to Edith Cowan University and her memorial clocktower stands at the entrance to King’s Park, Perth. Cowan’s legacy is

her social justice advocacy; work that is carried on by the organisations and institutions she established across her lifetime which continue to serve the Western Australian community today.

“The Women Should Have a Voice”: Edith Cowan’s legacy of social justice in Western Australia was on display at the Old Court House Law Museum until early September 2021. The Museum is open 10.00am to 4.00pm, Tuesday to Friday. Entry is free.

Objects courtesy of The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Western Australia, Ngala, Children’s Court of Western Australia, Western

Australian Medical Museum, Royal Western Australian Historical Society.

Supplementary research about the trial of Kenneth Brown supplied by Dr Alexandra Wallis and Elizabeth Burns- Dans.

‘The New “House” Wife’, The Bulletin, 31 March 1921. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia.