Liberal Party could learn from suffragist Vida Goldstein’s story

What would trailblazer Vida Goldstein say about the situation of women in federal politics today?

How timely is the new book by historian Clare Wright? Her story of Australian suffragists winning the vote and then running for parliament in 1903 should be required reading in this time of angst over the “woman problem” in the federal Liberal Party.

We publish an extract today on Senate candidate Vida Goldstein who boldly told voters that while she may not make the ideal member, “I am perfectly certain that I could not do worse than some of the men you have sitting in Parliament”. As I read Wright’s book (You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World) I couldn’t help wondering: what would these trailblazing women make of the situation in Canberra today? And more importantly, what would they do about it?