Booth, Angela Elizabeth (1869–1954)
Booth, Angela Elizabeth (1869–1954)
English-born Australian feminist and advocate of reproductive rights. Born Angela Elizabeth Josephine Plover in Liverpool, England, in 1869; died 1954; dau. of Thomas Plover (laborer); married James Booth (medical practitioner), Jan 7, 1897.
Immigrated to Queensland, Australia (1896); joined the campaign to eradicate venereal disease, focusing on the double standard and the economic dependency that often led women into prostitution; during WWI, spoke out against condom distribution to soldiers, arguing instead for a change in men's attitudes; as a member of the Racial Hygiene Association, advocated family planning and established the 1st family-planning clinic in New South Wales, but also advocated the sterilizing of the mentally impaired; was one of the 1st women to be appointed as a justice of the peace in Victoria (1927); unsuccessfully sought election as an independent Nationalist for the state seat of Brighton (1929); wrote Voluntary Sterilisation for Human Betterment (1938).