Vida forever

SELLING NEWSPAPERS ON a Melbourne street corner does not sound like a revolutionary act. But on a rainy April day in 1912, passers-by were appalled to see a woman presenting papers for public sale. And feminist papers too; it was little short of scandalous.

Not that the occasional glares and mutterings worried the seller at all; 43-year-old Vida Goldstein had handled much more difficult situations than this. She had been the first woman anywhere in the Western world to stand for election to a national parliament – in Victoria, for the Senate, in 1903 in her mid-30s. This branded her as either a heroine or a shameless hussy and a member of the ‘shrieking sisterhood’. Any woman who pitted herself against men, for whatever reason, was widely regarded with suspicion. But though Goldstein’s political campaign had not succeeded, she had become a celebrity, and not simply in Australia. She counted as a friend every prominent feminist in Britain and America, and had also met the president of the United States.

Vida Goldstein (pronounced Vy-da) knew a thing or two about publicity. When nobody bought her papers that day she hit onpaper she was selling with a headline reading: ‘Torture! By order of the Home Secretary’. This stark interpretation of what was being done to the suffragettes in England caused a sensation, and copies of her papers sold out immediately. Goldstein’s photograph appeared in the press – it remains the most famous picture of her – and within a couple of weeks eight women were selling feminist papers on the streets of Melbourne.