Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 - 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of electoral proportional representation. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate after standing (unsuccessfully) for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide. Called the 'Greatest Australian Woman' by Miles Franklin and by the age of 80 dubbed the 'Grand Old Woman of Australia', Spence was commemorated on the Australian five-dollar note issued for the Centenary of Federation of Australia.
Susan Magarey AM, FASSA, PhD, has degrees in English Literature and History from Adelaide University and the Australian National University. She was Director of the Research Centre for Women's Studies at Adelaide University where she is now Professor Emerita in History. She is the author of two monographs - the prize-winning biography of Catherine Helen Spence, Unbridling the Tongues of Women (1986) and Passions of the First-Wave Feminists (2001) - and more than sixty articles and book chapters. She has edited eight collections of articles - including Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare (1995) with Anne Edwards, and Debutante Nation: Feminism Contests the 1890s (1993) with Sue Rowley and Susan Sheridan, and was the Founding Editor of the tri-annual journal, Australian Feminist Studies.