Jean Beadle

Who was Jean Beadle?

Jane Beadle was an Australian feminist, social worker and Labor party member.

She was born in Clunes, Victoria, and left school early to assist her widowed father. She worked in Melbourne's oppressive clothing factories until her marriage in 1888. She was involved in industrial action, working with striking miners and their families and organised a union of female factory workers. She joined the Women's Suffrage Alliance and, from 1898, was prominent in the Women's Political and Social Crusade.

In 1901 the Beadles moved to Western Australia, Jean organised a Labor women's organization at Fremantle, and when they moved to the goldfields in 1906 she formed the Eastern Goldfields Women's Labor League. She was a delegate at the first Labor Women's Conference at Perth in October 1912, and was appointed chair, a position she held for 30 years. Through her involvement with the party she was a candidate for Senate pre-selection in 1931.

Beadle was associated with the Perth Children's Court, in 1919 she was appointed a special magistrate, and from 1920 was one of the first women to be a sworn magistrate in Perth.