Jessie Street

Could you imagine growing up in Australia not having the right to vote and have a say?

Thanks to women like Jessie Street we don't have that worry and that's why Lady Jessie Street features this week on Wonderful Women Wednesday!! Jessie Street (1889-1970) was an activist, a feminist and a lifelong campaigner for women’s rights, the peace movement and the elimination of discrimination against Aboriginal people. She worked throughout her life to improve the status of women, both in Australia and overseas.

Born in India, she migrated with her parents to the property her mother inherited in New South Wales in 1896, and was educated in Buckinghamshire, England and at the University of Sydney.

In 1916, Jessie married Sir Kenneth Street, a barrister and later Chief Justice of New South Wales.
Jessie became President of United Associations (established through the merging of Women's Voter's Association, Women's Service Guild and Women's League) in 1930.

Jessie was well known internationally, attending women’s conferences all over the world and working with women’s groups in different countries. She was the sole woman on the Australian delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. With other women, she was instrumental in having a permanent Commission on the Status of Women established within the United Nations, separate from the Human Rights Commission. She was its first Vice President. Jessie also played a pivotal role in the campaign for the 1967 referendum which amended the Australian constitution to enable Aborigines to be counted in the census.