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Published in Australia between 1888 and 1905, Louisa Lawson’s monthly journal, The Dawn, proposed a vision of society where women enjoyed increased political and social agency. Women’s suffrage was integral to such a vision, and through The Dawn Lawson was able to blend arguments for the enfranchisement of women with discussions about morality, sexual difference, family and marriage. Lawson was central to the production and success of The Dawn, with the journal being her primary public platform. Somewhat surprisingly, however, most of the existing historiography foregrounds Lawson’s personal life and her relationship with her son, author and poet, Henry Lawson. Although The Dawn is frequently cited as one of Lawson’s most significant achievements, its contents are generally not examined in any depth. This article seeks to explore some of the key issues pursued by the journal in its campaign for women’s suffrage, considering the ways in which Lawson entangled suffrage with broader anxieties surrounding social progress and improvement. As Lawson argues, womanhood suffrage was as much about the wellbeing of society as it was about equality for women. In 1888, Louisa Lawson imagined a radical vision for the future—a time when men and women would enjoy social and political equality. Lawson believed that securing the enfranchisement of women was of paramount importance. Her perspective was informed by her experiences of growing up in poverty, an unhappy marriage, divorce and her struggle to support her children as a single mother.1 After moving to Sydney in 1883, Lawson became involved in discussions of womanhood suffrage, which fuelled her desire to improve women’s position in society.2 Lawson feared that: 1 Susan Magarey, Sue Rowley and Susan Sheridan, Debutante Nation: Feminism Contests the 1890s (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 55. 2 Olive Lawson, The First Voice of Australian Feminism: Excerpts from Louisa Lawson’s ‘The Dawn’ 1889–1895 (Sydney: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 11. ANU Historical Journal II, Number 1 74 A woman’s opinions are useless to her, she may suffer unjustly, she may be wronged, but she has no power to weightily petition against man’s laws, no representatives to urge her views, her only method to procure release, redress, or change, is to ceaselessly agitate with the hope that after many years the sense of justice in the majority of her rulers may be stirred and some tardy concession be granted, perhaps in time to benefit her granddaughters.3 As part of her campaign for women’s suffrage, Lawson began publishing The Dawn in 1888.4 From its inception, Lawson wanted the journal to be published and produced entirely by women. While other women were involved, the journal regularly espoused its editor’s perspective as many articles were written and edited by Lawson herself. The journal was Lawson’s primary platform and mouthpiece throughout the 17 years of its publication. In line with her political ambitions, the journal’s contents covered a range of political issues, ranging from voting to temperance. By exploring the arguments and assertions presented in The Dawn, this article considers the overarching political ideas presented in the journal and argues that through advocating for women’s interests, Lawson sought to herald in a new dawn for women’s rights in Australia. Crucially, Lawson’s journal did not argue for women’s suffrage in isolation from other political and social issues, but rather positioned the enfranchisement of women within the context of a broader improvement of women’s lives. In this respect, The Dawn was radical for the period, envisioning women’s suffrage as an essential and integral part of society’s advancement and intertwining it with broader social debates and anxieties surrounding morality, gender, education, temperance and marriage.5 Published monthly, and sold both individually and by subscription, the journal had readers from across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Europe and the United States of America.6 3 ‘Women’s Suffrage’, The Dawn, 1 July 1889, 14. 4 Susan Magarey, Passions of the First Wave Feminists (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2001), 58. 5 Brian Matthews, Louisa (Melbourne: McPhee Gribble Publishers, 1987), 163. 6 Magarey, Passions of the First Wave Feminists, 58.

A new dawn: Rights for women in Louisa Lawson’s The Dawn