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Maltese political activist and feminist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Josephine Burns de Bono née Burns (1908–1996) was a Maltese political activist and feminist.[1]
She was born to Hugh Burns and Laura Rosina Ada Agius, and the sister of journalist Hugh Burns of the Times of Malta. She married in 1931 to the physician Joseph Edward de Bono, and became the mother of Edward de Bono (1933-2021), professor at Cambridge University.[2] She was active as a journalist in London in the 1920s, and later worked at the Times of Malta.
She was a co-founder of the Women of Malta Association in 1944, and served as the President of the organization from the foundation in 1944, until women's suffrage was introduced in 1947. She played an important part in the activism for the introduction of women's suffrage in Malta.[3] She wrote: “The right of women to vote and to stand as Parliamentary candidates was legally recognised in England and America as a result of the excellence of women’s work during the Great War of 1914-1918. To-day after nearly four and a half years of war, women in Malta are becoming conscious that they have earned the same civic recognition”. [4]
Women's suffrage and the right to be elected to political office were included in the MacMichael Constitution, which was finally introduced on 5 September 1947. After the approval of the reform in parliament, Josephine Burns de Bono resigned from her post as President of the Women of Malta Association with the statement that the purpose of the organization had now been achieved.[5]
Her letter of resignation was published in the Times of Malta on 24 September 1947:
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