Lowe, Annie (1834-1910), was a leader of the suffragist movement to grant Australian women voting rights. In 1884, with Henrietta Dugdale , she founded Australia’s first women’s suffrage association.
Annie Hopkins was born in July 1834 near Sydney, New South Wales. She married Josiah Alexander Lowe in 1868 and lived in outback Queensland in Australia’s rural interior before moving to Melbourne .
In 1884, with Dugdale, she founded the Victorian Women’s Suffrage Society in Melbourne. It was Australia’s first women’s suffrage association. The society had both male and female members. It advocated that women be granted the same rights as men, including the right to vote and equal rights relating to divorce, property ownership, and custody of children. Lowe also served for a time as president of the United Council for Women’s Suffrage. The organization was founded in 1894 to educate the public about suffrage and coordinate the activities of more than 30 societies.
In 1895, South Australia became the first colony in Australia to grant women the vote. The Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 granted all Australian women the right to vote on a national level. When women were granted the franchise in Victoria in 1908, Lowe was given a prominent place in the victory celebrations and her role was acknowledged. She died on April 14, 1910.
See also Dugdale, Henrietta ; Woman suffrage .
