The My Hero Project - Edith Dircksey Cowan. Born into an influential family tainted by death, drama and drinking. Admitted to a school owned by her future husband’s sisters at age seven. Murder in the family at the age of fifteen. It sounds unreal, like nothing more than the plotline of a movie, but this was real, and the girl who experienced it all grew up to be the first woman elected to an Australian parliament: Edith Cowan. Edith Cowan's life always seemed like a movie – from the drama surrounding her early years to all she achieved. However, all of the aforementioned achievements weren’t even Edith’s most significant pieces of work. Edith Cowan may not have saved anyone from a burning building. Edith Dircksey Cowan : Welcome to ECU : About ECU. Edith Dircksey Cowan was born in 1861 at Glengarry near Geraldton.
She believed that education was fundamental to tackling the social issues of the day and further, that it was the key to growth, change and improvement. She fought tirelessly to improve conditions for women, children, families, the poor, the under-educated and the elderly. She promoted sex education in schools, migrant welfare and the formation of infant health centres.
In 1894, Edith Cowan was one of the founders of the Karrakatta Club, which became the centre of a movement for reform, making Edith Cowan the best known woman in Australia during the first 30 years of this century. Among her many achievements, Edith Cowan was instrumental in obtaining votes for women in Western Australia. She was Vice-President of the Women Justices' Association and the Western Australian League of Nations Union. Edith Cowan contributed significantly to the development of education, particularly in government schools. Edith Cowan. Edith Dircksey Cowan. Edith Dircksey Cowan (1861-1932), social worker and politician, was born on 2 August 1861 at Glengarry near Geraldton, Western Australia, second child of Kenneth Brown, pastoralist and son of early York settlers Thomas and Eliza Brown, and his first wife Mary Eliza Dircksey Wittenoom, a teacher and the daughter of the colonial chaplain, J. B. Wittenoom.
Edith's mother died in childbirth in 1868 and she went to a Perth boarding school run by the Misses Cowan, sisters of her future husband; she completed her education with Canon Sweeting, ex-headmaster of Bishop Hale's School. Her adolescence was shattered in 1876 by the ordeal of her father's trials and hanging for the murder, that year, of his second wife. These experiences made her a solitary person, committed nevertheless to social reforms which enhanced women's dignity and responsibility and which secured proper care for mothers and children.