Jessie Mary Grey Street (née Lillingston; 18 April 1889 – 2 July 1970) was an Australian diplomat, suffragette and campaigner for Indigenous Australian rights, commonly referred to as Mrs Kenneth Street,[1] but later dubbed "Red Jessie" by the media. As Australia's only female delegate to the founding of the United Nations in 1945, Jessie was Australia's first female delegate to the United Nations, where she ensured the inclusion of sex as a non-discrimination clause in the United Nations Charter. She was Lady Street from 1956,[a] with the elevation of her husband Sir Kenneth Whistler Street.
Jessie Street | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston 18 April 1889 |
| Died | 2 July 1970 (aged 81) Sydney, Australia |
| Monuments | Jessie Street Gardens, Jessie Street National Women's Library |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney (BA, 1911) |
| Spouse | Sir Kenneth Whistler Street |
| Children | Sir Laurence Whistler Street |
| Relatives | Edward Ogilvie (grandfather) Sir Philip Whistler Street (father-in-law) |
| Family | Street |
Background
edit
Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston was born on 18 April 1889 at Ranchi, Bihar, India. Her father, Charles Alfred Gordon Lillingston, JP (great-grandson of Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet), was a member of the Imperial Civil Service in India.[2] Her mother Mabel Harriet Ogilvie was the daughter of Australian politician Edward David Stuart Ogilvie. She was involved with Dorette Margarethe MacCallum and others who were challenging the patriarchy at the University of Sydney where the men were trying to monopolise the sports facilities.[3] In 1911 as a Bachelor of Arts.[4]
In 1916, she married Kenneth Whistler Street,[4] who was knighted in 1944.[5] Her father-in-law Sir Philip Whistler Street served as Chief Justice of New South Wales, as did her husband Kenneth and their youngest son, Laurence, who was knighted in 1976. Their other children were Belinda, Philippa and Roger.
Career and activism
editStreet was a prominent figure in Australian and international political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage movement in England to the Aboriginal Australian rights.[6] Street ran in the 1943 Australian federal election as a member of the Australian Labor Party against United Australia Party frontbencher Eric Harrison for the Sydney Eastern Suburbs seat of Wentworth, and nearly defeated him amid that year's massive Labor landslide. She led the field on the first count, and only the preferences of conservative independent Bill Wentworth allowed Harrison to survive. Her attempt was the closest a Labor candidate has ever come to winning the conservative stronghold of Wentworth.
At the San Francisco Conference in 1945, Street was Australia's only female delegate to the founding of the United Nations, where she played a key role alongside Eleanor Roosevelt in ensuring that sex was included with race and religion as a non-discrimination clause in the United Nations Charter.[6]
In 1941 the future prime minister Ben Chifley received a united deputation from a number of women's organisations. They were encouraging him to create a tax on men who were not married. This suggestion was made in preference to a proposal to introduce a new tax on the total income of married couples. The delegates were Vivienne Newson, Edna Lillian Nelson, Erna Keighley and Street.[7]
In 1949, Street was made a charter member of the Australian Peace Council.[8] The Jessie Street Centre, the Jessie Street Trust, the Jessie Street National Women's Library and Jessie Street Gardens exist in her honour.[9]
She was known as Red Jessie due to her support of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.[5]
Notes
edit- ^ From 1928 to 1944, "Lady Street" would refer to her mother-in-law, Lady Philip Street.
References
edit- ^ "Mrs Kenneth Street". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 28, 684. New South Wales, Australia. 10 December 1929. p. 4. Retrieved 3 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Coltheart, Lenore (15 June 2005). "'Red Jessie': Jessie Street". National Archives of Australia. Archived from the original on 15 June 2005. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ "Sydney University Women's Sports Association". AWR. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
- ^ a b Morrell, Elle; Henningham, Nikki (29 October 2018). "Street, Jessie Mary Grey (1889 – 1970)". Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ a b "Dynasties: Street". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 9 November 2004. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010.
- ^ a b "Guide to the Papers of Jessie Street". National Library of Australia Trove. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ "Bachelor Tax Suggested". Sydney Morning Herald. 20 November 1941. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
- ^ "Australian Peace Council Launched". Tribune. No. 551. New South Wales, Australia. 7 September 1949. p. 5. Retrieved 3 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Jessie Street". Dimensions in Time. 24 March 2012. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Jessie Street. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
Further reading
edit- Lenore Coltheart, "Jessie Street and the Soviet Union", in Political Tourists: Travellers from Australia to the Soviet Union in the 1920s–1940s. Eds. Sheila Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Rasmussen. Melbourne University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-522-85530-X
- Heather Radi, Jessie Street, Documents and Essays, Women's Redress Press, 1990. ISBN 1-875274-03-0
- Peter Sekuless, Jessie Street, a rewarding but unrewarded life, Prentice Hall, 1978. ISBN 0-7022-1227-X
- Jessie Street, ed Lenore Coltheart, Jessie Street, a Revised Autobiography, Federation Press, 2004. ISBN 1-86287-502-2
- Jessie Street, Truth or Repose, Australasian Book Society, 1966.
- Eric Russell, Woollahra – a History in Pictures, John Ferguson Pty Ltd., 1980. ISBN 0-909134-23-5
External links
edit- Red Jessie: Jessie Street – biography produced by the National Archives of Australia.
- Street, Jessie Mary Grey at The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
- Street, Jessie Mary Grey at The Australian Women's Register (archive)
- Jessie Street Papers | National Library of Australia National Library of Australia.
- Jessie Street | Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC broadcast on Jessie Street.