Summary

Presented by award-winning historian Dr Clare Wright (The Einstein Factor), Utopia Girls tells the fascinating, little known story of how Australian women became the first in the world to gain full political rights. Women in the 19th century had virtually no political rights. Once they married they signed over everything to their husbands (including their children). If the marriage turned abusive it was almost impossible to escape. Worse still was the fate of unmarried mothers. Improving the lot of all women could only be achieved through political representation. This representation came about through the vision and hard work of five remarkable women - Caroline Dexter, Henrietta Dugdale, Louisa Lawson, Mary Lee and Vida Goldstein. With their comrades, they would carry the flag over half a century until a newly federated Australia could claim its title as a uniquely democratic nation, but their stories were not without personal trials and crushing setbacks.