Cirrus@Austlit

Stella Allan was a pioneering woman press journalist in New Zealand. After her marriage to journalist Edwin Allan and their arrival in Australia, Allan joined the Melbourne newspaper Argus in 1908, writing and editing a women's section under the name 'Vesta' until her retirement in 1939. Her columns were the first to ask for reader's replies and to answer reader queries. Allan's radical stance on the opportunities for women in work and society changed during her working life to that of a conservative. Patricia Clarke attributes this change to the conservative nature of the Argus and the 'stifling effects of women's page journalism in general'.

(Source: Patricia Clarke, 'Pioneer Woman Journalist's Career Spanned Two Countires: Stella Allan in Wellington and Melbourne', Margin 71 (April, 2000): 15-26.)