Louisa Albury Lawson
Louisa Albury Lawson was an Australian feminist and writer born in 1848 in New South Wales. With a limited education, she initially worked as a needleworker before marrying in 1866 and raising five children. Lawson's marriage was marked by hardship, with her husband often absent and their relationship strained. In 1883, seeking better opportunities, she moved her family to Sydney, where her activism flourished. She championed marriage reform, advocating for modernized divorce laws and improved rights for married women, while also supporting disenfranchised groups and labor causes. Lawson founded "The Dawn," Australia's first significant feminist newspaper, in 1888, which faced opposition from male-dominated unions but became a crucial platform for women's issues for 17 years. Despite personal struggles, including a later commitment to an asylum, her literary contributions and advocacy earned her recognition as a pivotal figure in the Australian women's suffrage movement. Her writings, characterized by clarity and humor, reflect her commitment to feminist themes drawn from her own life experiences.
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Subject Terms
Louisa Albury Lawson
Poet
- Born: February 17, 1848
- Birthplace: Guntawang station (near Gulgong), New South Wales, Australia
- Died: August 12, 1920
- Place of death: Hospital for the Insane, Gladesville, Australia
Biography
Australian feminist Louisa Albury Lawson was born in 1848 in the bush of New South Wales. She received only rudimentary education and worked as a needleworker until her marriage in 1866. She had five children, including twin girls, one of whom died in infancy. Lawson’s marriage was unhappy. Her husband often worked away from home and was a harsh parent and cold spouse. In 1883, after nearly two decades of intensive labor and failed business ventures in the economically unstable bush, Lawson and her children moved to Sydney.
Lawson’s feminism focused intently on marriage reform, including the modernization of divorce and greater personal and professional opportunity for married women. However, her frustration at the difficulties of bush life also aroused her support for the disenfranchised and for labor causes—although not with organized labor, which was frequently overtly sexist. Lawson encountered opposition from the typesetter’s union when she established Australia’s first and most influential feminist newspaper, The Dawn, in May 1888. The paper, which would run for seventeen years and have on average one thousand subscribers from throughout Australia, employed women as compositors, and the trade union did not allow female members.
The controversy stimulated Lawson’s entry into the political suffrage movement, and she was active in supporting several suffrage groups. She continued her activism in The Dawn until 1905, when she shut the paper down due to illness and an increasing estrangement from her children. Her son Peter had her committed to an insane asylum in 1920 and she died there a few months later—eighteen years after women received suffrage in New South Wales.
Lawson’s writing in The Dawn is noteworthy for its clarity and humor. She also produced numerous short stories and poems, all on feminist themes drawing on the experiences of her early life. Although her personal life was fraught with difficulty and failure, the vision represented in her writings has earned her recognition as the mother of Australian women’s suffrage.