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RESEARCH NOTE Number 55, June 1997 ISSN 1328-8016 First Women in Australian Parliaments—Historical Note I have always held that the extension of the franchise to women would not benefit them [but]...I do not think [it] will result in any harm.1Although New Zealand was the first country in the world to accord the vote to women in 1893, South Australia led the world in not only enfranchising women in 1894 but also making them eligible to sit in Parliament. By 1909 all Australian States and the Commonwealth had enfranchised most women (see table). Property qualifications applied initially for some upper houses. Federally, Aboriginal women (and men) were not accorded the vote until 1962 and even then enrolment provisions limited their electoral participation. Although Australia was seen as a pioneer of women's political rights, it had the greatest time lag of all western democratic countries between the eligibility of women to stand for the national legislature and their actual election to it—41 years. The sequence of women's enfranchisement in Australian legislatures was as follows: South Australia The Constitution Amendment Bill 1894 gave women both the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.2 Although it was the first Australian State and the first legislature in the world to give women the right to sit in Parliament, it was the last of the Australian States to elect a woman to its lower house, in 1959. Western Australia Women won the right to vote in Western Australia, through the Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899, but they did not win the right to sit in the State Parliament until 1920, 1. Senator Fraser, speaking on the Commonwealth Franchise Bill, 10 April 1902, Hansard, p 11556. 2. Women's right to nominate for the Legislative Council was clarified by the Constitution Act Amendment Act 1959, deemed to have come into operation on 1.1.1959. with the passage of the Parliament
(Qualification of Women) Bill. Edith Cowan (Nationalist) was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1921, becoming Australia's first woman Parliamentarian. The first time a woman was elected to the Legislative Council was in 1954.
Commonwealth Parliament With Federation in 1901 women of some States had the right to vote and others did not. The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 gave women both the right to vote in Federal elections and the right to sit in Federal
Parliament. In 1943 the first women entered the Commonwealth
Parliament: Dame Enid Lyons was elected to the House of
Representatives and Dorothy Tangney was elected to the Senate.
New South Wales Women in New South Wales gained the right to vote through the Women’s Franchise Act 1902 but did not gain the right to sit in the lower house until 1918, when the Women’s Legal Status Bill was passed. The first woman was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1925. Women gained the right to sit in the Legislative Council through the Constitution (Amendment) Act 1926 and were first represented in the upper house in 1931, when MLCs were appointed by the Governor, for life. The Constitution and Parliamentary Electorates and Elections
(Amendment) Act 1978 provided for a popularly elected upper house and women were elected to the Legislative Council at its first election in 1978.
Tasmania Women gained the right to vote in 1903 with the passage of the
Constitution Act Amendment Bill, but did not gain the right to sit in the State Parliament until 1921 under the Constitution Act. The first women were not elected to the House of Assembly until 1955, over a decade after Dame Enid Lyons was elected to the Federal Parliament. The first woman was elected to the Legislative Council in 1948.
Queensland The Elections Acts Amendment Act 1905 gave women the right to vote in State elections. Women received the right to sit in Parliament through the Elections Act 1915. The first woman was elected to the Queensland
Parliament in 1929. The Legislative Council was abolished in 1922 and had been an appointed, rather than directly elected, chamber; no women ever sat in the Council.
Victoria Although Victoria was the first State in which a strong women's suffrage movement was organised, it was the last of the States to grant women's suffrage. Women gained the right to vote finally with the passage of the Adult Suffrage Bill 1908 but did not gain the right to sit in the State
Parliament until 1923 through the Parliamentary Elections (Women Candidates) Act, again the last State to do so. The first woman was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1933, at a by-election, and no women were elected to the Legislative Council until 1979.
ACT and NT Women were always able to vote and be represented in the Territories’ elected bodies.
