Jessie Street
Jessie Mary Grey Street (nee Lillingston) (April 18, 1889 - July 2, 1970) was an Australian suffragette, feminist and human rights campaigner.
Jessie Street was born in Chota Nagpur, Bihar, India. She was a key figure in Australian political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage struggle in England to the removal of Australia’s constitutional discrimination against Aboriginal people in 1967. She is recognised both in Australia and internationally for her activism in women's rights, social justice and peace.
Jessie Street campaigned for equality of status for women, equal pay, appointment of women to public office and their election to parliament. In 1911 she attended a conference of the International Council for Women in Rome. She was a co-founder of NSW Social Hygiene Association (1916) and was a foundation member of the Sydney Branch of the League of Nations Union in 1918. She attended League of Nations Assemblies in Geneva in 1930 and 1938. She was also co-founder (1928) and President of United Associations of Women. Jessie was the only Australian woman delegate at the founding of the United Nations in 1945 and established (co-founder of) the UN Commission of the Status of Women and Charter of women's rights; she was the initiator of the 1967 “Aboriginal” amendment of the Australian Constitution with fellow activist Faith Bandler; and was a colleague of Pablo Picasso on the World Peace Council Executive. During the Second World War she was chairman of the Russian Medical Aid and Comforts Fund. She was friendly towards the Soviet Union during the Cold War which led to her being depicted as "Red Jessie" by the press. This depiction aroused suspicion and led to her being monitored by four Australian Intelligence agencies. This surveilance has ensured her life has left a long trail of documents within the National Archives of Australia.
Jessie Street stood as the Labor candidate for the safe conservative seat of Wentworth in NSW in 1943. She secured the most primary votes, however, due to the Australian electoral system, with preferential voting, she lost by a small margin to the sitting United Australia Party member Mr Eric Harrison.
Jessie Street was the wife of Kenneth Street, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and the mother of Sir Lawrence Street, who also became Chief Justice. Her high society connections were sometimes seen as being in tension with her social actitivism.
Further reading
- Heather Radi, Jessie Street, documents and essays, Women's Redress Press, 1990. ISBN 1875274030
- Peter Sekuless, Jessie Street, a rewarding but unrewarded life, Prentice Hall, 1978. ISBN 070221227X
- Jessie Street, ed Lenore Colthart, Jessie Street, a revised autobiography, Federation Press, 2004. ISBN 1862875022
- Jessie Street, Truth or Repose, Australasian Book Society, 1966.
- Eric Russell, Woollahra - a history in pictures, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, 1980. ISBN 0909134235
External links
- Jessie Street | Uncommon Lives | National Archives of Australia Jessie Street webpage on the National Archives of Australia website.
- Jessie Street National Women's Library Official Website
- Jessie Street | University of Sydney | Women's College
- Jessie Street | Australian Women Australian Women's Archives Project.
- Jessie Street Papers | National Library of Australia National Library of Australia.
- Jessie Street | Federation Press Federation Press.
- Jessie Street | Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC broadcast on Jessie Street.