Jessie Street

Jessie Street at the United Women's Conference in San Francisco, 19 May 1945

Lady Street (née Lillingston, commonly known as Jessie Mary Grey Street; 18 April 1889 – 2 July 1970) was an Australian suffragette, feminist and human rights campaigner.

She was a key figure in Australian political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage struggle in England to the removal of Australia's constitutional discrimination against Aboriginal people in 1967. She is recognised both in Australia and internationally for her activism in women's rights, social justice and peace. The National Women's Library is named in her honour. On her husband's knighthood in 1956 she became Lady Street.

Aboriginal rights

Apparently inspired by the British Anti-Slavery Society when visiting England in the 1950s, Jessie Street was the initiator of the 1967 "Aboriginal" amendment of the Australian Constitution with fellow activist Faith Bandler. She "masterminded the formation of the Aboriginal Rights Organisation, which led to the successful" Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals) and even drafted petitions calling for the Referendum.

Jessie Street published a number of papers relating to Aboriginal people based on her observations during her numerous visits to Aboriginal Settlements. These include a Report on Aborigines in Australia, May 1957, Report of visit to Pindar Camps,'Report of visit to West Australia in connection with Aborigines'; 'Suggestions for Northern Territory' (Between Camooweal and Darwin); Comments on the 'Report from the Select Committee of Voting Rights of Aborigines'; and 'The question of discriminations against Aborigines and the United Nations.

Women's rights

Jessie Street campaigned for equality of status for women, equal pay, appointment by women to public office and their election to parliament. In 1911 she attended a conference of the International Council for Women in Rome. She was also co-founder (1928) and President of United Associations of Women. Jessie was the only Australian woman delegate at the founding of the United Nations in 1945 and established (co-founder of) the UN Commission of the Status of Women and Charter of women's rights.

Political involvement

Jessie Street stood as the Labor candidate for the safe conservative seat of Wentworth in NSW at the 1943 federal election. The electoral result saw Street achieve a 20 percent primary and 14 percent two-party swing, falling less than two percent short of securing a majority of votes, and subsequently lost to the sitting United Australia Party member Eric Harrison. Eric Harrison stood with his back to Jessie whilst she gave her concession speech and refused to shake her hand.

General peace and social justice

She was a co-founder of NSW Social Hygiene Association (1916) and was a foundation member of the Sydney Branch of the League of Nations Union in 1918. She attended League of Nations Assemblies in Geneva in 1930 and 1938. She was a colleague of Pablo Picasso on the World Peace Council Executive. During the Second World War she was chairman of the Russian Medical Aid and Comforts Fund.

Controversy

She was friendly towards the Soviet Union during the Cold War which led to her being depicted as "Red Jessie" by the press. This depiction aroused suspicion and led to her being monitored by four Australian intelligence agencies. This surveillance has ensured her life has left a long trail of documents within the National Archives of Australia.

Eminent relatives

Three generations of the Street family have served their state as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Street's father-in-law, Sir Philip Whistler Street, her husband Sir Kenneth Whistler Street and her son Sir Laurence Whistler Street all attained that position. Her cousin Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon was a British politician and ornithologist. Her connections were sometimes seen as being in tension with her social activism. Her daughter Philippa married the Australian Test cricketer and journalist Jack Fingleton. On 15 May 2015 Australian politician Fiona Patten admitted following a decade of much-publicised claims to be a blood relative of Jessie Street, that that is not the case.

Further reading

• Lenore Coltheart, "Jessie Street and the Soviet Union", in Political Tourists: Travellers from Australia to the Soviet Union in the 1920s-1940s. Eds. Sheila Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Rasmussen. Melbourne University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-522-85530-X
• Heather Radi, Jessie Street, Documents and Essays, Women's Redress Press, 1990. ISBN 1-875274-03-0
• Peter Sekuless, Jessie Street, a rewarding but unrewarded life, Prentice Hall, 1978. ISBN 0-7022-1227-X
• Jessie Street, ed Lenore Coltheart, Jessie Street, a Revised Autobiography, Federation Press, 2004. ISBN 1-86287-502-2
• Jessie Street, Truth or Repose, Australasian Book Society, 1966.
• Eric Russell, Woollahra - a History in Pictures, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, 1980. ISBN 0-909134-23-5

External links

• Australian Dictionary of Biographies' Jessie Street entry
• Red Jessie: Jessie Street – biography produced by the National Archives of Australia.
• Street, Jessie Mary Grey in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
• Jessie Street | University of Sydney | Women's College
• Jessie Street | Australian Women Australian Women's Archives Project.
• Jessie Street Papers | National Library of Australia National Library of Australia.
• Jessie Street | Federation Press Federation Press.
• Jessie Street | Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC broadcast on Jessie Street.