Leontine Cooper

Léontine Cooper, born Leontine Mary Jane Buisson, ( born April 22, 1837 in Battersea, UK, † March 12, 1903 in Queensland) was a teacher, socialist, trade unionist and Suffragette, resulting in women's rights in Queensland, particularly for women's suffrage Australia began.

Early life

Her father, Jean François Buisson was a Frenchman. Dorothy, her mother, was born in England. Léontine was the eldest of eleven children of this marriage who lived with her family in Battersea and later in Brighton. She married Edward Cooper on January 31, 1866 in Hamstead, a discoverer and poet. The marriage remained childless. Both immigrated to Australia in 1871 and she worked soon after their arrival in Queensland as a teacher. Your first job led her to the Albany Creek School, and later she taught French language at the Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

Political action

Léontine Cooper was a socialist, believed in the necessity of an autonomous women's group, which was not part of any party and engaged, inter alia, against Blackbirding. She was the first female member of a Royal Commission and examined the working conditions of women in color Riken, workshops and stores. They fought for better education of women and formed the Pioneer Club for women.

Léontine Cooper was also the author who wrote short stories in the magazine The Boomerang. Your interests as a teacher, she joined with her work as an author in the mid-1890s, when she published the only women's magazine in Queensland, the Star. They also wrote a scientific article about Émile Zola and published on various occasions comments on current events.

She was first in the Woman's Equal Franchise Association ( WEFA ) by Emma Miller, who for the equality of women with the slogan " one woman, one vote " ( German: " a woman, one vote" ) began. Women had equal rights according to the Federal Electoral Act of April 9, 1902 before the law and could only choose in Australia on the occasion of the first national election in Australia in 1903. From the WEFA 's Christian Temperance Union and the Queensland Woman's Suffrage League split off in the Conservative Woman, which was led by Léontine Cooper, because - in their opinion, the WEFA - too much oriented to the expectations of the Australian labor movement.