Vida Goldstein was the most famous, and important women's activist in Australia in the first decades of the twentieth century. She was a life-long pacifist and a strong opponent of conscription during World War One.

Goldstein was born in 1869, the daughter of Isabella Goldstein, who became a prominent Melbourne suffragist. From the 1890s Vida joined this work and was soon one of the most active and influential members of the women’s movement. Goldstein was especially important in winning the right for women to vote in Victorian state elections in 1908. Vida also ran for office, becoming the first woman to stand for federal parliament in 1903 as a Senate candidate. She also ran – unsuccessfully – for the Senate in 1910 and 1917, and the House of Representatives in 1913 and 1914.

Not only were women’s groups amongst the first to oppose the war, they were the first to suffer censorship. In September 1914 a small military detachment raided the offices of Vida Goldstein’s paper, the WomanVoter, to try to force her to stop publication. When Goldstein, supported by labour newspapers, complained to the incoming Labor Minister for Defence about this censorship, he replied that such censorship was not the new Labor government’s policy. Nonetheless, shortly afterwards the War Precautions Act was passed, allowing just that.

Despite the success of the anti-conscription campaigns, Goldstein’s activity took a heavy toll. She had lost the political support of the pro-war members of the Women’s Political Association – by the end of the War there was no difference in membership of the two WPAs – and her newspaper, the Woman Voter, had a large debt. Goldstein turned her attention more fully to causes of pacifism and internationalism, but never regained the public prominence that she had before and during World War One. Vida Goldstein died in 1949.

Adela Pankhurst was one of the most dedicated campaigners for the Women’s Peace Army. In 1917 she was jailed for her anti-conscription activities.

Adela Pankhurst was born in 1885, the youngest daughter of the suffragist Emmaline Pankhurst, and sister of Christabel and Sylvia. Although all of them were involved in suffragist campaigning, both Adela and Sylvia were more radical than the other two. In 1914, estranged from her mother and eldest sister, Adela moved to Melbourne. She immediately threw herself into political organising, and fell in with Vida Goldstein’s Women’s Political Association (and later Women’s Peace Army). She also joined the Victorian Socialist Party.

Pankhurst was an enthusiastic campaigner against conscription. She spoke at numerous meetings and demonstrations. She also wrote several books and pamphlets, such as ‘Put Up the Sword’, which outlined the case for pacifism and internationalism. This image is taken from that work.

In 1917 Pankhurst was jailed in Pentridge Prison, initially for a month and then later for nearly two months. In the period in between these two stints she resigned from the WPA – in order to pursue socialist politics more fully – and married Tom Walsh, the Secretary of the Seaman’s Union. In January 1918, Pentridge was visited by 200 socialist campaigners who ‘serenaded’ Adela from outside the walls of the prison.

After the war, she and her husband Tom grew increasingly conservative. They were early opponents of the Stalinist regime in Russia, perceiving that many atrocities were being carried out in the name of communism. This, and her conviction that it was women and children who suffered most during strike action, led Pankhurst to become opposed to socialism and in favour of industrial co-operation between workers and employers. In 1928, Adela founded the Australian Women's Guild of Empire, a patriotic organisation. Around the same time, Tom was expelled from the Seaman’s Union.

In 1940, Adela and Tom undertook a ‘friendship tour’ of Japan. As a result, Adela was asked to leave the Guild, and after Pearl Harbour she was interned. She was released just in time to see Tom before he died. Pankhurst lived for another eighteen years, dying in 1961.

The Sisterhood of International Peace was an important peace organisation, led by Eleanor May Moore, and associated with the Australian Church. It advocated for a less confrontational approach than the Women's Peace Army.

In her book The Quest for Peace, Moore explained her approach to tactics in the following terms:

“When public opinion is inflamed, there are two ways of seeking to influence it. One is to be provocative… The other is called education. It studies to avoid the particular phrase which will irritate listeners, and tries rather to draw them into discussion”

Doris Blackburn was another significant member, after she grew estranged from the Women’s Peace Army. Later, the Sisterhood became the Australian branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, one of the longest-standing peace organisations in the world today.

The Sisterhood of International Peace was formed in 1915 as an offshoot of the socially-conscious Australian Church. Eleanor May Moore, the main organiser for the Sistehood, was also active in the Australian Peace Alliance.

In this handbill, Moore articulates a case for women to adopt a political position independently of men.

A week before the first conscription referendum, on 21 October 1916, the “United Womens No Conscription Demonstration” was held in Melbourne. This was one of the most spectacular anti-conscription events of the campaign.

The rally was a joint effort between the Womens Peace Army, the Labor Women’s Anti-Conscription Committee and the Victorian Socialist Party, and had been organised over several weeks.

The rally began at 2:30pm with a march of 4000 women and children through the streets of Melbourne, with several thousand more looking on It started from the Guild Hall (now Storey Hall) and proceeding to the Yarra Bank. The march was led by Madge Gardiner, the 8 year old daughter of Edith, Vice President of the Women’s Political Association. Madge was dressed in white, holding a dove, and marched underneath a banner proclaiming “And a little child shall lead them”. The march included other costumes, and a number of artistic displays and signs on the back of lorries. May Boquest, on horseback, and Cecilia John acted as marshals.

At the corner of Bourke and Swanston Streets a crowd of returned soldiers attempt to disrupt the procession, rushing in and snatching some of the banners being carried. Australian Peace Alliance Secretary Fred Riley had organised a group of supporters for such an eventuality and they tried to restrain the soldiers. Some scuffling ensued and one of Riley’s supporters, fearing for Madge Gardiner’s safety, placed her on his shoulders. Further down Swanston Street some eggs were thrown at the procession.

At the Yarra Bank itself, the crowd was around 30000. At this time the Yarra Bank was a site of protest meetings every Sunday – and in late 1916 most of these meetings were on the conscription question.

Cecilia John opened the proceedings with several songs, including the prohibited “I raise my son to be a soldier”. Other speakers included Vida Goldstein and Adela Pankhurst. Bella Lavender was originally scheduled to speak but was travelling elsewhere on the day.

Around 30 returned soldiers also tried to disrupt this meeting but again Fred Riley and his supporters linked arms to restrain the soldiers. The meeting concluded successfully.