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Australian Women: Eligibility to Vote, to Sit and First Women Elected to Australian Parliaments
Parliament
Date eligible to vote (assent or commence-
ment date)
Date of first election eligible to vote
Date eligible to sit
(assent or commence-ment date)
Date of first election eligible to stand
Date first woman elected
Name
Party
Electorate
(single-member unless otherwise specified)
SA House of Assembly
21.3.1895
25.4.1896
21.3. 1895
25.4.1896
7.3.1959
Joyce Steele
LCL
Burnside
SA Legislative Council‡
21.3.1895
22.5.1897
1.1.1959
1
7.3.1959
7.3.1959
Jessie Cooper
LCL
Central No. 2
2
WA Legislative Assembly
18.5. 1900
24.4.1901
3.11.1920
12.3.1921
12.3.1921
Edith Cowan
Nationalist
West Perth
WA Legislative Council‡
18.5. 1900
29.8.1900
3.11.1920
13.5. 1922
8.5.1954
Ruby Hutchinson
ALP
Suburban
House of Representatives
12.6.1902
16.12.1903
12.6.1902
16.12.1903
21.8.1943
Dame Enid Lyons
UAP
Darwin (Tas)
Senate
12.6.1902
16.12.1903
12.6.1902
16.12.1903
21.8.1943
Do rothy Tangney
ALP
WA
3
NSW Legislative Assembly
27.8.1902
6.8. 1904
21.12.1918
25.3.1922
30.5.1925
Millicent Preston-Stanley
Nationalist
Eastern Suburbs
4
NSW Legislative Council - appointed
N/A
N/A
27.1.1926
N/A
23.11.1931
5
23.11.1931
Ellen Webster Catherine Green
ALP ALP
N/A N/A
NSW Legislative Council - popularly elected
10.8.1978
7.10.1978
10.8. 1978
7.10.1978
7.10.1978 7.10.1978 7.10.1978 7.10.1978
Virginia Chadwick Marie Fisher Deirdre Grusovin Dorothy Isaksen
Liberal ALP ALP ALP
N/A N/A N/A N/A
Tas House of Assembly
29.2. 1904
29.03.1906
14.2.1922
25.3.1922
19.2.1955 19.2.1955
Milly Best Mabel Miller
Liberal Liberal
Wilmot
6
Franklin
7
Tas Legislative Council†
29.10.1920
8
3.5.1921
14.2.1922
2.5.1922
8.5. 1948
Margaret McIntyre
Independent
Cornwall
Qld Legislative Assembly
1.1.1907
18.5.1907
23.11.1915
16.3.1918
11.5.1929
Irene Longman
Progressive Nationalist
Bulimba
Vic Legislative Assembly
31. 3.1909
16.11.1911
12.5. 1924
26.6.1924
11.11.1933
9
Lady Millie Peacock
UAP
Allandale
Vic Legislative Council‡
31.3. 1909
12.5.1924
12.5.1924
4.6.1925
5.5.1979 5.5.1979
Gracia Baylor Joan Coxsedge
Liberal ALP
Boronia Melbourne West
1 . A legal challenge to the nomination of women resulted in legisl ation, with backdated provisions, to enable women to stand for election. 2 . First elected in two-member district. 3 . Fourth elected at an election where four were elected (usual three plus a casual vacancy). Elected by preferential voting: PR introduced in 1949. 4 . Fifth elected in five-member district. Legislative A ssembly had multi-member electorates between 1918 and 1926. 5 .
Until 1934 members of the Legislative Council were appointed by the Governor; from 1934 to 1978 they were elected by both chamb ers.
6 . Elected fifth in six-member district. 7 . Elected first in six-member district. 8 . Vote extended only to women who had served as nurses in WWI ( Constitution (War Service Franchise) Act 1920. 9 . By-election to replace her late husband, a former Premier. ‡ Property qualifications applied. Removed in 1973 in South Australia (Constitution Act Amendment Act 1973 , assent 22.11.73); removed in 1963 in Western Australia ( Constitution Acts Amendment Act (No. 2) 1963, assent 17.12.63); removed in Victoria in 1950 ( Legislative Council Reform Act 1950 , assent 11.10.50). † Property and ex-service qualifications applied; removed by Constitution Act 1968 (assent 20.12.68).