This year, 2008, marks the centenary of women's suffrage in Victoria. Some of the greatest names in the history of the movement are being rightfully celebrated across the state. Suffrage, however, did not come about without decades of struggle. In this, our year of remembrance, it is important to contextualise this milestone event. Examining the conditions of the time and exploring the lives of ordinary people are ways to provide a background for the struggle for the vote and to situate the ultimate victory as one step in a historical process. This paper examines the lives of seven such ordinary women who signed a petition for women's suffrage in 1891, some seventeen years before the passing of the Adult Suffrage Bill in 1908. By getting to know these women who participated in the campaign for enfranchisement we can gain a deeper understanding of both their challenges and their achievement.

It took just six weeks in the spring of 1891 to collect nearly 30,000 signatures on the 'Monster Petition' for women's suffrage. Dedicated suffragists collected an average of 5,000 signatures a week (over 700 per day) before the petition was presented to the Victorian Parliament in September 1891. The six-week drive proved the determination of the suffragists, and was one of first major steps along the road to 1908 and the achievement of women's franchise. Now a prized possession of the State of Victoria, the petition itself was truly a 'monster', running 20 centimetres across and 260 metres in length.¹ Several men were required to carry it into Parliament. Its sheer size and unique shape make it a marvel; a stack of paper with an equal number of signatures would not be nearly as impressive as the huge, winding roll presented to Premier James Munro. Yet perhaps even more marvellous is the vast variety of women who backed the effort to expand women's rights.

Common wisdom has it that women's suffrage was a middle-class movement, that it was a challenge taken on by those with the education and the means to turn their passions into political action. The names of Henrietta Dugdale, Bessie Lee, Vida Goldstein and the like grace the pages of many Australian histories; their sacrifices and achievements have warranted such an honour. But what about the other suffragists? Although Jessie Ferguson of 49 Davis Street may have ruled her home, she was not among the lofty names on the petition; she was the wife of a bootmaker. And in 1891, the year she became a suffragist, she lived in a five-roomed rented house on a small North Carlton street.

In 1891, the one-block Davis Street boasted fifteen signatories to the Monster Petition. This paper will tell the stories of seven of them in an attempt to paint a picture of the working-class women who belie the stereotype of women's suffrage. In doing so, I hope to expand the definition of a suffragist to include what I would call the 'backbone' of the women's suffrage movement. We will also be able to recover from history some of those who rarely warrant a mention. Each of them has something to tell us about the female experience at the time and the extraordinary ordinariness of some of those who stood up for women's rights in 1891.

The Monster Petition
The Monster Petition was presented to Parliament on 29 September 1891 in co-ordination with a bill that included an amendment for women's suffrage. While the campaign had been gaining momentum for some time, the 1891 amendment appears to have been the first time the matter was taken seriously by parliamentary leaders. Premier James Munro, a firm supporter of the temperance movement entwined with women's franchise, spoke on the floor for the proposal. The Age noted, however, that 'The House was so unsympathetic that the Speaker had to stop the shower of banter with which the Premier was assailed.' Mr Gillies, Leader of the Opposition, argued against the proposal with classic rhetoric used to oppose the expansion of women's rights. Gillies said that women should not be given the vote as they '[could not] perform some of the services required by the State, such as those of soldiers, sailors and police'. The Age refuted his statement, saying, 'the objection raised by Mr. Gillies [does not have] a great deal of force when it is remembered that old and weakly men are not called upon to perform such services, and yet they are not denied the franchise'. The newspaper, however, did not support the amendment, an interesting stance considering its strong support of women's 'intelligence', the 'tyrannous' effects of 'taxation without representation', and its general thought that there was 'no logical reason why women should not vote at political elections if they are generally minded so to do'. The usually progressive Age saw women as a 'wholly untried class of voters' and believed that women's suffrage should be presented to the voters at the next election.²

Suffragists, however, saw no reason to wait for the franchise. A contingent of women attending the reading of the bill

even went so far as to depart from the ordinary decorum observed by 'strangers' ... and applauded the more telling points made by the Premier. Mr. Gillies ... aroused the antagonism of his critics in petticoats, who once gave decided expression to their disapproval by hissing the leader of the Opposition.³

Not all women were so impressed with Munro's hour-long speech either, which The Age notes was 'quite a long speech for the Premier, who is not noted for his word spinning powers'. In the midst of socialite news, The Sun stated:

The ladies owe a debt of undying gratitude to the Premier for the almost pathetic manner in which he pleaded their right to vote, on Tuesday night, and especially for his convincing poetic quotation [which follows] ... Without a doubt this alone would have won the day, but for that sad wag, G. D. Carter, who immediately capped it with [another poem].⁴