Alice Madge Dawson

Alice Madge Dawson (5 March 1908 – 15 June 2003) was an Australian educator, social worker, researcher and pioneering feminist. She created the Women's Studies course in the Department of Adult Education at the University of Sydney.

Early life Dawson was born as Alice Madge Burton, in Echunga in South Australia in 1908. Although she won a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Adelaide the family could not afford to pay for the costs of living there and instead Dawson became a teacher, partly funded by the availability of the South Australian Education Department allowance. In this department of study teachers in the area experienced discrimination to many women around the world, the men earned a higher salary and married women were not allowed to work. When Dawson went to Sydney University similar discriminations were still in place, women were not offered the home loan scheme for married staff. Dawson took on this latter position and won the case, getting the loan.

Activism In 1937 Dawson traveled with her husband David Dawson. They visited “Japan, Germany and the USSR as well as China and the UK." Dawson desired to learn from their travels by witnessing and experiencing prejudice firsthand, specifically "racism, sexism, class division, colonialism, imperialism, communism, Nazism and war."

Stirred by her travels, she opposed Nazi organizations alongside "the Spanish people and the International Brigade." She continued to research the topics and produced two further books with academics from three Sydney universities, retiring in 1973 but continuing to lecture part time. Dawson was awarded an honorary master's from Sydney University as well as an honorary doctorate from Macquarie University in 1989.

Personal life Dawson married David Dawson in 1934. After the war they settled in London and had two sons Sean (adopted) and Paddy Dawson.