Alice Henry
Encyclopedia
Alice Henry was an Australian suffragist, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

ist who also became prominent in the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 trade union movement as a member of the Women's Trade Union League
Women's Trade Union League
The Women's Trade Union League was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women formed in 1903 to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions...

.

A street in the Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 suburb of Cook
Cook, Australian Capital Territory
Cook is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Cook is in the district of Belconnen. On Census night 2006, Cook had a population of 2,817 people....

 is named in her honour.

Publications

She was born on 21 March 1857 in Richmond, Melbourne. She was the daughter of Charles Ferguson Henry and his wife Margaret née Walker her only sibling was her younger brother Alfred. At one stage Charles tried farming a selection of land in Gippsland it was here where Alice received her first lessons from her mother.
Back in Melbourne she attended several schools, matriculating with credit from Richard Hale Budd's Educational Institute for Ladies in 1874. Her father's discussions of the protective tariff introduced her to politics.
She later attributed her passionate commitment to justice, democracy, and women's rights to the equal treatment she and her brother received from her parents.Denied access to a university education, yet accepting the need to support herself, Alice tried teaching but following a serious illness turned to journalism. She became a close friend and working associate of leading reformers Catherine Helen Spence
Catherine Helen Spence
Catherine Helen Spence was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician and leading suffragette. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate after standing for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide...

, Henry Bournes Higgins and his sister Ina, Bernard O'Dowd, and Vida Goldstein
Vida Goldstein
Vida Jane Mary Goldstein was an early Australian feminist politician who campaigned for women's suffrage and social reform.-Early years:...

 and her family.
She was active in women's clubs and the women suffrage campaign, and gained a reputation as a courageous public speaker in support of social change. In 1905, aged 48, she left for England. There she heard George Bernard Shaw speak, observed the militant suffragists, and toured Scotland.
In December she sailed for New York where American interest in Australian progressivism ensured her a ready audience. Her knowledge of Australian labour legislation and woman suffrage got the attention of Margaret Dreier Robins
Margaret Dreier Robins
Margaret Dreier Robins was an American labor leader. Born in Brooklyn to prosperous German immigrants in 1868, in her teens Robins suffered from physical ailments which left her depressed and weak. She was privately educated. At age nineteen, she began doing charity work at Brooklyn Hospital and...

, who invited Alice to work for the National Women's Trade Union League
Women's Trade Union League
The Women's Trade Union League was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women formed in 1903 to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions...

 of America in Chicago. She became a key figure in the campaign for woman suffrage, union organization, vocational education, and labour legislation.
She wrote two books, and in 1920-22 directed the league's educational department. With the assistance of her close friend Miles Franklin
Miles Franklin
Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career, published in 1901...

, for eight years edited the league's official journal, initially the women's page of the Union Labor Advocate, then a separate publication, Life and Labor. She went to Melbourne in February 1925, intending to stay for two months but stayed for twelve. She then returned to America in March 1926 where she retired from active work and moved to Santa Barbara in California, in 1928. There, in 1929, her last significant article was on Henry Handel Richardson. It was published in the Bookman.
Alice wishing to be with her brother, reluctantly returned to Australia in 1933. She was welcomed as a notable and successful Australian woman, but settling back into Melbourne was slow and painful.
She attempted to continue her old activities by joining the Playgrounds' Association and the National Council of Women
National Council of Women of Australia
The National Council of Women of Australia is an Australian organisation founded in 1931. The council is an umbrella organisation with which are affiliated seven State and Territory National Councils of Women...

 of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

. She gave radio talks on prohibition and modern poetry. She assisted Hartley Grattan
C. Hartley Grattan
Clinton Hartley Grattan was an American economic analyst, historian, critic, and Professor Emeritus, who was considered one of the leading American authorities on 20th century Australian history.-Career:...

in his tour of 1936-38.
In 1937 she compiled a bibliography of Australian women writers.
But she missed her American life. Sadly in 1937, her brother was lost at sea and her health began to deteriorate. In 1938 she gave up her American citizenship and in 1939 she resigned from her committee work. A year later she entered a nursing home. She died in hospital at Malvern on 14 February 1943 and was cremated.
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