V is for vivacious Vida on the vamp
Vida Goldstein was a feminist and suffragist and one of the first four women in the British Empire to be nominated and to stand for election to a national parliament.
Vida Goldstein (1869 – 1949) was my first cousin three times removed. In 1903, 113 years ago, she stood for the Senate. Vida was a feminist and suffragist and one of the first four women in the British Empire to be nominated and to stand for election to a national parliament. In 1902 she travelled to the United States of America to speak at the International Woman Suffrage Conference, was elected secretary, gave evidence in favour of woman suffrage to a committee of the United States Congress and attended the International Council of Women Conference.
The Brisbane Truth noted Miss Goldstein’s candidature.
The Truth‘s use of the word “vamp”, or rather the phrase “on the vamp”, does not correspond to our usage of the word today, as a femme fatale or the dictionary definition of part of a shoe-upper or boot-upper. A 1901 news article in the Sydney Truth obviously is using another meaning again when it refers to the “official vamp given in the daily press”. I do not quite understand the meaning of “on the vamp” in the caption to the cartoon “Vivacious Vida Goldstein on the Vamp”. Is it some reference to the Anti-Sweating League?
A Female Franchiser. (1903, August 23). Truth (Brisbane, Qld.), , p. 5 (CITY EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199294063
A Female Franchiser.
One of the whimsicalities of the Victorian Female Franchisers is to run a daughter of Israel, in the pretty personage of Miss Vida Goldstein. It appears that there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent a female voter sitting in either House of the Federal legislature should she be fortunate enough to score sufficient votes to make her election secure. If the vivacious Vida should be elected, she will figure in the list of Senators as the Hon. Vida Goldstein. The sprightly young lady with the Israelitish cognomen has a mission to elevate womankind, and she believes that this can best be accom-plished by submitting herself as a candidate for the suffrages of her enfranchised sisters at the forthcoming Federal election. She is a democrat; most prominent women suffragists and reformers are. She is the selected candidate of the Woman's League. Her dad is a military gentleman, and has been dentified with many public movements in Victoria, and is an intellectual man. A handsome sister of Miss Vida married Mr. H. H. Champion, the English Socialist, who made his first appearance in Australian public affairs during the maritine strike. Miss Goldstein is the owner of "The Woman's Sphere," which she also edits, and, in fact, writes most of its articles. She has been a hard fighter for "Women's Rights" in Victoria during the past 12 years, and when an in-vitation reached Australia to send a dele-gate to the Women's Congress, held last year in America, the choice fell on Miss Goldstein, who made an excellent impression on the great gathering of the world's most advanced and cultured women. She is a socialist of the philosophic type, a great worker, a good speaker, and fully equipped with a versatility of knowledge useful to a politician. What her chances are at the poll the Lord only knows, but we make bold to say that if women of Miss Goldstein's type had been introduced into Australian politics years ago, things could not have been made any worse than they are, and the chances are big that they would have been a long sight better.Although Vida gathered more than 50,000 votes, her 1903 attempt to gain a seat in the Senate was unsuccessful.
Further reading
Whiting, Julie. “National Anti-Swaeating League of Victoria.” NLA Behind the Scenes Blog. National Library of Australia, 19 Aug. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2016. <https://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/fringe-publishing/2015/08/16/national-anti-sweating-league-of-victoria>.
Janice N. Brownfoot, 'Goldstein, Vida Jane (1869–1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/goldstein-vida-jane-6418/text10975, published first in hardcopy 1983
Related posts
For more posts about the Goldstein family see Hughes family index at anneyoungau.wordpress.com
Wikitree: Vida Jane Mary Goldstein (1869 - 1949)
First published at https://ayfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/04/v-is-for-vivacious-vida-on-vamp.html and reposted to anneyoungau.wordpress.com as V is for vivacious Vida on the vamp
I love trying to work out words and their meanings/origins.
The Shorter Oxford has a definition for 'vamp' dated 1918, colloquial, "A woman who sets out to charm or captivate men by an unscrupulous use of sexual attractiveness.' So is she on the vamp as in setting out to seduce voters?
And is that an iron she is holding?
Vamp can also mean 'patched up' or 'refurbished' and refers to 'a book of this nature'. Rather puzzling.