The Dawn (Sydney, NSW : 1888 - 1905)(about) |
Tuesday 15 May 1888
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About Ourselves
"WOMAN is not uncompleted man, but diverse." says Tennyson, and being diverse why should she not have her journal in which her divergent hopes, aims, and opinions may have representation. Every eccentricity of belief, and every variety of bias in mankind allies itself with a printing-machine, and gets its singularities bruited about in type, but where is the printing ink champion of mankind's better
half? There has hitherto been no
trumpet through which the concen-
trated voices of womankind could
publish their grievances and their opinions. Men legislate on divorce, on hours of labor, and many an other question intimately affecting women, but neither ask nor know the wishes of those whose lives and
happiness are most concerned. Many a tale might be told by wo- men, and many a useful hint given, even to the omniscient male, which would materially strengthen and guide the hands of law-makers and benefactors aspiring to be just and generous to weak and unrepre-
sented womankind.
Here then is DAWN, the Australian Woman's Journal and mouthpiece—
phonograph to wind out audibly the whispers, pleadings, and demands of the sisterhood.
Here we will give publicity to women's wrongs, will fight their battles, assist to re- pair what evils we can, and give advice to the best of our ability.
Half of Australian women's lives are un-
happy, but there are paths out of most labyrinths, and we will set up finger posts. For those who are happy—God bless them ! have we not laid on the Storyteller, the Poet, the Humourist, and the Fashion-monger?
We wear no ready-made suit of opinions, nor stand on any platform of woman's rights which we have as yet seen erected. Dress we shall not neglect, for no slattern ever yet won the respect of any man worth
loving. If you want "rings on your fingers and bells on your toes" we will tell you where they can best be bought, as well as sundry other articles of woman's garniture.
We shall welcome contributions and corre- spondence from women, for nothing concern- ing woman's life and interest lies outside our
scope.
It is not a new thing to say that there is no power in the world like that of women, for in their hands lie the plastic unformed characters of the coming generation to be
moulded beyond alteration into what form
they will. This most potent constituency we seek to represent, and for their suffrages we
sue.