A Singular Woman

Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Brown lived at a time when women had few choices and limited rights and opportunities. But, although reserved by nature and outwardly conventional, she had the courage to be different.

Born in 1862 in Samoa of missionary parents, she received her first schooling at home with her mother but went on to become one of the first two women to graduate from the University of Sydney.

Her personal story – a story of quiet dedication and remarkable achievement – is set against a background of life in the Pacific islands, New Zealand and Australia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Controversial issues in church and society at the time – war, conscription, higher education for women, women in leadership in the church, and women and the vote – are also part of the backdrop of her story.