Mary Lee (suffragette)
| Mary Lee | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Mary Walsh 14 February 1821 County Monaghan, Ireland |
| Died | 18 September 1909 (aged 88) |
| Years active | 1883–1896 |
| Known for | Women's suffrage in South Australia |
| Spouse(s) | George Lee (m. 1844) |
| Children | 7 |
Mary Lee (née Walsh) (14 February 1821 – 18 September 1909) was an Irish-Australian suffragist and social reformer in South Australia.
Mary Lee was born in Ireland at Kilknock Estate, county Monaghan. She was married in 1844 to George Lee. The couple had seven children however little more is known about her life in Ireland. Her son Ben moved to Adelaide, South Australia. When he fell ill in 1879, Lee and her daughter, Evelyn, immigrated to Adelaide as well. They travelled on the maiden voyage of the steamship Orient. Her son died on 2 November 1880.
In 1883 Mary Lee became active in the ladies' committee of the Social Purity Society. The Society advocated changes to the law relating to the social and legal status of young women, advocating an end to child labour to protect girls from abuse and preventing them from becoming prostitutes or child brides. The group's success was a passage in the 1885 Criminal Law Consolidation Amendment Act that raised the age of consent from 13 to 16. Her first achievement was a new law to protect young women, which made it illegal for a man to have sex with a girl under 16.
The Social Purity Society also was concerned with the working conditions of women. After the bill was passed in 1885 the group began campaigning for workers' rights. In December 1889 at a public meeting Lee proposed the formation of a women's trade union. The Working Women's Trades Union was founded in 1890, Mary Lee was the union's secretary for two years. In 1893 Lee attended the Trades and Labor Council meetings, served on the sub-committee which examined conditions in the clothing industry, and on the Distressed Women and Children's Committee which distributed clothes and food to the families hit by the economic depression of the 1890s.
On 13 July 1888 Lee, the Social Purity League, and others met and formed the South Australian Women's Suffrage League. She was the League's co-honorary secretary and for six and half years she fought for women's suffrage. Her own letters and reports of her speeches show that she was an astute and logical woman, employing sound argument, wit and humour in her correspondence and public speaking. In 1889 she wrote:
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