|
Australian Women
Biographical entry
|
|
Kirk, Maria (Marie) Elizabeth (1855 - 1928) |
|||
|
|||
| Welfare worker and Women's rights activist | |||
Marie Kirk was a leading figure in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union both in Victoria and nationally and helped to establish the Vicotiran Union in 1887. She held numerous executive positions in the organisation. She was also a strong supporter of women's rights, a member of the Victorian Women's Franchise League, and held establish the National Council of Women of Victoria in 1902. She supported equal pay, raising the age of consent for girls, and also took a keen interest in the welfare of women prisoners and in the kindergarten movement. |
Career Highlights | |
|
Kirk (nee Sutton) was born in London in 1855 and married Frank Kirk (an ironmonger and later bootmaker) in 1878. Reared as a Quaker, she worked as a missionary in London's 'slums' and became active in the British Women's Temperance Association. In 1886 she represented this group at a meeting held in Toronto to organise the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She moved to Victoria that same year. | |
| Sources used to compile this entry: Lake and Kelly, Double Time; Radi, 200 Australian Women. | |
| |
SecretaryRelated Cultural Artefacts | |
| Top of Page | |
| |
Book Sections
Online Resources
See also
| |
|
|
| ||
|
Published by National Foundation for Australian Women on Australian Women's Archives Project Web Site Comments, questions, corrections and additions: awap@womenaustralia.info Prepared by: Acknowledgements Updated: 14 November 2008 http://womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE1133b.htm |