Rose Scott

Rose Scott (1847-1925) is a central figure in the history of feminist thought and reform in Australia. Judith A Allen's pathbreaking study provides the first detailed account of Scott's remarkable record of cultural criticism and activism. Tracing several elements of that record, including Scott's place in a complex colonial family history, her diverse web of friendships and networks, her involvement with woman suffrage and with movements concerned with sexuality, pacifism, sex equality, social policy and government, Allen identifies a crucial transformation in Scott's feminism. In the 1980s and 1890s, Scott's initial feminist vision featured a united polity of women citizens working, through legal and political measures, to end the 'degradation'of their sex. By the 1920s Scott had revised her understanding and strategy toward a focus upon the cultural and discursive pursuit of sexual 'emancipation'. This shift represented the impact of Scott's confrontation with the political salience of differences of position and interests between women.
Hitherto, such differences, including those organized around aboriginality, race, ethnicity, class, sexual and conjugal identities, had not threatened the unity forged by sex as Scott, her feminist peers and their enemies contested feminist beliefs.