Women and government in Australia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From the turn of the 20th century, women have participated in government in Australia. Following federation, the government of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 allowing most women to both vote and stand in the federal election of 1903. The crown colonies of South Australia and Western Australia granted women the vote before federation, and the states of New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria also passed legislation allowing women to participate in government at the state and local levels following federation. Indigenous Australian women did not achieve suffrage at all levels of government and in all states and territories until 1962.

Although Australia was the first country to allow women to stand in elections, women were not successful at a federal election until 1943. In general women have been slow to enter all levels of politics in Australia. Most states are yet to have a female Premier and neither of the main political parties has had a federal parliamentary female leader.

Contents

[edit] Women's suffrage

Suffragette Mary Lee.
Suffragette Mary Lee.

Women's suffrage groups began to appear in the Australian political landscape in the 1880s. The first, the Victorian Women’s Suffrage Society, was formed by Henrietta Dugdale in Victoria in 1884. The organisations involved in the suffrage movement varied across the colonies. A unified body, the Australian Women's Suffrage Society was formed in 1889, the societies aims were to educate women and men about a women's right to vote and stand for parliament. Key figures in the Australian suffrage movement included, from South Australia Mary Lee and Catherine Helen Spence, in Western Australia Edith Cowan, from New South Wales Maybanke Anderson, Louisa Lawson, Dora Montefiore and Rose Scott, Tasmanians Alicia O'Shea Petersen and Jessie Rooke, Queenslander Emma Miller, and Victorians Annette Bear-Crawford, Henrietta Dugdale, Vida Goldstein, Alice Henry and Annie Lowe.

In 1861 land-owning South Australian women were able to vote in local elections. In 1894, South Australia became the second jurisdiction in the world extend franchise to women and the first to allow women to stand for State Parliament. South Australian women voted for the first time in the 1896 South Australian House of Assembly election. In 1897 Catherine Helen Spence became the first woman political candidate when she ran for election to the National Australasian Convention as one of ten delegates, but came 22nd out of 33 candidates. In 1899 Western Australian women achieved voting rights for State elections but not the right to stand for State Parliament. In 1901 women from both South and Western Australia voted in the 1901 federal election.

The introduction of women's political rights in Australia
Parliament Right to vote (a) Right to stand First elected to lower house First elected to upper house
Commonwealth 1902 (b) 1902 1943, Enid Lyons 1943, Dorothy Tangney
State
South Australia 1894 1894 1959, Joyce Steele 1959, Jessie Cooper
Western Australia 1899 1920 1921, Edith Cowan 1954, Ruby Hutchison
New South Wales 1902 1918 1925, Millicent Preston-Stanley 1952 (c), Gertrude Melville
Tasmania 1903 1921 1955, Mabel Miller and Amelia Best 1948, Margaret McIntyre
Queensland 1905 1915 1929, Irene Longman n.a.
Victoria 1908 1923 1933, Millie Peacock 1979, Gracia Baylor, Joan Coxsedge
(a) The dates for the right to vote at State level refer to equal rights for women and men, but not necessarily universal rights; (b) Women in SA and WA were able to vote in the 1901 federal election; (c) Two women had been appointed to the upper house in 1931 members were appointed.

On June 12, 1902 the Commonwealth Franchise Act came into effect, granting most Australian women the right to vote and stand in Commonwealth elections. Franchise of Indigenous Australians at the federal level was not universal until 1962, and voting by Indigenous Australians was not compulsory until 1984. The first election at which women used both the right to vote and stand for election was held December 16, 1903. Four women stood for election, Selina Sarah Elizabeth Anderson stood for election to the House of Representatives for the Division of Dalley, Vida Goldstein, Nellie Alma Martel and Mary Ann Moore ran for Senate positions; none were successful.

Following the successful inclusion of women in the 1903 election, many Australian women and the Australian Parliament, led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin used their experience to promote women's suffrage in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. 'Trust the Women Mother, As I Have Done', banner painted by Dora Meeson was carried at the head of the Australian and New Zealand Women Voters' Committee contingent in the Women's Suffrage Coronation March in London on June 17, 1911.

New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria followed the lead of the other states allowing women to vote, and later to stand for election. Victoria, the last state to grant Women's suffrage, had briefly allowed women to vote when the Electoral Act 1863 enfranchised all ratepayers listed on local municipal rolls. Women in Victoria voted in the 1864 general election. The legislative mistake was quickly repaired in 1865, it took 19 private members' bills from 1889 until Victorian women gained the vote in 1908, and were able to exercise the vote in 1911. Women in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory were, as federal subjects, eligible to vote at the federal level from their establishment, by the time the territories achieved self-government in 1947 and 1987 respectively they did not need to enact specific legislation enable the women's vote.

The right to vote in local government elections was granted later in most jurisdictions than it was at the state and federal levels. The right to vote in local elections was also not automatic as property ownership qualifications limited the eligibility to vote and stand for local elections.

