Wowser. Kill-joy. Helen Lovejoy from The Simpsons. No one likes a scold – especially when they’re half-right. On this day 130 years ago – December 18, 1894 – South Australia granted women the right to vote and stand for public office – the first place in the world to grant both political rights.

The scolds in question – otherwise known as the anti-alcohol Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) – played a key role in the campaign for voting rights, gathering as many as two thirds of the 11,600 signatures for the women’s suffrage petition presented to the South Australian parliament in August 1894.

Mary Lee (1821–1909) was a key figure in the women’s suffrage movement at the end of the 19th century, one of the first initiatives advancing gender equality.Credit: State Library of South Australia

Wowser women wanting the vote to step up their crusade against the demon drink aren’t obvious feminist heroes. But we might increasingly feel a weird kinship with them, especially given our current crisis of male violence, in which 76 women have been killed (so far) by a current or former partner, according to Counting Dead Women Australia. In other words, 2024 just might be the year that made wowsers of us all.

John Norton, an influential newspaper editor of the 1890s, apparently coined the “wowser” label to describe “pernickety” types who “interfere[d] with the pleasures and enjoyments of others”. As teetotallers........

© Brisbane Times