Louisa Lawson

Suffragist and social reformer, born in Mudgee, New South Wales, SE Australia, and educated to primary level there. She married Norwegian immigrant Niels Larsen (who later anglicized his name) and lived on many New South Wales goldfields throughout their marriage. They separated after 17 years together, and she moved to Sydney, surrounding herself with radical thinkers and social reformers. In 1888 she founded Dawn, Australia's first feminist journal, which elevated women's affairs and promoted women's suffrage. Known also for her famous son, Henry, whom she set on the path of writing, she ended her days in Gladesville Hospital for the Insane.

Louisa Lawson (February 17, 1848 - August 12, 1920) was an Australian writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. With her earnings and experience from working on The Republican she was able in May 1888, to edit and publish The Dawn.

The Dawn was Australia’s first journal produced solely by women; The Dawn had a strong feminist perspective, and discussed issues such as the women's right to vote and assume public office, women's education, women's economic and legal rights, domestic violence, and temperance. The Dawn was published monthly for seventeen years (1888 - 1905) and at its height employed 10 female staff.

In 1889 Louisa founded The Dawn Club, which became the hub of the suffrage movement in Sydney. In 1891 the New South Wales Women's Suffrage League formed to campaign for women's suffrage, she allowed the League to use the Dawn office to print pamphlets and literature free of charge. When it was finally achieved in 1902 with the passing of the New South Wales Womanhood Suffrage Bill, Louisa was introduced to the members of Parliament as 'The Mother of Suffrage in New South Wales'. For the women at the time universal suffrage was not the key issue, Louisa did not criticise the government for failing to give Indigenous Australians the vote.

Louisa retired in 1905 but continued to write for Sydney magazines and published The Lonely Crossing and Other Poems, a collection of 52 poems.