Women's participation in local government in Australia
Right to vote (a) Right to stand First elected
State
South Australia 1861 1914 1919, Grace Benny
Western Australia 1876 1919 1920, Elizabeth Clapham
Victoria 1903 1914 1920, Mary Rogers
Queensland 1879 1920 1925, Ellen Kent-Hughes
City of Brisbane 1924 1924 1949, Petronel White
Tasmania
Rural 1893 1911 1957, Florence Vivien Pendrigh
Hobart City Council 1893 1902 1952, Mabel Miller
Launceston City Council 1894 1945 1950, Dorothy Edwards
New South Wales
Sydney City Council 1900 1918 1965, Joan Mercia Pilone
Municipalities and Shires 1906 1918 1928, Lilian Fowler
(a)The right to vote in local elections was not necessarily universal since there were property ownership restrictions on the right to vote in many local jurisdictions. Modified from Sawer, 2001

[edit] Women in government

[edit] Commonwealth government

In most countries, women entered parliament soon after gaining the right to stand. The first women successfully elected to the Commonwealth government were both elected in 1943, 40 years after they were able. The major Australian political parties did not support any female candidates until the Second World War, until this time all female candidates were independent or backed by minor political parties. In 1943 and with major party backing, Enid Lyons was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the member for the Division of Darwin, which was located in Tasmania and Dorothy Tangney was elected to the Australian Senate representing Western Australia. In 1949 Enid Lyons became the first woman in federal cabinet, however she had no portfolio; Senator Annabelle Rankin became the first woman with a federal portfolio when she became Minister for Housing; Senator Margaret Guilfoyle was the first female cabinet minister with a federal with a portfolio in 1975. Senator Ros Kelly was the first woman to give birth while an MP in 1983. In 1986 there were two firsts, Joan Child became the first female Speaker and Janine Haines became the first woman to lead a parliamentary party when she became head of the Australian Democrats. Joan Child was the first woman to hold the position of Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives and Margaret Reid became the first female President of the Senate in 1996. Kathy Sullivan is the longest serving female parliamentarian. In 2007 Maxine McKew became the first woman to unseat a sitting prime minister in his own electorate.

In the Forty-First Parliament of Australia there are 23 female senators and 37 women in the House of Representatives.

[edit] Commonwealth Public Service

The Commonwealth Public Service Act 1902 stated that every female officer was "deemed to have retired from the Commonwealth service upon her marriage", the very great majority of women were effectively blocked from non-secretarial positions in the Commonwealth Public Service. In 1949 women were allowed into the clerical division of the service but they remained restricted by the marriage rule. In 1966 Australia became one of the last democratic countries to lift the ban on married women in the public service.

[edit] State government

The first woman elected to a state government was Western Australian Edith Cowan when she was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921. Millicent Preston-Stanley was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1925, Irene Longman was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1929 and Millie Peacock was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1933. Ironically South Australia as the first state to allow women to sit in state parliament, was also the last to have a female sitting member when Joyce Steele was elected in 1959. Both the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly and Northern Territory Legislative Assembly had women in their inaugural Parliaments. Women were not elected to the Upper House of state parliaments until after World War II.

In 1989 Rosemary Follett became the first female head of government in Australia, as Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory. Carmen Lawrence was the first female premier of an Australian state when she took office in February 1990, she was followed by the appointment of Joan Kirner as Premier of Victoria in 1990. Clare Martin was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2007. Anna Bligh became Premier of Queensland in 2007.

The Queensland Legislative Assembly currently has the highest female parliamentary representation in Australia and the third highest in the world with 30 out of 89 Members being women.[1][2]

[edit] Local government

The first woman elected to a local government in Australia was Grace Benny, she was elected to the Brighton Council in South Australia in 1919. Mary Rogers was elected to Richmond City council, Victoria in 1920 and Elizabeth Clapham was elected to Western Australia's Cottesloe Town council. Queensland's first female councilor was Dr Ellen Kent-Hughes, elected to Kingaroy shire in 1925. In 1928 to Newtown municipal council, New South Wales' first female alderman was Lilian Fowler, later to become Australia's first woman mayor. New South Wales also produced Australia's first female Lord Mayor, Her Worship Alderman Joy Cummings when elected to Newcastle City Council in 1974. Dorothy E Edwards, Tasmania's first alderman, was elected to Launceston City in 1950.

In 1951 the Australian Local Government Women's Association (ALGWA) was formed. Unique in the world, it is an association of local government women helping other women to join them. In 1975 Western Australia and the Northern Territory elected their first women mayors, Councilor Evelyn H. Parker of Subiaco and Dr Ella Stack of Darwin City respectively.

In the 1980s women began to hold the position of Lord Mayor in the capital cities for the first time, including Sallyanne Atkinson (Brisbane 1985-91), Doone Kennedy (Hobart 1986-96), Lecki Ord (Melbourne 1987-88) and Winsome McCaughey (Melbourne 1988-89), Lucy Turnbull (2003-04) and Clover Moore (2004-).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sanderson, Nicole. "in the hot seat - Lindy Nelson-Carr", profile, CityLife Townsville, December 2006. Retrieved on 2007-07-29. 
  2. ^ Women in the Queensland Parliament (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-07-30.