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Established | 1902 |
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Location | |
Founding presidents | Janet Clarke |
Parent organisation | |
Website | www |
The National Council of Women of Victoria (NCWVIC) was founded in Victoria, Australia, in 1902 with Janet Clarke as the founding president. The organisation is a branch of the National Council of Women of Australia, and the International Council of Women. It is an umbrella group for a number of associated member organisations and aims to progress women's issues and women's rights in the state of Victoria.
The International Council of Women (ICW) was the idea of American women's rights activists Susan B Anthony, and May Wright Sewell formed at a women's suffrage conference that Anthony organised in 1888 in Washington DC on the fortieth anniversary of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. The 'council idea', as they referred to it, would be an international umbrella organisation which would go beyond just political rights of women, with a focus on broader women's interests. The council would bring together women's organisations on national and international levels to connect and learn from each other to promote peace and general wellbeing. [1]
Sewell stated there were five key objectives:
She further stated that the council would be a forum "where all the great questions that concern humanity shall be discussed from the woman's point of view" and that it would all the shedding of class and ethic boundaries through fostering human harmony and spiritual one-ness. [1]
The first National Council of Women formed in Australia started in New South Wales (NSW) on 26 June 1896, when Margaret Windeyer called together NSW women's groups to form a council. Windeyer had represented NSW women on the council of the World's Congress of Representative Women in Chicago in 1893, which Sewell was instrumental in organising. It was the largest gathering of women from many different countries to have happened at that time. Speeches were given by 300 women from 27 countries, and they discussed the formation and structure of the ICW. [1]
On 19 March 1902, Janet Clarke called the inaugural meeting of representatives of 35 voluntary society at the Austral Salon. Clarke presided over the meeting. Emily Dobson, from Tasmania, was primary speaker as she had recently attended the ICW's 1899 Quinquennial Conference in London as part of the Australian delegation. She outlined objectives that had been drawn from those of the ICW:
Margaret McLean, who was the president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Victoria (WCTU), put forward the resolution that the National Council of Women of Victoria be formed. [2]
They elected office bearers and committee members which included Clarke as president, Louisa Bevan and Annie Lowe as vice presidents, and committee members Annie Watson Lister, Marie Kirk, and Catherine Hay Thomson. [2]
At the inaugural meeting there were 35 member organisations represented including: [2]
Medical and social services | Political/Lobby groups | Clubs |
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Association of Domestic Economy | Hawthorn Progressive League | Austral Salon |
Australian Church Social Improvement Society | Jewish Women's Guild | Australasian Women's Association |
Collingwood Creche | Kew Progressive League | Bendigo Women's Literary Society |
Convalescent Home for Women | Prahran Women's Progressive League | Collingwood Girls' Club |
Gentlewomen's Aid Society | United Council for Women Suffrage | Collins Street Independent Church Ladies' Reading Society |
Maternity Patients' Convalescent home | Victorian Alliance | Daughters of the Court |
Melbourne District Nursing Society | Victorian Lady Teachers' Association | Hawthorn Ladies' Reading Society |
Methodist Neglected Children's Aid Society | Victorian Women's Political League | Princess Ida Club |
Queen Victoria Hospital | Victorian Women's Post and Telegraph Association | Writers' Club |
Victorian Infant Asylum and Foundling Hospital | Victorian Women's Public Service Association | |
Women's Health Society | Women's Christian Temperance Union | |
Women's Hospital | Women's Progressive League | |
Young Women's Christian Association |