Bessie Jordan – a pioneering woman

OUR WOMEN JUSTICES
Mrs. Bessie Jordan

Mrs. Jordan was born at Bendigo. Victoria, and came to Western Australia with her parents. The family arrived at Kalgoorlie with the first train 33 years ago. Mrs. Jordan was elected to the Children’s Court in 1915 and since then has been made Justice of the Peace for the Eastern Goldfields district She took up the work because she felt that it was essential for women to be on the bench where children were being tried, and she considers that no Children’s Court should function without at least one woman justice on the bench, especially where girls are brought, before the Court.
Mrs. Jordan is also a keen advocate for the appointment of women on juries, especially for the more serious charges such as murder. She considers that when we have equal representation of both sexes on the bench, there will be less danger of arriving. at wrong decisions. OTHER ACTIVITIES –  All Mrs Jordan’s other public activities are in the cause of women and children. She is secretary for the Kalgoorlie Benevolent Society, which. distributes about £200 yearly in relief orders among the sick and needy of the district, besides blankets and clothing to those in distress. The funds for this work are obtained by. a charity ball held every year. Mrs. Jordan. is also secretary for the boarded-out and State-aided children of the district and for the Child Welfare Department.

In addition, Mrs. Jordan is secretary for the. Kalgoorlie-Boulder branch of the National Council of Women, whose especial endeavor this year is the obtaining of hospital accommodation at Cook for the women and children on the Transcontinental line settlements, and a more up to date maternity hospital accommodation for the goldfields mothers. She is also an executive member of the newly-formed hospital welfare committee, whose duties are to visit and brighten the days of patients without friends, who .are ill or convalescent.

POLITICAL VIEWS: Mrs. Jordan says that her special brand of politics is National Labor. She is president of the local women’s branch of that party. Between elections. Mrs. Jordan spends her spare time collecting and sending books, to the Wooraloo Sanatorium. Mrs. Jordan says that women are the home builders, Woman also bears and rears the nation, and therefore is entitled to share in the making of the .laws that govern it. Women should be represented in. all State and Federal Parliaments, because only women can adequately place before members the needs of the women and children of the Commonwealth.