Name Belle Golding | ||
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Isabella Theresa "Belle" Golding (25 November 1864 – 11 December 1940) was an Australian feminist, suffragist and labor activist.
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Belle Golding was born at Tambaroora, Wellington County, New South Wales to Joseph Golding (died 1890), a gold-miner from Galway, Ireland, and his Scottish wife, Ann (died 1906; née Fraser). In May 1900, Belle Golding became the first female inspector of public schools in Australia. She and her sisters, Annie Mackenzie Golding (1855-1934), and Mrs Kate Dwyer, joined the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales in about 1893, before forming the Women's Progressive Association in 1904.
Career
Under the Early Closing Act of 1899, Golding became Australia's first female inspector of public schools. Throughout her career as a public servant, Golding exercised her passion for improving the conditions of living for women, often documenting health and employment concerns unique to women. Later, when the Wage Arbitration Act passed, she was made an industrial inspector; the first and (as of 1940) the only woman to be named Chair of a Wage Board. In that position she was able to settle the dispute between the Fruiterers and Confectioners' Employees' Union. The dispute was settled in 7.5 hours, and the award ran its full term. Golding was a co-founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Australia.
Death
After retiring due to ill health in 1927, Golding died, aged 76, on 11 December 1940 at Annandale, New South Wales.