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

Abstract

Abstract: 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.