Some members treated the question in the old semi-facetious way, conjecturing the effect of pretty women in parliament and the power of a lovely woman premier to win susceptible opposition members to her side. This presupposes that the political convictions of men are but wavering undecided beliefs, and easily unseated, and forgets this fact that a woman of such attainments and character that a mixed constituency of men and women esteemed her a fit parliamentary representative, would by her very nature, her modesty and quiet sense, make this silly gallantry impossible; and she would so scorn adherents won only by her beauty that they would probably under her influence begin to form their opinions firmly and honestly.
Louisa Lawson, editorial in The Dawn, June 1890, in Olive Lawson (ed.), The First Voice of Australian Feminism: Excerpts from Louisa Lawson's The Dawn 1888 - 1895, Simon and Schuster, 1990.
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